| Match Pictures | Matches: 1979 – 1980 | 1979-80 Pictures |
Trivia
- Six Celts were carrying injuries from the various pre-season games. These were Tommy Burns, Vic Davidson, Tom McAdam, Johannes Edvaldsson, George McCluskey and Andy Lynch. The most serious was Andy Lynch who had yet to start a game but he played for the Reserves. Johnny Doyle was suspended for the start of the season.
- Celtic had to make two goes at unfurling the championship flag. Billy McNeill's wife, Liz, did the honours.
- Celtic play in change strip of green shirts, white shorts and green socks.
- In the Reserve League on the same day Celtic drew 1-1 with Morton at Cappielow Park. The Celtic team was Bonner, W McStay, Lynch (Reid), Duffy, Young, Casey, Mackie, Fillipi, C Nicholas, Crainie (Feeney), Halpin. The Celtic scorer was Lynch.
- In the Celtic View of that week, Chairman Desmond White expounded on the coming players' freedom of contract. Players in England already had freedom of contract. This would have major implications for football clubs in Scotland but was a movement that was inexorably drawing in.
Review –
Celtic win well on a hot sunny day but late Morton goal makes them sweat.
Celtic were superb in attack with Provan, McCluskey, Burns and MacLeod all in top form. Provan's goal was superb when he controlled a long clearance and ran on to finish with a great shot.
Teams
Celtic:
Latchford, Sneddon, MacDonald, McAdam, McGrain, Aitken, MacLeod, Conroy, Burns, (Lennox 85), Provan, McCluskey. Sub not used: Edvaldsson .
Goals: McCluskey (30), Provan (32), MacLeod (pen 69).
Booked:- Provan
Morton:
Baines, Hayes, Orr, McLaren, Holmes, Hutchinson, Thomson, Ritchie, Rooney, Tolmie (McNeil), Russell (Scott)
Goals: Ritchie 2 (66, 86).
Booked: Thomson, Hayes.
Referee: G B Smith (Edinburgh).
Attendance: 26,000.
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Match Report
Newspaper report by Dixon Blackstock.
The omens were there before the start when Celtic had to make two goes at unfurling the championship flag. Their performance was the same – distinctly up and down. When they were up they looked really good and well on the way in the hunt for their 32nd league title.
When they were down they looked so suspect, giving away two soft second-half goals and incredibly almost dropping a point in the final second when a long, trundling shot from Morton’s Bobby Thomson clipped the outside of the post on the way past.
Hesitancy was the key-word in the game – a complaint which stemmed from some very indecisive refereeing by George Smith of Edinburgh.He booked two Morton players, Bobby Thomson and Davie Hayes, for bad fouls, and also Celtic’s Davie Provan for talking out of turn. But he let so many things go and missed so much.
It took Celtic a long time to get going, but after a poor first half-hour they burst into two-goal action. First Roy Aitken won a tackle in his own half and sent the ball on to MacLeod, who found Tommy Burns on the move. Tommy then very cleverly slipped the ball into the path of George McCluskey, who smashed a great drive into the roof of the net.
Two minutes later Provan beautifully killed a long clearance from Latchford and swept round a defender in the same movement to clip in a low shot which hit Billy McLaren on its way to the net.
That should have been Celtic off and running with a big win a possibility. But there was hesitancy at the back. Andy Ritchie, who had ambled through the game up to this point, hit in a low free kick from 25 yards which Latchford seemed to have covered. But the ball hit his chest and squirmed into the net.
Celtic got two goals in front again with a Murdo MacLeod penalty, awarded when Thomson downed Conroy in 69 minutes. But another moment of indecision in the goalmouth four minutes from time let Ritchie stroll in to bang in another goal.
