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Date:January 16th 1971
Venue: Dens Park
Match: Dundee V Celtic
Occasion: Scottish League First Division
Result: Dundee 1 Celtic 8 – Hood (2), Wallace (2), Johnstone (2), Houston (OG), Callaghan
Attendance: 20,000
Celtic Team: Williams, Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Brogan, Johnstone, Wallace, Hood, Callaghan, Auld
In The Big Wide World: Scotland is still coming to terms with the Ibrox disaster. The disaster occurred at the match with Celtic on January 2nd when crush barriers collapsed as thousands of Rangers fans made their way out of the stadium.
The launch of the BBC's Open University takes place on January 3rd.
In Melbourne on January 5th Australia and England contest cricket's first ever one-day international. The Aussies win by five wickets.
A Bit of Culture: Films released in 1971 included Get Carter, Shaft, A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, The French Connection and Willy Wonka and the Choclate Factory.
Clive Dunn and 'Grandad' topped the pop charts on January 16th 1971. He would eventually be knocked off the top spot by George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord'.
Albums released in 1971 included David Bowie's 'Hunky Dory', The Doors 'LA Woman', Led Zepplin 'VI', Rolling Stones 'Sticky Fingers', John Lennon 'Imagine' and Sly and the Family Stone 'There's A Riot Going On'.
Who Was There: lubomirmoravcik
January 16th 1971. A bright but cold winter day. Celtic are heading to Dens Park for a league clash with Dundee. Having lifted 16 major trophies – and reached two European Cup finals – in the previous six seasons the Bhoys were now on the march to their sixth successive championship. Exactly what was it like following Celtic during this incredible period?
I was just 14 at that time and it felt as if I was following the best team in the world. Certainly, I felt that Celtic could beat any team anywhere. After all, we had Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeill, Jimmy Johnstone, Willie Wallace, Davie Hay, Bobby Lennox, Bertie Auld, George Connelly and big John Hughes. What did we have to fear from anyone? It really did feel like we were capable of anything (well to a 14 year old it did at least). My best pal at the time wasn't a Celtic fan (nor was he a Rangers fan) and even he thought that this Celtic team were brilliant. We could both just remember the period of Rangers dominance up to the mid-60s but he was of the opinion that Celtic were in a different class altogether to that Rangers team. I remember feeling good amongst my pals as I was the only one who was getting to go to see Celtic play and it felt like I was almost a celebrity in our wee 'gang'.
With Dundee beginning to establish themselves as regular finishers in the Top 5 a trip to Dens Park was not without its potential pitfalls, even for a side as talented as Celtic. What were the qualities of the Dundee side and what was the general standard – and competitiveness – of Scottish football at this time?
Dundee had goos players like Jocky Scott, Gordon Wallace and John Duncan and I seem to recall that they played good football with Scott being their main player. In general, the standard in Scotland was good around that time. Aberdeen ran us close in the League that year and St Johnstone finished 3rd – above Rangers. Around that time though the likes of Kilmarnock and Dunfermline who had top teams in the 60s were on the decline a bit – but they were still good and neither ever seemed to make it easy for us. Of course, Rangers were also more than useful and I thought they had great players like Jardine, Stein, Johnston and Dave Smith. However, my favourite player of that era was the incomparable Pat Stanton of Hibs. I wish Big Jock had signed him many years before he eventually did. The guy was just sheer class and would have fitted into the best of Celtic teams.
The game at Dens Park took place just a couple of weeks after the Ibrox disaster? What was the impact of that tragic day on Scottish football fans?
I'll be honest and say that I don't really remember all that well what the impact of the Ibrox Disaster was on either the Celtic support or other clubs' supporters. My main recollection was how my 2 uncles and my cousin felt it (I travelled by car with them to matches at that time so there was lots of time for talking). One of my uncles was actually more inclined to favour Rangers in his younger days even if he'd now seen the light. He was also not from a traditional Celtic background. Maybe for these reasons, his views at the time are what I remember most. His early reactions were obviously of complete shock but he also expressed a wish that it might just bring an end to all the madness (i.e. bigotry, violence, intolerance etc) but felt it would all get back to normal before long. Sad to say he was right. Both he and my other uncle who took me to the games actually seriously thought about not going back to the football – ever. Like many people I suppose, they thought that it could just have been any supporter who had died that day and was football really worth it ? I don't know what made them change their mind but I can recall that we used to arrive at grounds earlier than we had and we also used to hand back until most of the crowds had left. That continued for all the time I went to matches with them. Although my uncles have long since passed away, my cousin is till to this day inclined to arrive early and leave late.
Kick-off time – with a team containing the likes of Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Murdoch was it still possible to get that pre-match pang of anxiety?
