Welcome to the future

 

Welcome to the future

The winter of 1964-65 was tough one in Scotland as snow and frost brought the usual chaos to the roads and sporting fixture lists. For Celtic fans it was a frustrating time as their talented crop of young players seemed to lack the consistency required to make a challenge for the honours. Manager McGrory had been at the helm for 20 years and had delivered just one league title. For a club of Celtic’s stature, that was unacceptable. In his defence, he had a domineering chairman in Bob Kelly who often interfered in team selection and would sell stars like Pat Crerand and Bobby Collins instead of building a team around them.

1965 had begun with a 1-0 defeat at Ibrox in which Jimmy Johnstone had been sent off and Bobby Murdoch blazed a late penalty over the bar. As January unfolded, Celtic lost to Dundee United and Hearts as well as drawing with Clyde and Morton. As January drew to a close, they demonstrated their ability to the full by thrashing Aberdeen 8-0 but inconsistency had killed off any hope they had of being in the hunt for the title. They would finish a distant 8^th that season. The cup kept the fans going and St Mirren and Queen’s Park had been dispatched before they faced a formidable Kilmarnock side, who would win the title that year, in the quarter finals.

So it was that on March 6^th 1965, Celtic fans in the 47,000 supporters at the match with Kilmarnock wondered which Celtic would show up. On the day, Celtic, in their ‘shamrock’ strip,  outplayed and outfought a very good Kilmarnock side by more than the 3-2 scoreline suggested. As the fans went home happy, they’d have heard that Jock Stein’s Hibs had ousted Rangers from the cup in front of 47,363 fans at Easter Road. Some worried they’d have to face Stein’s emerging side in the semi-final but could not have guessed that change was in the air at Celtic Park. Jock Stein would indeed get his hands on the Scottish cup that year, but not with Hibs.

Even as Jimmy McGrory’s side defeated Kilmarnock to reach the cup semi-final, negotiations were already underway to replace him with Jock Stein. The Hibs boss had rejuvenated Dunfermline before working his magic in Leith with the Hibees. He held out until he was absolutely sure that he’d have full control of team matters. Jimmy McGrory was a wonderful scorer of goals in his day but the warrior on the field was placid off it and as manager, allowed Chairman Bob Kelly to tell him who should be playing on a Saturday. Stein would never accept that. Nor did he accept the notion of being joint manager with Sean Fallon. Celtic knew what it would take to land the best young coach in the land, yet still Kelly prevaricated.

Back at Hibs, the team’s doctor was clear what Stein ought to do. Doctor Batters urged Jock Stein to go to Celtic with the words… ’ John you’re a Celtic man, you should go or you’ll regret it.’  Stein decided to let it be known that he was being courted by Wolverhampton Wanderers in order to force Kelly into making a decision. The Celtic chairman may have been an interfering autocrat, but there is no doubting his love for Celtic. He knew there would be outrage amongst the support if the best young coach out there, a man who had captained Celtic, was allowed to slip away. In the end he did the right thing. Jock Stein took the reins of Celtic on Tuesday 9 March  1965.

One of the first things Stein did was to call the players together and tell them what he expected of them. He also told them that Jimmy McGrory, appointed public relations officer, would receive due respect and still be called ‘boss’ by himself and the players. The following day, Celtic travelled to Broomfield, the tight little stadium of Airdrie FC, and defeated the locals 6-0 with Bertie Auld scoring 5 goals. Stein saw the nucleus of the team was good but there were setbacks as he tried to implement his way of playing and give the players more belief in themselves. He said in the match programme, ‘I have been handed the reins of management and I alone have to do the driving. For the playing side, team selection, tactics, coaching and scouting, I have full responsibility.

As he watched his inconsistent young side lose 1-0, he had an idea of the task ahead of him. He growled at the post-match press conference, ‘I can see now why I was brought here.’ The defeat to St Johnstone was followed by a 3-3 draw at Dens Park before his former club, Hibernian arrived in Glasgow and demonstrated that the Stein effect was still with them. They were 3-0 up within 23 minutes and went on to whip Celtic 4-2. The fans, their eyes on the upcoming cup semi-final with Motherwell, were hopeful rather than confident of their chances.

52,000 fans headed for Hampden Park for the cup semi-final between Celtic and Motherwell. A fairly even match was in the balance at 1-1 when Joe McBride put Motherwell 2-1 up. Would Celtic crumble? Could Stein get his players to force a result? As Celtic threw themselves at the Motherwell defence in the second half, Bertie Auld was brought down for a penalty in 60 minutes and converted to level the tie. Celtic had missed some chances in the game but had not performed well overall.  Stein, thinking of the future, was already casting a covetous eye over the Well striker, Joe McBride.

The replay saw Celtic in dominant form and in front of 59,000 fans they swept into the final with a 3-0 win. In the other semi-final, Stein’s two previous clubs, Dunfermline and Hibs met at Tynecastle in front of 33,305 fans. The teams were near the top of the table and both in good form. It was the Fifers who emerged victorious and reached the final with a 2-0 win. Celtic had lost their previous two games with the Pars and would approach the cup final with none of the superiority complex of the modern era. This would be an almighty struggle for Stein’s young team.

In the run up to the final, Celtic lost two of their three competitive games. The most worrying being a 6-2 humiliation at Falkirk. The side which had hammered Hibs 4-0 at Easter Road and looked far more convincing, had stuttered again. A 2-1 home defeat to Partick Thistle the week before the cup final had the fans concerned. There were flashes of what Stein was trying to achieve from his side but Celtic remained an enigma. Brilliant one week and awful the next. Which Celtic would show up at Hampden?

A crowd of 108,808 packed into Hampden for the 1965 Scottish Cup Final. Most of them were Celtic supporters who knew that they had the nucleus of a good side but as yet, they hadn’t tasted the glory that comes with winning a trophy. Perhaps, some reasoned, winning the cup would be a springboard to better days. Stein played Bobby Murdoch in midfield, a master-stoke as he was wasted as a forward. Murdoch and Auld matched the Dunfermline midfield and their range of passing and running gave Celtic a more potent attack. As a titanic tussle was played out on the Hampden turf, Celtic twice found themselves behind and twice had fought back to level the score. As the game entered the final ten minutes, it was clear that the next team to score would most likely claim the trophy.

In the 81^st minute Gorbals boy, Charlie Gallagher, lined up another Celtic corner. In memory’s view, the ball arced into a crowded penalty area as the huge crowd held its collective breath. Was this the moment of decision? Dunfermline Keeper, Jim Herriot raced from his line to intercept the ball. It was a fatal error. Celtic centre half, Billy McNeill got to it a split second before him to bullet a towering header into the net. For the first time in the game Celtic was in the lead. The roar which greeted the goal was deafening. Pat Woods and Tom Campbell, those great Celtic historians described it beautifully…

“For two seconds Hampden’s vast bowl was still, stunned with the sudden shock of decision, and then it erupted into bedlam; the roar continued, minute after minute, and it’s prevailing note changed; it was not merely the burst of joy that a goal produces, rather it was a tumultuous welcome to the future and the instinctive realisation by all Celtic’s support that the young men had grown up and that nothing, now, nor in the years to come would withstand their collective spirit.”

For Stein and Celtic, the cup final victory of 1965 signalled the arrival of a new force in Scottish and European football. In the seasons ahead, Stein forged Celtic into a tremendous football machine which approached any opponent without fear. Gone was the stuttering, inconsistent Celtic of the early 1960s. In its place was a team which took the success starved fans from famine to feast and served them up the greatest dish of all two years later beneath the azure skies of Lisbon.