The name William Wallace is one revered by Scots of many generations, a freedom-fighter immortalised in word in deed, with the occasional touch of Hollywood thrown in.

But three decades before Mel Gibson gave one lucky Scottish face-painter an unusual paid gig, Celtic supporters had their own hero of the same name to follow. A man who would carve out his own place in the country’s folklore, albeit on a football field rather than a battlefield.

William Semple Brown Wallace was born on Sunday, 23 June 1940, growing up in the Hillhead area of Kirkintilloch on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal. He would be the fifth of the men who took the field that unforgettable evening in Lisbon to enter the world, a decade after the first, Ronnie Simpson in October 1930, and just three months after the most recent, Billy McNeill in early March. Both Stevie Chalmers and Bertie Auld had been born in the interim.

As a youngster, Willie would do more playing than spectating where football was concerned, with the occasional visit to Adamslie Park to watch the local junior team Rob Roy, or the slightly longer trip to Falkirk to follow the Bairns at Brockville, filling in those afternoons or evenings when his own services on the right-wing for Kelvinside Thistle were not in demand.

In 1957, Willie was invited to a trial with Benburb Juniors in Govan, the opposition none other than his hometown club Kirkintilloch Rob Roy. The centre-forward lining up against him that night would share a rather special occasion with him on a sunny night in Lisbon 10 years later, it being none other than Stevie Chalmers.

The pair would hook up together much sooner, however, Willie accepting an offer on the bus journey home to play for Rob Roy the following week, he and Stevie then helping themselves to five of their team’s 10 goals on the night.

Eventually, though, it would be Kilsyth rather than Kirkintilloch which would beckon for the teenage Wallace, the much sought after winger signing for the local junior outfit, Kilsyth Rangers, who had won the prestigious Scottish Junior Cup in 1955.

It would be a brief stay for Wallace in Kilsyth, lasting just six months. In January 1958, Willie was offered an opportunity to join Scottish Second Division outfit, Stenhousemuir. The Kilsyth Rangers committee official who accompanied Wallace to those signing talks, John Macaulay, would feature very prominently in his later life, as Willie would start dating his daughter, Olive, during his early days at Ochilview. More on that story to follow.

Whilst Wallace’s Warriors would struggle in the basement of the Scottish second-tier for much of 1957/58, two clubs who would later play a huge part in his career were enjoying some very special moments. Consistently inconsistent Celtic, under Jimmy McGrory, had just retained the League Cup with an astonishing 7-1 win over Rangers at Hampden in the Sun the previous October, whilst Heart of Midlothian with their Terrible Trio of Conn, Bauld and Wardwaugh would finish ahead of both clubs to romp to the First Division title, having scored an incredible 132 goals in 34 games.

Willie’s second season at Ochilview was much more successful, the part-time Larbert club finishing just outside the promotion places in third spot. In April 1959, a last-day defeat at Celtic Park saw Hearts concede the League flag…to Rangers!

In October 1959, Willie arrived home to find the manager of First Division Raith Rovers waiting in his living-room. An hour later, he was a full-time professional player with the Kirkcaldy club. His teammates at Starks Park included that same Alfie Conn, Denis Mochan, brother of Celtic’s Neil, and a young, cocky wing-half from Fife called Jim Baxter. On Saturday, 9 January 1960, all four lined up at Parkhead, where a Hoops side including Neil Mochan and future Lions Billy McNeill and Bertie Auld won 1-0, the goal scored by the Celtic Mochan sibling.

Two months later, Celts reserve team coach Jock Stein became the new manager of struggling county rivals Dunfermline Athletic, as the Lisbon jigsaw pieces continued to assemble in the background. Hearts would reclaim their Scottish title, finishing four points clear of Kilmarnock. I wrote about these games in my recent feature for The Celtic Star, ‘Cesar and Celtic – Early Years.’

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On Saturday, 5 November 1960, Willie came face to face with his old friend Stevie Chalmers again, as Celtic visited Starks Park on League business. There were plenty of fireworks on the field as the sides shared four goals, with Chalmers netting a late equaliser for the visitors. By this time, Jim Baxter had departed Kirkcaldy to join Rangers.

Three months later, the teams clashed again at the same venue, this time in the third round of the 1960/61 Scottish Cup. Willie had now moved from the wing to centre-forward, and he equalised in the 13th minute, his first goal against Celtic, after Stevie Chalmers – who else – had put the Hoops ahead within seven minutes.

Another future Lisbon Lion, John Hughes, would put the seal on a 4-1 victory for the Bhoys with the final goal in injury time. Celtic would eventually lose the Scottish Cup final that April to Jock Stein’s Dunfermline Athletic, and in the same month, Willie was on the move up again, this time to join Scottish champions Hearts, his role in the double-transfer with defender Willie Polland memorably described by Raith manager Bert Herdman as “the spare pair of trousers for the suit!” Motivational or what? In the last League game of that season, on Tuesday, 2 May 1961, Willie became the first spare pair of trousers to score at Parkhead, his goal the opener in a 3-1 win for Hearts over Celtic in front of a paltry 7,000 crowd, his direct opponent being a young sweeper named John Clark.

Willie would open the scoring again in the next clash with Celtic, this time at Tynecastle on Saturday, 21 October 1961, Hearts winning 2-1 in a game in which Billy McNeill spent much of the 90 minutes injured on the right wing and John Hughes pulled a goal back for Celtic in the second-half, after the hosts had led 2-0 at the interval.

Seven days later, Willie played in the biggest match of his career to date, lining up in the Scottish League Cup final in front of nearly 90,000 spectators at Hampden. Hearts’ opponents were Rangers, now including his old Raith Rovers teammate Jim Baxter. The sides would draw 1-1 on the day, after extra-time, with Wallace injured by the time the replay came around in December, the Ibrox club winning that one 3-1.

The big occasions came thick and fast around that time. On Monday, 6 November 1961, Willie came up against Helenio Herrera and Inter Milan for the first time, the Edinburgh side losing 1-0 at Tynecastle before shipping four goals without replay in the San Siro two weeks later, in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, forerunner to the UEFA Cup. There would be payback for those results for Wallace a few years down the line, in the biggest tournament of them all.

February 1962 saw a high-scoring double-header between Hearts and Celtic in the space of a few days. The Scottish Cup-tie at Tynecastle on Saturday 17th saw the Bhoys edge a seven-goal thriller at Tynecastle, with Pat Crerand grabbing the winner with a late retaken penalty, after Gordon Marshall senior had saved his first effort, the fifth goal to be scored in the final 20 minutes.

Crerand and Wallace had faced one another as juniors many years earlier, when Paddy had starred for Duntocher Hibs and Willie at Kilsyth. Four nights later, the sides would share the spoils in a 2-2 League draw at Celtic Park, although Willie would sit this one out.

But the biggest match of Willie’s 1961/62 season would take place off the park, on Monday, 2 April 1962, when he married his long-time girlfriend Olive Macaulay at Anderson Parish Church in Kilsyth, with a reception in the local masonic halls. By the Thursday, after a three-night honeymoon in Aberfoyle, the new husband was back in training at Tynecastle!

Wallace was back in the team when the clubs next met on the opening day of the next season, Saturday, 11 August 1962, a new era for Celtic commencing as Billy McNeill skippered the Hoops for the first time whilst a teenage Bobby Murdoch made his debut, allegedly after John Divers had turned up at the ground without his football boots! Bobby headed Celts in front in the 7th minute, Charlie Gallagher and John Hughes also on target as the Hoops claimed a 3-1 win in the initial League Cup sectional match. The two Dundee clubs made up a tough group, the men from Dens Park being the newly-crowned Scottish champions.

Willie would take his revenge on Celtic two weeks later at Tynecastle, scoring twice either side of the break, the second from the penalty spot, to give Hearts a 3-0 lead, enough to secure the two points, despite second-half strikes from Bobby Murdoch and John Hughes.

