Gallagher at 80 – Mary is Charlie’s darling as the big matches keep on coming

Season 1964/65 would be the highlight of Charlie Gallagher’s Celtic career, culminating in a hugely significantly match. It had also begun with one, as Charlie married his sweetheart Mary MacKay in St Anne’s church in Dennistoun, on 13 June, 1964. Even on honeymoon there was no avoiding the Celtic connection, the new Mr and Mrs Gallagher arriving at their Channel Island retreat only to bump into another newlywed couple, Bobby and Kathleen Murdoch!

Charlie was at inside-left as Celts opened their League Cup campaign with a disappointing goalless draw against Partick Thistle at Parkhead, ‘Seven past Niven’ enjoying a shut-out in the Jags goal. The Bhoys would then win their next four games to top a tough section which included Kilmarnock and Hearts, with Gallagher in outstanding form.

The Gorgie men were dismissed by 3-0 at Tynecastle in midweek then Charlie was on target twice with headers as high-flying Kilmarnock were beaten 4-1 by the Shamrock-clad Bhoys on Saturday, 15 August 1964, twice denied a hat-trick after his goal-bound effort was handled on the line by a Killie defender then his spot kick was saved by Campbell Forsyth in the visitors goal.

The end of season standings would reflect just how good a victory that had been. Having missed the midweek League opener at Fir Park, Charlie would open the scoring at Firhill the following Saturday as Celts romped to a 5-1 win, then grab another brace as Hearts were routed 6-1 at Celtic Park, Willie Wallace scoring his now customary goal against the Hoops he would later wear with such distinction. With the Bhoys having already qualified, it was strange that the ‘dead rubber’ final match at Rugby Park should have turned into such a battle, both Bobby Murdoch and Billy McNeill stretchered off as nine-man Celts went down 2-0 to Kilmarnock.

The backdrop to that successful campaign had involved an ultimately unsuccessful bid to tease Alfredo Di Stefano from Madrid to Glasgow, Jimmy McGrory and John Cushley, Cesar’s understudy, flying out to Spain only to discover that the Argentinian had signed for Espanyol. Cushley had been utilised on that trip as an interpreter but he was in the limelight for the second League game of the season, at Celtic Park on Saturday, 5 September 1964, as Rangers crossed the city to defend an unbeaten record against the Hoops which now stretched for four long years.

With both Murdoch and McNeill having failed to recover from the injuries sustained at Kilmarnock, the weakened Celts were long odds to change that record, however, once again football proved what a strange and unpredictable sport it can be. John Hughes had a goal harshly disallowed by referee Hugh Phillips within three minutes, before the Wishaw official pointed to the spot as Jimmy Johnstone was felled in the box by Davie Provan.

Up stepped the on-form Charlie Gallagher to fire the Hoops into the lead, only to see his effort hit the post before rebounding to safety, a second successive penalty miss for the Gorbals Bhoy. The opening goal for Celtic would finally come just after the half-hour through Stevie Chalmers, the same player doubling that lead five minutes into the second half before Hughes made it 3-0 before the hour mark. A late consolation goal from Davie Wilson ruined the clean sheet but not the mood as Celts finally got the proverbial monkey off their backs by beating the 1964 Treble-winners so comfortably. It was a nice way to mark the 33rd anniversary of the tragic death of Celtic goalkeeper, John Thomson, against the last opposition he defied. It was perhaps fitting that another legendary stopper arrived at Parkhead that very weekend, Ronnie Simpson swapping Hibernian reserves for a similar role with Jimmy McGrory’s Hoops.

There was a scare in midweek when those old bad habits of complacency and inconsistency reappeared once again for the League Cup quarter-final first leg against second-tier East Fife at Bayview, Celts licking their wounds after a 2-0 defeat. Fortunately, they would be able to retrieve that position in the return, seven nights later, Stevie Chalmers on fire with five of Celtic’s six goals, another effort coming off the post which would have given him the post-war Parkhead scoring record, an honour eventually claimed by Dixie Deans almost a decade later.

