The New Year of 1972 was brought in by a 7-0 rout of Clyde at Shawfield before Denis ran out for his first experience of Celtic v Rangers before 70,000 spectators in Glasgow’s east end 48 hours later, on Monday, 3 January 1972.
Just as in the corresponding fixture of 12 months earlier, which had ended in tragedy on the exit stairways, a Jimmy Johnstone header had been cancelled out by a late Colin Stein equaliser and with the match level at 1-1 it looked like the Celts would drop a vital point.
Then Harry Hood’s sublime chip to the far post found the head of the onrushing Jim Brogan and the most unlikely of scorers beat Peter McCloy to set the place alight and give Celtic a first League double over their traditional rivals for six decades.
Football being football, Celtic did drop that point five days later in a 1-1 draw with Morton at Cappielow, the Greenock side featuring former Celts Chris Shevlane and Stevie Chalmers, with a third – John Clark – missing through injury.
The Hoops duly returned to winning ways the following Saturday with a 2-0 home defeat of bottom-dogs Airdrieonians, a 14th consecutive League appearance between the posts for Denis since his arrival at the club. Sadly, that would prove to be his final competitive first-team game of the season, as a back injury sustained in training ruled him out of Celtic’s trip to Perth on Saturday, 22 January 1972.
Evan Williams returned for his first domestic match since THAT League Cup final defeat three months earlier, and he would retain the gloves as Celts clinched a second successive League and Cup double but were agonisingly denied a third European Cup final appearance following a penalty shootout defeat by – of all clubs – old Lisbon foes Inter Milan.
Denis would not feature at all in the victorious Scottish Cup run and remained an unused substitute for the four European ties against Ujpest Dosza and Inter, however, by the end of the season he would at least have a first winner’s medal in senior football as Celtic established a new Scottish record by winning a seventh consecutive League title at Methil in April. He had more than played his part in that historic success.
Denis would then miss out on Celtic’s close-season tour of Bermuda as he underwent surgery on his knee and Evan Williams began the new campaign as Jock Stein’s first-choice keeper, but a 5-3 extra-time defeat to Hibernian in the Drybrough Cup final saw Connaghan recalled for the glamour friendly against Tottenham Hotspur at Celtic Park on Monday, 7 August 1972. He would then retain his place for all six League Cup sectional games as Celts won a low-key group consisting of East Fife, Stirling Albion and Arbroath.
The last of those games – a 3-3 draw with Arbroath on Monday, 28 August 1972 as Celtic wore their ‘Lisbon kit’ for the final time – had been the first of several home matches played at Hampden as remedial work was carried out on the Press Box at Celtic Park. The next of those, an evening kick-off for the opening League game of the campaign against Kilmarnock, saw an opposition goalkeeper who would be a Celt by the end of that campaign, new Scotland No. 1 Ally Hunter. A Harry Hood hat-trick helped get the title defence off to a good start with a 6-2 win despite Hunter’s heroics, but an injury then forced Denis back on to the sidelines, with Evan Williams stepping back in between the sticks.
Injury would curtail Denis’ Celtic career for the rest of that season, with just four domestic appearances plus a further four as an unused substitute in Europe, as Celts beat Norwegian amateurs Rosenborg but lost out in the repeat clash with Hungarian champions Ujpest Dosza on a 4-2 aggregate.
The last of those domestic matches was a 6-1 win at Boghead on the opening Saturday in December, with Pat McCluskey netting his only hat-trick in the Hoops. By the end of January, Denis had a new rival for the gloves, Jock Stein signing Scotland’s top goalkeeper Ally Hunter from Kilmarnock. It would be Ally doing a lap of honour at Easter Road as Celts made it eight titles in succession in late April before losing out to Rangers in a five-goal Scottish Cup final at Hampden seven days later, the last time a six-figure crowd watched club football in Scotland.
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