During the turn of the year from 1964 to 1965, the country was blessed – if that is an appropriate word – with relatively mild weather, so unlike previous seasons, the fixture list was not affected by frost or snow. The Ne-erday results, one defeat and one draw, had been disappointing and the next match was likely to be equally difficult, when Celtic travelled to Tannadice to meet the Terrors.
9th January
League Dundee United 3 Celtic 1 Att: 1 18,000 Hughes
14th January
Bertie Auld re-joined Celtic from Birmingham for a fee of £12,000
16th January
League Celtic 1 Hearts 2 Att: 21,000 Gemmell
21st January
Celtic made inquiries about signing Johnny Crossan from Standard Liege.
23rd January
League Morton 3 Celtic 3 Att: 17,000 Gemmell, Hughes, Lennox
30th January
League Celtic 8 Aberdeen 0 Att: 14,000 Hughes (5), Auld Murdoch, Lennox
Wearing a type of training shoes borrowed from Billy McNeill, John Hughes ran amok on the hard and icy surface at Parkhead, scoring five.
The others came from Auld, Murdoch and Lennox.
31st January
It was announced that Jock Stein, then manager of Hibs, would become Celtic’s new manager, with Chief Coach Sean Fallon as assistant. Jimmy McGrory would become the club’s Public Relations Officer.
6th February
Scottish Cup St Mirren 0 Celtic 3 Att: 28,300 Chalmers (2); Lennox
13th February
League St Mirren 1 Celtic 5 Att: 12,000 Chalmers, Lennox, Brogan, Hughes, Murdoch
15th February
Death of American singer Nat King Cole.
20th February
Scottish Cup Queen’s Park 0 Celtic 1 Att: 27,345 Lennox
A single goal by Bobby Lennox in 61 minutes was enough to see off a determined Spiders team
27th February
League Celtic 2 Kilmarnock 0 Att: 23,000 Chalmers;Hughes
6th March
Scottish Cup Celtic 3 Kilmarnock 2 Att: 47,000 Lennox, Auld, Hughes
9th March
Jock Stein took over as manager at Celtic Park
10th March
League Airdrie 0 Celtic 6 Auld (5), Hughes
Jock Stein’s first match in charge; Bertie Auld scored 5; John Hughes got the other. Jock Stein also made his first signing, bringing in goalkeeper John Kennedy from Distillery for a fee of £5000.
13th March
League Celtic 0 St Johnstone 1 Att: 18,000
Auld missed a penalty
18th March
Alexsei Leonov becomes the first man to walk in space
20th March
League Dundee 3 Celtic 3 Att: 18,000 Lennox (2), Johnstone
22nd March
League Celtic 2 Hibs 4 Att: 19,000 Lennox (2)
27th March
Scottish Cup SF Celtic 2 Motherwell 2 Att: 52,000 Lennox; Auld (pen)
In the press on the morning of the semi-finals, Celtic and Hibs were favoured to go through against Motherwell and Dunfermline. Both of the favourites, though, found the going difficult. Hibs eventually lost out to the Pars, while Celtic had to pull back twice against Motherwell. They also scored another near the end through Jimmy Johnstone which every fan in green-and-white thought was onside. Unfortunately for the Hoops and their supporters, the referee thought otherwise.
31st March
Scottish Cup SF Replay Celtic 3 Motherwell 0 Att: 58,959 Chalmers, Hughes, Lennox
Celtic were everyone’s favourite to go through and eventually, their power and aggression were too much for the Steelmen.
On the same afternoon, at Ibrox, Rangers’ title hopes disappeared as they were beaten by Morton.
1st April
IBM files patent for a computer.
3rd April
League Celtic 1 Third Lanark 0 Att: 12,000 Ironically, an own goal by ex-Celt Dunky McKay gave Celtic the points.
7th April
League Hibs 0 Celtic 4 Att: 36,500 Auld (2), Chalmers, Murdoch.
14th April
League Falkirk 6 Celtic 2 Auld (2; 1 pen)
The attendance was not recorded but would have been around the 10,000 mark. A full strength Celtic side just could not with the flowing play of the Bairns, who were anchored in the third-bottom place in the table.
17th April
League Celtic 1 Partick Thistle 2 Att: 11,500 Chalmers
A worrying time for the management as the team was again not impressive for the second time in three days only a week before the Scottish Cup Final. Steve Chalmers got Celtic’s only goal.
21st April
Three days before the Final, the Celtic management tell the fans what they were keen to know ;-
CELTS PLAY THEIR SEMI-FINAL HEROES
23rd April
Headline from one of the English dailies ;-
NIGHT OUT PUNTERS HIT BACK AT BAN
8 Chelsea stars were sent home by Tommy Docherty yesterday ADMITTING that they were late in returning to the hotel on Wednesday night but DENYING that they had not done anything to be ashamed of.