Chalmers would be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons the following midweek, as Celtic commenced their third European campaign back in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, courtesy of last season’s third-place League finish, away to the Portuguese side Leixoes Sport Club. There would be nothing sporting about their hosts behaviour, the away leg best remembered for the closing five minutes, where the French referee decided to send three players off. It all kicked off after Chalmers made an innocuous challenge on the Portuguese keeper, Rosas, who then rolled on the ground in agony, in a preview of events which would take place in Seville, four decades later. For this, the Celtic striker walked, a decision described by Chairman and erstwhile team selector, Robert Kelly, as the worst he had seen in football.

Minutes later, full-back Young reacted to a head-butt from Leixoes forward, Oliviera, both then joining Chalmers for an early bath. What football was played on a dreadful surface with a strange ‘crimson-coloured’ ball was almost incidental, however, for the record, Esteves opened the scoring within six minutes with Bobby Murdoch forcing home a Hoops equaliser on the half-hour.

Charlie Gallagher had missed the visit to Tynecastle on Saturday, 26 September 1964, three days after the first leg, both he and John Cushley suffering with stomach ailments following the trip to Portugal. A reshuffled line-up featuring debutant Tommy Curley and Dunky MacKay – a first appearance of the season for the former captain – fell to a 4-2 defeat by Hearts, with Willie Wallace again on target. Charlie was back in the team in midweek for the League Cup semi-final clash with last year’s beaten finalists, Morton, at Ibrox, in front of 55,000 spectators. With two minutes remaining, and Celts leading 1-0 through a Bobby Lennox goal, Gallagher sealed a first final for the Bhoys in this competition since ‘Hampden in the Sun’ seven years earlier, the midfielder rifling a vicious shot past future Ibrox keeper Erik Sorensen.

The disciplinary rules of the day meant that both Ian Young and Stevie Chalmers could take their places in an unchanged Hoops line-up for the return with Leixoes at Celtic Park on Wednesday, 7 October 1964. This would prove significant, Stevie involved in all of the game’s key moments. Firstly, he headed a Jimmy Johnstone cross home to give Celts the lead in the tie within 15 minutes.

Then, with Celts reduced to 10 men in the second half, this time due to a serous-looking Charlie Gallagher injury, in these pre-substitution days, Chalmers was barged in the box to earn a penalty kick. This was the cue for yet more Portuguese histrionics, English referee Ernie Crawford jostled to the point of warning that the game would be abandoned, should the problem continue. After a delay of several minutes, Bobby Murdoch’s poor spot kick was saved by our old friend, Rosas. With seven minutes remaining, Chalmers scored a second goal, his shot deceiving the keeper to finally create some breathing space for the Bhoys. And shortly before the end, he was again fouled in the area, this time Murdoch blasting the ball home, despite yet more Leixoes shenanigans.

The injury would be costly to both Charlie and Celtic, ruling the influential playmaker out for a three-week period which would include the League Cup final against Rangers, on Saturday, 24 October 1964. An hour before the kick-off at Hampden, it was confirmed that John Divers would start, Gallagher forced to watch from the stand as once again Jim Forrest became the scourge of Celts, the Garngad man’s second-half double enough to take the trophy to Ibrox despite a Jimmy Johnstone goal pulling it back to 2-1 with 20 minutes still remaining.

Charlie would make his return in midweek against League leaders, Kilmarnock, albeit it would be a night to forget, the Ayrshire side 5-0 up after an hour before goals from Tommy Gemmell and Gallagher himself ended the scoring. He would then suffer another injury in the weekend win over Airdrie at Parkhead, as the early season Celtic promise threatened to completely unravel.

As Charlie sat out the latest calamitous defeat, this time the Hoops 3-0 down within half an hour in Perth on Saturday, 7 November 1964, another two fine Celts moved out of Parkhead. Frank Haffey had spent a year on the sidelines following an ankle break against Partick Thistle in a Glasgow Cup-tie at Firhill. The arrival of Ronnie Simpson would presumably be the final straw in terms of his chances for restoration to first-team duties, which he had performed more than 200 times for his beloved Hoops. He would head south to Swindon Town before emigrating to Australia, where he entered showbusiness! We should not have been surprised. This was the man who sang in the bath following the 9-3 defeat for Scotland at Wembley in April 1961, his last international cap. I always thought he bore an uncanny resemblance to Artur Boruc, and he was definitely cut from the same eccentric cloth.

