| Match Pictures | Matches: 1987 – 1988 |
Trivia
- Celtic, who had not long returned from the Pre-Season tour of Scandinavia, played 3 games in 5 days; this game against Morton on the Saturday, Tommy Burns’ Testimonial on the Sunday against Liverpool and the Wednesday night game against Hearts. The Testimonial game was lost 1-0 but both the premier League games were won.
- The fourth new recruit, Mick McCarthy, was injured and recovering from a torn stomach muscle picked up in the first game of the Ptre-Season tour of Scandinavia. He would make his debut in the away leg of the UEFA Cup tie against Borussia Dortmund.
- Of the new Celts; Chris Morris was a former English Schoolboy International before opting to play for his mother’s country of birth and play for the Republic; he had been bought from Sheffield Wednesday for £225,000.
- Billy Stark had come from Aberdeen for a mere £75,000. Aberdeen thought he was past his best at 30 but McNeill felt there were still a few more miles left in the engine though he still only gave him a 1 year deal.
- Andy Walker was the fledgling striker who had started well at Motherwell but still had much to prove – £350,000 worth of proving to do – and had to fill the huge gap left from the departure of the previous season’s scoring aces McClair and Johnston
- Owen Archdeacon, the Celtic sub came from Greenock and would eventually return to Morton in 1997 after spells at Barnsley and Carlisle.
- Billy Stark would return to manage Morton from 1997 to 2000 and was the manager that brought Archdeacon back to Cappielow for £100,000.
- McNamara for Morton is indeed Jackie McNamara Senior, ex-Celtic and Hibs by this time working as player-coach at Morton.
- Alexander for Morton is Rowan Alexander who would go on to manage Queen of the South and Gretna.
- Walker and Stark become the first players to score two goals on their Celtic league debuts since John McAlinden in December 1950.
- On the same day in the Reserve League Celtic defeated Morton 3-1 at Celtic Park. The Celtic team was McKnight, Traynor, Fulton, Shepherd, Baillie, Balmer, Mathie, McCarrison, Trialist, McGee, McGuire Subs Fraser and Elliot. The Celtic scorers were McGuire, Trialist and Balmer.
Review
First game of the season, first game of the re-appointed Billy McNeill, first game back in the Premier Division for newly promoted Morton and debuts for new Celtic signings Chris Morris, Billy Stark and Andy Walker.
Celtic clicked from the start and newly promoted Morton couldn’t deal with Celtic’s pace and craft.
McGhee and Walker struck a fine partnership up front and Stark and Morris impressed on the right hand side on their debuts.
The fans lapped it up on a brilliant sunny day and news of Dundee Utd’s 1-1 draw at Ibrox rounded things off nicely.
Teams
Morton:
Wyllie, Clinging, Holmes, Hunter, Doak, McMaster, Turner, McNamara, Alexander, McNeill, J Robertson
Non-Used Subs: D Robertson, Boag
Celtic:
Bonner, Morris, Rogan, Aitken, Whyte, Grant, Stark, P McStay, McGhee, Walker, Burns (Archdeacon)
Non-Used Sub: McGugan
Scorers: McGhee (12), Stark (54), Walker (62), Walker (70)
Venue: Cappielow, Greenock
Referee: Jim McCluskey
Attendance: 16,000 (estimate)
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Articles