23rd April
From one of the Scots dailies ;-
STEIN : IT MUST BE VICTORY FOR CELTIC
This was quite a surprising quote from Jock Stein, considering the short time he had been in charge of the club. I suspect that it was taken out of context as what he meant by the words could be taken in two ways.
One is ‘anything other than defeat would be unthinkable for Celtic’; the other is ‘we are certain winners’, something I do not think he would want to make public even if he thought so. I suspect, then, that he meant the former, that defeat would not be acceptable.
Apart from that, the day before the Scottish Cup final had gone well, the players enjoying their break down in Largs, on the Ayrshire coast, enjoying the peace and quiet well away from the excitement of Glasgow. As mentioned above, the eleven chosen for the final was Fallon, Young, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Chalmers, Gallagher, Hughes, Lennox, Auld. Note the absence of the name of one Johnstone, J!
24th April
Scottish Cup Final Celtic 3 Dunfermline 2 Att: 108,800 Auld(2), McNeill
Twice the Pars went ahead and twice Celtic pulled back, Bertie Auld being the saviour on both occasions. Then came the counter-punch, in the 81st minute, a corner by Charlie Gallagher and a fierce header by Billy McNeill gave Celtic a Scottish Cup win for the first time since 1954.
On the same day, Willie Waddell’s Kilmarnock beat Hearts 2-0 at Tynecastle to win the league by 0.04 of a goal!
26th April
As you might imagine, the papers over the weekend were fulsome in their praise for the quality of the play in general but more specifically for the drive and determination of the Celtic players in twice coming back from behind. This is a typical headline ;-
IT’S A PARADISE AGAIN CELTS CAN LOOK TO NEW HORIZONS
27th April
Billy McNeill is nominated as Scotland’s Player of the Year, the first time such an award had been made.
27th April
Celtic were due to play their final league match of the season on the following day, ironically at East End Park against Dunfermline. That led to the headline –
CELTS AFTER THE DOUBLE!
meaning that the players were determined to show that the Cup Final result was no fluke. Unfortunately, they met a Pars side keen to make amends to their fans for failing to win the final and were hammered 5-1.
28th April
League Dunfermline 5 Celtic 1 Att: 10,000 Hughes
Hugh Maxwell missed a penalty in two minutes, John Hughes made it 1-0 at the interval but in the second half, the Pars opened up, slicing through a Celtic side which looked as though it had enjoyed the previous four days.
One paper, though, had an interesting headline and comment ;-
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 5-1 FOR CELTIC
‘Revenge is sweet….it can also come in surprising ways. After 40 minutes at East End Park, it looked as though one team might score 5 goals – but it actually did not look like Dunfermline. Then came the crash that might have been heard down at the new Forth Bridge. The match, of course, meant nothing to Celtic and somehow I have the feeling that Mr Stein did not produce a cat-of-nine-tails.
28th April
Down in Stoke, Stanley Matthews made his final appearance, his charity match between a Stoke X1 and an International X1. Matthews was 50 years and 4 months.
Scottish First Division Final Table 1964-65
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
| Kilmarnock |
34 |
22 |
6 |
6 |
63 |
33 |
50 |
| Hearts |
34 |
22 |
6 |
6 |
90 |
49 |
50 |
| Dunfermline |
34 |
22 |
5 |
7 |
83 |
36 |
49 |
| Hibernian |
34 |
21 |
4 |
9 |
75 |
47 |
46 |
| Rangers |
34 |
18 |
8 |
8 |
78 |
35 |
44 |
| Dundee |
34 |
15 |
10 |
9 |
86 |
63 |
40 |
| Clyde |
34 |
17 |
6 |
11 |
64 |
58 |
40 |
| Celtic |
34 |
16 |
5 |
13 |
76 |
57 |
37 |
1st May
Glasgow Cup SF Celtic 3 Clyde 0 Auld, McNeill, Lennox
It was announced that, beginning in August, Celtic would publish a club newspaper
5th May
Jock Stein denied reports that Celtic are interested in signing Spanish international Vincent Guillot.
11th May
Glasgow Cup final Celtic 5 Queen’s Park 0 Lennox (2), Auld, Chalmers, Murdoch
12th May
Jock Stein appointed temporary manager of Scotland
21st May
A Celtic party with 14 players leaves Renfrew Airport for Austria.
23rd May
McNeill and Hughes are in the Scotland team which drew 1-1 with Poland in Warsaw.
24th May
Austria FC 1 Celtic 0
27th May
Scotland beat Finland 2-1 in Helsinki. McNeill and Hughes were in the side.
5th June
Celtic signed Joe McBride from Motherwell for £22,500
12th June
Hugh Maxwell was transferred to St Johnstone for £10,000