The Gorgie men would finish one point ahead of Celtic to win the section and would then eliminate Morton and St Johnstone to return to Hampden for a second successive League Cup final. On Saturday, 27 October 1962, the 22-year-old Willie Wallace was back in his old right-wing slot for the match against Willie Waddell’s Kilmarnock at Hampden, in front of 51,000 spectators, the majority wearing the maroon of Hearts. They would not be disappointed.

The only goal of the final was scored just before the half-hour by Tynecastle centre-forward Norrie Davidson. There was a huge scare right on the full-time whistle when Frank Beattie appeared to have levelled things for Killie, the goal surprisingly ruled out for an infringement. Seconds later it was all over, and Willie had his first medal in senior football.

It would not be his last.

With a League Cup-winners medal in his pocket, Hearts striker Willie Wallace set about adding more honours to his collection. Celtic would prevent a potential Tynecastle cup double in that 1962/63 season by knocking the Gorgie men out of the Scottish Cup on Wednesday, 6 March 1963, despite Willie opening the scoring at Parkhead in the 10th minute, goals from Bobby Murdoch, John McNamee and John Hughes seeing the Celts through 3-1 on the night. Hearts would finish the League season one point behind fourth-place Celtic.

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The following season, the Bhoys would finish ahead of the Tynecastle men in third spot only on goal average, both clubs with identical records as Rangers and Kilmarnock again grabbed the top two places. However, the 1964/65 campaign would see another personal career landmark for Willie achieved in the autumn, before we witnessed an incredible finish to the season with Celtic and Hearts right at the centre of the action.

Another ridiculously difficult League Cup section had saw Celtic edge out Kilmarnock, Hearts and Partick Thistle to go all the way to the final, where two goals from Garngad man Jim Forrest would see the Hoops lose 2-1 to Rangers, despite a Hampden goal from teenage wing sensation Jimmy Johnstone. Ronnie Simpson had joined Celtic from Jock Stein’s Hibernian in September, as the pieces continued to fit into place for that glorious night in Lisbon in 1967.

On Wednesday, 25 November 1964, Hearts’ Willie Wallace made his full international debut for Scotland, in a Home International match against the Six Counties at Hampden. He would be in both excellent and familiar company in front of 49,000 spectators. At full-back was his old sparring partner from youth football, Alex Hamilton, now of Dundee, whilst his former Raith Rovers teammate Jim Baxter, one month before his leg-break in Vienna, captained the Scots. The great Denis Law was in there, with his Old Trafford colleague George Best lining up for the Irish, who also included goalkeeper Pat Jennings and were managed by former Celtic captain, Bertie Peacock. The only current Celt on view was left-back, Jim Kennedy, earning his sixth international cap.

The full Scotland line-up for Willie’s debut was as follows:

Campbell Forsyth (Kilmarnock)

Alex Hamilton (Dundee)
Jim Kennedy (Celtic)

John Greig (Rangers)
Jackie McGrory (Kilmarnock)
Frank McLintock (Arsenal)

Willie Wallace (Hearts)
Denis Law (Manchester United)
Alan Gilzean (Dundee)
Jim Baxter (Rangers)
Davie Wilson (Rangers)

All five goals were scored in the first half-hour, Best and Willie Irvine for Northern Ireland whilst Alan Gilzean and a Davie Wilson double made it a winning debut for Willie Wallace with Scotland.

Willie led the attack for League-leaders Hearts at Celtic Park on Saturday, 16 January 1965, a second Hoops debut for Bertie auld, re-signed two days earlier from Birmingham City. The Gorgie men would win 2-1 despite an equaliser from Tommy Gemmell, one of five men in the Bhoys side who would feature with Willie in Lisbon a little over two years later. That completed a league double over Celtic for Hearts, Wallace having been on the scoresheet at Tynecastle in September 1964, in a 4-2 victory over a Celtic side which had featured full-back Ian Young at centre-half and winger Tommy Curley making his only appearance in the Hoops. Celtic’s goals that day had been scored by Bobby Murdoch – again – and Bobby Lennox.

That had been a much-needed boost for Hearts, who had approached Christmas unbeaten in the League before three defeats in four games over the festive period allowed the pack to close in on the leaders. An ultimately disastrous 3-1 defeat by Kilmarnock at Rugby Park was followed by two losses in 24 hours as the bells brought 1965 in, a 1-0 loss to Jock Stein’s Hibernian in the Ne-erday derby at Tynecastle followed by a 3-2 reverse at Dunfermline’s East End Park the next day.

A second Hearts hiccup duly followed, as January turned to February, a 2-1 defeat at Love Street followed by a 1-1 draw at Ibrox then a calamitous 7-1 home mauling by Dundee, with both Andy Penman and Kenny Cameron grabbing Tynecastle hat-tricks, the final ignominy being that Hearts only goal that afternoon came from a late Alan Cousin own goal at 0-7.

To their immense credit, the Gorgie men fought back, a fine 3-0 victory at Pittodrie on the penultimate Saturday meaning that only a 2-0 defeat or worse in the final match at home to second-place Kilmarnock could prevent the title heading to Tynecastle. Sadly for Willie, that is exactly what happened, as Willie Waddell’s men clinched their only Scottish championship in the manager’s last game before moving into journalism. He would later resurface at Ibrox.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Saturday, 24 April 1965, forty miles to the west over 108,000 supporters were packed into Hampden to witness the beginning of a dynasty, as Jock Stein’s Celtic won the first of what would be numerous major honours in that glorious era in our history, a Bertie Auld double and a late, flashing header from captain Billy McNeill enough to see off Dunfermline Athletic 3-2, thus gaining some consolation for the defeat in the final four years earlier, when Jock had been in charge of the Pars.

Willie’s next appearance for Hearts against Celtic would be more memorable for myself than him, as I believe this was my first Celtic match. That took place on Saturday, 9 October 1965, and a Celtic side featuring seven Lisbon starters plus Ian Young, Charlie Gallagher, Joe McBride and John Hughes were 5-0 up against the Edinburgh side before two late Alan Gordon goals brought some semblance of respect to the scoreline at 5-2.

There would be revenge taken at Tynecastle on Saturday, 29 January 1966. This was the infamous occasion when Celtic arrived from Georgia around 11pm the previous evening, having endured a horrendous journey from Tbilisi, where they had eliminated Dinamo Kiev from the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in midweek, heading straight to Celtic Park for a midnight training session. Almost 46,000 spectators packed into the Gorgie Road stadium the next afternoon to see Hearts hotshot Willie Wallace score twice in a 3-2 victory for the hosts.

The sides would be paired together again in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup. Just a matter of weeks later, again at Tynecastle. Another 45,000 tickets were sold for this one played on Saturday, 5 March 1966, with many more allegedly gaining entry to the extent that the players were taken from the field early following an overspill of supporters on to the pitch.

When the game resumed after 10 minutes, Willie Wallace headed the hosts in front midway through the first half, the first of three goals in three mad minutes. Seconds later, Bertie Auld beat the offside trap to chip Celts level, only to look on in horror as Ronnie Simpson fumbled a corner-kick and Anderson headed Hearts ahead again. Three minutes into the second half, it was the turn of his opposite number to hold his head, as Jim Cruickshank allowed a low Joe McBride drive from outside the box squirm from his grasp for 2-2, the cue for another field invasion.

Six minutes later, Celts were in front, Steve Chalmers following up after keeper Cruickshank had blocked a close-range Jimmy Johnstone shot, to knock the ball home. With the clock running down, Hearts grabbed an equaliser, Wallace’s cross found its way to the far post where Johnnie Hamilton fired past Simpson for 3-3.

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Such was the interest that over 72,000 rolled up to Celtic Park four nights later, a record at that time for a midweek fixture, with the kick-off delayed to allow the fans entry. The Hoops support in that crowd would lap it up as Celts raced into a 3-0 lead through Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Murdoch (how often did he score against Hearts?) and Stevie Chalmers. With seven minutes remaining, Willie Wallace added yet another goal to his growing collection against Celtic, Simpson again badly at fault, however, the Bhoys progressed comfortably to the semi-final by 3-1, the two games watched by a combined attendance of almost 120,000 supporters.

