| Matches: 1963 – 1964 | 1963-1964 Pictures | League Table | Statistics |
A European marker but apart from that….
- League Position – 3rd
- League Cup – Failed to qualify from group sections
- Scottish Cup – Fourth Round
- European Cup Winners Cup – semi finalists
- Others: Glasgow Cup – Winners
In many ways season 1963-64 should have been a marker season for Celtic, a line drawn in the sand to mark a change. As noted in the review of the previous season, there were obvious faults within the set up of the club which needed to be addressed. These faults were to an extent inherent in the game at that time but there were also faults that were specific to Celtic.
Celtic had embarked for some time on a policy of acquisition and development of players from the Junior and sub-professional game. They had not gone down the line of buying fully-fledged professionals from other clubs, a model that was more prevalent south of the border. This had taken Celtic so far. This policy also had to be seen in the light of the departure from Celtic of seasoned professionals from the team. The loss of players like Bobby Evans, Willie Fernie, Bobby Collins and most recently Pat Crerand had undoubtedly hit the performance of the team.
The game WAS moving on. Clubs elsewhere were becoming more professional. Other team formations were being considered; a new positivity was creeping into the game which looked at the roles that good training, tactics, management and coaching had to play on a team’s performance.
This year the club finished 3rd in the League behind Rangers and Kilmarnock, scoring a remarkable 89 goals. In Stevie Chalmers they finally appeared to have found a solid goal scorer, and also to have found a delivery method with the cunning and slipperiness of Jimmy Johnstone. Murdoch and Hughes had their own roles and responsibilities. Divers became the deeper lying forward who could lay on passes and pick up the stray balls. A true inside forward however was clearly missing and this lack had failed to be addressed season after season. In the defence, Billy McNeill established himself at international level as a world class centre half. Jim Kennedy had been successfully transformed into a wing half and John Clark appeared to slot in seamlessly. At full back Tommy Gemmell was the left back of choice with Ian Young supplanting Duncan MacKay on the right. And in goal John Fallon had taken over from Frank Haffey.
The overriding success of the season was making it all the way to the semi finals of the European Cup Winners Cup in only their second season in European competition. That they went out to a good MTK Budapest side was down to sheer naiveté and the belief that Celtic could only play an attacking game – a fault that came from an old world philosophy on the game redolent with a past age and coming directly from Robert Kelly and Jimmy McGrory.
The League Cup was again a disaster, and in the Scottish Cup they fell foul of Rangers again – but the gap was getting closer all the time and changed through the season. The team had the best scoring rate in the League.
To move to the next level Celtic had to learn and had to change. The changes that were needed were fundamental to the club and deep, the biggest of which needed to be a change in the relationship between Board and playing staff and part of that was the emplacement of a hands-on manager. Jimmy McGrory was not a hands-on manager. In Sean Fallon they most certainly had a hands on trainer and coach but McGrory was from another age and a hero of Robert Kelly and thus sacrosanct.