The Celtic Star’s tribute to Denis Connaghan…
Part 2: A Bhoy’s dream comes true – League and Cup glory for Denis at Celtic
In Part 1 of our tribute to the late Denis Connaghan we looked at his arrival at Celtic Park in the autumn of 1971 to reunite with his old schoolboy teammate Harry Hood, together with the circumstances of a decade earlier which saw Denis win the Scottish Secondary Shield – the Scottish Cup of school’s football – whilst Holyrood’s star striker Harry had to look on from the sidelines, due to his brief spell in junior football with St Roch’s.
Harry would get his hands on the senior trophy three times as a Celt whilst Denis would go on to secure what must be a unique treble of Hampden cup final appearances at different grades of football. The second of those would end in victory as a Celt with his friend Harry for company in the Scottish Cup final of May 1974, before the big keeper finished his career on the losing side as Pollok beat Arthurlie 1-0 in the Scottish Junior Cup final seven years later at the same venue. But much water would flow beneath their respective bridges in the interim.
Harry would be playing First Division football with Clyde as an 18-year-old by the autumn of 1962 whilst Denis was provisionally signed by Jimmy McGrory’s Celtic in May 1963, then farmed out to Yoker Athletic for the season which followed. He did appear in the reserves. Denis recalled playing for the second-string at Celtic Park as the first team were blowing dreams of a European final and a three-goal first-leg advantage over MTK in Budapest on Wednesday, 29 April 1964.
That would have been a 2-1 defeat by Dundee, Celtic’s goal scored by a player with an unusual name, Stephen Gnaulati. Denis certainly played in a 4-1 win over Kilmarnock’s reserve side at Celtic Park on Saturday, 21 March 1964, where his teammates included Willie O’Neill, Jim Brogan and Charlie Gallagher, but he was released at the end of that season and returned to Yoker. From there he moved to Renfrew Juniors, attracting much senior interest before being snapped up by St Mirren on Friday, 10 June 1966.
Football has this incredible habit of throwing up great stories, and Denis’ senior debut was a classic case in point. The Evening Times of Friday, 4 November 1966 led with the headline “Saints field new ‘keeper” as Connaghan prepared for a baptism of fire against champions Celtic the next day. His surname was spelt incorrectly, not for the first or last time.
Denis Connachan, a Glasgow wages clerk who only a few months ago was playing goalkeeper for Renfrew Juniors, is given the toughest job in Scottish football tomorrow – keeping out the Celtic sharp-shooters at Celtic Park when he plays in goal for St Mirren. Connachan replaces Jim Thorburn, who loses his ever-present record.
In four games against Celtic this year Thorburn has conceded 17 goals. At Love Street on April 5, Celtic beat Saints 3-0 and four days later at Celtic Park, Celtic won 5-0. This season, Celtic beat St Mirren 8-2 at Celtic Park in the League Cup on August 20 and then won 1-0 in the return League Cup tie at Paisley on September 3.
Now Thorburn, who lost six goals against Rangers at Love Street in midweek, drops out of a recast St Mirren side. Also out are experienced Bobby Adamson and outside-right Kenny Aird, an ex-Celt.
Both Bobby Lennox, who missed the game against Stirling Albion on Wednesday with a chill, and inside right Charlie Gallagher, who strained a leg deputising for Lennox, are fit, but Celtic won’t name their team until just before the game.
As it turned out, that team would include nine of the men who would win the European Cup in Lisbon six months later, flu victim Billy McNeill and the yet-to-be-signed Willie Wallace the two exceptions. Tommy Gemmell played at centre-half, with Denis’ former reserve teammate Willie O’Neill covering at full-back, whilst Scotland’s top goalscorer Joe McBride led the attack. But the match would be a personal triumph for Denis, the big keeper outstanding as Saints held the Hoops to a 1-1 draw, the first point dropped by Stein’s men that season. Only a 30-yard thunderbolt from Gemmell prevented a clean sheet for the debutant, with another future Celtic colleague Bobby Murdoch later ordered off following an off-the-ball incident.
Continued on the next page…
The return League fixture on 4 March 1967 would see another magnificent display from Denis in the Saints goal, the big man standing between the hosts and complete humiliation as Celtic recovered from a European Cup defeat in Novi Sad three days earlier to turn on the style with a 5-0 win. Denis would actually be at Celtic Park as a spectator in midweek as the Hoops beat Vojvodina with a last-gasp Billy McNeill header, and then again the following month as they took a major step towards immortality with a 3-1 home win over Dukla Prague in the semi-final.
