| Match Pictures | Matches: 1971 – 1972 | 1971-1972 Pictures |
Trivia
- The injury crisis was easing. Jim Brogan and Davie Hay were back training; Harry Hood and Jimmy Quinn had both played in a Reserve game and were ready; and Dalglish and Macari were both ready. Paul Wilson was also in the squad for the game.
- In came Jimmy Quin, Harry Hood and Kenny Dalglish with Jimmy Johnstyone and Bobby Lennox missing out and Pat McCluskey dropping to the bench.
- Stein pays tribute to the "old guard" after 7 in a row league title is clinched
- Stein – 'It won't happen again in my lifetime'
- Fans celebrate in the old Methil ground.
- Fairly low key title celebrations for the players as everyone aware of Inter Milan semi final at Parkhead four days later.
Double sided pennant bought at this game:
Review
Celtic make it a record 7 in a row with a comprehensive victory over East Fife.
Celtic played a front three of Dalglish, Deans and Macari. The opener came when a disputed ball in the area broke to Dixie and he hammered it home and just before half time Harry Hood headed home a second.
Celtic cruised through the second half with Dixie adding a third goal from a Harry Hood pass.
At Hampden in the Scottish Cup semi final Rangers and Hibs played out a 1-1 draw
Teams
East Fife:
Gorman; Duncan , McQuade, Walker, Martis, Clarke, Bernard (Honeyman), Borthwick, Hughes, Hamilton, McPhee.
Scorers:
Celtic:
Williams; Craig, Quinn, Murdoch, McNeill, Connelly, Hood, Dalglish, Deans, Callaghan, Macari (McCluskey).
Scorers: Deans 2 (39, 77), Hood (43)
Referee: W. J. Mullan (Dalkeith).
Attendance: 12,000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
The Glasgow Herald Monday April 17 1972
Tribute to Lisbon survivors after record title win
By Raymond Jacobs
On a wall in the boardroom at Celtic Park hangs a photograph of the players who swept all before them in the I966-67 season, culminating in the European Cup triumph in Lisbon. Of that staff of 29 only nine are still with the club, yet on Saturday Celtic were able to wrap up a record seventh consecutive league championship— with four games still to play.
That item on a crowded agenda having been passed only three days after Celtic had won through to the final of the Scottish Cup, Jock Stein, the guiding hand behind the multiple successes of the last seven seasons, yesterday took time to reflect on this latent achievement.
Interrupting the supervision of preparations for Celtic's attack on yet a third competitive front, Wednesday night's return game of the European Cup semi-final against Inter-Milan. Stein was quick to pay a tribute to the contribution made by the survivors from the first years of what has been unbroken success of one kind or another since he took up the reins.
"The young players we've brought in this season have been rightly praised," he said. "But what would we have done without the experience of the older ones" Bobby Murdoch, Jim Craig, Jim Brogan, Bobby Lennox, and Jimmy Johnstone have all played their part, and perhaps most of all Billy McNeill, who has been captain all these years, probably a record in itself, and who has had a magnificent season."
Uncomplicated
McNeill, whose career just over a year ago seemed to be wallowing in the doldrums, has had a new lease of life conferred on him by his partnership with George Connelly, possibly the most improved player in Scotland this season. In this example of blending, the new wine has gone in with the old bottles and developed a fine vintage.
Stein continued his assessment: "We have an uncomplicated method of play which combines the discipline of a fluid 4-3-3 formation with allowing players to express themselves freely. Within the framework I can slot in a player, just as on Saturday when Lou Macari was taken off, Connelly moved forward, and Pat McCluskey came on and took over Connelly's position comfortably.
"We make changes frequently, for that way no one becomes complacent. Our young players know that they are going to be given their chance and so, in addition to a good scouting system, we have players coming to us because success breeds success and we are the club they want to be with. But for all our resources I wouldn't want to make any forecasts about next season's league title."
Perhaps as strong a reason as any for the extraordinary consistency needed to complete the long haul of the league campaign successfully seven times in a row is that there are simply more good individual footballers with Celtic than with any other Scottish club. And Stein promises that in the four remaining matches – against Dundee and Hearts away and Dundee United and Motherwell at home – he intends to continue fielding the strongest available sides.
Whether or not Stein will be able to do so on Wednesday depends on decisions that will be taken today on David Hay, Harry Hood, and Brogan. Although Hood played for 90 minutes against East Fife he did not look 100% fit and Stein will be taking into account the players' own opinion of their chances of being ready to face Inter-Milan who arrive this evening and will be based at Troon.
One way or another the fate of all three will be decided today and not at the last minute. Meanwhile, they have been named in the party of 20 who will leave this morning for Seamill, where they will make their headquarters until the afternoon of the match. The group comprises the 12 who beat East Fife 3-0 plus Denis Connaghan, Johnstone, Lennox, Hay, Brogan, Vic Davidson, Paul Wilson, and unexpectedly Danny McGrain, who fractured his skull at Falkirk three weeks ago but who is being taken along in acknowledgement of his contribution to the success gained so far.
As for the occasion on which this Celtic team carved another niche in the history both of the club and of the game, the action of one of their supporters summed it up neatly enough. He left Bayview carrying between thumb and fore-finger a few blades of grass from the pitch as a memento of the achievement, which it is certain he will recall long after he has forgotten tie game itself.
Low key
If for singular a feat the setting was modest in scale so also was the audience — 12,000 in number — and the game was pitched in a correspondingly low key. Any number of valid reasons can be given — the absence of a handful of leading Celtic players; pre-occupation on one side with an important match soon to come and on the other with their insecure position in the first division; and not least the blustery wind which added to the difficulties of controlling the ball on a hard and bumpy ground.
East Fife revealed glimpses of ambition but more often, and understandably, an accommodation to the realities of their strength compared with that of Celtic. Inside Celtic a powerful rhythm struggled to emerge and once Murdoch had found his feet it did so and Deans and Hood scored within five minutes of each other shortly before, the interval. That broke the back of the contest and in the second half Deans, his shooting eye well in these days, added the third and with it weight to his claim to be chosen for his first European match.
Only in the last two minutes of the game was Williams called on to show that previous inactivity, except for collecting pass-backs, had not rusted his reflexes, Then, he made two outstanding saves, but East Fife's aggression, such as it was, had come far too late and although there was sympathy for them in having to face so powerful a force in their predicament, in the end credit had to be given where it was most due and Celtic's quite remarkable, and probably unrepeatable, achievement fully acknowledged.
