| Match Pictures | Matches: 1977 1978 | 1977-78 Pictures |
Trivia
- John Dowie and Tom McAdam made their Celtic debuts after signing for Celtic on the Tuesday. Stein paid £25,000 to Fulham for Dowie and £65,000 for McAdam to Dundee Utd.
- Representations had also been made to call up Alan Sneddon from Larkhall Thistle early but the Junior side managed to put this off.
- Aitken was still not fully fit and had had to be withdrawn from the Scotland U21 party to face Switzerland in midweek. Danny McGrain played for the main Scotland team against East Germany away in a 1-0 defeat.
- Celtic named a squad of 15 for the game. Not to be outdone, Rangers named a squad of 16!
- This game was not televised due to a dispute between TV companies and the SFL.
Review
Celtic went into this game in poor form with only one point from their first three games. They gave a debut to midfielder John Dowie, a £25,000 buy from Fulham and had another debutant, Tom McAdam, on the bench. McAdam had cost £65,000 from Dundee United. They were missing 5 of their title winning team from the previous season, Dalglish through transfer, Aitken through suspension and the trio of Stanton, Conn and Craig through injury. Aitken's power in midfield was badly missed.
Celtic had a bright start and took the game to Rangers. At half time they led 2-0 through two Edvaldsson headers from good work by Tommy Burns on the left flank and the big Icelander was giving the Rangers centre backs a difficult afternoon.
Rangers made a decisive change at half time by bringing on Greig and throwing centre half Johnstone into attack. Celtic replied by bringing Edvaldsson back into defence and bringing on McAdam for Dowie. It was to prove a bad move as Celtic then lost any focus they had up front.
Rangers took the initiative and gained heart with Smith's goal in 53 minutes. Celtic were then penned in their own half and it was no surprise when Johnstone equalised in 65 minutes. Latchford then performed well to keep Celts in the game but the final blow came 9 miutes from the end when Latchford ironically let a shot squirm from his grasp in the drizzly conditions and Smith tapped home the winner.
This was to be a severe blow to which Celtic would not recover from for the entire season. At an early stage the bookies installed Rangers to take the League.
Teams
Rangers:-
McCloy, Jardine, Miller, Forsyth, Johnstone, MacDonald (McLean), McKean, Russell, Parlane (Greig), Smith, Cooper.
Scorers: Smith (53, 81), Johnstone (65)
Celtic:-
Latchford, McGrain, Lynch, Edvaldsson, MacDonald, Casey, Doyle, Dowie (McAdam), Glavin, Burns (Lennox), Wilson.
Scorer: Edvaldsson (18, 31)
Referee: I M D Foote (Glasgow)
Attendance: 48,788.
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