| Match Pictures | Matches: 1964 – 1965 | 1964-1965 Pictures |
- Celtic were heavily criticised for a poor performance in the first game four days earlier and they were favourites to make amends in this replay.
- It was normal to announce teams to the press 24 hours before a match, but in this case Stein stated that the line-up will remain secret until the players are in the dressing room.
- His one quote the day before was ‘The wee man has a good chance of playing’. Typical of Stein’s tactics at providing misinformation to opponents, Johnstone was left out and Chalmers played on the right wing, with the rest of the team unchanged from the previous Saturday.
Review
A second bite at the cherry for Celtic to reach the final. In the first game, Celtic had underperformed and Motherwell had overperformed. Could the favourites just play to form and get through to meet Dunfermline?
Teams
Celtic:
Fallon, Young, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Chalmers, Gallagher, Hughes, Lennox, Auld
Goals: Chalmers (27), Hughes (68), Lennox (74)
Motherwell:
Wylie, Thomson, R McCallum, Murray, Delaney, W McCallum, Carlyle, McCann, McBride, Weir, Lindsay.
Attendance: 59,000
Referee: AFJ Webster (Falkirk)
Hampden Park
Articles
Evening Times 1st April 1965
Glasgow Herald 1st April 1965
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Articles
CELTIC QUALIFY FOR CUP FINAL
Superiority in Second Half
Raymond Jacobs, Glasgow Herald, Apr 1, 1965.
Celtic are in the final of the Scottish Cup for the thirtieth time. At Hampden Park last night in their semi-final replay against Motherwell their power, aggression and speed were too much for Motherwell, whose feather-weight attack never looked capable of making them the side to meet Dunfermline Athletic later this month.
Celtic were to Motherwell what Brian London, the previous night, had been to Billy Walker. In a first half full of the sound and fury of their assault Celtic softened up the opposition, who then were in no state to offer resistance, even when it was their turn to have the wind at their backs.
The traffic, indeed was almost all one way. Chalmers’ return brought new life to an attack which, though falling over themselves in their anxiety to score, were always on the move forward. At corner and free kicks they were reinforced by McNeill whose accurate heading and magnificent work in his own position were of the highest quality.
Brave Defence
Thus, while Motherwell’s forwards, with the exception of McBride and Weir, were incapable of giving Fallon more than a moment or two of anxiety all night, the defence courageously kept their heads as the storm broke about them.
The full backs, Thomson and R McCallum, and Murray and Delaney fought hard and it was unfortunate that Wylie, whose goalkeeping was brave and safe, should make the mistake, exposed to 58,959 pairs of eyes, which gave Celtic the important breakthrough of a second goal.
Celtic forced the pace from the start. Wylie made a brilliant save from Auld and only splendid covering kept out goals. After 26 minutes of furious action Hughes appeared to have scored when his shot came down off the underside of the crossbar. Lennox made sure, but a score was disallowed for offside.
In the next minute, however, Celtic went ahead for the first time in the 117 minutes the tie had thus far run when Chalmers chested Auld’s corner kick into the net through a thicket of players.
Final Fusilade
A first half packed with incident ended with Thomson twice saving on the line, Wylie holding a header from Hughes, and Gallagher crashing a long drive against the crossbar.
Motherwell had a greater share of the play after the change of ends and some of the fire went out of Celtic, but Chalmers rekindled it with a shot which Wylie turned for a corner which McNeill headed against a post. Then Lennox, with time to steady himself, shot directly at Wylie from six yards.
At last celtic confirmed their superiority with goals. In 68 minutes Wylie dropped a cross from Chalmers and Hughes coolly hooked home the loose ball, and six minutes later Lennox sealed the issue when he ran through on the right and shot the third goal under Wylie’s body.
Motherwell “lost” in a Green and white blitz
CELTS’ NIGHT OF GLORY
McNeill inspired this cup victory
Gair Henderson, Evening Times, Apr 1, 1965.
Celtic have made it! They tore Motherwell to shreds last night, and no team ever more deserved a 3-0 victory and that cup final appointment with Dunfermline at Hampden on April 24.
Whether the change in the Celtic play and the Celtic outlook was brought about by hypnotism or a magic wand I wouldn’t know, but the transformation from Saturday was a wonderful sight to the big majority of the 59,000 crowd.
Last night’s semi-final replay was no contest. The Motherwell forward line, so good on Saturday, were so bad this time that Fallon and the other Celtic defenders could have taken turns at nipping into the dressing-room for a cup of tea.
McNeill tops
With a little bit of luck Celtic could have made the score 5-0 or 6-0 and made this an even greater night of glory for forwards such as Stevie Chalmers, John Hughes and Bertie Auld.
But the man who gets my star rating and the man who ‘won’ the tie for Celtic was not a forward but centre half Billy McNeill.
Billy has been struggling recently, but this time he came up with a masterly performance. Against Motherwell’s most dangerous player – Joe McBride – he made not the semblance of a mistake, and the inspiration was infectious.
The final result should have been 4-0, for it seemed to me that Hughes scored one of the finest cup goals ever seen at Hampden – and had it wiped from the slate.
Baffling decision
Playing with real intelligence, the centre forward stayed well clear of centre half Delaney all through the proceedings and as a result he was able to find the space he needed to bring the ball under control and get moving before he could be tackled.
Example – In the 25th minute he shook off pursuit with a move to the left touchline and fro 25 yards he sent in a shot of such power that it brushed Wylie’s hands, hit the underside of the bar, and satisfied my eyes that it came down well BEHIND the goal line.
To make sure there could be no possible argument, Lennox swept the ball into the net, and 11 Celts stood aghast when Lennox was ruled offside.
How that decision was arrived at baffled me. There was no question of interference with the goalkeeper for Wylie was the last player to touch the ball – and the rule says that a player is NOT offside if the ball was last touched by an opponent or was last played by him.
With the chalking off of this great and spectacular goal Celtic might have been pardoned for giving up and saying – ‘This is not our night.’
Instead, they redoubled their efforts, and two minutes later Chalmers, the outside right in a perpetual hurry, breasted the ball over the line when a corner kick was just too high for his foot and just too low for his head.
Wonderful Wylie
We could all have gone home at that time and have been sure of the result; but the crowd stayed on to see some fantastic goal line saving by right back Thomson and some brilliant work by Wylie.
Wylie was wonderful and it was a pity that his major mistake brought the second goal. He went up to a Chalmers cross, dropped the ball, and Hughes promptly hit it from an angle to the back of the net.
Lennox then scored a third goal to put the result line in proper perspective and emphasise that there were no bad Celtic players on this field, and very few good Motherwell ones.