1972-02-19: Celtic 1-0 Dunfermline Athletic, League Division 1

By John Rafferty

Celtic 1, Dunfermline 0

In the phrase of William Wilberforce, George Miller, the new manager of Dunfermline, treated the match against Celtic on Saturday as a special case. He produced from the coaching manual a defence which came near taking a point from Celtic, and indeed it took Celtic three minutes over the hour to score their single goal.

The hard fact which he must face however, is that his success at Dunfermline is not going to depend on his ability to avoid defeat. He will have to win games and on Saturday he gave no indication as to whether that can be done. There is no great problem in setting a defence, even with players of limited ability. It has been done before.

It would have been unrealistic to have gone to Celtic Park looking for a win and in the circumstances he tackled the problem right in trying for one point and hoping for two even if that meant spoiling the spectacle. He is entitled, in the circumstances, to be selfish.

He set the old Italian defence of Cattenaccio with a sweeper, Cushley, behind four backs, and this is the most formidable defence of all to break especially if the two in the middle and the sweeper are as good in the air as Fraser, McNichol and Cushley were on Saturday and the goalkeeper is as good with the cross balls as Arroll.

Celtic could turn the defence without much bother and with the full backs Brogan and Hay. The latter must have run many miles as he hared down the right hardly noticing the Dunfermline full back, Lunn, but always there was the necessity of putting the ball into the shooting area and there the ground space was tight and the air under control.

It seemed that the stalemate that the tactic had been devised for had been produced until Celtic sent that remarkable young man, Dalglish, into the middle and he made room and eventually knocked down a cross for Macari to hook the ball into the net.
The Italians had another aspect to Cattenaccio which Dunfermline could not produce.

They broke speedily from defence, counter punching to steal a goal. Dunfermline were limited in this and mainly because their full backs, Callaghan and Lunn, who were played because of their experience had that terrible side-effect of experience, a lack of mobility. The overlap was not for them.

Maybe on another occasion when McNichol can be spared to go back into the midfield and more backing can be given to Mitchell and Scott, and maybe Mercer is again a full back and producing running from the rear, then Dunfermline can think about winning games.

George Miller has come in at an awkward time, the team have ten games to play and need to average a point a match. Early in the season Pat Quinn was able to settle for a point a match and so work East Fife to comparative safety but now the new Dunfermline manager must decide whether he goes for the points one at a time or tries to collect them in couples.

They have formidable away games left against Airdrie, Kilmarnock, Dundee and Rangers which could be termed special defensive cases but their last four home matches are against St Johnstone, Morton, Clyde and Dundee United and the test of the new manager is likely to be in winning the majority of these. It is not beyond this Dunfermline to win them all.

Dunfermline Press February 25 1972

REARGUARD ACTION AGAINST CHAMPS
By Press Reporter

Celtic 1, Dunfermline Athletic 0

OUTCLASSED by Celtic in the finer aspects of the game the Athletic, neverthe­less, took a good deal of credit at Parkhead on Saturday for gallant resistance.

The match proved conclusively that the Pars have not given up the fight to avoid relegation and if the determination shown here in defence can be translated to attack Manager Miller could yet pull off a triumph.

ON ATTACK

For 63 minutes they held the Celts who, till then, were on the attack for at least 85 per cent of the time. Nothing was a lost cause as Pars barred so many of the roads to goal.

The goal that was conceded was a rather sketchy affair from close in. Jim Fraser was in position to clear a high lob, but he seemed to be impeded as he made his effort.

Celtic really deserved to win, and, on the amount of attacking they put in, by a much bigger margin. There were heroes all over Pars' defence, but pride of place must go to John Arrol.

We have seen him playing great games in the past and only occasionally making a slip. Here his performance was stupendous, with never a glimmer of a real mistake. Compared with Williams at the other end, Arrol had a hard “working day."

John Lunn was brought back to his usual position, and it must be admitted that he is not yet fully fighting fit. The other defenders were just colossal. Cushley was brought back, and, along with Fraser and McNicol played a tremendous game, with Callaghan not far behind.

It looked, too, as if Manager Miller wanted three midfielders, and Thomson. O'Neill and Mercer were there working hard. That left Scott and Mitchell in attack, and, because of lack of support in that department, they could not be expected to work miracles.

Time and matches are wearing through now for Pars, and it will take a superhuman effort to get them up the League a few places. With the spirit that was shown here, and, with the introduction of a couple of goal-hungry forwards, the Pars' task is not impossible.

During the whole of the first-half Pars had to defend. It was 12 minutes after the start before Arrol was in real action, but after that he was kept busy. Macari, Deans and Hood were all on target with easy chances but Arrol defied them.

Hood the Celt missed with the goal gaping, and there were other escapes for the Athletic. Three times the referee disagreed with a linesman and raised the ire of the crowd. Mitchell got one chance near the interval, but McNeill rushed back to foil him. On the half-time whistle Deans got a real chance when a touch could have brought a goal, but he shot over.

GOAL-SCORER

Early in the second-half Williams had to rush out to kick away from Mitchell, and that was the nearest Pars had been. A grand Celtic move finished when Murdoch shot past. But, in 63 minutes, MACARI netted from close in.

The Pars opened up a bit after the goal, without creating a chance and Gillespie came on for Thomson in 73 minutes.

Celtic: — Williams; Hay and Brogan; Murdoch, McNeill and Connelly; Dalglish, Macari, Deans, Lennox and Hood. (Sub. Callaghan).
Dunfermline: — Arrol; Callaghan and Lunn; Fraser, Cushley and McNicol; Thomson (Gillespie), Mitchell, Scott, Mercer, and O'NeiII.

Referee — W. Anderson. East Kilbride.