In midweek, Jock fielded the Lisbon Lions starting eleven for the second time for the League match with Aberdeen at Parkhead, a dress rehearsal for the Scottish Cup Final just ten days later. The Dons fielded a familiar face from Willie’s past at centre-forward, his old friend from their teenage days in Kirkintilloch with Kelvinside Thistle then Kilsyth Rangers, Jim Storrie.
Storrie had made his name in the late 1950’s as a high-scoring striker with Airdrieonians, prompting Leeds United manager Don Revie to bring him down to Yorkshire in 1962. He would win promotion to the English First Division with Leeds at the end of the 1963/64 season, then march all the way to Wembley for the following season’s FA Cup final, the Peacocks captained by former Celt Bobby Collins and featuring Billy Bremner, finally beaten by an extra-time goal from another Scot, the wonderfully-named John St John (known as Ian), after Bremner had equalised Hunt’s 93rd-minute opener. Storrie would then join Eddie Turnbull at Aberdeen in February 1967, before finding himself in that season’s Scottish showpiece against Celtic.
The conditions at Parkhead on the night of Wednesday, 19 April 1967 were hardly conducive to good football, high winds on a sodden pitch, so perhaps it was no surprise that the match ended goalless, as Jock Stein’s men edged another point closer to retaining their League title.
Six days later, Celts were in European Cup action again, facing Dukla in Prague, defending the two-goal lead given to them by Willie Wallace a fortnight earlier. Jock again named the Lions line-up albeit in a different formation. Stevie Chalmers would play as a lone striker with five players strung out across the midfield. Willie was given the specific task of marking former European Footballer of the Year Josef Masopust out of the game, something the Czech master did not appreciate, as witnessed by the face slap handed to Willie at the end of the 0-0 draw which confirmed Celtic’s place in the final of the European Cup. In fairness, Masopust would later apologise to Wallace before handing him his match jersey in the dressing-room afterwards, as this season of seasons continued to reach new heights for the 26-year-old Celt.
The following Saturday, 29 April 1967, marked another red-letter day in the Wallace calendar, as he rolled up to Hampden with 126,000 others for his first Scottish Cup final experience. Celtic’s opponents were Aberdeen, allowing Willie a quick chat and wind-up with his old pal Jim Storrie before the game.
