1965-09-29: Go Ahead 0-6 Celtic, ECWC 1st Rd

Match Pictures | Matches: 1965 – 1966 | 1965-66 Pictures

Trivia

• ECWC 1st Round, 1st leg.
• Jock Stein’s first European match as Celtic manager. For once, Robert Kelly did not travel with the Celtic party, ‘business’ keeping him in Glasgow. This allowed Celtic took a party of 18 to the Dutch tie with Fallon, Jim Kennedy (who was still at Celtic despite not playing a first team or Reserve game this season), Cushley, O’Neill, McBride and Auld missed out. McBride and Auld who were both expected to start were carrying injuries.
• The party were given a day off on arrival in Deventer but all chose to walk out to the ground and inspect the turf. The Eagles had just installed new floodlights on the ground and Stein scheduled training for night time to check out the lights. The Dutch side had just been given a 4-0 beating by Ajax.
• On the morning of the game Celtic were guests of honour in Deventer town hall.
• The part time Dutch side and their fans accepted the result in a totally sporting manner.The game was played in the best sportsmanlike manner possible.
• In the European Cup Kilmarnock fought a hard encounter with Albanians Nendori Tirana to come away with a 1-0 aggregate score.
• D.V.V. Go Ahead were rebranded as Go Ahead Eagles in 1971.
• To mark the 50th anniversary of the game, Go Ahead Eagle supporter Herman Starink has written a book on the occasion, see: Niet te Kraken Book
  

Review

Celtic comprehensively took apart the part time Dutchmen with a professional display.

They had been given a game plan of keeping it tight defensively for 20 minutes by Jock and followed instructions to the letter before breaking loose.

Lennox scored from close range on 26 minutes. Hughes headed the second to go 2-0 up at half time. In the second half the Celts freely attacked with Johnstone scoring after 3 minutes followed by two further goals from Lennox and another from Jinky.

As the goals flew in the Celts enetertained the home crowd with some great skill and Johnstone was on top form in this area.
The Dutch media were full of praise for Celtic’s performance both collectively and individually.

Teams

Go Ahead:
Van Zoghel Butter Thiemann Konselaar Warnas Somer Grebing Niehaus Bockestein Veenstra Adelaar
Scorers:

Celtic:
Simpson; Young, Gemmell; Murdoch, McNeill, Clark; Johnstone, Gallacher, Chalmers, Lennox, Hughes.
Scorers: Lennox 3 (26, 56, 70), Hughes (29), Johnstone 2 (48, 80)

Referee: M Zuimers (Luxemburg)
Attendance: 25,000

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Articles

2015

Jim Craig reminiscing on his debut against Go-Ahead, 50 years after the fact.

Taken from the Go-Ahead book, NIET TE KRAKEN.

“I had signed for Celtic in January 1965 and spent the rest of that season in the reserve side, usually at right back although I got the occasional outing at centre back. The following season started in the same vein, but I was conscious that the training was making me stronger, and I was making more of an impression on a match.

However, I still received a surprise on the evening of 6th October 1965, when manager Jock Stein called me into his office and told me that I would be making my first team debut the following evening. Just two weeks before, Celtic has travelled to Holland to meet Go-Ahead Deventer in a first round tie in the European Cup Winners’ Cup. It had been a successful trip, as the Hoops ran out winners by six goals to nil – the crucial strikes coming from Bobby Lennox (3), Jimmy Johnstone (2), and John Hughes – and the Scottish press were very complimentary about the performance of the team on the evening.

A 6 goal lead from the first tie usually means that the game is won and a manager can tinker with his team for the return. Jock stein, though, chose to play nearly a full strength side, the only change being me in at right back instead of Ian Young. I was delighted to be given the news, and went home – using two buses – in a great mood, desperate to tell my parents the news. As I expected, my Dad was delighted: whereas my Mother, always worried about her wee boy (6 feet 1 inch: 12 stone 7 lbs), tried to show her own enthusiasm but also reminded me that if any big lads came near me I had to keep out of their road! Dad merely shook his head.

At the time, I was a dental student and I should have been at the dental hospital until about 5.30pm. However, a chance to play in a European tie does not come to too many players, so I slipped away early, then walked the best part of a kilometre down through the centre of Glasgow before catching a bus out to Celtic Park. The bus was busy with Celtic fans going to the game and as I sat there unnoticed, I was amazed to hear them picking the team for the evening with my name noticeably absent from their thoughts!

Unfortunately, the performance of the side on the evening failed to reach the excellence of the first game. Granted, Go-Ahead Deventer pulled most of their players well into their own half, but on the night, to be perfectly frank, Celtic did not rise to the occassion, and received some stick in the football press the following day for failing to put the Dutch team to the sword, although, probably as a courtesy, my own performance was fairly well received. The Celtic team that night is worth listing;
Simpson, Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill,Clark, Johnstone, Chalmers, McBride, Lennox, Hughes. Yes, it was the first outing of the defence which took to the field in Lisbon two years later.

The result might have disappointed many, but I was on a high with with the sheer excitement of it all. The Boss though, had ways of dealing with exuberance in his younger players- two days later, I was back in the reserves!”