Charlie & The Bhoys: Gallagher at 80
Part 9 – The final part of the Lisbon jigsaw is complete
Scottish champions Celtic returned from an unbeaten tour of the USA and Canada to a very different looking Paradise, as a shiny new white-roofed North Enclosure replaced the old Hayshed or Jungle which had been in place since the 1930’s.
This was the latest stage of the planned stadium improvements, which had commenced with the part-covering of the West Terracing in 1957. The first visitors to the new-look Celtic Park were 1965 English champions Manchester United, featuring their George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton triumvirate and skippered for the day by former Hoops hero, Paddy Crerand, Charlie Gallagher’s cousin by marriage. Having completed the final three matches of the previous league campaign and taken part in the vast majority of the close-season tour fixtures, indeed, scoring the final goal of that tour in the dying seconds of the last match to beat Mexican outfit Atlas in Los Angeles, Charlie would no doubt be disappointed not to be lining up against his old friend and relative.
As Gallagher played in a reserve fixture at Stair Park, Stranraer – ironically the ground where Celtic reserve coach Jock Stein had watched the schoolboy Charlie shine a decade earlier – the first team would be demolishing Matt Busby’s superstars 4-1 in front of 60,000 spectators. United would go on to win the English First Division the following spring, a second title in three seasons and, quite incredibly, their last until Alex Ferguson secured it. 26 years later.
But they would be no match for the Stein Machine that day. Seven days earlier, Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles would be dancing around Wembley Stadium as England won the World Cup in dramatic fashion. What? You didn’t know that? Yes, they won it in 1966. Stiles would be at his battling best in Glasgow as he tried to halt the attacking tide without success, becoming the pantomime villain in the process, the opposing player the crowd love to hate. At 5’6”, with a receding hairline and bad eyesight, Manchester-born Nobby was hardly your prototype superstar footballer, however, he played over 300 games for one of the best English teams of all time, and every minute of that 1966 World Cup. He would later become one of the select few English players to win both the European and World Cups. I was sad to hear of his recent passing, following battles with cancer and dementia. Rest in peace, Nobby.
The domestic season kicked off the following Saturday, 13 August 1966, with a League Cup-tie at Tynecastle. This was the day a new substitute rule was introduced, in the event of an injured player, with Charlie Gallagher making history again as Celtic’s first named number 12.
His versatility across the forward positions would make Charlie the ideal player to have in that role, a blessing or a curse dependent on your viewpoint. He would finally get a start in the fourth competitive game of the season, on Tuesday, 23 August 1966, as Celts travelled to Ibrox for a Glasgow Cup-tie, looking to avenge their defeat in the replayed Scottish Cup final four months earlier.
Over 76,000 spectators packed into the Govan arena to witness Bobby Lennox’s finest hour in the Hoops. The Bhoys had failed to score in 210 minutes of Hampden action back in April, however, after Charlie Gallagher had set Billy McNeill up for a fine angled finish within 10 minutes, Lennox produced a masterclass. His turn and blistering finish after half-an-hour remains one of the greatest goals I have ever seen by a Celtic player at Ibrox. And in the closing 10 minutes, he twice outfoxed the Rangers defence to become the second Celt to score a hat-trick in this fixture in 1966, following Stevie Chalmers January blitz at Celtic Park. There were still two rounds to negotiate, however, the smart money would already be on Jock Stein adding to his silver collection, by retaining the Glasgow Cup.
Charlie did receive the call to start the final League Cup section match against St Mirren at Love Street on Saturday, 3 September 1966, Bertie Auld making way on the left-wing as a Bobby Murdoch goal saw the Hoops maintain their 100% record in the group. Just after the hour mark, Jimmy Johnstone was forced to leave the pitch suffering from concussion, allowing Willie O’Neill to become the first used substitute in Celtic’s history.
Gallagher would then return to the reserves for another month before being chosen for the Glasgow Cup semi-final clash with Queen’s Park at Celtic Park on Monday, 10 October 1966. This would be the only appearance between the Celtic posts for Danish goalkeeper Bent Martin, following his transfer from Aarhus in February. He would not be disturbed too often as the Hoops clinched a place in the final against Partick Thistle with another 4-0 victory, Charlie getting off the mark for the season by scoring Celtic’s third goal just after half-time.
He would retain his slot for the top-of-the-table clash with Airdrieonians five days later, an afternoon of celebration for the 41,000 supporters which began with the unfurling of the League flag above the new Jungle enclosure and ended with a 3-0 victory courtesy of second-half goals shared by the prolific partnership of Joe McBride and Bobby Lennox. Stein would reshuffle his pack for the League Cup semi-final against the Broomfield outfit at Hampden two nights later, Gallagher remaining on the periphery as the trophy was retained by the end of the month, following victories over Airdrieonians and Rangers, for the second year running.