Within a few weeks, Willie would be lining up alongside several Celts for the biggest match of his career to date, the Home International against England at Hampden in front of 123,000.

The Scotland team who took to the field for Willie’s second international cap on Saturday, 2 April 1966, lined up as follows:

Bobby Ferguson (Kilmarnock)

John Greig © (Rangers)
Tommy Gemmell (Celtic)

Bobby Murdoch (Celtic)
Ron McKinnon (Celtic)
Jim Baxter (Sunderland)

Jimmy Johnstone (Celtic)
Willie Wallace (Hearts)
Denis Law (Manchester United)
Billy Bremner (Leeds United)
Willie Johnston (Rangers)

Scotland would find themselves constantly chasing their tail in the game which marked Tommy Gemmell’s first appearance for his country, after falling two goals behind to Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt within the half-hour. A trademark head-flick from Denis Law brought the Scots back into the tie before the interval, only for Hunt to add his second and England’s third two minutes into the second period. We then had the wonderful sight of Jimmy Johnstone darting in to score his first goals in Scotland navy, however, sandwiched between those was a special from Bobby Charlton, as England prepared for their own magical summer by winning 4-3.

Ten days after that momentous occasion came another one, this time off the field as baby Lynn joined the happy Wallace clan.

Daddy Wallace would make his third start for Scotland before that 1965/66 season was out, turning out in a friendly against the Netherlands on Wednesday, 11 May 1966 in front of a rather smaller Hampden crowd of 17,000. The Dutch team that evening featured two players who Willie Wallace would come up against in the next decade whilst wearing different colours, goalkeeper Eddy Pieters Graafland of Feyenoord and the great Pete Keizer of Ajax.

So Willie is scoring regularly for his club and is now making his name as an international player.

There are rumours of interest from clubs in England, with Newcastle United and Stoke City listed as possible suitors amidst talk of a record transfer fee in the region of £80,000 involved.

And most importantly, he has a new baby girl for he and Olive to enjoy.

Life couldn’t get much better as season 1966/67 loomed on the horizon.

Could it?

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The beginning of season 1966/67 was a period of uncertainty for Hearts striker Willie Wallace. Having finished the leading goalscorer at Tynecastle since his arrival from Raith Rovers back in 1961, his requests for an increase from his original deal were continuing to fall on deaf ears. It is difficult to argue that his stock was anything but rising, however, in those days the power most certainly lay with the club, the Gorgie board refusing to budge, if you pardon the pun.

In addition to the three full international caps gained for Scotland whilst with Hearts, Willie had also been picked twice for the Scottish League select in that period. Those Inter-league matches were a big deal at that time, the clashes against the English, in particular, taken very seriously by all of the players involved. His first appearance at that level had been back on Wednesday, 8 September 1965, a 6-2 victory over the Irish League at Ibrox, Willie scoring twice in the first half to add to Andy Penman’s opener to put the Scots 3-0 by the 20th minute. Willie Henderson would later grab his own brace with John Hughes scoring from the spot.

Despite those goals, I would suggest that it was Willie’s second appearance for the Scottish League which would prove more significant in terms of his later career. The opposition on this occasion would be a huge step up in class, as the superstars from the English League awaited the Scots at St James Park, Newcastle, before 33,000 screaming Geordies, on Wednesday, 16 March 1966. The hosts included many of the men who would win the World Cup at Wembley within a few short months, local favourites the Charlton brothers, Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles, together with the wonderful Jimmy Greaves, at that time the best striker in the country.

The Scottish forward line included Celtic wingers Jimmy Johnstone and John Hughes and Dundee’s Andy Penman, whilst Willie would partner another Parkhead favourite for the first time, centre-forward Joe McBride.

Greaves would open the scoring before half an hour had been played, a lead the English held until the interval. However, it would be all change after the break. Within a minute of the restart, Penman had equalised, with McBride then adding a double before the hour to seal a tremendous 3-1 victory for the Scottish League. I often wonder if a certain Jock Stein was an interested observer, as Wallace and McBride tormented the best defenders that the highly-regarded English League could muster. Watch this space.

McBride was on fire again as the 1966/67 season opened with another League Cup sectional match between Hearts and Celtic, this time on Saturday, 13 August 1966 at Tynecastle. Seven days earlier, Jock Stein’s new League Champions had destroyed a full-strength Manchester United side by 4-1 at Celtic Park as the new Jungle was opened for business. They would continue to blow teams away for the foreseeable future, Joe McBride’s double in Edinburgh sealing a 2-0 victory as the competitive season got underway.

Fourteen goals were then scored in two home matches against the other sides in the group, Clyde and St Mirren, followed by a Bobby Lennox hat-trick at Ibrox as Rangers were humbled 4-0 in the Glasgow Cup before 77,000 spectators. Next up was Hearts, three days later, Joe repeating the medicine with another brace, either side of a Stevie Chalmers strike as Celtic eased home 3-0. And, quite incredibly, Joe McBride would score twice against Hearts for the third time that season, as Stein’s unbeaten team again won by 3-0 in the first League fixture between the clubs, played at Celtic Park on Saturday, 26 November 1966.

That would be Willie Wallace’s last appearance for Hearts against Celtic, and seven days later, he unwittingly wore the famous maroon jersey for the final time, in a 1-1 draw with Partick Thistle at Firhill, strike partner Alan Gordon rescuing a point after Tommy Rae’s early opener. The following Tuesday, he was contacted at home by Hearts manager John Harvey, enquiring if he would be interested in a move to Parkhead. Following some interesting negotiations at Celtic Park that evening, Tuesday, 6 December 1966, Willie Wallace became a Celtic player.

His Tynecastle record had been highly impressive. In terms of competitive matches, Willie had scored 131 goals in 248 appearances. That tally included five hat-tricks plus another game in which he had went one better with four goals. He would be a tough act to follow for Hearts.

Twenty-four hours after signing for Celtic, Willie Wallace would watch his new club claim a place in the quarter-final of the European Cup by repeating their 3-1 first-leg victory over French champions Nantes at Parkhead. He would then make his debut on the same pitch three days later, Saturday, 10 December 1966, partnering his old friend Stevie Chalmers for the visit of Motherwell in front of 40,000 spectators.

Chalmers would grab the accolades on the day with a hat-trick, with Bobby Murdoch adding another for a 4-0 win. And there was another curious twist in the never-ending weave of Celtic connections, as the Steelmen’s own centre-forward, John ‘Dixie’ Deans, was ordered off for a bad challenge on Jimmy Johnstone. The two men would later become teammates and great friends, whilst Dixie would feature in the Willie Wallace story in the autumn of 1971. More to follow on that one.

The following Saturday, 17 December 1966, saw Willie score his first goal for Celtic, and his second, as the Hoops destroyed Partick Thistle by 6-2 at Parkhead. The frightening firepower now available to Jock Stein is best illustrated by a front four of Stevie Chalmers, Willie Wallace, Joe McBride and Bobby Lennox, with Jimmy Johnstone a not-too-shabby option to come on from the bench. Chalmers also grabbed a brace on the day whilst Bobby Murdoch and McBride were on target, as was a young Arthur Duncan for the visitors.

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The Christmas Eve visit to Pittodrie which followed would prove significant for Willie’s new strike partner, Joe McBride. Jock Stein had returned from a midweek visit to Madrid to watch Atletico lose a two-goal lead and the plot to exit the European Cup following a 3-2 play-off defeat by Yugoslav champions, Vojvodina Novi Sad, despite the visitors finishing the match with just nine men.

The Serbs would now be Celtic’s opponents in the March quarter-final. In the match with Aberdeen, Bobby Lennox would give Celts the lead before former Rangers and Dunfermline winger Harry Melrose equalised for the Dons, as the match ended 1-1. This would ultimately be the end of Joe McBride’s season, Scotland’s top goalscorer, with 38 goals from 29 games, injured in training shortly afterwards and failing to recover by the end of that incredible campaign. He would never enjoy that level of scoring record again in his career.

