| Match Pictures | Matches: 1967 – 1968 | 1967-68 Pictures |
Trivia
- All the team players were given a severe warning as to their future conduct on the field following the debacle in South America and Willie Wallace's sending off against Dundee Utd. In future any player that lost the place to the detriment of the team's prospect could expect to find himself dropped.
- A Celtic representative side played Clydebank on the Friday night at Kilbowie winning 3-0. That side was likely Fallon, Craig, Young, Cattanach (McGrain), Connelly, Henderson (Gorman), McMahon (Taggart), McBride, Hughes, Gallacher (Dalglish), Macari and gives an indication of the youngsters and groundstaff coming through.
- In the Reserve League Celtic drew 3-3 with Hearts. The Celtic scorers were McBride 2 and Cattanach.
- There was much talk of playing John Hughes at centre forward – a position at which he had started his Celtic career – and he played this position in the Friendly against Clydebank.
- Heavy snow fell in the north of Scotland and frost affected the whole of the country. Celtic tried out a series of new 'anti-frost' mats at Celtic Park. These were large mats filled with straw which could be easily moved onto the pitch to protect it from frost and then rapidly moved off the pitch with no waste or straw residue. The mats must have worked and the game went ahead with four games in the First Division called off with unplayable pitches. Cweltic paid £1200 for the mats.
- Jim Craig and Bobby Lennox made their return to the first team – their first sortie after South America. Bertie Auld was out with a fever.
In the world news, Dr Christian Barnard performed the world's first successful heart transplant in South Africa on 56 year old Louis Washkansky.
Review
A shock early own goal gave Celtic an unexpected lead in the game which was played on a cold and frosty day. George Fleming in attempting to stop the ball reaching Bobby Lennox slammed the ball past his goalkeeper into the net. Ten minutes later Chalmers headed Celtic into a two goal lead when Anderson fluffed a clearance. On the half hour Lennox shot home strongly after Johnstone had made the opening. Jim Fleming pulled one back for Hearts just before half time.
The game was a more balanced affair in the second half but Celtic never looked like losing the lead they had established.
Teams
Celtic
Simpson, Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Lennox, Hughes. Substitute: O'Neill
Scorers G. Fleming (o.g. 3), Chalmers (12), Lennox (31)
Hearts
Cruickshank, Sneddon, Mann, Anderson, Thomson, Miller, Jensen, G. Fleming, J. Fleming, Ford, Traynor Substitute: Kemp
Scorer J. Fleming (40)
Referee: W. Elliot (Barrhead)
Attendance: 35,000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
