Celtic are Back Home in Paradise – That was the headline in one paper the day following the Celtic/Newcastle match which marked the opening of the North Stand on this day in 1995.
The Celtic team was Marshall, McNally, Mowbray, Boyd, Vata, Grant, Collins, O’Donnell, McKinlay, Van Hooijdonk, Thom, with the vast majority of the fine crowd only having eyes for new £2.2 million signing Andreas Thom, from Bayer Leverkusen.
It was the German who won a penalty for Celtic on the half-hour mark, when Newcastle centre-half Peacock was fairly clumsy with his challenge; but it was a Scotsman who stepped forward to take it, John Collins calmly slotting the ball past goalkeeper Snricek for the opening goal.
Celtic held the lead till the interval but after the break, Newcastle looked the more dangerous side and got the equaliser in the 56th minute when a cross from deep on the left by Scott Sellers was fairly rammed home with this head by Les Ferdinand.
Mike Conroy was born on this day in 1932 in Port Glasgow. He joined Celtic in January 1953 from St Anthony’s and over the following seven years made eight appearances for the first team, going on to become a scout in the Port Glasgow area for the club. His son Mike Conroy (Junior) played 89 times for Celtic between 1978 and 1982.
Mike senior passed away on 12 July 2017.
Jim Craig