| Matches: 1960 – 1961 | 1960-19601 Pictures | League Table | Statistics |
Progress – but still no trophies.
- League Position – 4th
- League Cup – Failed to qualify from group sections
- Scottish Cup – Losing Finalist following a replay
- Others: Glasgow Cup – Losing Finalists
- Charities Cup – Joint Winners.
What started as a poor to mediocre season for Celtic gradually developed towards a better performance, but without winning a trophy – unless you were to count a shared part of the Glasgow Charities Cup with demoted Clyde – despite a good performance in the Scottish Cup. The Club had pinned it’s colours to the mast in going for a youth policy and developing youngsters brought in from Junior and schools sides and bringing them through the Combined Reserve League and loaning them out till they were ready to play their part in the senior Reserves and the first team. What this gained in one sense was a body of keen youngsters who always felt that they had a good chance to develop through to the first team, and for the management it avoided costly buy ins of experienced players.What it lost out on was the necessary experience of veteran players who could instil the spine and experience into the youthful exuberance shown by these novices.
The season started with the usual debacle in the League Cup, with Celtic drawn in a group with Third Lanark, Partick Thistle and Rangers. A win followed by a draw actually put Celtic top of the group with two games played, and following this came a very pleasant win against Rangers at Mordor. A fourth game against Third Lanark away also produced a win and with seven points in the bag it looked as though for once the ‘tic would go onto the knock out sections. But it all went wrong in the fifth game losing to Partick Thistle at Celtic Park. The final game saw them needing to not lose to Rangers at Paradise. They started well with a second minute goal… but it was a different side they faced in the second half and Celtic were undone by superior tactics – something that would be seen more than once this season. So pipped at the post by your archest rivals in the first competition.
In the League Celtic again started poorly and it was not until the 8th October and the sixth league game of the season that the supporters saw the team carve out a win in the League. And the factor that made this win and the subsequent change in fortune was the re-signing of Willie Fernie from Middlesbrough. That the youthful forwards were lacking a cool-headed veteran to point them in the right direction had clearly been identified by the management and Board. Attempts were made to sign Tommy Bryceland from St Mirren and when that fell through Fernie became available and seemed the obvious choice. Hectored as the returning hero Willie was a success even before the game against St Mirren. When Celtic then pulled off a 6-0 hammering of Hibernian at Easter Road in the next game everyone thought all the pieces in the jigsaw were ready. That it was not the case was shown through a poor November and early December when Celtic picked up three points in six games losing to Partick Thistle, St Johnstone and Hearts. Again the menagement were aware of what needed to change and had been trying to sign Ian Crawford from Hearts. But when this failed it was let go and no further signings were made – in fact quite the opposite happened with Celtic letting go Neil Mochan and John Colrain. Furthermore the Celtic management and Board appeared to have a problem with Bertie Auld which was beyond a football problem. Auld never fitted the ‘corinthian’ spirit that Robert Kelly thought epitomised the game. When Auld was dropped in mid December (for a potential move to Blackpool) and Alec Byrne returned on the left wing the team did start winning again. In fact what showed throughout the league progress was a constant tinkering with the forward line. A degree of steadiness had appeared when Fernie was bought but it took till well into 1961 for a ‘regular’ side to appear … and it was arrived at seemingly by chance!
It is worth noting the very strong full and half back side that Celtic put out pretty much from the start of the season during 1960 – 61. The line-up of ‘goalkeeper’; MacKay, Kennedy, Crerand, McNeill, Peacock started no less than 28 games together and they became a solid unit which contributed to Celtic showing the second best defensive record in the league after Kilmarnock. When any of these five were out there were sound replacements ready to step up from the reserves. John Clark ably stepped in for captain Bertie Peacock – in fact at the end of the season it might be said that Clark replaced Bertie and led to his decision to move on to player-management at Coleraine. At right half Pat Crerand was THE stand-out find of the season with the accuracy of pass and sound defensive skills. As back up for Billy McNeill there was John McNamee and John Kurila. Full backs Duncan MacKay and Jim Kennedy pretty much ‘carried their bats’ through the whole of the season. In goal Frank Haffey was first choice ably understudied ably by John Fallon. Other noteables were the strapping young John Hughes at centre forward whose size did nothing to hinder his speed and close control. Charlie Gallacher was an unconventional winger in that he was a demon passer of the ball and ready for the cut inside rather than as a conventional winger. And then there was Stevie Chalmers who really found his shooting boots this season.
All in all the team had a good end to the season picking up points in the league in combination with an excellent Scottish Cup run which no doubt helped to inspire confidence and it was to their credit that they ended up in fourth place in the league – their best position since 1957-58 – after such a poor start.
The Scottish Cup had all the ecstacy and agony of the cup and in the end the team were out-thought and out-tactic’d by Jock Stein at Dunfermiline. Jock had out-thought McGrory in his orders and formation in the first final and in the replay he sprung another tactical change which saw Dunfermiline score two goals (one of them in truth down to a Haffey error) but against such a fluid and tactically superior team Celtic had no answer.
The winds of change however were there. With a little luck the season could have been much much more. But the signs were there…. and the belief was that the new season could bring even better prospects.
Off the field, football was changing. South of the border there had been a threatened football strike. The issue was about the right of players to control their contracts and only slightly subsidiary to that was the size of the wage that players would be paid. This was only partially settled with the introduction of no upper wage limit south of the border, but the changesd that began in 1961 would have major effects on the game both in the south and in Scotland and indeed world wide.
