| Match Pictures | Matches: 1973 – 1974 | 1973-74 Pictures |
Trivia
- David Hay was in transfer discussions at the beginning of the week with a move to London looking more on the cards and to Tottenham. The other two clubs in the running were Leeds and Manchester Utd. All the deals fell by the wayside with Celtic and David Hay appearing to fall out on what they wanted and the bidding clubs becoming disenchanted.
- Celtic played a game against Inverness Thistle on the Monday night with a pool of Connaghan, J Davidson, V Davidson, Callaghan, Deans, Hood, McCluskey, Wilson, MacDonald, Lynch, Quinn, O'Hara, Little, and McNamara
- McGrain, Connelly and Dalglish played for Scotland against West Germany at Hampden in a 1-1 draw.
- Connelly was out allegedly with an injury from the international; also out was Jim Brogan replaced by Jimmy Quinn; Jinky was also still out in the cold and Davie Hay not played after all the transfer shenanigans.In reality Connelly had gone missing. He had not turned up for training on the Friday and disappeared for the game.
- With the state of emergency imposed by the Conservative government in force, football matches would have to kick off at 2:15pm or earlier to avoid using floodlights.
- Dixie Deans scores SIX goals in one league game!!!!
- In the Reserve League on the same day Celtic lost 1-0 to Partick Thistle at Firhill. The Celtic team was Connaghan, J. Davidson, McAleer, Ritchie, McDonald, Welsh, Johnstone, McCool, V. Davidson, O'Hara, Lynch.
- Dixie Deans didn’t know he was anywhere near Jimmy McGrory’s eight-goals-in-a-game record when he netted SIX against Partick Thistle in 1973. If he did, he might have been more precise as he missed a few chances that day. Celtic’s greatest ever scorer, McGrory, scored EIGHT against Dunfermline in a 9-0 win in 1928. However, as Deans came off the park, McGrory came down from the stand and was the first in the tunnel to congratulate the scorer, saying: ‘I thought you were going to break my record, Dixie, and you should have!’ Dixie didn’t just take home the match ball that day. It was signed by all the players and coaching staff of both teams – and a certain James McGrory.
- The country was put into a State of Emergency following fuel shortages with the power station engineers and miners working to rule. The crisis was exacerbated by the war in the Middle East between Israel and her Arab neighbours with the supply of oil threatened.
Review
A joy day for Dixie Deans as he creates a post war record of six goals in one game. Jimmy McGrory watches in the stand as Dixie goes close to equalling the great McGrory's record of eight. Harry Hood has a splendid game and creates four of Dixie's goals and Deans himself, unselfishly, helps Lennox to score also.
Both teams autograph the match ball including the stricken Thistle goalie, and future Celt, Alan Rough.
Questions asked amongst the 22,000 crowd regarding the non appearance of Connelly and Johnstone and rumours abound about Connelly inparticular.
Teams
Celtic:
Hunter, McGrain, Quinn, McCluskey, McNeill, Murray, Lennox (McNamara), Hood, Deans, Callaghan, Dalglish (Wilson)
Goals:- Deans 6 (8, 16, 24, 54, 74, 90), Lennox (64).
Partick Thistle:
Rough, Hansen, Kellachan, Glavin, Campbell, Clark, Gibson, Smith, Rae, Craig, Houston (Ralston). Sub: Lawrie
Referee: A McKenzie (Larbert)
Attendance:- 22,000.
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Articles
Dixie hits Jags for SIX
By: Joe Sullivan on 17 Nov, 2011 09:36 THE Hoops rattling seven goals past Partick Thistle back in 1973 wasn’t exactly headline stuff considering the gulf between the sides at that time but on this very day 38 years ago, November 17,the 7-0 scoreline still marked a post-war landmark for the club.
The reason? No fewer than SIX of the goals were scored by one player and that Celt was super striker Dixie Deans.
To say he was on fire that day is an understatement, but he had no idea that he was on the verge of creating an all-time record as Jimmy McGrory’s EIGHT-goal tally from a 9-0 win over Dunfermline in January, 1928 was under threat.
Dixie had knocked in his hat-trick by the 24th minute and his second-half triple was augmented by another strike by Bobby Lennox – and although Dixie didn’t net his sixth until the 89th minute, there were plenty more chances for him to shatter the record.
He recalled: “The match ball from the game where I got six against Partick Thistle is one of my favourite mementos from my playing days.
“I didn’t know anything about records or anything that day and when I found out that I had actually broken the post-war record for goals in a game, I was actually quite annoyed, because I had missed three or four good chances that day!
“You´re there as a striker to get on the end of things though and you never bury all of your chances. If you take a few of them in a game you should be happy and I got six that day.”
He added: “It was actually Jimmy McGrory who told me about the record, though. He came down from the stand, grabbed me as we went into the tunnel after the game, shook my hand and said: ‘I thought you were going to break my record, Dixie, and you should have!’
“He had got eight in a game and that was the pre-war record, but I had no idea.
“Jimmy was a gentleman, a great man and he signed the ball as well that day, along with my team-mates, the backroom staff and all the Thistle players and coaches.”
