The penultimate round of League fixtures for the season took place on Easter Saturday, 17 April 1965 and saw the first part of Dunfermline’s Double dream die. The Pars were at home to lowly St Johnstone and needed both points to maintain the pressure on Hearts and Kilmarnock, the Gorgie men facing a hazardous trip to Pittodrie whilst Killie hosted Morton. Both of the leading duo duly completed their bit by winning their respective matches 3-0, setting up a mouth-watering clash between the pair at Tynecastle seven days later for the title, but the Fifers challenge ended in abject disappointment when they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Bobby Brown’s St Johnstone.
Alex Ferguson at Dunfermline in 1965
In fairness to the Pars, they enjoyed no luck whatsoever on the day, Alex Ferguson leading the assault on the Saints’ goal but denied on several occasions. As often happens, the visitors then broke away to score with Ian Hawkshaw the man on target midway through the first half, despite appearing to be well offside. Ten minutes from the break, Dunfermline were level thanks to a wonderful solo goal from Ferguson, his 19th strike of the campaign.
The second half followed a similar pattern, the Pars doing the bulk of the attacking football but always wary of the counter. Tommy almost scored the goal which would have won the title as it turned out, his fine shot following a corner-kick bringing out the best in Perth hero Mike McVittie. Now three points behind Hearts with only one game remaining, the League flag would not be flying over East End Park that summer despite a most wonderful effort.
Their Scottish Cup final opponents Celtic also experienced disappointment ahead of the Hampden showpiece seven days later, Jock Stein’s men brought crashing to earth after their midweek heroics in Leith, a team featuring several changes photographed before kick-off then beaten 2-1 at home by Partick Thistle. Celtic were then linked with a bid for England striker Joe Baker, the former Hibernian and Torino hitman having asked Arsenal for a transfer. Had Baker been the mystery signing target for Stein south of the border two weeks earlier?
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Great memories Matt. Shows how much the Scottish Football world has changed. On reading that it reminded me how much I took it for granted at that time that Celtic were not a team who would be challenging for the title. I was engrossed in getting that Scottish Cup win. That was enough for me, although I was sure Big Jock would be succesful in improving us.
By the way I recall that in the Daily Record on Cup Final Saturday morning there were 4 pages devoted to the 2 big games that day. One page each for Celtic, Dunfermline, Killie, Hearts telling gving the reason why each of these teams would be a winner. Then in Monday’s edition the Record was able to review both results with a “as we predicted” headline!