This match from the past we are covering today was a defeat for Celtic but the heaviness of the thrashing and the circumstances surrounding the dates and timings are so unusual that it is well worth remembering.
On 24 April 1965, Celtic beat Dunfermline Athletic 3-2 in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park in front of a crowd of 108,800 to win the trophy for the first time in eleven years and get the Parkhead managerial career of Jock Stein off to a perfect start.
Four days later, the teams met in the final league match of the season at East End Park, when the managers of both sides made changes from their cup final choices. Jock Stein put out an eleven of John Fallon, Tommy Gemmell, Willie O’Neill, John Clark, Billy McNeill, Jim Brogan, Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Murdoch, John Hughes, Hugh Maxwell and Bobby Lennox.
On paper, the selection looked a pretty strong one. On the evening of this day, though, in 1965, it received a real going-over by Dunfermline. John Clark unfortunately put the ball through his own net in 39 minutes; John Hughes equalised just on the half-time whistle; goals shortly after the interval by McLaughlin(2) and Melrose put the Pars well ahead; and then a striker called Alex Ferguson scored in 62 minutes to make it 5-1 for Dunfermline.
Only 10,000 were there to see the action and the score-line for Celtic could even have been worse, as the Pars missed a second-half penalty. However, even the 5-1 result lead to many an inquest about what the players had been up to in the four days following the Cup Final win?
Jim Craig
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