| Match Pictures | Matches: 1964 – 1965 | 1964-1965 Pictures |
Trivia
- After a run of seven games during which only three goals were conceded, Celtic had lost four goals in their last two games. Defensive confidence may have been low going into this one.
- The Hibs side was mostly Jock Stein's as he had just left them for Celtic two weeks earlier. He had been with them for just under a year, but had left his stamp.
- A little more tinkering by Jock, with Brogan back in and Murdoch moving back to inside right. Jimmy Johnstone was out with a thigh knock picked up against Dundee, Chalmers moving back to outside right. Back in came Maxwell at inside right with Bertie Auld dropping out with a toe injury and Lennox moving to outside left.
- The new Hibs manager was Bob Shankly, brother of Liverpool's legendary Bill.
- Included in the Hibs side was 20-year-old Pat Stanton, who was later to become a Celtic star in the winter of his career. Also in the side was John McNamee, who Stein had signed from Celtic the previous season.
- The game was played in atrocious weather conditions of driving sleet and rain.
- It was relatively unusual to play on a Monday in those days but the date may have been set by mutual consent as both teams were involved in separate cup semi-finals the following Saturday.
- On the day of this match, the Scottish League had rejected a proposal to change the league from it's present two divisions of 18-19 to three divisions of 14-12-12. Most clubs had voted in favour of change (by 23 votes to 14) but they were two votes short of the two-thirds majority required by the constitution. Amazingly, the changes, if approved, would take effect the following season so a few clubs were effectively voting for or against their own relegation.
- Celtic were one of the clubs who voted against but they had announced a counter-proposal for consideration at the League's AGM at the end of the season. Bob Kelly's plan was two divisions of 16, plus a third division of the poorest-performing five clubs, and the rest made up of reserve teams from some of the bigger clubs. To be effective a year later.
Review
There was some interest in this match with Stein facing his former club, and Hibs playing well, second in the league behind Hearts. Celtic, in seventh position, were now aiming for the Scottish Cup.
Teams
Celtic:
Fallon, Young, Kennedy, Brogan, McNeill, Clark, Chalmers, Murdoch, Hughes, Maxwell, Lennox.
Goals: Lennox (36, 48)
Hibernian:
Wilson, Fraser, Davies, Stanton, McNamee, Baxter, Martin, Quinn, Cormack, Hamilton, Stevenson.
Goals: Martin (13, 19, 40), Young O.G. (22)
Attendance 19,000
Referee: RH Davidson (Airdrie)
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Articles
HIBERNIAN MAINTAIN CHALLENGE
FINE VICTORY AT CELTIC PARK
Raymond Jacobs, Glasgow Herald, March 23, 1965.
The quick thinking and opportunism of Martin, who scored three times in a first half which produced all six of the goals, brought Hibernian an important and unexpectedly handsome victory.
That it was a lop-sided contest from the point of view of incident was almost self-evident. The excitement of the deluge of goals before half time could not be maintained after the interval, when play was less stirring and interrupted by an excessive number of free kicks.
The rain, mud and wind were just the kind of elements to worry defenders and encourage forwards to sniff out the slenderest-looking of chances. With McNeill in uncommanding form there was an unsteadiness in Celtic's ranks, of which Hibernian duly took full advantage.
Celtic, with Hughes in the van of their attacks, took up the running at the start, but in 13 minutes McNeill failed to make a clearance decisive and Martin shot home from an angle. Six minutes later, Martin obliged from much the same position, having accepted a fine pass from Quinn, and in 22 minutes the game seemed to have run an abrupt course when Young, attempting to head Cormack's cross for a corner, instead sent it into his own net.
Martin then had another goal disallowed, yet Celtic had not, on the run of play, received justice. They got a goal back in 36 minutes, however, when Lennox scored from a rebound off Wilson's chest, but Martin restored Hibernian's three-goal lead four minutes later with a header, after Fallon had failed to get a firm grip on the ball.
End of goals
The explosion of goals ended three minutes from the interval, a mistake by Wilson giving Lennox an easy task to score his and Celtic's second and, as it turned out, final goal.
The second half was as uneventful as the first was lively. McNamee and Stanton formed around themselves a tight defensive wall, which Celtic, switch there forwards around as they would, were unable to penetrate. Long-range shots were unavailable or wide of the target and, with Hibernian attacking sporadically, expectation of further incidents rapidly dwindled.
SUPER HIBS SHOCK THEIR OLD BOSS
Gair Henderson, Evening Times, Mar 23, 1965.
Jock Stein, Celtic's new manager, has made a stick which gave his own back a black-and-blue beating last night.
The Parkhead league clash between Jock's old love, Hibs and his new club, Celtic, was such an intriguing affair that 19,000 fans braved the rain and the sleet.
They were ther to find out if Mr Stein's knowledge he taught the Hibs players could produce a counter-move that would give Celtic victory and all the confidence in the world for a possible "coming shortly" Scottish Cup final between the two teams.
Good Job
The answer was three goals for Hibs inside 22 minutes and a 4-2 defeat for Celtic. Clearly Jock had done too good a job at Easter Road.
The machine he has built up has been made to last and would not be thrown out of gear last night, even by the designer himself.
Hibs were the better team because they had a star centre forward in Neil Martin, even though he was disguised by a number 7 jersey. He scored a hat-trick before 40 minutes were over and he had the brains of Pat Quinn and Willie Hamilton working on either side of him.
In addition to Martin's goals, Ian Young headed as beautiful an own goal as has been seen anywhere this season. He tried to turn a cross over the crossbar and headed it like a bullet past goalkeeper Fallon.
There was no doubt Hibs were better on the night, but there was also plenty of evidence Celtic still had the will to fight. They were 'dead' – down 3-0 – with just over 20 minutes gone but they fought on and Lennox scored the two goals in the Celtic counter-offensive.
All last night's scoring was confined to the first half and the fans did not take too kindly to Celtic's shoot-on-sight policy in the last 45 minutes.
When Lennox had scored his second goal it was after Wilson had dropped a Murdoch cross and it looked obvious the team was under orders to shoot from all angles and all distances on the hope of a repeat mistake by the goalkeeper.
The idea could not have been faulted had the Celtic forwards managed to range their shots righ on target, but almost every one of them went over the bar or past a post.