The calendar year then ended on another negative note, as Celtic’s unbeaten record, which had stretched from the beginning of the season, was blown away in three manic minutes at Tannadice. Celts had led 1-0 then 2-1, Bobby Lennox then Willie Wallace setting the Bhoys up for the two points, however, late goals from Denis Gillespie and Ian Mitchell consigned the visitors to a first domestic defeat of the season, on their 27th outing. This longstanding record was only beaten by Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic Invincibles in January 2017, some 50 years later.

There was a significant milestone on Saturday, 14 January 1967, Willie Wallace’s seventh game for his new club, as Jock Stein named the following line-up for the League game against St Johnstone at Muirton Park, Perth:

Ronnie Simpson; Jim Craig & Tommy Gemmell; Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeill & John Clark; Jimmy Johnstone, Willie Wallace, Stevie Chalmers, Bertie Auld & Bobby Lennox.

Charlie Gallagher was an unused substitute.

This is the first occasion when the eleven Lions of Lisbon would start together for Celtic. Jimmy Johnstone opened the scoring just after the hour mark, then doubled Celtic’s lead six minutes later. Two late strikes from Stevie Chalmers and Bobby Lennox finished the scoring at 4-0.

With his registration for European football not completed ahead of the deadline for the last eight stage, Willie would have to watch from the sidelines as Celtic took on Vojvodina for the right to progress to the semi-final of the Champions Cup. The match in Novi Sad on the evening of Wednesday, 1 March 1967, saw Celts slip to only their second defeat of the season, Stanic scoring the only goal of the game following a mistake from Tommy Gemmell with 20 minutes remaining.

The return in Glasgow seven nights later is regarded as one of the all-time classic European ties at Celtic Park. As the match headed towards a Rotterdam play-off, Steve Chalmers goal on the hour levelling the tie, Billy McNeill’s soaring last-gasp header from Charlie Gallagher’s corner raised the roof from the old stadium as the dream remained alive for the 70,000 souls lucky enough to be in attendance.

Two days later, the draw paired Celtic with Czech champions, Dukla Prague in the semi-final. The Czech Army side had knocked out Ajax in the previous round, the Dutch having humiliated English champions Liverpool in round two, Shankly’s men beaten 5-1 in Amsterdam then requiring an injury-time equaliser to avoid defeat at Anfield. This would be a tough ask.

The semi-final first leg would take place on Wednesday, 12 April 1967, meaning that Willie Wallace’s first European game for Celtic would take place on his daughter Lynn’s first birthday. Who writes these scripts? Anyway, proud dad Willie celebrated the way he knows best, his two second-half goals giving Celts a 3-1 lead to take to Prague the following week, after Jimmy Johnstone’s opener had been cancelled by Strunc on the stroke of half time.

The following morning, Willie Wallace’s dream season continued, as he replaced the injured Jimmy Johnstone for that weekend’s Scotland’s match against the Auld Enemy at Wembley Stadium, additional spice added, as if any were required, by the fact that England had remained unbeaten since becoming World Champions at the same venue the previous July. Willie had assumed that he would be joining the Scotland party as a reserve, only to be stunned as new manager Bobby Brown named him as a direct swap for Jinky in his old right-wing berth, a role he had not carried out for several years. This would be Wallace’s fourth full international cap, and his first as a Celt.

The Scotland team tasked with ending England’s undefeated run on Saturday, 15 April 1967, lined up as follows:

Ronnie Simpson (Celtic)

Tommy Gemmell (Celtic)

Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea)

John Greig (Rangers)

Ron McKinnon (Rangers)

Billy Bremner (Leeds United)

Willie Wallace (Celtic)

Denis Law (Manchester United)

Jim McCalliog (Sheffield Wednesday)

Jim Baxter (Sunderland)

Bobby Lennox (Celtic)

Ronnie Simpson at 36 years-old that day became the youngest-ever Scotland debutant, with Gorbals-boy Jim McCalliog, 16 years his junior, the other player making his first appearance for his country. England fielded their World Cup-winning team with only one change, which hardly weakened them, Jimmy Greaves replacing Roger Hunt in the white number eight shirt.

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It would indeed be a wonderful afternoon for Willie and his Scotland teammates, Denis Law giving Scotland the lead midway through the first half, after Gordon Banks had parried Wallace’s shot in front of the lethal hitman. The score remained at 1-0 until 12 minutes from time before Bobby Lennox added a second for the visitors. With six minutes remaining, makeshift striker Jack Charlton pulled a goal back for England, only for Wallace to play in McCalliog for a dream debut goal. Geoff Hurst made it 3-2 just before the end, however, seconds later, we had beaten the world champions. The afternoon is best summed up by the Scotland players, with Jim Baxter to the fore, toying with the home team on their sacred turf.

In midweek, Jock fielded the Lisbon Lions starting eleven for the second time for the League match with Aberdeen at Parkhead, a dress rehearsal for the Scottish Cup Final just ten days later. The Dons fielded a familiar face from Willie’s past at centre-forward, his old friend from their teenage days in Kirkintilloch with Kelvinside Thistle then Kilsyth Rangers, Jim Storrie.

Storrie had made his name in the late 1950’s as a high-scoring striker with Airdrieonians, prompting Leeds United manager Don Revie to bring him down to Yorkshire in 1962. He would win promotion to the English First Division with Leeds at the end of the 1963/64 season, then march all the way to Wembley for the following season’s FA Cup final, the Peacocks captained by former Celt Bobby Collins and featuring Billy Bremner, finally beaten by an extra-time goal from another Scot, the wonderfully-named John St John (known as Ian), after Bremner had equalised Hunt’s 93rd-minute opener. Storrie would then join Eddie Turnbull at Aberdeen in February 1967, before finding himself in that season’s Scottish showpiece against Celtic.

The conditions at Parkhead on the night of Wednesday, 19 April 1967 were hardly conducive to good football, high winds on a sodden pitch, so perhaps it was no surprise that the match ended goalless, as Jock Stein’s men edged another point closer to retaining their League title.

Six days later, Celts were in European Cup action again, facing Dukla in Prague, defending the two-goal lead given to them by Willie Wallace a fortnight earlier. Jock again named the Lions line-up albeit in a different formation. Stevie Chalmers would play as a lone striker with five players strung out across the midfield.

Willie was given the specific task of marking former European Footballer of the Year Josef Masopust out of the game, something the Czech master did not appreciate, as witnessed by the face slap handed to Willie at the end of the 0-0 draw which confirmed Celtic’s place in the final of the European Cup. In fairness, Masopust would later apologise to Wallace before handing him his match jersey in the dressing-room afterwards, as this season of seasons continued to reach new heights for the 26-year-old Celt.

The following Saturday, 29 April 1967, marked another red-letter day in the Wallace calendar, as he rolled up to Hampden with 126,000 others for his first Scottish Cup final experience. Celtic’s opponents were Aberdeen, allowing Willie a quick chat and wind-up with his old pal Jim Storrie before the game.

The two clubs had met twice previously in this showpiece, both matches bringing their own slice of history. In 1937, Hampden had witnessed what remains the largest crowd ever assembled for a club fixture in Europe, 147,365, as Celts won 2-1 in what was the Dons first cup final, Aberdeen at that time playing in gold-and-black vertical striped jerseys.

On that same day, 24 April, 17 years later, Jock Stein had captained the Bhoys to their first League and Cup double for 40 years, since the time of Maley, with an identical scoreline, Sean Fallon grabbing the winner that afternoon in front of a miserly crowd of only 130,000! Both Stein and Fallon would poignantly be in the Celtic dugout on that afternoon in April 1967.

Aberdeen’s cup final day had got off to the worst of starts, with manager Eddie Turnbull confined to bed in his Gleneagles hotel with a stomach ailment, and largely thanks to Willie Wallace, it would not improve as the afternoon wore on. The striker struck two opportunist goals either side of the interval to win the Scottish Cup for Celtic, completing a cup double for the club and himself, following his League Cup success with Hearts against Kilmarnock back in 1962.

