| Match Pictures | Matches: 1978 – 1979 | 1978-79 Pictures |
Trivia![[Untitled]](https://wikifoundryimages.s3.amazonaws.com/W5pvHUzoyb1A4RuneQIgjg30516 "[Untitled]")
- On the night of Monday 23rd October four of the team played at Boghead in a Select side against Dumbarton in a Testimonial for ex-Dumbarton keeper Laurie Williams. They were McGrain, Conn, Lynch and Glavin.
- The club announced that it was moving into the match sponsorship arena with a deal with Smiths Crisps. The sales promotional and merchandising elements were also notably ramped up a notch.
- Conn and Lynch both came back into the side and George McCluskey was preferred to Bobby Lennox who was out injured along with Ronnie Glavin and Mike Conroy.
- Malcolm Robertson was sent off for Hearts.
- Highlights shown on Sportscene that night.
- On the same day Celtic Reserves defeated Hearts Reserves 8 – 1 at Celtic Park. The Celtic team was Bonner, McGrain, Russell, Lumsden, Newman, Dowie, Junior, Weir, Newman, Reid, Doyle Subs McPhee and Halpin. The Celtic scorers were Russell 2, Junior 2, Reid, Lumsden, Weir, Newman. This was a recovery from the Reserves after they had just received a pasting by Rangers Reserves in the Reserve League Cup three nights before losing 7-0
Review
Manager McNeill erupted after the game and publicly slated his team’s dire performance – ‘We have too many players just not good enough to play for Celtic and wear that jersey. Were they all fit ? Fit…the only way my players could have got hurt was falling out of the bath’.
Celtic’s humiliation was compounded by the fact that Malcolm Robertson was sent off after 65 minutes leaving Hearts with 10 men but they scored three minutes later after a dreadful Latchford error.
Newspapers link Celtic with moves for Ian McDonald (Carlisle), Gerry Gow (Bristol City), Murdo MacLeod (Dumbarton) and Ralph Callachan (Newcastle United) as McNeill considers new personnel.
The loss knocked Celtic off the top of the Premier League at the end of the month.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Dundee Utd | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 15 | 8 | +7 | 15 |
| Celtic | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 14 | +6 | 13 |
| Hibernian | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 10 | +2 | 13 |
| Rangers | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 10 | +2 | 12 |
| Aberdeen | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 22 | 14 | +8 | 11 |
Teams
Dunlop, Brown, Jefferies, McNicoll, Liddell, Fraser (Tierney), Gibson, Bannon, O’Connor, Busby ,Robertson. Sub: McQuade
Sent Off:- Robertson 65
Celtic:
Latchford, Filippi, Lynch, Aitken, MacDonald, Edvaldsson, Provan, Conn McAdam, Burns (Mackie), McCluskey Sub: Sneddon
Referee: R Valentine (Dundee)
Attendance: 19,000