Sadly, Saints would face relegation in the summer, by which time Denis was plying his trade in the USA. Former Love Street manager Doug Millward tempted him with an offer to join him at NPSL outfit Baltimore Bay, where one of his teammates was former Manchester United and England striker Dennis Viollet. It was whilst in the States that Denis celebrated Celtic’s Lisbon triumph.
Despite topping the Eastern Division of the NPSL, Millward was replaced by Gordon Jago in October, and by the spring of 1968 Denis was back in Scotland and re-joining St Mirren, as the Paisley club won the Second Division to take their place once again in the top-flight.
Denis was between the sticks as Saints opened their League Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Montrose at Links Park on Saturday, 10 August 1968, as a Willie Wallace double was giving Celtic victory at Ibrox, a day I remember well. Hamilton Academical would pip the Buddies by a single point to win that section then probably wish they hadn’t bothered, as Celts then beat them 10-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final clash at Parkhead, Stevie Chalmers and Bobby Lennox scoring five apiece that evening, surely a unique feat. The second leg at Douglas Park would see the half-time introduction of a young Celtic hopeful by the name of Kenny Dalglish.
It would be early December before Denis came up against Celtic again. The newly promoted Saints had recently beaten Rangers at Love Street, another day I remember vividly, and sat ahead of them in third place in the table. At half-time, the huge Celtic Park crowd was frustrated, the game still goalless thanks to yet another wonderful goalkeeping display by Denis against his boyhood and former club. The Evening Times reported that…
Goalkeeper Connaghan was a hero in the Saints’ goal. Time and again he foiled the eager Celtic forwards with brilliant saves.
But Stein’s Celtic of that era was an exceptional side, described in the same newspaper as ‘better than the team which won in Lisbon last year.’ Five goals in 30 devastating second-half minutes saw the two points remain in Glasgow.
The return League match between the clubs that season was also significant, as Denis’ former Holyrood teammate Harry Hood made his Celtic debut at Love Street, on Saturday, 29 March 1969. Sadly, injury prevented a school reunion, Jim Thorburn wearing the gloves that day as Harry celebrated his own big day with Celtic’s third goal in a 3-0 victory.
There was another Celtic debutant alongside Harry when Denis and St Mirren travelled to Glasgow on the opening night of December 1969, the game having been cancelled at the last minute nine days earlier due to flooding on the Parkhead pitch. Evan Williams replaced John Fallon to make his first League appearance for the club. Yet again it was Denis who captured the headlines, ‘defiant Connaghan giving a one-man show as he stood up alone to the Celtic attack.’ Two Lou Macari strikes in the minutes either side of the interval separated the teams.
Continued on the next page…
Denis was absent as Celtic travelled to Love Street for the final League match of that season on Saturday, 18 April 1970, just three days after the epic victory over Leeds United at Hampden that saw the Hoops reach a second European Cup final. Billy McGann was between the posts for what was my first visit to Love Street and Vic Davidson kept the debut theme going by making his inaugural first-team appearance and scoring in a 3-2 win over the red-clad Saints, Celtic’s last competitive match before their date with destiny in Milan.
Denis was back at his regular post for the first clash between the sides the following campaign, played at Celtic Park on Saturday, 28 November 1970. Indeed, he was involved in the most notable moment of the match as Celtic won 3-0. The Glasgow Herald reminded its readers that Denis was not a bad outfield player either.
Connaghan, who kept goal competently, won one of the biggest cheers of the day when he ran well out of the penalty area to challenge [John] Hughes for the loose ball, which he dribbled round the big winger before side-stepping [Vic] Davidson and clearing his lines.
There was a huge amount at stake for the return fixture, which took place at Love Street on the evening of Tuesday, 27 April 1971. In their previous match, Celtic had secured a vital point at Pittodrie which finally tipped the title balance in their favour, whilst Saints required to beat the champions to avoid certain relegation, having given themselves a fighting chance with a weekend victory over Dundee United.
Despite another outstanding performance from Denis and a double from young forward Ally McLeod, the clubs shared the points in a 2-2 draw which sent St Mirren back into the Second Division, Scotland’s top goalscorer Harry Hood yet again on target. Celts then equalled Willie Maley’s 60-year-old record of six consecutive League titles 48 hours later by beating Ayr United at Hampden, although I personally maintain that they actually only secured the flag mathematically two days later as the Lisbon Lions roared for a last time against Clyde.