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There was then the opportunity for both player and club to complete the domestic treble in midweek, as Celts welcomed Dundee United to Parkhead for a rearranged League fixture on Wednesday, 3 May 1967. With the Hoops requiring just a single point to retain their Championship crown, there was a carnival atmosphere in the east end, as the majority of the 44,000 supporters turned up for the party.

Dundee United had been the only team to beat Celts domestically that season and had added another huge scalp with their home and away victories over Inter-Cities Fairs Cup-holders, Barcelona. There are times when football just defies logic and tonight would be another of those. As in the Hogmanay game at Tannadice, Celtic would lead 1-0 and 2-1, this time with goals from Tommy Gemmell and Willie Wallace, before two late United goals produced the same 3-2 outcome. There would be no point and no title party for Celtic that evening.

Both would follow three days later, as Celtic travelled to Ibrox needing a draw for the flag. On a miserable day, 78,000 supporters made their way to Govan, including James Bond and our arch-villain, Inter Milan boss Helenio Herrera, whose side awaited the Hoops in the European Cup final, due to be held in Lisbon later that month. Having made two changes from the Cup Final team against Dundee United, Jock reverted to the Lions eleven once again, the fifth outing for this band of very special brothers.

Four minutes before the interval, Sandy Jardine broke with script, lashing the ball past Ronnie Simpson from the edge of the box, however, within seconds, Jimmy Johnstone had equalised, following up after the ball had come back off the post to force it home. With 16 minutes to play, the little genius won the title for Celts with a truly iconic goal, weaving in from the right touchline before exploding a shot high past Norrie Martin in the Rangers goal with his standing foot. It was a goal fit to win any game and the memory of the ball coming back out of the net to stick in the mud will live with me forever. The Ibrox side now required two goals to stop the party. They would get one from Roger Hynd late on, however, as the final whistle blew, Celtic’s first-ever Treble had been secured at Ibrox.

Four nights later, Willie found himself on the bench for the first time as an international player as Scotland took on the USSR in a friendly match at Hampden, Wallace one of an unprecedented seven Celtic players in the twelve who would take the field. One of those, Tommy Gemmell, had the misfortune to open the scoring at the wrong end in the 17th minute, the Soviets than making 2-0 just before the interval, as Medvid beat Ronnie Simpson.

Wallace would replace the great Denis Law at half-time, however, try as he might, neither he nor any of the other Scottish forwards, Jimmy Johnstone, Jim McCalliog or Bobby Lennox, could find a way past the wonderful Lev Yashin in the USSR goal, as Willie’s fifth full cap ended in a disappointing defeat. Billy McNeill and John Clark had been the other two Celts to start at Hampden that evening.

There would be one more domestic game before Lisbon, a Monday night home fixture with Kilmarnock on 15 May 1967, to complete the League programme. An unusual-looking Celtic team, featuring Billy McNeill in number eight shorts, would win 2-0, Bobby Lennox and Willie Wallace on target for the green-clad Bhoys, the latter’s 21st goal in just 29 games for Celts. As an aside, Gerry Queen played in the Kilmarnock team that night. He will feature in Willie’s career summary later.

Ten days later, it was the big one. The biggest of them all.

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On Thursday, 25 May 1967, Jock Stein fielded the eleven Lions together for the sixth and most poignant time, in Lisbon’s Estadio Nacional to face Internazionale of Milan in the European Cup final. The experience of the two clubs at that level could hardly have been more different. Inter had been European and World Champions in two of the three previous years, and had already eliminated the holders, Real Madrid, from this season’s competition, beating them home and away in the quarter-final. By contrast, underdogs Celtic were competing in the major European club tournament for the first time.

But football is football.

That evening in Portugal is the stuff of legend, as Celtic produced perhaps the best attacking performance ever seen at that level, coming back from the loss of an early penalty to blow Inter off the park, the match finishing 2-1 following goals from Tommy Gemmell and Stevie Chalmers in the last half hour. In truth, the score could have been anything, Willie Wallace particularly aggrieved after a blatant foul on him by the incredible Italian goalkeeper Sarti went unpunished! As the fans flocked over the moat and onto the pitch at the end, the incredible truth could be realised…

…Celtic are the champions of Europe.

So let’s walk through the Willie Wallace checklist for season 1966/67…

Signed for Celtic Check
Scored a double in your European debut for the club Check
Played in a winning Scotland team at Wembley Check
Scored a double in your first cup final for the club Check
Won your first Scottish Cup Check
Won your first Scottish League championship title Check
Won the European Cup Check

Not bad, Willie.

If only you’d played in a winning side against Real Madrid in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

Thirteen days after the glory of Lisbon, Celtic travelled to the cathedral of football to take on six-time European champions Real Madrid in a challenge match in honour of the now-retired Alfredo Di Stefano, regarded by many as the finest footballer of all-time. The 1966 European champions were keen to put the new upstarts in their place, however, just as with Inter Milan, they would find this fearless group of fabulous footballers too hot to handle.

Jock had left several of his European Cup-winning side out of the starting eleven. It made little difference as their replacements slotted into their roles perfectly, Celts dominating proceedings against the old masters with a swagger and arrogance which would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier. Long before the second half was through, the Real defenders were refusing to challenge and be embarrassed yet again by the peerless Jimmy Johnstone, his incredible display topped off as he set up the winner for his pal, Bobby Lennox. As the final whistle blew, 120,000 Spaniards rose to applaud the red-haired genius, standing centre-stage with the ball raised in one hand above his head. If Carlsberg did football images…

Beat Real Madrid in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu Check.

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August 1967 marked the beginning of Willie Wallace’s first full season in the hoops of Celtic. The striker marked it appropriately on the evening of Tuesday 22nd with his first hat-trick for the club, debutant Pat McMahon from Willie’s old stomping ground in Kilsyth notching the other two goals as Celts beat Partick Thistle 5-0 in the first round of the Glasgow Cup.

Full-back Chris Shevlane had also made his first appearance for the Bhoys that evening, having been a teammate of Wallace’s at Tynecastle for several years before that. Shevlane would eventually move back to Edinburgh to sign for Hearts big rivals, joining Hibernian in May 1968.

Another extremely tough League Cup section saw Celts in with Rangers, beaten Cup-finalists Aberdeen and Dundee United, who had inflicted two of the team’s only three defeats in the whole of the previous season, the 1-0 loss in Novi Sad making up that set.

The Tannadice side would be dispatched home and away by that same 1-0 scoreline this time around, with a draw at Ibrox the only point dropped in the six fixtures. The key moment in the qualifying phase came at Celtic Park on Wednesday, 30 August 1967. Rangers were leading by an early Willie Henderson strike with 15 minutes remaining, when the same player went down following a challenge from John Clark.

Referee Tom ‘Tiny’ Wharton pointed to the spot and up stepped Kai Johansen to win the match and the group for the Ibrox side. Rangers’ Danish full-back had scored the late winner which had won the Scottish Cup Final replay the previous spring, his shot flashing past Ronnie Simpson after a goalless draw on the Saturday, however, this would not be his night.

His spot-kick rebounded from Simpson’s crossbar back to him, and as 75,000 supporters collectively held their breath, instinctively the Dane played the ball a second time, so giving away an indirect free-kick. Celtic raced up the pitch and Willie Wallace compounded Johansen’s error by equalising for the Bhoys. The Hoops then stepped up another gear to add further goals from Bobby Murdoch and Bobby Lennox, to win 3-1 and thus take the section.

September would contain both highs and lows for Celtic, Willie netting a double against South American outfit Penarol at Celtic Park on the first Tuesday, to give the Hoops a 2-0 win in front of 56,000 spectators. The Uruguayans had won the Copa Libertadores, then succeeded Inter Milan as World Club Champions in 1966, beating their European equivalents, Real Madrid, in both legs by the same 2-0 scoreline.

