1972-09-16: Celtic 3-1 Rangers, League Division 1

Attendance: 50,416

Evening Times 18th September 1971

Match report from The (London) Times

This game was played at Hampden as Parkhead was under reconstruction in the main stand area. The authorities gave the game a 12 o'clock kick off to try and avoid any crowd trouble. Half the Celtic end was unopened due to being in disrepair and after the Ibrox disaster no one was for taking chances.

Glasgow Herald Monday September 18 1972

CELTIC SO MUCH ON TOP THAT FANS LAUGH OFF MISSED CHANCES

By John Downie

Celtic 3, Rangers 1

The final score gave little indication of Celtic's superiority over Rangers in Saturday's match at Hampden. That was far better demonstrated by the displays of “keepy-uppy” with which Connelly in the first half, and Macari in the second entertained the crowd and the good nature with which Celtic supporters laughed off the many missed chances by their team in the last quarter of the match and cheered the last minute goal from Rangers' captain, John Greig.

Even the fiercely competitive Greig apparently, had by then accepted the situation, for he acknowledged the opposition salute with a wave of a hand. It was a pity that he had lost his aplomb for just long enough to spoil an otherwise heroic performance.

Immediately after Celtic's third goal had confirmed Rangers' fears that had been growing from the scoring of the first in only three minutes Greig conceded a foul for tripping Dalglish. Within a minute he was in worse trouble when he initiated a bout of jostling with Callaghan. Both Greig and Callaghan were booked, which on the visual evidence of those out of earshot seemed hard on the Celt. The name of Stein had preceded theirs into the book in 19 minutes when McCluskey was hurt in a tackle.
.
Yet this was never a rough match. Far worse offences go unpunished in matches where there is less nervous emphasis on preserving the peace.

Celtic gained the whip hand at once by announcing Jimmy Johnstone’s return as outside right and then playing him at outside left. This ruse persuaded Rangers to transpose their backs so that Mathieson, as usual, faced Johnstone, and it seemed more than a probability that the switch contributed to the defensive confusion that overcame Rangers at various stages of the game.

QUIET GAME

Johnstone himself has often been more consistently active. Over the piece he had a relatively quiet game, only one bout of dribbling around Denny being reminiscent of the height of his arrogance. Yet he was directly involved in the scoring of the first two goals, and it seems likely that wondering what Johnstone was up to behind his back led to the weak pass to his goalkeeper with which Jardine teed up the third for Macari.

But the indirect value of Johnstone had influenced the match long before that, for seldom can Celtic players have found against Rangers the freedom of movement enjoyed by Macari, Dalglish, and Deans.
.
It might have been otherwise had Celtic not scored so early. Rangers after all, initiated the first attack, a splendid thrust by Stein, playing on the right wing, and Willie Johnston. A minute later Rangers hopes must have risen when a misunderstanding between McCluskey and Callaghan caused the back to let the winger’s cross run for a corner.
.
After only three minutes however, a wide arcing cross by Macari drew McCloy out to the right of his goal. Jimmy Johnstone headed the ball over the goalkeeper and Kenny Dalglish touched it into goal.

The next quarter of an hour was exciting with good shots by Jardine and Greig for Rangers on either side of a splendid McCloy save at the feet of Dalglish. But in 18 minutes the Johnstone-Dalglish double act again went into effective action. Jardine fell as Dalglish beat him on the outside and before the back could fully recover Dalglish cut in along the goal-line and pushed the ball towards Johnstone. The winger's first attempt to meet the pass landed him flat on his back in the goalmouth alongside the fallen goalkeeper, but Johnstone got a second stab which put the ball into the net.

COMPLEX

Celtic, with Connelly, McGrain, Murdoch, and Callaghan fetching and carrying for those in front, could have had two more in quick succession as Macari and Deans came close to success. Rangers responded with a complex advance in which Denny, Greig, Smith, MacDonald, Stein, Willie Johnston and Derek Johnstone combined to set up a chance for MacDonald, who scooped over.

But three minutes into the second half Macari knocked the bottom out of the match. His lob over Jardine looked like an invitation for Jimmy Johnstone to cut in, but the wing hung back, and when Jardine passed back too softly for McCloy, Macari himself was quickly in to neatly clip the ball into goal.

The most outrageous of a number of incidents in the Rangers goalmouth thereafter was a pile up in 54 minutes with the ball jammed against the front of McCloy's left-hand post. Jackson eventually persuaded the goalkeeper to release enough pressure to allow him to scrape the ball round for a corner.

SPIRITED

Conn, who replaced the injured Willie Johnston in 64 minutes, played with enough spirit to suggest that the match had been less depressing for a Ranger to watch than to play in and Greig kept trying to rally his troops. Yet nearly all the action was towards the Rangers' end, where three shots were stopped on the line by the backs, Jardine once blocking a shot by Macari by the right post and immediately getting over to the other side to meet a drive from Dixie Deans that winded him painfully.

So it all went on until in the last minute, a fine run and pass by Smith enabled Greig to gain Rangers' goal and that Celtic cheer, which one suspects, was not entirely ironic.

from http://www.celticfc.net/news/16293

HIS GREATEST GAME v Rangers – September 16, 1972
CELTIC moved this league game to Hampden due to building work still to be completed on their newly-built main stand at Celtic Park.
Rangers came to Hampden full of confidence after their success in the European Cup-Winners' Cup just a few months previously, while Celtic were without the influential trio of Jim Brogan, Davie Hay and Bobby Lennox as Jock Stein drafted in the young threesome of Danny McGrain, Pat McCluskey and Lou Macari to replace them.
Celtic took control from the off and opened the scoring in only two minutes when Jimmy Johnstone headed a Macari cross on to Kenny Dalglish to score from close range. Celtic smelled blood at this stage and continued their onslaught on the Rangers goal and in 17 minutes they scored a second when Dalglish beat Sandy Jardine on the left and set up Johnstone to score easily.
At this stage of the game, Celtic where imperious with Bobby Murdoch and Tommy Callaghan controlling the midfield area and attackers Johnstone, Dalglish and Macari being unplayable up front.
However, Celtic's superiority started from the back where Billy McNeill and George Connelly had the much-vaunted Rangers strike duo of Colin Stein and Derek Johnstone totally under wraps.
Connelly was now in the apex of his career and he gave a virtuoso display of long passing, effortlessly turning defence into attack in an instant, as a regular supply of through balls where played into the danger areas behind Rangers defence for Macari and Dalglish to fasten on to.
In the first half, big George had delighted the Celtic fans by carrying out an impromptu display of keepy-up, seemingly daring the Rangers players to come and get the ball off him, but there were no takers as the Celtic supporters roared with approval.
Macari scored a third early in the second half as Celtic threatened to run all over their great rivals. Three times Rangers' defenders cleared Celtic efforts off the line, although as the game wore on, the Celtic players were now happy to keep possession and let the Rangers' players chase around in frustration with George Connelly at the centre of the possession play.
The Rangers fans began to leave long before the end and in the last minute John Greig burst through to score at the Celtic End of the ground where the Hoops fans greeted the goal with a huge ironic roar as Greig 'saluted' them in return.
The Celtic fans may have cheered Greig's goal with a certain amount of humour but there was also an element of grudging admiration as Greig was the only Rangers player who hadn't accepted his fate long before the final whistle.
The media stated afterwards that the gap between the two clubs on the field of play had never appeared so great such was Celtic's superiority, although some Hoops fans were annoyed that the team had wound down in the second half and hadn't gone for the jugular to score more goals to add to Rangers’ humiliation.
Celtic had many fine players on the day and George Connelly had been majestic throughout. Comparisons were now being made between the Celtic sweeper and the great West German star of the period, Franz Beckenbauer, and there were certainly similarities between their playing styles.
At the end of the season, George Connelly was selected as the Scottish Sports Writers’ Player of the Year as he kept up his fine form with a string of consistent displays.
This game was part of the reason he was selected for that award and Celtic fans were to fondly remember his bold keepy-up display in the heat of a Glasgow derby for many years to come.