Charlie would return to the Celtic side immediately after that League Cup final victory, on Wednesday, 2 November 1966, the eve of his 26th birthday. There was a Groundhog Day feel to proceedings as the newly-won trophy was paraded around the track as Celts hosted Stirling Albion, just as they had done 12 months earlier. On that occasion, the visitors had lost 6-1. That was well on course to be beaten as the Hoops led 7-1 just three minutes into the second half, however, they then took the foot off the gas, allowing Albion to claw back two goals and end the afternoon at 7-3.
Charlie’s own day had concluded much earlier, forced from the field with a leg strain within 25 minutes of kick-off, Jim Craig coming off the bench to replace him. Gallagher would miss out on the home draw with St Mirren three days later, the first game Celts had failed to win in any competition that season, before Stein restored him to the team for the Glasgow Cup final against Partick Thistle at Celtic Park on Monday, 7 November 1966.
The Hoops had dominated this competition since the turn of the decade, appearing in all six finals played in that period and winning four of those, Thistle themselves, in September 1960 and Third Lanark, in April 1963, the only clubs to prevent a clean sweep over that period.
Charlie himself had a good Glasgow Cup record, not playing in either of those losing finals and scoring twice against the Hi Hi to win the replayed final of May 1962 – his first winner’s medal as a Celt – then part of the unchanged Hoops team which beat Queen’s Park 5-0 at Hampden in May 1965, just 17 days after they had won the Scottish Cup at the same venue against Dunfermline. Problems with finding suitable fixture dates had meant that the following season’s competition had not been completed.
For the 1966/67 version, Charlie appeared in all three ties as Celtic secured the trophy with a third successive 4-0 victory, all four goals scored in the first half as Bobby Lennox repeated his Ibrox feat with another hat-trick, this time against Partick Thistle before 31,000 spectators. With a third Glasgow Cup medal safely tucked away, Gallagher would be back on the bench for the most thrilling game of that season, on Saturday, 19 November 1966, Jimmy Johnstone restored to the side as Celts fought back from 0-2, 1-3 then 2-4 to seal a 5-4 victory over Dunfermline Athletic at East End Park with a last-gasp Joe McBride penalty kick.
December 1966 opened with the final piece of the Lisbon jigsaw arriving at Celtic Park, Hearts versatile Scotland forward Willie Wallace signing for a fee understood to be around £30,000. He would be in the Parkhead stand 24 hours later as Charlie Gallagher made his European Cup debut in the return leg of the second-round tie against French champions, Nantes. Celts would complete a 6-2 aggregate victory after repeating their 3-1 win from a fortnight earlier.
Jock Stein’s men would not be joined in the last eight by English representatives, Liverpool, humbled 5-1 by Ajax Amsterdam as a young Johan Cruyff announced his genius to the world. Wallace would then replace Gallagher in the team for the weekend visit of Motherwell, the Gorbals Bhoy remaining on the sidelines as the long unbeaten run from the start of the season finally ended on the last day of the calendar year, Celts losing two late goals at Tannadice to go down 3-2 to Dundee United.
Four nights later, Charlie gave the Hoops a critical second-half lead as the rescheduled home match with Clyde ended in that same 5-1 scoreline. He would not know it then, however, that would prove to be his 38th and final goal for Celtic.
The following weekend was another historic occasion for Celtic, albeit no-one would be aware of that at the time. For the trip to Perth to face Bobby Brown’s St Johnstone at Muirton Park, on Saturday, 14 January 1967, Jock Stein made one change to his line-up, Bertie Auld in for Charlie Gallagher, as he named the following team.
Ronnie Simpson;
Jim Craig & Tommy Gemmell;
Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeill & John Clark;
Jimmy Johnstone, Willie Wallace, Stevie Chalmers, Bertie Auld & Bobby Lennox.Substitute: Charlie Gallagher
With the kick-off held up to allow the latecomers to swell the gate to nearly 20,000, Celtic set out to maintain their high-scoring start to the new year. They would be frustrated time and again by home keeper, Jim Donaldson, the deadlock finally being broken just after the hour mark when Jimmy Johnstone scored a tremendous solo goal. The little winger doubled the lead within five minutes, with Stevie Chalmers then Bobby Lennox applying some gloss in the final stages, as a tricky afternoon ended in a rather flattering 4-0 victory for Celtic. These eleven men had never previously started a match together, however, they would do so in the coming months with the most incredible outcome.
Hail Hail,
Matt Corr
Thanks, as always, to the folk behind the Celtic Wiki, a wonderful source of information, and to David Potter, author of Charlie’s biography, Charlie Gallagher? What a Player!
Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue
