Tune in now for the Celtic Soul extended weekend Podcast as our Editor, Andrew Milne chats with former Celtic striker and Blackpool FC head of recruitment Tommy Johnston and Glasgow journalist and Celtic Park standing section regular, Michael Pringle.
Tommy chats about life in lockdown, working with Blackpool and why he didn’t team up with Henrik Larsson and Johan Myalby at Southend. He also chats honestly and openly about his Celtic career from signing with Tommy Burns, his relationship with Willie McStay and all of the Celtic mangers he worked under, the competition for starting places and leaving the club with 6 medals in his back pocket for regular football after winning a treble under Martin O’Neill.
Michael chats about his experiences working from home, football without fans and fans without football as we prepare for Celtic playing behind closed doors. He also reflects back on the season highs and lows from the terraces and the good charity work of the Ultras and Celtic supporters clubs during Covid 19.
The podcast is available to download from all major Podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, iTunes and Acast or from celticfanzine.com
A footballing revolution began on April 24 1965, and it all began with Billy McNeill. Up to that point, opinion had differed about Billy. There were those who saw a world class centre half, invincible in the air albeit a little more vulnerable on the ground, in an ordinary Celtic team.
Others thought that he was, like everyone else in that team, affected by the Celtic death wish, and that he was possibly on the way out. He was a good enough captain, but he had been at centre half on the days of infamy – the 4-0 defeat at Rangers on New Year’s Day 1963, the horrific Scottish Cup final of that same year, that awful start to the 1963/4 when he was short with a pass back and Jim Forrest nipped in to score. He had also been Scotland’s centre half in the 9-3 game at Wembley in 1961, although he had redeemed himself when they beat England in 1962.
An intelligent young man with a lovely wife and children, he must have wondered. Celtic, the ordinary team with the big support, were going nowhere. The “death wish” has been mentioned. Five times in season 1963/64, Celtic started off well against Rangers, five times they got an unlucky break, five times they succumbed to what seemed to be the inevitable, the pre-ordained, the normal order of it all.
In midwinter 1964/65 when Celtic were on their knees, so too was Billy, not long recovered from a serious injury. Jimmy Johnstone got sent off at Ibrox on New Year’s Day, but Celtic fought back and would have earned a deserved draw, but Bobby Murdoch blasted a penalty kick over the bar. Billy was rocked by all that, One particular game at Tannadice on January 9 springs to mind as a talented Dane called Finn Dossing got the better of him. A 3-3 draw at Cappielow two weeks later saw him far from this best, and it was about this time that Billy was thinking of departure. Tottenham Hotspur, apparently, were interested.
But rumours abounded about Jock Stein. How far Billy, as captain, was privy to what was going on, we do not know, but first Bertie Auld returned in mid-January, then the news broke on January 31 that Stein was coming back!
The corner had been turned, but it would be a mistake to say that form suddenly improved. The main thing was that Cup games were won – but there were a few shockers yet. A horrible game when St Johnstone recorded a rare win at Celtic Park, dreadful defending in a 3-3 draw at Dens Park, and even the first game of the semi-final against Motherwell saw Billy lose out to Joe McBride until Bertie Auld organized the rescue.
But the replay was won with a degree of skill, and Billy and Jock, pupil and teacher of old, had struck up a great relationship. The Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline approached. Had we lost that one, things would have still been moving in the right direction, perhaps, but no one in his wildest dreams could have envisaged what was fated to happen that day. “Fate” and “destiny” were perhaps involved, and those of us who used to read the fictional and romantic exploits of Roy Race of Melchester Rovers, saw it all happen in real life!
Nothing, no not even Lisbon, can beat that day of April 24 1965. Twice behind to a good Dunfermline side, twice fighting back and scoring through Bertie Auld, then that corner on the left at the stand side of the ground. Inch perfect from Charlie Gallagher and the golden head of Captain Courageous. Bedlam, confusion, ecstasy, nine minutes to hold out to reach a different type of Paradise! Referee Hugh Phillips blowing for full time, unashamed tears, strangers kissing everyone, the golden hair of the green and white figure collecting the Scottish Cup in the distance … and life was never the same again.
To my shame, I thought it might have been Tommy Gemmell who scored that goal (well, they both were of the same build, same colour of hair, I needed glasses and the top of the East Terracing was a long way away!) but my father kept shouting “Billy NcNeill! Billy McNeill! Billy McNeill!”
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that the last nine minutes of that game were full of “growing confidence” and “satisfaction of a job well done” “this team had now grown to manhood” or any dignified nonsense like that. Absolutely not! They were all about serious bladder and bowel problems, screeching for full time, “kick it up the park”, “haud the baw”, praying to God to end it all (the game, I mean, not my life) and trying not to think about the Pars (a talented and chivalrous team, incidentally) equalizing. But fortunately, Bertie Auld and Billy McNeill were more in command of the situation than we were, and they saw us home. It was indeed a football revolution, and how life changed!
Born in 1948, David Potter first saw Celtic at Dens Park, Dundee in March 29. It was a 3-5 defeat, which equipped him admirably for the horrors of the early 1960’s. He had “followed” Celtic for a few years before that and recalls having been called upon to impersonate Jock Stein and receive the family silver teapot which had to do for the Scottish Cup as it was presented on April 24 1954, after he and his father had spent a nerve wracking afternoon listening to the radio! Since then, he has “followed” every Celtic game with bated breath, and has written extensively about the club in magazines and books. His favorite team was that of 1969 (which he rates marginally better than 1967) and his favorite player was Henrik Larsson.
