The teams lined up at a packed Hampden on Saturday, 24 April 1965 as follows.
Celtic
John Fallon; Ian Young & Tommy Gemmell; Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeill & John Clark; Stevie Chalmers, Charlie Gallagher, John Hughes, Bobby Lennox & Bertie Auld.
Dunfermline Athletic
Jim Herriot; Willie Callaghan & John Lunn; Jim Thomson, Jim McLean & Tommy Callaghan; Alex Edwards, Alex Smith, John McLaughlin, Harry Melrose & Jackie Sinclair.
The match would turn out to be one of the all-time great cup finals. Harry Melrose, a veteran of Dunfermline’s cup-winning side of 1961 struck first, nipping between a static Celtic defence to beat John Fallon after 15 minutes. The bulk of the 109,000 crowd were backing Celtic, and their moment of glory arrived on the half-hour. Charlie Gallagher – another who played in the final four years earlier – weaved into position 30 yards out before exploding a shot towards the Dunfermline goal. The ball beat Jim Herriot all ends up to strike the crossbar before arcing high into the Hampden sky, Bertie Auld the first to react and connect with his head for 1-1.
The third goal of the first half arrived just before the break, this time Melrose and John McLaughlin working a neat free-kick for the latter to justify his surprise inclusion with a clinical finish into the corner.
A goal behind and now playing into a fierce, swirling wind, Celtic had it all to do. No team in history had come from behind twice to win the Scottish Cup, but within six minutes of the restart Bertie Auld and Bobby Lennox combined brilliantly down the left flank for Auld to net his second of the afternoon with a powerful low drive. With the match finely balanced, John Fallon thwarted the Fifers on several occasions with excellent saves, but the decisive goal arrived at the Mount Florida end. Once again, the delightful Gallagher was involved, his curling corner-kick delivery met perfectly by the flashing head of Celtic captain Billy McNeill to win the Scottish Cup for his team. The fairytale club was back in business and The Celtic Rising would be built on this foundation. It remains an iconic day in the history of the club.
For Tommy Callaghan and the players and supporters of Dunfermline Athletic, they would have to endure a very different set of emotions. Seven days earlier, they were on the brink of a domestic Double, a feat never previously achieved by a club from outwith Glasgow. The dropped point against St Johnstone at East End Park that afternoon had cost them their shot at the League title, a fact painfully rammed home by the news of Kilmarnock’s 2-0 win at Tynecastle, the Ayrshire club pipping long-time leaders Hearts on their own backyard by 0.04 of a goal.
McIlroy Scores the Title Winning Goal for Kilmarnock against Hearts
Had the Pars beat the Perth team, then a win in their final League game – at home to cup-conquerors Celtic the following midweek – would have given them the title on goal average from both Kilmarnock and Hearts. That would no doubt be scant consolation to the Pars supporters who witnessed Dunfermline thrash a much-changed Celtic team by 5-1 four days later, with the restored Alex Ferguson scoring the final goal to take his tally to 20 for the campaign.
As Tommy reflected on the season just ended on his summer break, there would be plenty to take encouragement from. A virtual ever-present in a Dunfermline Athletic team which was one agonising goal away from winning the title, lost to a resurgent Jock Stein-inspired Celtic in the Scottish Cup final and suffered a narrow play-off defeat to a top-class Spanish side in European competition.
His day would come.
Hail Hail,
Matt Corr
Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue
Don’t miss The Celtic Rising ~ 1965: The Year Jock Stein Changed Everything by David Potter and published by Celtic Star Books available in hardback and on Amazon kindle.
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!