Next Match
The next match was not until the 5th April and it was against St Mirren at Love Street. The Buddies were struggling, lying in 4th bottom slot in the table, and would be fighting for their lives. Their stadium in Paisley was very compact, with a pitch that normally held up during the often wet winters in the west of Scotland. And although it was an away match, the Celtic support would not have to travel far to reach the ground.
On the night following Celtic’s 2-0 victory over Kilmarnock in a league match at Rugby Park, I reported to Parkhead for a reserve game. After having been involved with the first team for a few weeks, I did not really fancy the idea of going back to the second team. And, if I am being perfectly honest, I did not have the foggiest idea who the opposition was?
Two Big Games
For Celtic fans, there might have been only one big match on the calendar on that evening of the 29th March 1966 but for Scottish football in general, there were, in actual fact, two matches to consider, as this correspondent in one of the dailies pointed out ;-
Opponents
Next up for Celtic was Kilmarnock, in a league match down at Rugby Park. The teams had already met during the season in that same competition, on 27th November 1965, at Parkhead, when Celtic won 2-1. However, the Ayrshire club had made sure it won a fair percentage of its matches against other clubs and going into this game, the respective positions in the table were – Continue reading
Press Comment
Both semi-finals being held that day – Celtic v Dunfermline at Ibrox and Aberdeen v Rangers at Hampden – received a lot of attention in the morning press. Not surprisingly, the position in which Celtic found themselves was the centre of attention ;-
‘Will Celtic take a step nearer the treble of League Cup, League and Scottish Cup today?
Or can Dunfermline shake off their recent slump and reach their third Final in five years?
Celtic start clear favourites – they must. They have had a wonderful season so far and have the confidence that comes with success. While Dunfermline have had a sticky time recently.
The tag of being the under-dogs is unusual for the Fifers but they don’t mind it one bit. It puts all the pressure on Celtic today, as they try to keep up their fantastic record.
Feelings
I had resigned myself to the fact that I might be out for a few weeks. Frankly, in spite of all the treatment I was receiving, the pain in my ankle just refused to go away and I was still feeling it quite stiff when I attempted to run. Continue reading
Worry
I was getting worried on several fronts at that time. In the first place, I was taking too much time off my studies. Unlike other courses, where you have only to attend lectures, as a student dentist I had to see quite a number of patients and, as I have mentioned before, the collective total in points awarded for treating those patients – the various sums awarded for different types of fillings, or crowns or dentures or scalings and so on – had to reach a certain figure or otherwise I would not be allowed to sit my finals.
I would be allowed to do so once that vital figure was reached – even it that was the following year -but as I had been in the same company as the 51 other guys and gals in my class for the previous five years, I was quite keen to finish at the same time as they would.
Unfortunately, at that time, there was too many distractions taking me away from my studies and there was another example that Monday, when, just before I left for the Dental Hospital, I got a phone call from Celtic Park, Bob Rooney asking me if I could come in that morning for a look at the ankle.
“You are kidding me!” I wanted to scream down the phone but I remained calm and said I would be there, then made a detour to the Dental Hospital to cancel a number of my patients for that day, which meant that there would be ‘nul points’ (as they love to say in the Eurovision Song Contest ) added to my total that particular morning and afternoon.
Reaction
I could not believe it! Due to my physical endeavors on the Saturday, the tough fitness test then the match, I did not go out on the Saturday evening. Indeed, I went to bed early, hit the pillow and that was it!
But when I woke up on the Sunday morning I felt as it there was a great weight lying in my ankle. And to make things worse, it was throbbing as well. I could hardly get out of bed, far less leave the house and I spent most of the day using hot towels on the ankle, then applying some ice cubes wrapped in plastic. Nowadays, of course, you can just pull a bag of peas out of the freezer but it wasn’t quite so easy in those days! Continue reading
OK
As I made my way up to Celtic Park on the Saturday, I was feeling, well, OK would be about right. To be honest, I was in two minds about playing. The ankle was unbelievably tight, not bad enough to make me limp or anything like that but definitely not 100%. However, when you are fighting for a regular place in a team like the Celtic of that period, you had to take every chance that was provided and I certainly was not going to pull out unless I was really incapacitated. They were going to give me an early run-over anyway to see how I was so I decided to say nothing until then.
Full Week to Recover
Having sat out the match against St Johnstone, I was keen to get myself fit again and had a full week to do so. I took full advantage of the opportunity, nicking up to Parkhead at lunchtimes most days for some treatment, and training with the rest of the part-timers on Tuesday and Thursday.
The diagnosis given by Doc Fitzsimmons was spot on. There had been only slight damage done to my ankle ligaments by Willie Wallace’s tackle; the main pain was from the bruising on the bone round the same area and this responded well to the hot water/cold water treatment, so that by Thursday night I was running almost freely. Continue reading