On this day in 1991, the players of Celtic and Aberdeen ran out at Parkhead for the second league meeting between the clubs that season, the Dons having won the first 1-0 at Pittodrie in August.
By the early days of November, Celtic had played 16 league matches, of which they had won nine, drawn three and lost four. They had also lost out to Airdrie on penalties in the third round of the League Cup and suffered one of the club’s worst-ever thrashings in Europe when Neuchatel Xamax won 5-1 in Switzerland.
Manager Liam Brady was obviously not happy with his side’s form just at that time, as he made several changes from the previous match, including a new arrival at centre-half.
Tony Mowbray had gone straight from his school team to Middlesbrough in 1981 (when Bobby Murdoch was manager) and went on to make 331 appearances for the north-east club.
Ten years later, Celtic put in a bid of £1 million, which was accepted by the Ayresome Park directors and Mowbray made his way up to Scotland.
The Celtic team that day was Bonner, McNally, Morris, Galloway, Mowbray, Gillespie, O’Neill, McStay, Coyne, Nicholas and Collins.
Right from the start, the players in the Hoops seemed up for the challenge, Charlie Nicholas getting his name on the score sheet but Aberdeen were never out of it and the fans had to wait for the appearance of substitute Gerry Creaney before they could applaud the second goal which gave Celtic a 2-1 victory.
Centre-forward Willie Groves – known to the fans as ‘Darlin’ Willie’ – was born on this day in 1869. Willie had two spells with Celtic but overall, only played 18 matches, scoring 16 goals. Tragically, while in his mid-30s, Willie was struck with the onset of TB and died on 13 February 1908.
Jim Craig
