The 9iar Chronicles - Season Three 1967 68
Celticunderground:The Celtic Football Fan Podcast
Release Date: 04/07/2020
Celticunderground:The Celtic Football Fan Podcast
Working at Celtic During the McCann Revolution Fergus McCann came into Celtic Park and changed everything. He changed the board and replaced family inheritance with business acumen. He changed the ground from seats on Terracing to a 60,000 seated stadium. He built all the foundations that have now established Celtic as THE premier club in Scotland. He is one of the greatest Celts in history. The transformation in Celtic pre and post March 1994 was incredible and one of the few people with a front row seat both before and after was Andrew Smith. ...
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In the past week we've had the league secured at Rugby Park, a title party at Celtic Park rounded all off with the Cup Final at Hampden on the iconic date of 25th May. Who else could I ask to discuss this than full-kit Jow Hart love-in man Remy McSwain. Remy and I review everything and jump all over the place because an easy verbal ramble through the past 10 days became a rushed preview and review because the IT set up/wifi crashed. The audio is good because the crap bits are editted out. Enjoy...
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Following securing the league, Andrew Smith met with Celtic FC Foundation CEO Tony Hamilton to ask about the work of the Foundation and discuss the forthcoming charity game against the Dortmund Legends. Andrew asks searching questions such as - aren't all chairtie just a tax on the poor? But Tony robustly defends the work of the Foundation and the input of the club who are by far the biggest contributors to The Foundation. To get tickets for the game, which takes place after the cup final, log on here https://www.celticfc.com/tickets/celtic-legends-v-borussia-dortmund-legends/ ...
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Winners…again This Saturday saw the final Glasgow Derby of the league campaign and for listeners to last week’s podcast the result will have come as no surprise. Despite the comments of pundits, this is a game where form does not go out of the window. It is a game that the form team (or more appropriately the better team) nearly always win. Celtic are the better team. Celtic won. Whilst the league is not mathematically secured, we’re almost there being 6 points clear with just 2 games remaining. We therefore got two boys to discuss with Harry...
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Fun Bhoys Three We have the final Glasgow Derby of season 2023/24 coming up this weekend and so we have organised some experienced heads to discuss the prospects with @Paul1888 joining Andrew & Harry to discuss the game. We roll out the metaphors and the cliches to preview the game in the context of our performance on last weekend when Brendan finally had his full first choice 16 to field. As Andrew H says - use your testicular metaphor of choice when previewing the game and have some fun. Enjoy…
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Smith and Brady - Dundee review and Hearts preview This week Andrew H Smith joins Harry to review the performance and result at Dens Park. The chat takes a meandering turn as the bhoys discuss the events at Dens almost 34 years ago to the day when Celtic really blew the 1979/80 season by losing 5-1 to Dundee during the title run in. Andrew was there and experienced the vitriol. When they get on to the 21st Century tie they get on to discuss how brilliant James Forrest is and anyone who disagrees will go on Wolfie Smith’s list. Finally, the bhoys get to the...
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Smith & Brady - The Scottish Cup Semi Final Following the dramtic 3-3 draw and subsequent penalty shoot-out victory, Harry Brady and Andrew H Smith review the cup semi and discuss all of the action. There’s a review of the defensive short-comings and like every discussion by Celtic fans of a certain age, 20+ year old Hampden games are shoehorned in. Enjoy…
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What’s Going On? There’s hasn’t been a podcast in ages and then, in usual style, two come along at once. If you’ve not listened, then get your ears around St Anthony’s Recollections podcast out earlier in the week. It was a short sharp pod all about Paul McStay. For the longer form podcast (and it’s very long) we have Remy, Lawrence & me asking (and attempting to answer) the simple question - what’s going on? The answer seems to be Dermot with everything flowing from that! It’s nearly two hours long so you’ll maybe listen in...
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Recollections - Paul McStay Paul McStay was born on 22nd October 1964 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Grand-nephew of former Celtic team captain and manager Jimmy McStay, playing for Celtic was in the family blood. A hotly tipped youth prospect Paul McStay was a member of Celtic Boys Club who burst onto the football scene in remarkable style when he hit two goals and was man of the match as Scotland schoolboys defeated their English counterparts at Wembley in front of a live TV audience in June 1980. He signed for Celtic aged seventeen and made his senior Celtic debut in a 4-0 home Scottish...
