On Wednesday, 29 September 1971, Hughes and Wallace featured in a Hoops team together for the final time, Willie starting and scoring twice against BK1903 Copenhagen to turn a 2-1 first-leg deficit around, whilst Yogi replaced Bobby Lennox at half-time. That would be the last appearance for John Hughes and those the last goals scored by Willie Wallace at Celtic.
Willie would get a final run-out, appropriately at Hampden, as a late substitute for Tommy Callaghan, with Celtic leading St Mirren 3-0 on Wednesday, 6 October 1971 in the League Cup semi-final, setting up the ultimately disastrous meeting with Partick Thistle later that month. By that time, both Hughes and Wallace were Crystal Palace players, sold to the Surrey club on the eve of Celtic’s next European tie, with Maltese outfit Sliema Wanderers, on 19 October
In his autobiography, ‘Heart of a Lion’, Willie tells of how he was summoned to a breakfast meeting with Jock Stein at Seamill, then driven to Celtic Park with hardly a word exchanged, an incredible way for someone who had given so much to the cause to leave the club. After picking up Crystal Palace representatives at the airport, en route to the stadium, he would learn that John Hughes would also be leaving as part of the same transfer. Yogi had been in dispute with the club at that time, so perhaps that was less of a surprise. It would be Palace manager Bert Head who would make arrangements for Willie to call his wife, Olive, to let her know about the potentially life-changing discussion taking place around him. Quite bizarre.
In any case, 10 minutes after negotiations commenced, he had agreed to become Willie Wallace of Crystal Palace, ending five trophy-laden years at Celtic Park. Yogi would come also.
They would join a mini-Scots colony at Selhurst Park, known jokingly as ‘The White Heather Club’, with others such as Gerry Queen, John McCormick, Jim Scott, Tony Taylor and Sam Goodwin. Other familiar names at the club were long-serving keeper John Jackson, plus former Chelsea record-goalscorer, Bobby Tambling, who had netted for the English League in Willie’s last appearance at that level.
The bhoys would later come up against their old friend Tommy Gemmell, who had left Celtic in November 1971 and was now plying his trade with struggling Nottingham Forest, Willie’s header winning that particular match in January 1972 at the City Ground and Forest relegated at the season’s end. A few weeks earlier, Yogi had scored a ‘goal of the season’ contender, in a 5-1 win over Sheffield United at Selhurst Park.
Willie would play in Croydon for 12 months, scoring four goals in 39 League games at the club, before heading back home to join Dumbarton on 12 October 1972, following the replacement of Bert Head by Malcolm Allison in the Palace dugout.
His first game for the Sons against his old Celtic teammates would prove to be a painful experience, Celts winning 6-1 at Boghead on Saturday, 2 December 1972, teenage wing-half Pat McCluskey the unlikely hat-trick hero. Willie did, at least, have the consolation of scoring the last goal of the game, for a Dumbarton side who included another ex-Celt, John Cushley, the McAdam brothers and former Rangers, Dundee United and Scotland winger, Davie Wilson, the man involved in the incident where Jock Stein had once fined Willie for not punching him hard enough! Only in Scottish football!
Wallace fared little better in the return League fixture, played at Celtic Park on Wednesday, 18 April 1973. Dixie Deans scored a hat-trick, as Celts homed in on eight-in-a-row with a 5-0 victory. Deans had been sent off whilst playing for Motherwell on the same ground on the day Willie had made his Celtic debut, back in December 1966, and had then been signed by Jock Stein immediately after Wallace had been sold to Crystal Palace, in a deal reminiscent of those which had seen Joe McBride snapped up from Fir Park then Willie himself bought from Hearts. In the eyes of many, Dixie Deans had been a direct replacement for Willie Wallace.
The next meeting of the two clubs would see Celtic score twice without reply at Boghead on Saturday, 24 November 1973, however, the Sons would share six goals at Parkhead when the teams clashed on Saturday, 30 March 1974, a late equaliser from Dixie Deans salvaging a point for the 9-in-a-row chasing Celts, after both McAdam brothers had scored in the first half.
The final season of the old League set-up in Scotland would see Celtic travel to Dumbarton on Saturday, 5 October 1974, the Hoops on the back of a disappointing European exit on the outskirts of Athens, to Olympiakos, Billy McNeill’s last match at that level. Willie’s old friend Jimmy Johnstone, enjoying his own final throes of a fabulous Parkhead career, opened the scoring within three minutes with his erstwhile successor, Deans, adding a second before half-time. Wallace would then score his final goal against Celtic, from the penalty spot with 20 minutes remaining, before the new King, Kenny Dalglish, sealed a 3-1 win for Celts late on.
There would be two more clashes between the clubs before Willie left Boghead.
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