Just the week before the game in Glasgow, their South American crown had passed to Argentina’s Racing Club de Avellaneda, following a play-off victory over Penarol’s main rivals Nacional in Santiago. Both Penarol and Nacional were based in the capital city, Montevideo. Celts would face Racing Club imminently and Montevideo would, unfortunately, become very relevant. More, or perhaps less, on that to follow shortly.

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On Wednesday, 20 September 1967, Celtic’s defence of their own European title commenced with the visit of Russian champions Dynamo Kiev to Glasgow. Celts had eliminated Kiev from the European Cup-Winners’ Cup the previous January – you may recall the infamous midnight Friday training session ahead of the following day’s clash with Willie Wallace’s Hearts at Tynecastle – and were favourites to do so again. The omens were good, Jock naming the Lions for the seventh time and the referee being Kurt Tschenscher of West Germany, as in Lisbon.

It would be clear early on that tonight would be different gravy, goalscoring hero Tommy Gemmell stumbling to allow Pusach to stun the champions within four minutes, that lead doubled by the half-hour by Bychevetz, following a rare mistake by captain Billy McNeill. Bobby Lennox would restore some hope of an unlikely Hoops comeback, by pulling a goal back on the hour, however, the Russians would eventually hold out to inflict a first-ever home defeat in European competition for Celtic. This was most definitely not in the script.

The return leg will mainly be remembered for a catalogue of controversial decisions from the Italian referee, Antonio Sbardella. On the hour, he took great umbrage at Bobby Murdoch’s reaction to the award of an innocuous free-kick against him, issuing the midfielder with a second caution before ordering him from the field.

Despite that setback, Lennox again came to Celtic’s rescue, netting at the far post from a near-impossible angle within minutes of Murdoch’s dismissal. And when John Hughes appeared to score a vital second away goal soon afterwards, after a howler from Russian keeper Bannikov, all Celts efforts looked to have paid off.

Incredibly, Sbardella blew up for a non-existent infringement. In the dying seconds, that man Bychevetz again found the target, the cup-holders sent tumbling out at the first hurdle.

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On Wednesday, 18 October 1967, the now-deposed champions of Europe began their quest for a world club title by facing Racing Club before 91,000 spectators at Hampden, the venue changed from Celtic Park to allow the huge crowd entry. In a tousy, bad-tempered match, Billy McNeill would grab the only goal with a towering header with 20 minutes remaining.

The next day, Willie Wallace travelled with the Scotland party for the European Championship qualifier in Belfast. The annual Home International tournaments of 1966/67 and 1967/68 had been ‘doubled up’ to serve as a qualification group for the finals to be held in Italy in the summer of 1968. The wonderful 3-2 win secured at Wembley in April 1967 had put Scotland in pole position to win the section, with both Wales and England still to come to Hampden.

There were 55,000 noisy spectators packed into Windsor Park on the afternoon of Saturday, 21 October 1967, to watch the following Scotland side take the field for Willie’s sixth full cap.

Ronnie Simpson (Celtic)
Tommy Gemmell (Celtic)
Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea)
John Greig  (Rangers)
Ron McKinnon (Rangers)
Ian Ure (Arsenal)
Willie Wallace (Celtic)
Bobby Murdoch (Celtic)
Jim McCalliog (Sheffield Wednesday)
Denis Law (Manchester United)
Willie Morgan (Burnley)

Although Ronnie Simpson would receive some plaudits for saving a Johnny Crossan penalty, that afternoon would belong to George Best, the Irish superstar very much in the mood and running through the Scottish defence at will. The only surprise on the day was that it was Dave Clements of Coventry City who scored the winner rather than George, his drilled finish with 20 minutes remaining the only goal of the game, as the Scots slumped to a costly defeat.

Seven days later, the Celtic contingent were back on the Hampden trail for the season’s first domestic showpiece, Dundee the opposition for the Scottish League Cup final.

John Hughes would replace the suspended Jimmy Johnstone in the only change to the Lisbon line-up, Yogi adding to Steve Chalmers’ early goal to put Celts 2-0 up within 10 minutes in front of 67,000. Former Rangers striker George McLean, an Ibrox casualty from the shock Scottish Cup defeat at Berwick Rangers earlier that year, pulled a goal back for Dundee midway through the first half, the score then remaining at 2-1 until a goal rush in the final 17 minutes of the match.

Chalmers added his own second, before future Dundee United manager Jim McLean struck to make it 3-2 in the 77th minute, Bobby Lennox then immediately restoring Celtic’s two-goal advantage. The Hampden goal spree continued, as George McLean notched his own double for 4-3 before Willie Wallace had the final say, his late strike sealing a third successive League Cup win for Celtic and a second winner’s medal in the competition for his personal collection.

Celts would then immediately head out to South America for the ill-fated clashes with Racing Club, a real low point in our history. Having worked so hard to reach the pinnacle of world club football, it was a crying shame how events would pan out there. Ronnie Simpson would be felled by a missile BEFORE the second leg kicked off in Buenos Aires, on Wednesday, 1 November 1967, Celts losing 2-1 despite taking the lead through a Tommy Gemmell penalty midway through the first half, as the football became secondary to a series of shocking fouls.

With no ‘away goals’ rule in force, it would then all kick-off in the play-off, three days later in neutral Montevideo, with a number of scores being settled throughout a torrid 90 minutes. The Paraguayan referee would send off four players from Celtic and two from Racing Club, although Bertie Auld refused to leave the pitch as, bizarrely, what play there was, continued. Ironically, the only goal of the match was an absolute screamer from Cardenas, which flew past John Fallon into the top corner of the net.

Repercussions would be costly and prolonged.

Whilst Willie had remained on the field throughout all three Racing Club bouts, he was not so fortunate at Celtic Park on Saturday, 2 December 1967. Six minutes from time, he got involved in some ‘handbags’ with Dundee United’s Davie Wilson, the former Rangers winger sinking to the turf after Wallace had raised his hands towards him. To this day, Willie insists that he made no contact whatsoever with the player, albeit recalling with a wry smile that Jock Stein told him that he had deserved to go anyway, for making such a poor attempt at a punch!

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January 1968 saw the Ghost of Scottish Cup past come back to haunt Celtic, as Dunfermline Athletic returned from Glasgow having knocked the holders out of the cup following a 2-0 victory, a degree of revenge for their defeat in the final three years earlier. The Pars would go on to lift the Scottish Cup in April, beating a Hearts side containing many of the players who had been recent colleagues of both Willie Wallace and the Fifers captain, Roy Barry. This would be the second such success for Athletic, having beaten Celtic in 1961 under Jock Stein.

Saturday, 2 March 1968 was a red-letter day for two Celtic players. Captain Billy McNeill was celebrating his 28th birthday, whilst Willie Wallace would score four goals in the Hoops for the first time, as the Bhoys beat Kilmarnock 6-0 at Rugby Park, Bobby Lennox and substitute Jimmy Quinn adding the others. Almost exactly five years earlier, high-flying Killie had dished out that same punishment to a Celtic side giving a teenage Jimmy Johnstone his senior debut.

March would turn out to be an incredible month for Wallace, the striker grabbing 16 goals in that period. This included hat-tricks against Airdrieonians and Raith Rovers at Celtic Park plus a brace in the St Patrick’s weekend friendly with Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park, Dublin. That was the occasion when Jock Stein visited Eamonn de Valera with the European Cup.

Those goals would go a long way towards securing Celtic’s third successive championship, clinched the midweek after Dunfermline Athletic won the Scottish Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Pars, on Wednesday, 30 April 1968, in front of a record crowd of 27,000 at East End Park.

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Willie started the 1968/69 campaign where he had left off, scoring for fun. I remember to this day sitting on an Ayrshire beach listening to the opening League Cup game from Ibrox coming through on the radio, and the thrill and the noise when Willie Wallace scored twice to win the match. Willie would then score all four goals as Partick Thistle were beaten 4-0 the following Saturday, then the winner in the return match with Rangers at Celtic Park, steadying himself after John Hughes had struck the crossbar, before coolly placing the ball past Norrie Martin.

