Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers

There is a school of thought that suggests you get more emotional as you get older. I don’t know if that holds true for everyone but as I sat this week watching the wonderful documentary ‘Glasgow 1967: the Lisbon Lions’ I could feel my eyes moisten. The stories of players and fans who embarked upon that incredible journey have been told so often but still hold power enough to move anyone who holds Celtic dear.

Billy McNeill once said, ‘there is a fairy tale aspect about this club’ and those words never rang as true as they did on that sunlit evening in Lisbon all those years ago. Eleven pale, Scottish lads took on the sophisticates of European football and taught them a lesson which still echoes down the years. Young men who had grown up playing football in the streets and back courts of tenement blocks produced a display of scintillating attacking football that delighted not just Celtic supporters but also fans across Europe who saw in their play the death knell of the joyless, defensive ‘catenaccio’ system which had been strangling football.

Sometimes the stars align and incredible things can happen. For Celtic, a team born into an impoverished immigrant community Lisbon 1967 was an unlikely dream. The team may have had astonishing success in its first 50 years but the years after World War 2 saw their huge support frustrated and on occasion rebellious. Yes, there was the occasional bright light like the Double season of 1953-54, the Coronation cup win and of course the 7-1 victory against their local rivals in the 1957 league cup final but there was no consistency, no belief that they could dominate for a sustained period of time. Indeed that title win in 1954 was their only success in the league in a twenty year period after the war. Rangers (10), Hibs (3), Hearts (2) Aberdeen, Dundee, Kilmarnock all took titles as Celtic laboured under a Board which seemed happy with mediocrity at times.

There were talented players on the books and the nucleus of a good team was starting to emerge but consider Jimmy Johnstone’s debut for Celtic at Rugby Park in 1963. Celtic started reasonably well but after losing an early goal crumbled and lost 6-0. That same season Celtic lost 4-0 at Ibrox after a insipid and naïve performance. One newspaper report said of the game…

‘I have no wish to detract from the merit of Rangers performance when I say that this was one of the worst Celtic elevens for many a day. Certainly they had none of the luck of the game but lack of ability far more than lack of fortune caused a deservedly heavy defeat.’

That team with its ‘lack of ability’ contained four players who would help Celtic to European and domestic greatness just a few short years later so what was causing this frustrating inconsistency? Manager McGrory was a gentleman in every sense of the word and seldom involved himself in training or working with the players. Good players like Pat Crerand were allowed to leave and the club didn’t seem to have the ambition or vision to turn their fortunes around.

By the mid-sixties the legendary Jimmy McGrory was nearing the end of a lifetime’s service to Celtic and the support knew the obvious choice to replace him. Jock Stein had worked wonders at Dunfermline, even defeating Celtic in the 1961 cup final. By 1964 he was at Hibernian and took a team which was almost relegated the previous season to a high standing in the league. He even invited Real Madrid to come to play at Easter Road and beat them 2-0. Bob Kelly, Celtic’s autocratic Chairman hesitated when it came to bringing in Stein. He thought Sean Fallon could utilise Stein as his assistant but Jock was having none of that. Kelly next offered Stein a joint-Manager post with Fallon but Jock held out for the manager’s job with full control of the playing side of the club. When Wolves showed an interest in Stein, Kelly relented and appointed him Manager of Celtic in March 1965. His last act as Hibernian manager was to knock Rangers out of the Scottish cup in March 1965.

Much has been written about Kelly’s reluctance to appoint Stein as Manager when it was obvious that he was the most talented coach in Scottish football. He knew the game and he knew Celtic having played there and coached the young players. The club had only had three mangers in its 75 years; Maley, McStay and McGrory. All were former players and all were Catholics. Jock was of course not a Catholic and that fact, petty minded as it seems, may have influenced Kelly towards Sean Fallon. Whatever his thought processes he made the right decision in the end by appointing Stein and could not have foreseen the wonderful journey the former miner would lead Celtic on.

The supporters were delighted that at last they had a man with the know how to mould these talented youngsters into a real team. He also had the strength of character to kick the butt of players who were coasting or resting on their laurels. Here was the new type of manager, a man who would be on the training ground drilling players, schooling them in tactics and motivating them to give their all. Their spirits were raised and they refused to accept defeat in games were it looked like things were going against them. The 1965 Cup Final against Dunfermline saw them twice come from behind to win the cup in memorable style.

The first big test of Stein’s first full season in charge was the League Cup Final against Rangers in October 1965. Rangers had already beaten Celtic that season and were favourites but in a bruising encounter Celtic showed enough to win the game 2-1. This was a markedly different Celtic side. Gone was the naivety of previous years when Kelly insisted on gentlemanly conduct and respect for opponents. Celtic knew Rangers would be physical and gave them it back with interest. It wasn’t a pretty game of football but if that’s how opponents wanted to play it then Celtic would no longer be pushovers.

Celtic swept all before them in the league in 1965-66 season and were crowned Champions for the first time since 1954. That league win was marked with a playing style which was quintessential Celtic. They simply tore into teams with attacking flair that had their fans loving it. They scored 106 league goals that season as Stein organised his young team into one of the most potent sides in Europe. As they smashed Rangers 5-1 in January 1966 some fans must have been wondering was this the same Celtic who had lost 6-0 at Kilmarnock just three short years before?

That title win gave Celtic their first crack at the European cup and in another wonderful season they swept all before them and set up their date with desiny under the Portuguese sun.

Watching that documentary on the Lisbon Lions brought back so many wonderful memories for Celtic fans. They were a wonderful team but a real band of brothers too. It was moving to hear the marvellous Bobby Lennox say as he looked wistfully over the sea in his native Ayrshire, ‘I loved them, they were my brothers.’ Then the normally ebullient Bertie Auld, face lined by more than 80 winters, looking momentarily sad saying to the camera, ‘I miss them.’  

We all do Bertie, we all do.

The honour that great side brought to Celtic shall never fade. Time wearies us all but that day beneath the Lisbon sun still shines brightly. It always will.