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Are we at the end of the road The Green Brigade - ostensibly a small group of fanatical “ultra” supporters below the age of 30 so who better to discuss their behaviours than a group of aging middle aged fans…? Hullbhoy, Lawrence, Eddie & I appreciate that none of us share the likely demographic of the supporters group that we discuss, but Celtic is a broad church with fans from 1-100 and all within that spectrum are entitled to their views. Online is principally in one place on the GBand so one element that we discuss is whether the wider fan base are broadly...
info_outlineThe 9iar chronicles - Season Three 1967/68
The Second Greatest Season EVER in the History of the Club - and a Double season.
- League Position – 1st - Third League title in a row
- League Cup – Winners
- Scottish Cup – First Round
- Glasgow Cup - Winners
- European Cup - First Round
After the highs of 1967-68 it would be difficult to know how to go forward with the club. That Jock Stein had a vision of where the club should be was without doubt. He had clearly shown that the club could move forward with suitable backing and one voice. That direction was most clearly in Europe and to be recognised as a great and formidable club. And for this reason Europe and the participation in European competitions was THE most important thing. That is not to say that the other games were non-important. If Jock Stein was anything, he was competitive and aspirational. Having done it once, he wanted to do it again.
It seems almost inevitable as nemesis follows hubris that having won the competition at the first time of asking that the following season the team should fall at the first hurdle. But that's what happened. In Dynamo Kiev, they met a team as well prepared and ready to fight as Celtic were. At home in the first leg, they lost an early goal and then a second, both from errors made by Celtic players and though the effort was all-out in the second half they could only find the one goal. Stein had been looking for a win and by a clear three goals to give him the margin for the return leg. As a master of 'attack being the best form of defense' the away leg would have to be all-out attack. What happened was that though Celtic charged, the game was sorely affected by the pernickety refereeing of an Italian and the Bhoys never got a good clear run to build up the constant pressure of 9 men capable of scoring. And then on 59 minutes Bobby Murdoch was sent off for a second yellow card. A seemingly decent goal was then disallowed and Celtic found themselves knocked out.
With an abrupt termination of European competition this season, the necessity to qualify for next season was paramount. The League HAD to be one. There was just no two ways about this. The team embarked on a winning streak which lasted till the 2nd January and the game against Rangers at Celtic Park. Rangers were two points ahead in the League. The stage was set and no one was more keen than Jock Stein to put Celtic back where they belonged. What happened was to haunt John Fallon for the rest of his career. Two goalkeeping errors allowed Rangers to draw 2-2 and the nip-and-tuck would go on right to the end of the season. In the end it was Rangers that blinked. It was for them to lose the title which they duly did, missing out in crucial games allowing Celtic to continue to maintain their League win record and take the title with a rousing performance at Dunfermiline.
The drive for the League Championship this season established records. The team produced a post-war record of 63 points to win, 5 more than the previous season, and in doing so they lost only one League game. They did not score as many goals with 106 as opposed to 111 the previous but they conceded less - 24 against 33 in 66/67.
In the face of this success it might therefore be thought churlish to complain but there was something different about the performance this season. Despite the number of games won the team appeared to be less imperious than it had the year previously. Jock Stein recognised that no team could stand still and measures had been taken to bring new players through. There was a good crop of youngsters developing but this would take a little time. In the mean time Celtic still had a team capable of attacking with 9 men and defending in depth when required.
Of the other three competitions, Celtic were knocked out of the Scottish Cup at the First Round - something that had not happened since 1952 - by the team that would go on to win the trophy - Dunfermiline. Celtic retained the League Cup after qualifying from a group containing Rangers, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen - another nose rubbed in the dirt. And when Rangers withdrew from the Glasgow Cup citing fixture congestion the word everywhere was that Rangers were afeared to face an in-form Celtic. Celtic duly retained the Glasgow Cup.
Perhaps this last excuse needs bearing in mind when considering the Intercontinental Club Championship games against Racing. There is no doubt that Jock Stein wanted to win this. Even in the face of the debacle after the second leg in Buenos Aires It was Jock that insisted on playing the replay in Montevideo. Robert Kelly was all for returning home. But how would the public have seen a statement like that? In the end it was probably the players view that they could beat Racing which turned opinion to playing the replay and what happened made Jock Stein regret his decision to go ahead with the replay. In the face of the film of the incidents being shown around the world the club had no choice but to censure the players. But what people throughout had failed o see was the utter intimidation and dirty behaviour that Celtic had faced from the Argentine side throughout the three games. And the patience and fair play of the team finally broke and led to the incidents.
So what we have then is a great season in many ways, but flawed and not perfect as say 1967-68 had been. It still represented a phenomenal achievement. Celtic were playing total football with local players all from within 20 miles of Celtic Park long before the phrase became popular and in relation to the Dutch.
The next season as always would present new challenges.
Enjoy…