Whilst there would be no League meetings the following season, that autumn would prove to be the time when Denis’ much-vaunted dream move to Celtic would finally happen. The circumstances surrounding that transfer were covered in the first part of this article, however in the interests of continuity, I’ll drop the relevant text back in here before picking the story back up.
The month of October 1971 would be pivotal in Denis’ career, with the League Cup in the forefront. Second Division St Mirren were not given much chance against a Celtic side smarting from a shock home defeat to St Johnstone at the weekend and seeking to reach an eighth successive League Cup final, when the teams met at Hampden for the semi-final on Wednesday, 6 October 1971.
That task looked even more difficult when defender Hugh McLaughlin received a second booking just after the half-hour, but a brilliant display by Denis kept the Buddies in the match until Davie Hay – ironically himself a Paisley man – opened the scoring on the hour mark. Within three minutes, Harry Hood and Bobby Lennox had secured Celtic’s place in the final but no doubt Jock Stein had taken notice of Denis’ goalkeeping performance.
Continued on the next page…
Denis would not be in first-team action on Saturday, 23 October 1971 – St Mirren were the odd team out in the 19-club Second Division – but his career would be positively impacted by events at Hampden, as rank outsiders Partick Thistle shocked the football world by scoring four first-half goals against Celtic to win the Scottish League Cup for the first time.
Jock Stein’s transition of the squad which had reached the European Cup final the previous season was already well underway. John Hughes and Willie Wallace were spectators at Hampden, having only recently been transferred to Crystal Palace, whilst Tommy Gemmell would be at Nottingham Forest within a few weeks. With Evan Williams conceding four goals to Thistle, Stein also took the opportunity to freshen up his goalkeeping options, by swooping for Denis just 24 hours after that Hampden defeat.
Jim Blair reported on the transfer in The Evening Times on Monday, 25 October 1971.
Celtic sign Connaghan – St Mirren keeper goes to Parkhead
Celtic boss Jock Stein today signed St Mirren’s Denis Connaghan to bring the tally of goalkeepers at Parkhead to FIVE!
Connaghan, a one-time provisional Celtic signing who was never called up, now joins Evan Williams, Englishman Gordon Marshall, John Fallon, and Irishman Tom Lally, and looks set to make his debut at East End Park on Wednesday night against Dunfermline.
Speaking about the transfer, St Mirren manager Wilson Humphries said – “I had to let Denis go, for I promised him a move if an offer came along.”
Connaghan is very much a football character. The lanky keeper, who in the past has reserved some of his finest performances for the games against Celtic, has always admitted to being Celtic-daft. This move will no doubt delight him, for he thought he had missed his chance of playing at Parkhead.
Connaghan was one of the many Scottish players who tried to popularise football in America. In fact, he left the local team in Baltimore in 1968 to return to Scottish football…and St Mirren.
Jock Stein, who hasn’t been happy with his goalkeeping set-up for some time, obviously feels Connaghan can do a good job for Celtic.
One question remains, however, IS THERE ROOM FOR FIVE GOALKEEPERS AT PARKHEAD?
Denis did indeed make his Celtic first-team debut at East End Park in midweek, lining up with his old school friend Harry Hood who scored the winner as the Hoops came from behind to win 2-1.
He would then make his home debut in front of a massive 64,000 crowd as Celts faced closest title rivals Aberdeen in a vital League match on Saturday, 6 November 1971. It is another day I remember well, the biggest attendance for a game I had witnessed at Celtic Park at that point. I recall the huge roar as Harry put the Hoops in front at the far end on the hour, then sadly the anguish as Billy McNeill headed past Denis into those distinctive green goalnets at our end to square the match at 1-1.
Denis would be ineligible as Celts continued their quest for a third European Cup final in six years with a 2-1 victory over Sliema Wanderers in Malta to reach the last-eight stage, but the big keeper was an ever-present domestically as Jock Stein’s men went on a long unbeaten run, brushing the opposition aside.
Following the 1-1 draw with closest challengers Aberdeen in his home debut in early November, Denis kept the gloves as the Celts racked up nine straight wins in the League by the turn of the year. These included 5-1 victories at Tannadice, Firhill – some slight consolation or revenge for the previous month’s League Cup final defeat by Partick Thistle as new signing Dixie Deans made a scoring debut – and Fir Park, whilst Kilmarnock were dispatched by the same scoreline at Celtic Park in early December. Hearts were then beaten by the odd goal in five at Parkhead on Christmas Day – still the last fixture Celtic played on that day – as the Hoops maintained a single-point lead over the Dons at the halfway stage.
