| Match Pictures | Matches: 1972 – 1973 | 1972-73 Pictures |
Trivia
- Temperatures fell sharply in Scotland at the beginning of the week with heavy snow fall in places. The U23 international at Rugby Park beat the weather and Danny McGrain and Pat McCluskey played in a 2-1 loss to England. After a big snow clear up, the senior international side with Kenny Dalglish playing lost 5-0 to England at Hampden.
- The Bayview ground at Methil was little affected by the cold conditions which saw the majority of games called off throughout the first division. Jock Stein delayed naming the side till he saw the ground, then named Harry Hood to start instead of Bobby Lennox.
- Celtic have now dropped 6 points in 7 games.
- With Celtic a game in hand and Rangers one point ahead in the league, John Banks bookmakers make Celtic evens for title, Rangers 6/4.#
- Celtic missed three penalties ! Murdoch, Hood and Dalglish all failed from the spot.
Report
With Rangers’ game at Ibrox postponed Celtic missed the chance to go top at Bayview.
The old ground at Methil had seldom seen a game with this excitement. The Fifers came from one down at half time to a Dixie Deans goal, to lead 2-1 throughout most of the second half. They got their first from the spot after Callaghan floored Hegarty in the box and McPhee put the penalty away. Then two minutes later, they went ahead with a well-taken goal. Celtic were to miss three penalties. The first, Murdoch hammered the ball against the bar and over after 77 minutes. However Duncan was in the area when the kick was taken so a retake was ordered. Stein signalled for Hood to take it and keeper McGarr saved athletically with his foot. The third penalty came when on 87 minutes the Celts were awarded another penalty and Dalglish misses again as McGarr saved cleanly.
However in 88 minutes Deans saved Celt’s blushes with a fine glancing header from a Callaghan corner and he celebrated like he had done at Hampden in the 1972 Scottish Cup Final such was his delight.
Celtic badly missed Hay’s determination in midfield and the 11,000 squeezed into the ground had been entertained royally in a cup tie atmosphere.
Post-Note:
The great tales from Ernie McGarr
Source: https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/international/saving-three-penalties-against-celtic-hijacking-snow-plough-forcing-aberdeen-keeper-to-play-outfield-the-great-tales-from-ernie-mcgarr-3854785
Sep 2022
…he clocked up the most appearances in his four years at East Fife who were tenacious top-flighters for nearly all of that time.
None more so than when Jock Stein’s all-conquering Celtic came to the old Bayview not far from its replacement on a frozen February afternoon in 1973. “We were the only game in Scotland to survive the bad weather and do you know that ground’s secret? It was only discovered when new houses went up on the site – 14 feet of sand underneath the surface, which explained why our matches were hardly ever off.”
This one has gone into legend for McGarr’s triple penalty-save heroics. First up was Bobby Murdoch. “That one is sometimes not credited to me but I definitely touched it onto the bar.” Then came Harry Hood and finally Kenny Dalglish. “It was one of those days that goalies dream about. Not my greatest game – that would probably be a League Cup tie against Hibs at Easter Road [a no-scoring draw in ’69-’70 shortly before his Scotland debut] – but my concentration was terrific and the ball was scudding off my knee, my shoulder, everywhere. I’m not sure what my strengths as a keeper were. Murdoch once asked me: ‘How do you manage to hang in the air for so long?’ But I was always pretty good at penalties, and the three that day were good stops.”
A match report hailed McGarr as “the best reserve goalkeeper in the world” and quoted East Fife boss Pat Quinn telling reporters: “That was the kind of game to bring back the fans. But, gentlemen, it was also the kind of game which takes ten years off a manager’s life.” It finished 2-2, the Fifers denied a famous victory by a last-gasp Dixie Deans equaliser. “I was gutted about that but afterwards Jock Stein came into our dressing-room and congratulated me, saying I deserved to get back in the Scotland team. That made me quite emotional.”
Teams
East Fife:
McGarr, Duncan, Printy, Borthwick, Martis, Clarke, Hegarty, Hamilton, Dailey, Love, McPhee Substitute:- Cairns
Goals:- McPhee (pen 48), Borthwick (51).
Celtic:
Hunter, McGrain, Quinn, Murdoch, McNeill, Connelly, Johnstone, Deans, Dalglish, Hood, Callaghan. Substitute:- Lennox
Goals:- Deans 22, 88.
Referee: G S Smith (Edinburgh)
Attendance: 11,577.
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
