On this day in 1958, a Celtic eleven ran down the tunnel at Celtic Park to face Airdrie in a league match.
15,000 fans were there to see the game, the vast majority of whom would have been Hoops fans and they must have been pretty confident that their side would pick up the points, as Celtic were third top on 33 points and Airdrie were third bottom on 18 points.
The Celtic team that day was Beattie, Donnelly, Fallon, Fernie, Evans, Peacock, McVittie, Collins, McPhail, Wilson, Byrne.
Only the previous evening, Matt McVittie had been in the Celtic Reserve team which scored five against Rangers to win the Second Eleven Cup but he showed no tiredness as Celtic took control of the play.
However, the fans had to wait till almost the half-hour mark before they saw a goal.
Alec Byrne got the opener when a cross-cum-shot drifted over the Diamonds keeper. Three minutes later, Bobby Collins volleyed a 20-yarder into the corner to make it 2-0. However, Airdrie pulled one back before the break.
In the second half, Collins got two more, the first a penalty; and Airdrie managed a single encounter to make the final score Celtic 4 Airdrie 2.
It would appear to have been an un-remarkable league match, with nothing exceptional to mark it out as being different from any other one. However, as time by, fans realised that it had been a special match, the last time they would have seen Sean Fallon in the colours of Celtic.
With 254 appearances and 54 goals on his CV, Sean gave his beloved Celtic 100% every time he went on to the field and would go on to have many memorable moments as assistant manager to Jock Stein in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Jim Craig