Continued on the next page…
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.
Continued on the next page…
The next year would prove to be the most frustrating of Denis’ career as he played third fiddle to Ally Hunter and Evan Williams, Jock Stein even dabbling with the option of Rosenborg’s giant goalkeeper Geir Karlsen at one point. That would all change due to an injury to Hunter and a recall for Williams in Basel in late February 1974. Celts lost 3-2 to the Swiss outfit in that first leg and Evan would never play in the first team again, Denis now the back-up to Ally Hunter. Within 10 days, the situation had come full cycle, another Hunter injury seeing Denis recalled for the difficult Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Motherwell. He would not look back.
The rest of that season saw Denis fulfil his boyhood dream by winning silverware at Celtic. Nine-in-a-row was clinched at Brockville in April and the Scottish Cup was added seven days later with a 3-0 defeat of Dundee United at Hampden, Denis thus adding the senior version to the schoolboy one secured in his days at Holyrood a dozen years earlier. Football as always threw up a story, as the man who got the scoring underway at Hampden was his old school friend Harry Hood, who had so cruelly been robbed of his opportunity back in May 1962.
Denis also made his European playing debut in that period, turning out in the return leg against Basel before more than 70,000 spectators at Celtic Park. An extra-time Stevie Murray header took the Hoops into the semi-final draw, where they were paired with Spanish champions Atletico Madrid.
Three days after that Basel victory, Denis’ amazing 29-game unbeaten record between the Celtic posts finally ended at all places across the city at Firhill, where future Celtic star Ronnie Glavin scored twice in Partick Thistle’s 2-0 win, thus ruining my 13th birthday weekend!
The events of that infamous Atletico tie have been well documented, an evening which shamed football ending goalless, leaving Celts with it all to do in the cauldron of the Vicente Calderon a fortnight later. Despite the frenzy inside the stadium, Denis had the game of his life, defying the Spanish attack time after time before finally being beaten by two late strikes.
If being part of a Celtic side which won a League and Cup double whilst performing heroically at the very top level of European football was a career peak, Denis still had one or two tricks up his sleeve…literally. In the opening game of the new season, a Drybrough Cup tie against Airdrieonians at Broomfield, the big keeper conspired to throw the ball directly into his own net, having changed his mind at the last minute. Thankfully, Celtic were 4-1 up at the time and even Jock Stein was caught laughing at that one, but poor Denis never lived it down.
Nevertheless, the crazy life that is the lot of the goalkeeper was illustrated just seven days later, on Saturday, 3 August 1974, as Celtic faced Rangers at Hampden in the final of the same competition for the first time. Celtic twice led in the match before being pegged back to 2-2 at the end of extra-time, the dreaded penalty shootout required to settle the outcome. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, Denis saving spot kicks from both Derek Parlane and Tommy McLean, thus allowing Jimmy Johnstone to secure Celtic’s only success in that competition by blasting the ball home.
Denis would remain Jock Stein’s first-choice keeper until the defeat to Olympiakos in Piraeus in early October which ended Celtic’s hopes of European glory for another year. Ally Hunter would be between the posts against Dumbarton at Boghead three days later and Denis would make just one further appearance that season, a 1-0 victory over Morton at Cappielow on the final day of November 1974 as Hunter recovered from a bout of flu.
Time was now ticking on Denis’ Celtic career, almost two full years passing before he played his final two games for the club in a double-header League Cup quarter-final tie with Albion Rovers in the autumn of 1976. By that time, he had dropped behind Peter Latchford and Roy Baines to third choice, but he ended his first-team days with three consecutive clean sheets.
Denis would spend some time alongside Tommy Callaghan on loan at Clydebank before ending his senior career with spells at Morton and Clyde. His final playing days were then spent in Junior football with Arthurlie, fittingly squeezing in a farewell Hampden appearance in the Scottish Junior Cup final of 1981.There can’t be too many players who have appeared at the national stadium in the Scottish Cup finals at schools, junior and senior level, but then again Denis was a unique character.
A wonderful Celt and a gentleman, who lived the dream and who will be hugely missed.
God bless you, Denis.
Matt Corr
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