| Match Pictures | Matches: 1963 – 1964 | Pictures: 1963-64 Pictures |
Trivia
- Celtic came out of the previous weekend’s game against hearts with a few injury concerns. McNeill (cold) and Hughes (ankle) had missed the game. Added to them were Tommy Gemmell with a thigh knock. Hughes and McNeill were back in training by the end of the week.
- The draw was made for the European Cup Winners Cup quarter finals. Celtic were drawn againt Slovan Bratislava. The other ties were Manchester Utd v Sporting Lisbon, hamburg or Barcelona v Olympic Lyon, MTK Budapest v Fenerbahce. On paper Celtic were pretty evenly matched with Slovan.
- A cold snap hit Glasgow and the central belt and the pitch at Celtic Park had been covered with straw to try and fend off freezing. In the end only the Aberdeen v Dunfermiline game was postponed due to weather. The supporters at the game were reported to have made little fires on the terraces to keep their feet warm.
Review
A tight start with Celtic almost concedeing early. Celtic’s early attacks came to little. Motherwell played some neat football but Celtic too started to get into the game. Six minutes from time Wylie pushed out a Murdoch cross to the feet of Divers who shot it home low and fast. Celtic started the second half with the upper hand. McBride for Motherwell was limping and went to outside left. Hughes had a good chance. John Clark scored a rare goal when Joghnstone cut his corner short to Clark who fired in a low shot which beat Wylie. Mcbride scored for Motherwell 9 minutes from time.
(from Celticfc.net site https://www.celticfc.com/news/2021/december/21/on-this-day-in-celtic-s-history—december-21/ )
A 25,000 took in the visit of Motherwell on this day in 1963 and were rewarded with a 2-1 win over the Lanarkshire side. John Divers opened the scoring in the 38th minute and the crowd were treated to a rare John Clark goal in the 37th minute before future Celt, Joe McBride pulled one back for the visitors in the 82nd minute. Lisbon Lion, Clark only scored three goals for Celtic and this goal against the Fir Park side was the middle one in the trio. His first came in a Scottish Cup quarter-final replay against Hibernian in 1960 when he scored the only goal of the game during extra-time and the keeper he scored past was none other than future Celt and Lisbon Lion team-mate Ronnie Simpson. Following scoring in the Scottish Cup and the league, he rounded off the ‘hat-trick’ nicely by striking in the League Cup when Celtic beat Hamilton Accies 4-2 to win 14-2 on aggregate in 1968. However, John Clark did score one other goal in the Hoops for Celtic – but he was wearing the blue and white hoops of Morton when he scored an own goal on his first return to Celtic Park in 1971.
Teams
Celtic:
Fallon; Young, Gemmell; Clark, McNeill, Kennedy; Johnstone, Murdoch, Chalmers, Divers, Lennox.
Scorers: Divers (38), Clark (67)
Motherwell:
Wylie; Thomson, McCallum; Aitken, Delaney, Murray; Carlyle, McCann, McBride, Weir, Lindsay.
Scorers: McBride (82)
Referee: J Stewart (Paisley)
Attendance: 25,000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