Bobby Lennox would go one better in the final section match at Firhill, on Saturday, 31 August 1968, hitting five as Celts beat Partick Thistle by 6-1, to finish with a 100% record in the group. He would repeat that feat just 11 days later, as Hamilton Academical were demolished 10-0 in the first leg of the quarter-final, whilst, incredibly, his strike partner Stevie Chalmers scored the other five! I cannot think of another example where two players have scored five goals in the same game.

In the return leg at Douglas Park, two weeks later, and with Celtic 2-1 ahead at half-time, Jock Stein introduced 17-year-old Kenny Dalglish for his senior debut, in place of Charlie Gallagher. Kenny would later joke that Stein was clearly not a man for taking chances, waiting until the Hoops were 11 goals ahead before giving him his opportunity! As one Celtic career began, sadly another ended. Charlie Gallagher would not play for the Bhoys again.

That season would come down to a critical period in March and April 1969, Willie notching a hat-trick in the 7-1 mauling of Arbroath at Celtic Park on the first Wednesday in March, before a costly slip by Billy McNeill at the same venue, seven days later, allowed Pierino Prati to score the solitary goal of the European Cup quarter-final for AC Milan, ending hopes of a second success in that competition, Celts having earlier destroyed St Etienne and Red Star Belgrade.

The three domestic trophies were tied up within 21 days in April, commencing with a 6-2 mauling of Hibernian in the delayed League Cup final on Saturday 5th, a fire in the South Stand preventing the game taking place in its usual October slot. Bobby Lennox, having the season of his life, scored a hat-trick in that one, as Celts led 6-0 before easing off towards the end.

A last-minute equaliser from Tommy Gemmell then capped a superb fightback from two goals down at Rugby Park, on Monday, 21 April 1969, earning the Hoops the point required for a fourth successive League title. Five days later, a second treble in three years was secured with a wonderful 4-0 victory over Rangers in the Scottish Cup Final, in front of 133,000 spectators, the impressive Wallace collection thus boosted by another trio of domestic winner’s medals.

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On the international front, there had been three further appearances for Willie in ‘68/69. On Wednesday, 4 September 1968, he had lined up for the Scottish League for the third time, for a match at Dalymount Park against a League of Ireland select.

Unlike the friendly match there with Celtic six months earlier, he would fail to get on the scoresheet that evening as the match ended goalless. On Wednesday, 26 March 1969, Willie did open the scoring at Hampden against the English League, his fifth-minute opener setting the hosts up for a good result. Sadly, the game would get away from the Scots, Frank Casper equalising just before the break before Alan Ball and Bobby Tambling, another who would reappear in Willie’s story, sealed a 3-1 win for the visitors.

England would also be the opponents for Wallace’s final appearance in the navy of Scotland. On the evening of Saturday, 10 May 1969, Willie would replace Alan Gilzean of Tottenham Hotspur just before the hour mark at Wembley, with the Scots trailing 2-1. The hosts would add two further goals as their 1966 heroes Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters both completed their personal doubles at the expense of Scotland and their now-beleaguered manager Bobby Brown. It was a far cry from the same fixture two years earlier, Brown’s first game in the national post, where Willie had been instrumental in a famous Scottish victory.

Season 1969/70 would be a rollercoaster of joy and despair for Celtic. The Hoops would edge another League Cup section including Rangers after both sides had won their home games, the Ibrox side’s dropped point against Willie’s old club, Raith Rovers, proving critical.

Wallace had then received his marching orders for the second time as a Celt, brawling with Dunfermline Athletic’s Willie Renton in a bad-tempered clash at East End Park on Saturday, 6 September 1969, the hosts winning that one 2-1.

Ronnie Simpson then, sadly, became the first of the Lions to cease the wearing of the green, after dislocating his shoulder at Hampden in the replayed League Cup semi-final against Ayr United, on Monday, 13 October 1969, just two days into ‘Faither’s’ 40th year. Willie Wallace would come off the bench to replace the stricken keeper, with Tommy Gemmell taking over in goals as the Hoops won 2-1.

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An early goal from Bertie Auld in the final 12 days later would then be enough to defeat a St Johnstone side playing in its first major cup final, Celts claiming an unprecedented fifth successive triumph in the competition, albeit at the cost of a broken ankle for another Lisbon hero, Stevie Chalmers. That would ultimately prove significant also.

December 1969 had been the most productive month so far that season for Willie in terms of goals, doubles against St Johnstone, Dundee United and Partick Thistle within a fortnight, as the Bhoys scored 22 goals in just four League games, taking his Hoops tally to the magical 100, an excellent and timely way to mark his third anniversary as a Celt.

The League had ultimately been won comfortably, a point at Tynecastle sealing five-in-a-row before March was out, as the gulf between the champions and the others continued to grow. The Celts had looked good for another Treble also, as they faced Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final for the second time in four seasons, reviving happy memories for Willie, his two-goal haul winning the 1967 showpiece to the disappointment of his old pal, Aberdeen’s Jim Storrie.

Sadly, for both Willie and this 9-year-old author attending his first cup final, a combination of Robert Holley Davidson and Derek ‘Cup-tie’ McKay would see Martin Buchan rather than Billy McNeill hold the famous old trophy aloft on Saturday, 11 April 1970, in front of 108,000 fans.

But like the Murphy’s…

Four days later, a Celtic side excluding Willie Wallace beat Leeds United 2-1 at Hampden in front of 136, 505, the largest attendance ever to watch a club match in European competition, to reach a second Champions Cup final in just four seasons.

Whilst Jock Stein had preferred Yogi to Wispy at Hampden, Willie had played his part in Celtic getting there, scoring against both Fiorentina and Benfica at Parkhead, in two nights which are still revered by Hoops supporters of a certain vintage. The Bhoys would now face Dutch champions Feyenoord in the final, the Rotterdam outfit having earlier disposed of cup-holders AC Milan, thus denying the defending champions the opportunity to play the final on their own ground, the San Siro.

The signs were good for Celtic. Like the 1967 campaign, the journey had begun against the Swiss champions, in this case Basel rather than Zurich, they had beaten the Italian champions again and played in Lisbon, albeit requiring the fate of a Dutch guilder to be guessed correctly by Billy McNeill after a torrid night in the Estadio da Luz at the hands of Eusebio and co. And now they would face their destiny at the home ground of Inter Milan. What could go wrong?

Well, pretty much everything as it turned out, in the din of Milan on Wednesday, 6 May 1970.

The omens continued to favour Celts, as Tommy Gemmell repeated his Lisbon trick, a decoy run par excellence by the Italian referee Concetto Lo Bello fooling Eddy Pieters Graafland in the Feyenoord goal to give the Hoops the lead. Graafland and Wallace had faced each other at Hampden in an international friendly back in 1966. Sadly, Eddy passed away in April of this year, just a week short of the Golden Anniversary celebrations in Rotterdam. God bless him.

But as we sat back in front of the television to enjoy the evening, we had misread the script.

Unlike Lisbon, it was Celtic who were the overwhelming favourites, and who would later be accused of underestimating the opposition. Of having won it before we played the game.

With the favourites taking the lead only serving to confirm their so-called superiority, the underdogs immediately struck back, a looping header from Feyenoord skipper Rinus Israel, their Cesar, leaving Evan Williams helpless in the Celtic goal, and suddenly it was game on.

As the match progressed, the Dutch were winning battles on and off the field, the klaxons my abiding memory of that evening. How Celts survived as long as they did will forever remain a mystery to me but survive they did, an old champ bouncing back from the ropes, refusing to go down. Then, in the dying seconds of extra-time, a replay imminent and bringing the chance of redemption, of rewriting our history, there is a slow-motion goal, with defenders falling over and a goalkeeper seconds too late to stop the danger, and a Swedish hitman to curse rather than love, Ove Kindvall flicks the ball over Evan Williams to win the cup for Feyenoord.

In time, perhaps the fantastic achievements of that run will be properly recognised, to beat the clubs we did and beat them the way that we did, albeit that pain will never entirely fade.

But for now, there is only that pain.

