| Match Pictures | Matches: 1965 – 1966 | 1965-66 Pictures |
Trivia
- Having played two games whilst based in Toronto, the Celtic party moved back to New York / New Jersey area.
- This game was played on a Friday night at the Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City. This stadium was generally used for baseball and American football being base for the Jersy City Dodgers and the Jersey City Giants. In the 70s it became a rather renowned open air rock concert venue. The game was organised by the Italian community of New Jersey.
- This was seen as one of the toughest games of the tour. Bologna had finished second in the Serie A behind Inter Milan. With Italy participating in the World Cup in England Bologna travelled without their three internationalist Bulgarelli, Pascutti and Negri, but had recruited three others from Italian clubs – Morrone from Fiorentina, Lazzati from Foggia, and Magi from Catania.
- John Cushley and Frank McCarron were both out injured.
Back at Celtic Park the old corrugated iron of the Jungle had been pulled down and work was ongoing to re-roof the whole area.
Review
The pitch was far from playable and the remains of previous baseball matches as well as the mound were evident. As such a 'pitch' had been laid out which was far from regulation sized. Touch lines extended out over the track such that the pitch was in places bare cinder and one of the corner flags was right up against the perimeter wall. Both clubs complained bitterly to the organisers but the crowd were already in the ground and therefore the game had to go on.
So the match began in high temper and continued that way when it became evident that neither team wanted to lose. As Celtic started to turn on the style the predominantly Italian crowd started to make their opinions plain and empty chianti bottles started to be hurled onto the 'pitch'. The second half was played in a rain storm which cooled the ardour of the stadium audience a little but at the end mounted police had to come onto the ground as spectators invaded the pitch and tried to get into the dressing rooms.
Outside left, Morrone of Bologna, was sent off.
Teams
Bologna:
Morrone,
Scorers:
Celtic:
Simpson; Gemmell, O'Neill; Murdoch, McNeill, Clark; Chalmers, Lennox, McBride, Auld , Hughes
Scorers:
Referee:
Attendance:
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