Next to leave was full-back Dunky MacKay, Celtic’s captain and a Scotland regular just two years earlier. A virtual ever-present for five seasons, the Springburn Bhoy had made just 9 League starts in the previous campaign and only one so far in 1964/65, that 4-2 defeat at Tynecastle in September. He would move across the river to join Third Lanark before also making the much longer journey Down Under. There was an inward transfer to offset the sense of loss, but only after Clyde’s promising forward Harry Hood allegedly rejected terms to join Celtic. He would eventually sign for Sunderland, whilst Celtic paid Falkirk £15,000 for Hugh Maxwell.

Charlie was still recuperating from injury as Celtic faced two-time winners Barcelona in the Camp Nou on Wednesday, 18 November 1964 in the next round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the first of what would be many European contests over the years. Celts headed to Spain’s eastern coast on a poor run of domestic form – four defeats in five games – with recent signing Ronnie Simpson replacing John Fallon in goal for a baptism of fire.

Simpson would be beaten twice within 20 minutes, as, firstly, striker Zaldua knocked a rebound home from close-range, then Peruvian Seminario headed home his cross foe 2-0. John Hughes gave Celts some hope, scoring cleverly after Jimmy Johnstone’s through ball had sent him clear, however, the depleted Hoops, with the injured John Clark a virtual passenger on the wing for the entire second half, lost a vital third goal in the closing stages, striker Re heading home for the Catalan giants, to make the second-leg task so much more difficult.

Nevertheless, 43,000 rolled up to Celtic Park two weeks later, Wednesday, 2 December 1964, hoping for the unexpected, Charlie restored at inside-left as Celtic lined up as follows;

Ronnie Simpson;
Ian Young & Tommy Gemmell;
Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeill & Willie O’Neill;
Jimmy Johnstone, Stevie Chalmers, John Hughes, Charlie Gallagher & Bobby Lennox.

Sadly, the supporters would be disappointed, Barcelona comfortably containing the eager young Celts, thanks mainly to a masterclass from the legendary Hungarian veteran, Sandor Kocsis. He was in the final season of a superb playing career, which included six years in the magnificent Honved side of the early ‘50s. There, he teamed up with fellow ‘Mighty Magyars’, Puskas, Czibor and Bozsik, to form the nucleus of the best club and international sides in world football. His scoring rate was akin to that of Jimmy McGrory’s at Celtic, 153 in 145 games for Honved and 75 in 68 appearances for Hungary, more than a goal per game.

In November 1956, Kocsis and his Honved team were in Spain for a European Cup tie against Athletic Bilbao, as the uprising kicked off in Budapest. Many of the players refused to return to Hungary, the second leg going ahead in Brussels. But whilst Bozsik eventually returned to Honved, both Czibor and Kocsis moved to Barcelona, and Puskas found fame and Alfredo di Stefano, at the home of the new European Champions, Real Madrid.

In December 1964 in Glasgow, by now in the twilight of his career, Kocsis was ensuring that Celtic fans would have to wait a bit longer for their own taste of European glory. The second leg finished goalless, a disappointing and frustrating night summed up by the sight of top goalscorer Stevie Chalmers being stretchered off with a nasty ankle injury. The Spanish side had played the game at their own pace and had rarely looked troubled. It would be difficult to foresee how such a yawning chasm in class could be closed.

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

About Author

Having retired from his day job Matt Corr can usually be found working as a Tour Guide at Celtic Park, or if there is a Marathon on anywhere in the world from as far away as Tokyo or New York, Matt will be running for the Celtic Foundation. On a European away-day, he's there writing his Diary for The Celtic Star and he's currently completing his first Celtic book with another two planned.

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