I don't recall any particular feelings before the Dundee match (remember this wasn't a big Cup game, it was meant to be a run of the mill League match). However, I used to love standing down near the front watching the likes of Gemmell, Murdoch & Johnstone warm up. It was all part of the match day excitement. Gemmell in particular often seemed to be up for a bit of banter with the fans.
What followed the kick-off was a virtuoso performance of attacking football which was – in terms of performance – the highlight of another successful season. What are your memories of the game?
I remember that we played good stuff right from the start but Dundee were a decent side and we didn't get it all out own way. I recall a couple of their guys putting in tasty tackles (possibly Jim Steele and Doug Houston, but I'm not sure). So we had to be playing well as we did seem to be well on top. The first half was relatively tight but the second half was incredible. Honestly, after all these years I think the second half is possibly the most outstandingly brilliant I've ever seen Celtic play. It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. As I said, Dundee were a good team and weren'te standing back admiring us but in that second half they were chasing shadows. All of our forward players wre brilliant, wee Jimmy, Harry Hood, Willie Wallace – just brilliant. However, brilliant as Johnstone in particular was, I felt it was Murdoch who was orchestrating everything. As Stein and others said – when Murdoch played, Celtic played. I know I've used the word brilliant several times to describe our play but I think I could only maybe accurately decsribe it if I said I thought our performance was world-class. It was that good. Remember, Dundee were no mugs – they finished 5th that season when that meant something – and Dens Park was never an easy place to go. Yet we destroyed them.
Martin O’Neill was – and is – famously a very animated character of the touchline. What was Big Jock like during a game?
Stein was much more like Mowbray than O'Neill. I don't remember him ever jumping up and down on the touchline. One thing I remember about him is – once substitutes came into use – if the fans chanted the name of the sub (if a player on the pitch was playing poorly) then that was a virtual guarantee that the substitute would not be brought on. In general, it seemed as if all his concentration was on the game and there wasn't normally all that much interaction with the fans. Sure, they'd chant his name and he'd give a wave – but it was usually only the once during any game !
How did the home support react to Celtic’s performance?
I don't really remember how they reacted but then in all my years of going to Dens Park I don't ever recall them being a gracious lot. So I'll assume they they were just their normal selves that day.
As the Celtic fans filled out of the ground what was the general consensus about what they had just witnessed?
As I've already said, we tended to hang back a bit until most of the crowd got out but I can recall the fans being pretty delirious about the performance we'd just witnessed. My uncles had been going to see Celtic since the late 30s and they were of the opinion that it was maybe the best they'd ever seen the team play. One uncle was a huge Bobby Murdoch fan and he just couldn't stop raving about thim that day. According to him, he had to be the best player in the world!
Harry Hood bagged a brace at Dens that day and would finish the season as Celtic’s top scorer with 33 goals. His penalty would also prove to be the winner as the Hoops defeated Rangers 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final replay. With a catchy alliterative name – reminiscent of some prohibition-era gangster from a pulp fiction novel – and the recipient of some wonderfully inventive songs in his honour, Harry is never likely to be forgotten by the Celtic support (especially as he scored a hat-trick against the Huns in the 1973 League Cup semi-final!). Yet despite all this he is a player the younger generation probably know relatively little about. How would you describe him?
If I was to say that I felt that (post-Lions), Harry Hood was the best signing ever made by Jock Stein (from another professional club) that would give you an idea of how highly I rated Harry Hood. When you consider that Jock also eventually signed my all time non-Celtic hero (Pat Stanton) then that's maybe another indication of what Hood achieved in a Celtic shirt. I felt he had the lot. The complete forward. He was a lethal goal-scorer, had pace, great movement and fantastic balance. He was also a really intelligent player and Stein seemed to often use him in a more deep lying role in European matches. My favourite memory of Hood was, of course, his hat-trick in the League Cup semi-final against Rangers. I remember it was a freezing, miserable night and Harry saw to it that the huns misery was complete. I'm pretty sure he actually had the ball in the net four times but one was chalked off. In summary, Harry Hood was a great player for Celtic and it's absolutely scandalous that he was never capped for Scotland.
Season 1970-71 would represent the end of an era for the Bhoys with several of the Lisbon Lions making their final appearance. Was there a sense that this was perhaps the beginning of the end of Jock Stein’s Golden Years or did the support now believe league titles and European finals would be regular occurrences?
With hindsight it may have seemed that way but it didn't feel that way at the time. Persoanlly, I'd seen the likes of Hay, Connelly, Hood, Callaghan and Macari come into the team and also seen us keep on winning so it just felt like it would all go on and on and on. Just with older players going and new ones coming in like they were on a sort of conveyor belt. Despite the change in players we were still winning the league and still competing with the best in Europe. In fact, I left school and started work in 1973 and was so hopeful of doing well in Europe that I booked holidays to coincide with the European Cup Final for the first couple of years. Now, with hindsight that WAS daft but I just thought it would go on and on.