“We’ll forgive everything, Cellic everything, if ye’s jist win the day!” – so bawled a leather voiced man with a scar down one side of his face, and a mouth now sadly bereft of its best teeth. It was the Celtic End, the East Terracing, the King’s Park end of Hampden Park on Saturday 24 April 1965, now almost 56 years ago.
He was an oldish man, wearing a green and white tammy which bore a certain resemblance to a tea cosy, and a green and white scarff tied incongruously round his waist, the better to support the trousers, one assumes, which were now struggling to contain the belly, swollen through over-indulgence. I fear my friend will be no longer with us, but I pray he lived long enough to enjoy Lisbon.
His immortal words were uttered just as the team came out. They were born of frustration and heartbreak over many years – they had seen repeated failure and intense pain. Fortunately, I saw him again, at full time after Bertie Auld had scored twice and Billy McNeill once and Paradise had been regained. Everything was indeed forgiven, and the bright sunny uplands beckoned.
The times of 2021 are not as extreme as 1965 – it seems only yesterday, after all, that we had won a Quadruple Treble, something inconceivable in 1965 – but the feelings are not entirely dissimilar. This season has been beyond painful. We have seen crazy decisions, awful defending, dithering attacking, empty stadia, poor performances, and most unacceptable of all, players who occasionally don’t seem to bother and who give every impression of wanting to be elsewhere. That was the unkindest cut of all, as Shakespeare might have said.
But now an opportunity for redemption presents itself. The general situation, one hopes and prays, is improving but can the receding virus be accompanied by a return to the football we know that Celtic are capable of? Can we shoot on sight, defend set pieces and take a grip of a game like we used to not all that long ago? The Scottish Cup is our favourite tournament and if you don’t believe me, just say 1892, 1899, 1900, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912, 1914, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1931, 1933, 1937, 1951, 1954, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1995, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Don’t underestimate Falkirk. It is a shock to realise that they are now two Divisions below us, but that is a false position. They were in a Scottish Cup final as recently as 2015, and they will have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
“We’ll forgive everything, Cellic, everything, if ye’s jist win us another Scottish Cup…”
David Potter
Coming Soon…
🟢⚪️ #ScottishCup action for the Bhoys tonight! 👊
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🏆 @ScottishCup Third Round
⌚ 19:30 (CPT)
🏟 Celtic Park
🚫 Behind closed doors
📺 Live on @PremierSportsTV
💻 Live on @CelticTV (ex UK & IRE)𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒐𝒑𝒔 🍀 pic.twitter.com/rp30I8jmbg
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) April 3, 2021
Hi David, That particular game is still very fresh in my memory! I was sixteen at the time and it was the first time i had seen a trophy being won,little did I know then there were many more to come!
One of my memories is getting on to a train to get from Mount Florida to Glasgow Central after seeing the Cup being presented but being afraid that it was all a dream and that I would waken up soon. I was 16 as well!