Video: Celtic 7 St Mirren 0. McGarvey’s hat-trick including one of the best goals ever scored at Parkhead

Frank McGarvey’s wonderful hat-trick…

ON this day in 1981, Celtic really turned on the style with a 7-0 thumping of hapless St.Mirren at Celtic Park. The football was consistently scintillating, and even more good news was given to the Celtic fans when both Aberdeen and Rangers, the main challengers for the title, lost ground that day to Kilmarnock and Hearts respectively.

Frank McGarvey scored a hat-trick (before half time!), George McCluskey scored two and Roy Aitken and Charlie Nicholas scored one each. Frank’s reaction at half time was to be sick in the toilet! His third goal was a thing of beauty, one of the best individual goals ever scored at Celtic Park.

Other good days on 14 March were 1903 when Paddy Murray and John Clark scored the goals that beat Morton 2-0 at Cappielow, 1931 when Celtic reached the Scottish Cup Final by beating Kilmarnock 3-0 at Hampden with goals from Charlie Napier, Jimmy McGrory and Willie Hughes, 1964 when Celtic beat Hibs 5-0 at Easter Road with two goals from Bobby Murdoch, two from Steve Chalmers and one from John Divers, and 2001 when Henrik Larsson and Tommy Johnson scored the goals which beat St.Johnstone 2-1 at McDiarmid Park, a cloud being cast over the victory by the injury sustained by Stilian Petrov.

A bad 14 March was in 1953 when Celtic exited the Scottish Cup without so much as a whimper losing 2-0 to Rangers at Ibrox.

According to The Celtic Wiki, the game was policed by over 300 of Strathclyde’s finest in and around the ground. There were also plain clothes police in amongst the crowd. The Chief Constable appealed over the tannoy for all banners and flags should be kept down. This was generally ignored by both sets of fans.

An early goal from Rangers allowed them to sit back and control the game and they scored a second in the closing stages to knock Celtic out of the Scottish Cup.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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