Match Pictures| Matches: 1986 – 1987 | 1986-87 Pictures
TRIVIA
- Controversy beforehand when Shamrock decline to move the game to Landsdowne Road and stay at their own Milltown ground.
- Estimated 6,000 Celtic fans travel over to Ireland.
- Shamrock erect temporary stand and terracing for the occasion.
- Fans are packed in on the night and the referee had to move fans pack from the touchline during the game.
- Rovers’ player manager Dermot Keely already played against Celtic in the European cup for Dundalk in 1979.
- Celtic play in change strip of yellow shirts, green shorts and yellow socks.
Review
Teams
SHAMROCK ROVERS:
J Byrne, K Brady, P Eccles, D Keely, P Doolin, P Byrne, N Neville, L O’Brien, M Byrne, J Coady, N Larkin.
CELTIC:
Bonnar, W McStay, McGrain, Aitken, McGugan (sub: O’Leary 28), Grant, McClair, P McStay, Johnston, MacLeod, McClair Subs: Latchford Shepherd Arcdeacon McInally
Referee:Henrik Van Ettekoven (Nehterlands
Att: 19,750
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
Times, The (London, England)
September 18, 1986
Author: From STUART JONES, Football Correspondent, DUBLIN
Shamrock Rovers …….. 0 Celtic …………….. 1
The part-timers were taught a lesson by the professionals at Glenmalure Park last night. Celtic, the reigning kings of Scotland, showed that they have passed through a finishing school and that is the reason why they, and not Shamrock Rovers, will graduate to the second round of the European Cup.
It is also the only reason. In every other aspect of the first leg, staged in a charmingly quaint arena on the southern outskirts of this fair city, the group of schoolteachers, decorators and sales representatives were unmistakably superior, and in their midst lay the most gifted individual on view.
They had the most unlikely performer as well. Dermot Keely, their player manager, solved his injury problems by picking himself, even though he had been inactive for three weeks. His view of more than the opening stages would have been substantially clearer if he had taken his customary seat on the halfway line. He was not aware until the interval, for instance, of how close Larkin had been to putting Shamrock ahead within a couple of minutes.
Coady’s cross stretched the ageing McGrain and to the benefit of Doolin. On the smooth surface, he rolled the ball back softly into the path of the advancing Larkin. His drive was pushed away belatedly by the unsighted Bonnar, who happens to be the Republic’s goalkeeper.
Celtic, in immediate and alarming disarray, never recovered with any conviction. Their rearguard was rearranged forcibly midway through the first half when McGugan, Aitken’s central partner, eventually conceded an early ankle injury was serious enough to merit his departure.
That the Scottish representatives should be uneasy at the back was, therefore, more understandable. Yet they were also run ragged in midfield where O’Brien, a tall, dark-haired youngster, was particularly elegant. He has been watched by several foreign scouts in the past and Mick Mills, Stoke City’s player/manager, was among those significantly in the packed audience.
After Pat Byrne (one of three namesakes in the side) had headed narrowly over the bar, O’Brien strode nearer greater prominence. He accepted a return pass from Doolin, sold an extravagant dummy to several opponents, but then marred a dazzling run with a weak and wayward shot.
The travellers from Glasgow, some 2,000 of them, had been fidgeting nervously for some 40 minutes before they saw the slightest sign that the balance might be shifting. It did so momentarily, but dramatically, as McClair, exchanging neatly with Burns, greeted his accurate cross and shook the bar with a header.
Celtic’s discomfort, instead of subsiding at the dawn of the second half as might have been expected, increased instead. The ensuing damage would have been considerable, and perhaps even irreparable, if Mick Byrne had been armed with accuracy and composure as well as his apparent speed.
His aim, rather than improving, became instead steadily worse. Celtic, in maintaining their own high standard of marksmanship, clipped the outside of a post on the hour after Johnston had turned smartly, and they claimed the winner seven minutes from the end.
Grant released MacLeod on the left and he instantly punished Shamrock for the one flaw in their otherwise inspired display.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: J Byrne, K Brady, P Eccles, D Keely, P Doolin, P Byrne, N Neville, L O’Brien, M Byrne, J Coady, N Larkin.
CELTIC: P Bonnar, W McStay, P McGugan (sub: O’Leary 28), D McGrain, R Aitken, T Burns, P McStay, P Grant, M MacLeod, B McClair, M Johnston.
Referee:Henrik Van Ettekoven (Nehterlands
Att: 19,750
Evening Times 18th September 1986
