AT first glance, season 1963/64 was another dreadful season for Celtic, and there is no real point in denying that. Rangers won a treble in Scotland, and beat Celtic five times 3-0, 3-0, 2-1, 1-0 and 2-0. Celtic had a major complex about Rangers.
Let us talk about this aspect first. The end of season 1962/63 had seen the spectacular and tragic Cup final in which the Celtic End, almost to a man, disappeared with 25 minutes to go. We could have done with NOT having Rangers to open the season, but Rangers it was on 10 August in the rain at Parkhead. This game became almost a template for future Celtic v Rangers games this season – namely a bright start with chances missed, an unfortunate occurrence in the shape of a refereeing decision, a defensive error or sheer bad luck, the inability to recover immediately and then a dismal collapse in the second half.
In the opening game, it was a bad mistake by Billy McNeill who was short on a pass back, and Jim Forrest (no relation, I don’t think, to our current Jamesie) nipped in to score. It was downhill to perdition from then on.
No-one would deny that Rangers in 1963/64 had a good side (they weren’t GREAT however because they got a real doing from Real Madrid in the European Cup) but the main element in all the Celtic defeats to them lay in the lack of mental toughness, and the psychological belief that somehow we were not allowed to beat them.
It permeated Celtic right through from the Chairman all the way down to the humblest supporter, and even at our high points of that season – at the turn of the year, and in March after a European success, we seemed to have to obey the immutable, Greek tragedy, carved in stone law that we must lose to Rangers. Rangers, sadly, twigged to that one as well and approached these games with confidence and indeed arrogance. It was almost the way of things.
But moving away from the Rangers complex, Celtic actually recovered quite well from an awful start. A demonstration by supporters against Robert Kelly after a game against Queen of the South might well have turned nasty – I saw at least two young men with bricks in their hands, and I also saw the cavalry, the mounted police, galloping up London Road (all that was missing were trumpets and John Wayne) to be on hand in case things got silly. Thankfully, the demonstration stayed non-violent, but there was real anger there, that day, justified anger – and it was all directed at Mr Kelly.
Mr Kelly, apparently, was not there that day having prudently opted to go and watch the reserves at Dumfries instead, but he must have heard about it. Indeed, it was highlighted with pictures in all the papers. Still nothing happened, and then in the next game in the League Cup section at Ibrox, another 0-3 defeat, there was serious trouble and many arrests at the Celtic End.
Everyone said “this cannot go on”, but it did, except that the third game against Rangers that autumn at Ibrox in the League saw a distinctly under-populated Celtic End. It was actually a fairly spirited Celtic performance. We were 1-0 up for a spell and it should have been two but we hit the post… but then came the collapse again.
At last, after further defeats from Falkirk and St Mirren in September Mr Kelly met some supporters from the Association. It was, by all accounts, a dignified and polite occasion and the Association put their points reasonably. Mr Kelly replied reasonably, promised better days and then suddenly the team began to play better.
While Rangers were being hammered by Real Madrid (for a spell after this, the line in The Soldiers’ Song which ran “tonight we man the bearna bhaoil” – which no-one understood anyway – became “tonight we go to the Bernabeu”) Celtic beat Basle and advanced in Europe, and then there were competent wins over Aberdeen and Dundee United before a spectacular 9-0 doing of Airdrie.
From then on until the turn of the year, form was acceptable, if not brilliant, and we made further progress in Europe with a defeat of Dinamo Zagreb.
Yet there was no great tactical reason for all this. The team simply began to get a little confidence. Gemmell, McNeill, Murdoch, Johnstone and Hughes all developed and the supporters began to return – but of course, we still had to play Rangers on New Year’s Day. Hard luck was the order of the day, yet again, but the real problem was the lack of mental toughness and once again, the inferiority complex.
New Year’s Day finally ended any hopes of a League revival, but there was still Europe and the Scottish Cup. The Scottish Cup included an epic game at Morton. Morton were in the Second Division but had almost, by the end of January, already won it! Their hopes of beating Celtic that Burns Night of 25 January 1964 were high, but thanks to a brilliant John Hughes goal and another scored direct from a corner kick by Charlie Gallagher, Celtic won through.
But then at the end of February, Celtic missed a big trick. Dunfermline Athletic announced that Jock Stein was leaving them at the end of the season. He would stay with them until then, but he possibly felt that he had gone as far as he was likely to go with the hitherto under-performing provincial club which he had turned into one of the better teams in the country.
Now where do you think Jock was wanting to go?
Shrewd supporters worked that one out, but Mr Kelly (possibly still concerned about Stein’s religion) did not pick up on the mood of the time, and the chance went abegging with Stein moving on to Hibs instead. It was a costly mistake and sentenced us to another unnecessary year of misery.
In early March we beat Slovan Bratislava in Europe, but lost to Rangers in the Scottish Cup. We would have preferred it the other way round, but we still had the opportunity to became the first Scottish team to win a European trophy.
The events of April 1964 ended tragically, but there were good times as well. Scotland beat England in the rain at Hampden on Saturday 11 April , then on the Wednesday night, MTK of Hungary came to Parkhead for the European Cup Winners Cup semi-final, and Celtic, in a dazzling display of attacking football beat them 3-0. It was arguably, the best result since the 7-1 of 1957 and we couldn’t really lose the second leg 0-4 could we?
But then two things happened. Rangers beat Dundee in the Scottish Cup final on 25 April (and don’t anyone dare try to tell me that what Rangers do “doesn’t matter” as far as Celtic are concerned!) and Celtic went to Hungary determined to attack. The word “naive” did not quite cover that decision, and yes, you’ve guessed it, we went down 0-4!
Now, suppose, just suppose, that Mr Kelly had shown a little more brain at the end of February. Although Stein could not have been in charge of 7 March, the sheer knowledge that Stein was coming back might have lead to a different result at Ibrox on that awful day, and by 29 April when Stein might indeed have been in charge (he was, in fact, in charge at Easter Road by then) Celtic would NOT have lost 4 goals to MTK.
But that was 1964.
Very painful in many respects, but one or two glimpses of what could have been, and indeed what could be yet. Still looking forward to next season, and although now nearly 16, my retarded puberty (what was causing that, I wonder?) meant I could still get in the Boys’ Gate for 2 shillings! Half fare on the railway as well!
David Potter
