I suppose the draw between Dundee and Hearts at Dens Park last Sunday was a better result for the Edinburgh side. The one point gained kept Hearts in the top six, a position factored in as essential earlier in the season by their enterprising owner Ann Budge.
The Hearts Board has pumped a lot of money into the club in recent years and from the point of view of income, being out of the top six for the last few matches would have been a blow to turnover for the rest of the season.
The one point gained by Dundee – especially at home – did little to help their position. They are in now in third bottom spot, one point behind Hamilton and four in front of Partick Thistle and Ross County – Thistle are now anchored at the bottom after losing 4-0 in Dingwall last night. Ross County looked gone already and played like it at Parkhead on Saturday, seldom threatening Celtic’s rearguard, so that 4-0 win will worry Neil McCann.
Dundee, of course, travel to Celtic Park tonight and their players will not be relishing their task. It is all right for managers, coaches and fans to tell players to ‘forget what has happened in the past and just get out there and show them what you can do’. Players are only human and the Dundee players will be quite well aware of the fact that while they have an away record of P15 W4 D2 L9 F16 A24, Celtic’s home record is an excellent one of P15 W10 D5 L0 F29 A12. Let’s be realistic – would you fancy being in a Dundee shirt tonight against a record like that?
Having lost 2-1 at Easter Road the previous week, on 31 March, 1979, manager Billy McNeill quickly decided to boost his firepower with the acquisition of Vic Davidson from Blackpool for a fee of £30,000.
Next up was Motherwell, anchored at the foot of the table. Everyone in the Celtic camp knew, though, that they could usually be a tough proposition on their own ground and the team was up for the occasion.
On this day in 1979, the eleven chosen to face the Steelmen was Bonner, McGrain, MacLeod, Aitken, Edvaldsson, Conroy, Provan, Lennox, Davidson, Burns and Doyle.
In front of 8,744 fans, Motherwell opened the scoring in 20 minutes, with Celtic quickly equalising, the unlikely scorer being Danny McGrain.
Nine minutes later, Johnny Doyle made it 2-1 and just before the break, Vic Davidson got a debut goal to make it 3-1.
There was plenty of action in the second half too. Gregor Stevens pulled one back for Motherwell in 79 minutes; almost immediately, Bobby Lennox restored the two-goal lead from the penalty spot after Johnny Doyle had been up-ended; and with 5 minutes remaining on the clock, substitute Larnach scored the home side’s third from 15 yards.
At the whistle, though, it was still 4-3 to Celtic and those two vital points kept the Hoops in the race for the title.
Jim Craig
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