| Match Pictures | Matches: 1987 – 1988 | 1987-1988 Pictures |
Trivia
- McAvennie arrived from West Ham the day before and went stright into the team. McNeill had spent some time negotiating with John Lyall of West Ham for McAvennie's purchase.a fee of £750,000 eventually being agreed – a record fee for Celtic at that time surpassing the £500,000 paid for Mick McCarthy.
- McCarthy was also making his home debut having not long recovered from the torn stomach muscle which had kept him out since the start of the season. He had made his first team debut away to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday 29th September.
- Tommy Burns was out with an injured hamstring. This allowed rejigging the team into McNeill's characteristic 4-4-2 which up to this point had been pretty much an unseen article at Celtic Park which the crowd were finding it difficult to get used to.
- The Hibs team contained two ex-Celts in George McCluskey and Alan Sneddon and two that would go on to become Celts in Rough and Collins
Review
Frank McAvennie's debut in a lacklustre game against Hibs when Celtic fell asleep after an early goal. McAvennie looked unfit and will take time to fit in.
A young John Collins was the best player on the field by far as Hibs impressed. .
Teams
Celtic:
McKnight; Morris, Rogan; Whyte, McCarthy (Archdeacon); Stark, Aitken, McStay; McAvennie, Walker; Grant.
Non-Used Sub: Shepherd
Goal: Walker (4)
Hibernian:
Rough, Hunter, Rae, Mitchell, Sneddon, May, Orr, Collins, Watson, McCluskey, Kane
Non-Used Subs: Bell, Tortolano
Scorer: Watson (79)
Ref: Tortolano
Attendance: 31,805
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Quotes
Billy McNeill
"Our midfield was decidedly shaky and that we salvaged a point was down to our goalkeeper and Hibs poor finishing. This is not the way we play."
Alex Miller
"The loss of an early goal upset us but with guts and determination we pulled back and we should have won it in the end. But we're on the right track."
Match Report
Basically outplayed at home and Hibs could have gone on to take both points. Having said that Celtic also had their chances to pull a win out of the bag particularly with a McAvennie header off the crossbar in the last minutes. Celtic dominated the first half hour of play and then surrendered the advantage to a workmanlike Hibs side in which John Collins was an absolute stand out and ran the show for them.
Celtic did make an excellent start though. In the 4th minute a McStay corner fell to McCarthey whose miscued shot was glanced in by Andy Walker's header from 2 yards. Celtic were in control for much of the first half with McStay magnificently orchestrating everything. Celtic, being Celtic, there was still the opportunity for mix-ups and on 19 minutes McCarthy hit a back pass only to see that McKnight had come well off his line. Luckily the ball went out for a corner. McStay then snuck a pass inside for Archdeacon but the ball was scrambled clear by the Hibs defense. McAvennie had a quiet first half hour but on 40 minutes he showed his class to set up Builly Stark with a shooting opportunity but Rough raced off his line to save. Four minutes before half-time
Hibernian revived and started to launch waves of attacks on the Celtic goal. A 20 yard shot from Orr was saved by McKnight but he was struggling afterwards with a cross from Orr being headed back across goal by Rae. With McKnight stranded Derek Whyte cleared from beneath the bar and Celtic were lucky to go in at half time a goal to the good.
Celtic were under pressure from the start of the second half. A stonewall penalty to Hibs when Aitken wrestled Rae down in the area was missed by referee Evans of Bishopbriggs leading to the booking of a furious Watson for his too vehement protestations. Evans, though had his attention brought to an off-the-ball incident on Chris Morris by George McCluskey and he too went in the book. On 79 minutes Hibs got their equaliser when a move from Collins led to Watson shooting past McKnight from the edge of the 18 yard box.
McAvennie did enough to show that he would be an asset and linked well with Walker. Morris picked up credit for his excellent runs and probes out of defense on the right hand side.
