| Match Pictures | Matches: 1973 – 1974 | 1973-74 Pictures | Forum |
Trivia
- This was an all ticket game with a crowd limit of 100,000. The bad weather, however, reduced the gate to 54,864 on the night. The game had an evening kick off with Hampden arranging extra generators to power the floodlights to get round the emergency powers.
- Ally Hunter received an ankle knock in the Arbroath game and was in for treatment. He recovered in time to preserve his record of having played so far in every first team game. Also back in quietly came David Hay. Stein drops Connelly and Johnstone to the bench after disciplinary problems.
- Harry Hood joins a select band of Celtic players to have scored a hat trick against Rangers.
- Hood scored a fourth which was controversially disallowed for offside.
- On a night of pouring rain the Celtic fans stand on the uncovered Hampden terraces (at 3-1) and loudly sing Gene Kelly's 'We're singing in the rain !!!'
- Some fans claim that fans also sung 'Raindrops keep falling on my head' from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Review
Celtic's class shone through in the second half with Wilson and Dalglish both superb attackers making Hood's three goals.
Hood was unlucky when a fourth goal was disallowed which would have given him a remarkable record of four goals in one game against Rangers.
Murray and Hay eventually won control of the midfield and Celtic's margin of victory could have been greater in the end
Although Hood took the glory with his hat trick it was Paul Wilson who was Celtic's best player closely followed by Kenny Dalglish.
In the other semi final Dundee beat Kilmarnock 1-0 two nights before this game
Teams
Rangers:
McCloy, Jardine, Mathieson, Greig, Jackson, Houston, McLean (Johnstone), Forsyth, Parlane, Conn, MacDonald. Sub: Smith.
Goal: MacDonald (37).
Celtic:
Hunter, McGrain, Brogan, Murray, McNeill, McCluskey, Hood, Hay, Wilson, Callaghan, Dalglish Subs: Connelly, Johnstone.
Goals: Hood 3 (34, 55, 73).
Referee: A McKenzie (Larbert)
Attendance:- 54,864.
Articles
- Match Report (see Below)
- Manager Interview
- Match Pictures
Articles
GLASGOW HERALD REPORT BY IAN ARCHER
HOOD'S THREE GOALS GIVE CELTIC A DECADE OF LEAGUE CUP FINALS
Celtic, with absolute assurance and occasional arrogance, last night trampled over Rangers and thus walked into their tenth successive League Cup Final. It was easy at a rain swept Hampden Park.
Victory was accomplished with hardly a worry in the world throughout a Semi Final watched by 54,864 rain sodden spectators.
This Old Firm affair was a personal triumph for Harry Hood, that accomplished Celtic forward, who scored three goals and joined that select band of players who have done so in these intense confrontations between Glasgow's bitterest rivals.
If Hood was outstanding on a wild night then every one of his colleagues supported him well. Of the 10 others Dalglish was clearly exceptional and Wilson justified the faith of manager Jock Stein, who preferred him to that pair of talented internationals – George Connelly and Jommy Johnstone.
The Ibrox side played a curious semi final. Kicking into the wind in the first half they looked composed, but after the interval, with the elements acting to their advantage, they fell away. Tactically, the switching of Alex MacDonald to the left wing robbed the side of where it was needed, farther back.
It was, for Rangers, a bad defeat as one doorway to another season of European competition was shut in their face. But they fought to the end, their spirit unbroken.But Celtic, on this Hampden evidence, remain by some distance Scotland's best club team of the present time, much as they have done over the last decade. Ten in a row is too long a chain of events to ascribe to coincidence.
This was another hard and unrelenting Old Firm game, full of indiscreet and indecent tackles, which ended with three men – Jackson, MacDonald and Wilson being booked.
Celtic contrived the start they wanted, using Wilson at centre forward, held upfield to exploit the offside experiment and under orders to run the pace out of Rangers legs. He did so and left others to exploit the gaps.
After 34 minutes Celtic struck. Dalglish drove a low cross and McCloy, diving awkwardly, full of angular limbs, could not gather the ball. Mathieson kicked off the line as it spun clear, but contrived only to give Dalglish another creatice chance. This time the ball was floated into the centre and Hood pushed a smart header into the empty net.
But it was not, for a while, to be easy for Celtic. Rangers found an ally in adversity and three minutes later they were deservedly level. Greig, as always at the heart of every matter, broke up the midfield play and edged towards the penalty area. Once there he played the square pass to MacDonald on the left and the winger hit a vicious curving cross which flew across the face of Ally Hunter before spiralling into the net – the game's best goal.
There it rested until half time with Rangers, the favourites, downwind. But the expected never happened as Celtic locked up the middle, tackled even harder and eventually sucked their opponents dry.
They scored again after 55 minutes when Jackson was forced into a desperate tackle on Wilson which left the winger almost on the track. Callaghan took the free kick and McNeill, having stolen silently to the far post, headed strongly and accurately back across the goal. Hood again was present to stick the ball over the line. This time there was no reply, for Hay's damaging tackles had taken effect and Rangers were short of inventive ideas.
Manager Wallace threw on Derek Johnstone as an extra striker in place of McLean who had disappeared but the teenager had hardly arrived before Hood had completed his hat trick to take the Semi Final beyond recall. Again it was a Dalglish pass and he looked offside as he strode across the penalty area to stroke the ball past the reach of McCloy. This was balanced by another tremendous Hood shot which looked onside that was disallowed only a few seconds later.
So the terraces were cleared with Celtic songs being sung loudly and enthusiastically, if untunefully. Once more out of a period of some concern inside the club the right answers had been found and the Celts had beaten Rangers for the third time this season.
