On this day in 1981, 48,600 were inside Celtic Park for the second contest of the season against Rangers, Celtic having won the opening encounter 2-0 at Ibrox.
Pat Bonner was in the Celtic goal; the back four was Davie Moyes, Tom McAdam, Roy Aitken and Mark Reid; Dom Sullivan, Murdo MacLeod and Mike Conroy made up the midfield; with Davie Provan, Frank McGarvey and George McCluskey as the strike force.
The crowd wanted to see some action and in the first 21 minutes of the match, they certainly got plenty of it.
Tom McAdam got Celtic off to a great start in 3 minutes, touching a Davie Moyes header past Peter McCloy in the Rangers goal. Gordon Dalziel pulled one back two minutes later but Frank McGarvey soon made it 2-1, sending a powerful header into the roof of the net, again from a Moyes cross in the 10th minute.
Rangers equalised again, this time from Jim Bett in the 20th minute, then John McDonald put Rangers 3-2 ahead in 21 minutes, that score-line still the same at the interval.
Six minutes after the break, though, Moyes nodded down a cross by Davie Provan and Murdo MacLeod thundered a tremendous drive past McCloy to make it 3-3, a result which kept Celtic top of the table.
On this day in 1899, John McFarlane was born in Bathgate.
Just over 20 years later, after spells with Denbeath Star Juveniles and Wellesley Juniors, then trials periods with Cowdenbeath and Raith Rovers, John joined Celtic, soon becoming ‘Jean’ for reasons that are not too clear.
Over the following 10 years, Jean was there for all the major moments of the 1920s – the 2 Scottish league triumphs and three Scottish Cup victories – as he racked up 13 goals in his 304 appearances in the left-half role.
Jean later moved on to Middlesbrough in 1929 and Dunfermline in 1934. He retired in 1935 and died on 25 February 1956.
Jim Craig
