the start of an era
part 4

In part 4 of our Jock Stein commemoration Manfred Lurker takes up the story from the turn of the year to the league run-in.

By the halfway point of the 1965-66 season Jock Stein had had time to look over the squad available to him and had settled on the nucleus of players he considered capable of taking the club on to success, discarding in the process a few players who would later feature in They Embarrassed The Hoops.

In goal, John Fallon had been supplanted by Ronnie Simpson, a man of many clubs whose career was about to take an upswing at the sprightly age of 74.

In front of him the defence was being held together by the statuesque Billy McNeill - already showing a maturity way beyond his years - and John Clark, a sweeper who could put the Corporation Cleansing department to shame. Tommy Gemmell was well on the way to convincing himself that he was the best player in the world a left-back while Ian Young, pausing only briefly to be immortalised in the opening line of the 'Celtic Celtic' song ('There's Fallon, Young and Gemmell') was in the process of being replaced by Jim Craig, soon to qualify from the University of Glasgow as a dentist and more than willing to perform free extractions without anaesthetic on Rangers wingers.

The imperious Bobby Murdoch was sharing the midfield load with Bertie Auld, Celtic's answer to Jimmy Conway from the movie 'Goodfellas', and Charlie Gallagher, a wonderful player destined to be in the shadow of Bertie's cigar.

At the sharp end jinky and Yogi were making sure there was a steady stream of customers for Scottish mental health sanatoria in the shape of First Division full-backs. Bobby Lennox and Stevie Chalmers alternated for the position of striker, and while both were making significant contributions in the 'goals for' tally, neither could keep up with the blistering pace being set in the goalscoring charts being set by the amazing Joe McBride, a cross between Marco van Basten and Superman.

Purchased as Stein's first major signing for the princely sum of £22,500 in June 1965, he stuck the ball in the net 78 times in his first 77 matches in the Hoops and but for a cruel injury the following season would probably have ended up with a chapter all to himself in the Guinness Book of Records.

On Christmas Day 1965 Super Joe helped himself to yet another hat-trick as Celtic - full of Christmas Spirit - slaughtered Morton - apparently full of Christmas pudding - by 8:1 at Parkhead. It took his tally for the season to 25 goals in 23 games and helped the Hoops go joint top of the league with Rangers.

If Celtic had been a symphony orchestra that season then the Huns had been a kazoo player busking for the cinema queue - but they had been plodding away grinding out results.

Naturally enough the Celtic supporters in the 65,000 Ne'erday crowd at Celtic Park were anticipating a goal spree against the Teds and they were in fine voice as the game kicked off at three o'clock. However the singing and dancing came a somewhat abrupt halt at approximately one minute past three, which is when Davie Wilson, widely regarded among Scottish football connoisseurs as 'a wee nyaff' put Rangers a goal up.

Despite being camped in their opponents' half of the pitch for the remaining 44 minutes of the first half to such an extent that Ronnie Simpson was able to concentrate on doing some running repairs to his dentures, the Celts were unable to turn their incessant pressure into goals.

It was a different story in the second half though. Shooting towards the gibbering hordes behind the Rangers goal, Celtic equalised four minutes after the restart when Chalmers finished following a brilliant Mcbride dummy. Twelve minutes later the same player headed a Gallagher corner into the net for the lead and lift-off was complete five minutes after that when Charlie himself scored with a glorious drive from the edge of the penalty box.

With ten minutes to go (and a similar number of people still watching the match from the Rangers End) Murdoch fired home a 30 yarder and Stevie Chalmers completed the rout with a goal in the final minute.

It was more than ample revenge for Celtic's unlucky defeat at Ibrox the previous September and it had the fans drooling at the prospect of a league championship to celebrate at last after a twelve year barren spell.

However, the next few weeks had the fingernails bitten down to the quick again as Celtic proceeded to lose their next three away league matches. Pittodrie was understandable but Stirling Albion was inexcusable. A reverse at Tynecastle came as a direct result of the club's exertions in Europe. That season, under their new manager, the Hoops had embarked on a run in the Cup Winners Cup which turned out to be an exhilarating and tantalizing glimpse of what was to come.

part one
part two
part three
part five
part six
season stats