| Match Page | Match Pictures | KDS Thread | I Was There… |
Date:
19 Oct 1957
Venue:
Hampden Park, Glasgow
Match:
League Cup Final
Occasion:
Cup Final
Result:
Celtic 7-1 Rangers
Match Page
Who Was There:
I'm delighted to say that I was at the game as a 15 year old who took his first apprenticeship job among a crowd of blue noses.
I was being teased the whole week on the build up to the game about what a great team they had and the tic had no chance, indeed that was the general feeling among the media at the time.
I was finally invited to go to the game with them all costs being taken care of, I decided to accept but I would have to pretend to my parents that I would be working on the Saturday, violence was much worse in those days with street battles being fairly common.
Saturday morning I jump the No.9 tram at Partick Cross and head for BridgetonX where the meeting place was the pub on the corner next to what was then the railway station.
On my enrance to the pub my mate? big Willie McCann announces the boy's a Tim and he's wae me so naebody give him any feckin hassle.
Whe I order a black & Tan (popular pint in those days) the first thing I notice is the picture of old Lizzie up in the gantry and I'm now doubting my decision to join this mob, the banter in the pub is in full swing as the huns are all expecting an easy stroll for them at Hampden.
Then we pile on the supporters bus heading for the game and very shortly wer'e gurding old Derry walls and wearing the sash their fathers wore, I'm now convinced I've made a big mistake.
Into the huns we go and the first thing that strikes me is seeing the huge amount of tri-colours at the other end, our end my feckin end where I should be.
The teams come out and their is an almight hampden roar, Big Willie pushes me in the back and says shout for your no feckers gonna say anything while I'm here, but I decide to go dumb but I shivering with anticpation.
Celtic go one up and their is stupified silence from the huns, but big Willie lift under the arms and shouts cheer for your feckin team, but again I decline just happy that the bhoys have gone ahead.
Then we go 2 up but there's no lift from Big Willie this time, I'm glorious happy but trying to put on a nonchalant appearance as the huns are starting to growl all around me.
Unbelieveably we go 3 up and this time Big Willie is very agitated and give a push in the back and says "I suppose you went to chapel this morning ya wee p***k, and the mood is very ugly all around the place.
By the time half time comes they are all arguing among themselves ans I can see the atmosphere is getting uglier by the minute, at the other end our end Hail Glorious St Patrick is being belted out, it is absolutely deafening and I'm shaking all over with excitement.
2nd half and wer'e now coasting it 5-1 when number 6 hits the back of the net all hell breaks loose around me, they are rolling all over the terracing punching shampoo out of one another and Big Willie is in the thick of it. While thats going on the cops are moving in big time taking out anyone that they can seperate.
When No7 goes in their is a hail of bottles flying in all directions and Big Willie is 10 yards away throwing punches at anyone and everyone I decide it's time I got out of there.
Down the terracing I run with my two arms covering my head as the bottles are falling like hailstones the whole way, down to the conder track I get and all the way round to our end which is going ballistic with joy.
I have to dodge a couple of cops before I make into our own people and I can really let rip now with the celebrations, I manage to coax the bus convener of the Dumbarton Supporters bus to let me travel back to Partick with them.
i make it back to Partick and my Ma is looking out the window as I come up the street, she shouts "we put those b******s back in their box today son, did you hear the score, and "I say I did Ma unbeievable."
She then says you can keep your days overime to yourself son when you get paid next week,what a day, what a memory.
Who Was There:
Ceilteach of KDS forum
I was 8. We were VERY poor .Didn't even have a "wireless" to listen to the game.
Live commentary began after the 2nd half was 10 mins. old.
The huns next door had one and would NEVER have invited us in as they wouldn'y have given you the steam from their pish.
Absolute shock when my maw and me are invited in. The ould wumman hun says, "the Gers are winnin' 3-1" but we bravely enter the hun hovel. David Francie or someone or other says " and it's still Rangers 3 Celtic 1" The grins on their pusses turn Cheshire Cat size. Then said commentator says, and it's still Celtic 3 Rangers 1. The kindly huns are perplexed and say, " he must've made a mistake" (an honest mistake back then too,haha)
McPhail scores again and huns say that must be 3-2 taeragerrrzz!, but NO. They've made a huge honest mistake, it's 4-1 tae the bhoys. O how I wish I could've recorded their ugly pusses and the ***** about how ragerrzz mustae gied Cellic thur we chance.
It was pyoooerr magic. Some huns in the street were never seen for months. Some still don't believe it happened.
Who Was There:
Lysdexic of KDS forum
A post I made a wee while ago on the subject, you might be amused by it:
Hampden in the sun.
I remember zilch about the game, it was my very first Celtic game, I was 5.
The only reason I got there was my uncle Larry was 'watching' me (the wean), while my mother and father were away shopping for furniture for our new house.
Larry was skint, having been off his work for a couple of weeks injured, so no Cup Final; he placated himself by being convinced that Celtic would get a hammering, so it was not worth going to.
As fate would have it, he gave the bookie an awful doing to the tune of about £40, a veritable fortune back then… so it was Hampden with me in tow, and sworn to secrecy forever from my mother.
We got in and Larry made his way round to where all his usual crowd with his good luck charm on his shoulders.
The game is history of course, but all I remember about it is getting passed over the heads of all the 'men' who insisted in slipping a couple of coppers into my pocket… for luck!
I came out of that game with more than £2 in my pockets, and for those of you not old enough to remember when LSD was money and not a drug, that weighs about half a stone.
Anyway, we got home before my mother and father, and true to my word, I never said a cheep about Hampden or Celtic, my uncle Larry taking charge of my money ans slipping me a couple of coppers for sweeties now and again.
The next week though, there was a thump on the door and my mother answered it to be met by a bunch of Larry's mates wanting to know if they could take the wean to the game…. for luck!
Busted!
She's 85 years old, Celtic daft, and still gets mileage out of that yet.
Who Was There:
CardBhoyinDublin of KDS forum
My old man god rest him used to go on about it all the time,he and his brothers were at it he was around 20 i think at the time,and his brothers all lunatics came from Govan were there also,his neighbours were as my father used to say-
"Trumpets son,right huns you know,the ones that would make you boak even to look at " his brother ,my uncle Jim would pipe in "Is there any other kind Ger" the neighbours were very quiet my granny said after the game,until my da and his brother came back,near full scale riot in the middle of Govan due to abue dished out by every tim in the area,even back then they couldnt take a defeat