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Willie reached a personal landmark during the close-season, turning 30 years-old on 23 June, and two weeks later, Olive presented him with a second daughter, Fiona, born on 9 July 1970.

The new dad would find himself in trouble with officialdom for a third time in his Hoops career after an altercation with Clyde winger Sam Hastings, just before half-time in a League Cup-tie played at Shawfield on Wednesday, 19 August 1970. Celts would progress to the semi-final where they would face an old friend, Charlie Gallagher, having been released from Parkhead in the summer, now turning it on with his new club, last-four opponents Dumbarton.

Willie would feature prominently in the first game, played at Hampden on Wednesday, 7 October 1970, albeit he would probably rather have not, Sons keeper Lawrie Williams making a double save from his extra-time penalty kick as the match ended goalless. The pair would later become friends and teammates, as Willie arrived at Boghead, whilst surplus to requirements Charlie Gallagher, rather ironically, was later named as man-of-the-match. Such is football.

Willie would have a more pleasant role in the replay, five days later, edging Celtic 3-2 ahead in extra-time after Charlie had begun Dumbarton’s fightback from two goals down by scoring from the spot after 65 minutes, Lou Macari’s late strike ultimately proving decisive as Celts marched through to a seventh successive League Cup final later that month. A header from a 16-year-old Derek Johnstone would give Rangers a first trophy in four years and end Celtic’s run of successes at five-in-a-row, a third consecutive cup final defeat for the Hoops after Aberdeen and Feyenoord. There would be a few more defeats in that particular final to follow.

Work to remove the Milan hangover began with landslide victories over Finnish champions KPV Kokkola and Ireland’s Waterford United in the European Cup, with Willie amongst the goals again, scoring twice in Finland then notching a hat-trick at Lansdowne Road in front of 50,000 spectators – his first struck within 20 seconds of the kick-off – before making way for Vic Davidson on the hour mark.

On Tuesday, 9 February 1971, Celts faced the now-world champions Feyenoord at Hampden in a friendly, the match ending 1-1. This was ahead of the upcoming European Cup quarter-final with current Dutch champions, Ajax.

The first leg was played in Amsterdam on Wednesday, 10 March 1971, Wallace coming up against another of the Dutch international side from that friendly at Hampden five years earlier, Piet Keizer. The legendary winger would have the final word that evening, his last-gasp strike making the score 3-0 and surely taking the tie out of Celtic’s reach. Despite a valiant attempt at Hampden two weeks later, Jimmy Johnstone’s solitary counter would see the dream end for another season, Ajax succeeding fierce rivals Feyenoord as European champions, driven by the genius Cruyff.

There would be another domestic double for Celtic to celebrate though, Willie scoring the second Celtic goal at Hampden on Thursday, 29 April 1971, which allowed Jock Stein to emulate Willie Maley by winning six consecutive Scottish League titles.

The home match had been moved there with construction work continuing on the main stand at Celtic Park. Two days later, the ground resembling a building site on one side, the Lisbon Lions took their final bow as a team, for the final League fixture of the season.

The retired Ronnie Simpson joined the other ten Lions down the enclosure steps before handing the gloves to his successor, Evan Williams, who would play against Clyde. On an emotional afternoon, 35,000 supporters gave the immortal Lions a fantastic ovation as they roared one last time, Willie scoring twice, Bobby Lennox grabbing a hat-trick and Stevie Chalmers hitting a sixth as they declared at 6-1.

Bertie Auld would be carried shoulder-high from the field on his last appearance, prior to leaving on a free transfer to join Hibernian. It would transpire to be the final call for John Clark and Stevie Chalmers also, they would both be in the blue-and-white Hoops of Morton in the new season. The times they were a-changing, as the fabulous Bob Dylan once sang.

Perhaps signifying the transition in place at Celtic Park, only five of the Lisbon Lions started the Scottish Cup final against Rangers at Hampden on Saturday, 8 May 1971, Jim Craig and Billy McNeill in defence plus the attacking trio of Jimmy Johnstone, Willie Wallace and Bobby Lennox.

And it was the evergreen Lennox who put Celts ahead just before the interval, in front of 120,000 spectators. They would hold that lead until three minutes from time, when Derek Johnstone once again popped up to put the champagne in ice.

Four nights later, Willie found himself on the bench, young Lou Macari thrust on for his first senior cup appearance, in the only change from Jock Stein’s weekend line-up. Macari would seize his opportunity, opening the scoring with a cute flick from a corner-kick midway through the first half, Harry Hood then cementing Celtic’s name on the cup with a penalty, 60 seconds later, after Jimmy Johnstone, having one of his greatest games in the Hoops, teased Ronnie McKinnon into a rash challenge.

Wallace would replace Hood for the final 15 minutes, after a Jim Craig own goal had allowed the Ibrox men a glimmer of hope, however, the flags would be flying in triumph from the Kings Park end of Hampden at the end of that glorious sunny evening, a wonderful sight I will never forget, whilst watching the highlights later that evening on television in Springburn.

The Parkhead turnaround in personnel would take a further leap with the incredible scoring introduction of the 20-year-old Kenny Dalglish in the Hoops in July 1971. This would have particular implications for two key players in the Stein era, John Hughes and Willie Wallace, who would now find themselves in the final throes of their Parkhead careers. They would be on the periphery as Kenny scored in all three Ibrox victories achieved in a 28-day period, as would Steve Chalmers, who finalised a transfer to Morton after the third of those successes.

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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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On Tuesday, 11 February 1975, Celts continued to throw away points in the quest for ‘The 10’ by losing a two-goal lead at home to a Dumbarton side featuring three former Celts, Donald Watt, John Cushley and Wallace, the equaliser coming from a future Bhoy, Tom McAdam.

And McAdam would be on target again in Willie’s final fling against his old club, set up by the Lisbon Lion to head an equaliser for the Sons of the Rock in the eighth minute of their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie at Boghead on Saturday, 8 March 1975. Ronnie Glavin had opened the scoring for the holders, three minutes earlier, and Paul Wilson would seal a place in the last four on the hour mark. Celts would go on to lift the trophy again in May, as Billy McNeill said goodbye after the most wonderful career in green-and-white. He would be closely followed by Jimmy Johnstone, freed in June 1975, leaving Bobby Lennox as the last Lion standing.

As Cesar was taking his leave from Parkhead, his old colleague Willie Wallace was bidding farewell to Scotland, the family making the life-changing decision to head for Australia, where Willie signed for Sydney-based outfit, APIA Leichhardt, a club formed by the Italian-Australian community. He would enjoy a successful spell there before returning to Scotland in March 1977, where a player-coach role at Highland League club Ross County would bring the curtain down on his on-field career.

Willie then hooked up again with fellow Lion Tommy Gemmell, as the big full-back became the new manager of Dundee in June of that year, Wallace a key part of his coaching team. They would be joined by a third member of that exclusive club, as Jimmy Johnstone had a last throw of the dice as a player, whilst a young Gordon Strachan learned his trade at Dens Park.

The Wallace family would later head back to the sunshine of Australia once again, as Willie took up a coaching role at his old APIA club, setting up in business and for life back in Sydney, where he has remained ever since, barring the regular trips back to Scotland to keep in touch.

There was a lovely moment when Celtic captain Scott Brown went up those famous Hampden steps in May 2017, to receive the Scottish Cup, after an Australian Bhoy, Tom Rogic, had made the dream of that Invincible Treble a reality in the dying seconds of the 2016/17 cup final.

There to greet him, almost 50 years to the day when the European Cup had been won against all the odds, were Lisbon Lions John Clark and Willie Wallace, the latter home to celebrate that Golden Anniversary with his lifelong friends at the Hydro on the previous Thursday, then to watch the latest batch of Celts make their own piece of football history.

The INVINCIBLES meet the IMMORTALS.

I like that.

A Lisbon Lion…and so very much more.

Matt Corr

David Potter’s new book, Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style is featured in the new edition of the Celtic View which is out now and available from the Celtic Stores.  You can also pick up the Willie Fernie book there too or order direct from Celtic Star Books, link below…