His ambition for Celtic is for them to keep on winning silver in Scotland and to be something in Europe once again. His other interests are cricket and drama. He is 70, a retired teacher of Classical Languages, married with three children and five grandchildren. He now travels on the Joseph Rafferty bus from Kirkcaldy. He also loves Forfar Athletic.
Talking Celtic with John Fallon & Frank Noelkenbockhoff
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The Celtic Soul Podcast kicked off with Episode 1, last Friday with Alan Thompson and Joe Miller talking Celtic with Andrew Milne and Andrew is back with the first show of this week he is talking Celtic on the show with John Fallon and Frank Noelkenbockhoff.
The original holy goalie chats from his home in Glasgow from lockdown about the part he played at Celtic during the first 9IAR including his favourite season 1968/69 and his captain Billy McNeill. He also chats about the impact of current captain Scott Brown and manager Neil Lennon.
Frank spoke to us from his German home about the return of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga League, football without fans and his love of Celtic.
Andrew will be back again on Friday talking Celtic about the issues of the day concerning Celtic FC and the Celtic Fanbase. Joining him will be Glasgow based journalist and standing section regular, Michael Pringle and former Celtic striker, Tommy Johnstone.
Alan Thompson and Average Joe Miller from Not the View, Celtic Fanzine joined me on the first episode of the Celtic Soul Podcast. The plan is to record two podcasts a week, one early in the week and one on Friday for weekend listening.
Each week, I will chat to Celtic players and Celtic fans I have met over the decades following Celtic. We will discuss the issues of the day concerning Celtic Football Club and the Celtic Fan base and hopefully have a few laughs along the way to 10IAR.
Tommo is happy to be back playing Golf after being in lockdown since he returned from Thailand after doing gigs with me and another former Celtic player, Paul Byrne who will also be joining me on the show in the next few weeks.
Each week, I will chat to Celtic players and Celtic fans I have met over the decades following Celtic. We will discuss the issues of the day concerning Celtic Football Club and the Celtic Fan base and hopefully have a few laughs along the way to 10IAR.
Tommo is happy to be back playing Golf after being in lockdown since he returned from Thailand after doing gigs with me and another former Celtic player, Paul Byrne who will also be joining me on the show in the next few weeks.
While Joe has been enjoying the weather and a few cans of Guinness while celebrating the 9IAR and waiting patiently for football to return when it is safe.
We chatted about this 9IAR first time around and celebrating the current teams success, the contribution of Scott Brown and James Forest, Damien Duff’s exit and the coaching roll at Celtic.
We also discussed the prospect of Celtic playing football behind closed doors without fans after the Bundesliga recommenced. Tommo also tells us the story behind why he joined Twitter.
Early next week I will be chatting to the original Celtic Holy Goalie and 9IAR first timer, John Fallon and Dortmund and Celtic fan Frank Noelkenbockhoff about his love of Celtic and the return of football in Germany.
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic Soul Podcast, Milish Meets and he is also host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
More than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine Issue 109 went on sale today and they are celebrating the 9IAR in another 48 page packed edition. The Covid 19 may have stopped us going to Celtic Park to see Scott Brown lift the trophy but the party kicked off once it was announced that Celtic were once again Champions of Scotland.
Fireworks lit up the night sky at 9pm while fans took to their cars to celebrate Celtic doing the 9IAR not once but twice and social media became the safe zone to celebrate this wonderful occasion with friends and family.
Inside the latest edition I revisit Lazio away, the European highlight for me and so many Celtic fans this season. What a city, what a game and what a party we had! Sticking with the Italian theme we hear from Max Collu, a Celtic fan from Sardinia about the life of a global hoop in lockdown.
On another of my travels I spent one night in Bangkok with the local CSC and Alan Thompson, Paul Byrne and over one hundred Celtic fans on route to the LOSCSF in Pattaya back in March. What a Night! What a City!
Away Days, Declan McConville looks back at his domestic journeys during the season he was lucky enough to be present in every ground from Aberdeen to Ibrox, from Easter Road to Hamilton and beyond during the season following Celtic. Eoin Coyne also chips in with his season review in strange times.
Michael Pringle pulls no punches as he writes about the rot in the SPFL, which set in long before Covid 19. While Scott Alcroft asks the questions of what will be the lasting effect on Scottish Football after Covid 19?
Ciaran Kenny looks back on Martin O’ Neill’s time in the Celtic dugout. Tim Molloy as always pens his piece in his native tongue and Martin Donaldson looks back from disbelief at half time in Rugby Park to Treble after Treble on the journey to 9.
Celtic Historian David Potter writes about the tragic end of former Celtic player Sunny Jim Young, the career of Goalkeeper Joe Kennaway and keeps us informed with more great Celtic stories in his regular column, If You Know Your History.
Vincent Doherty reflects back on his time following the hoops from a young bhoy in Derry to sitting out Covid 19 in Dublin and Paddy McMenamin looks back from the Spanish Flu to Covid 19 and the ups and downs of following Celtic over the years.
Mick Kane wraps up the issue chatting to Irish Boxer and Celtic Fan, Sean McComb as he looks towards more success in the square ring and fitting in Celtic games with his mates from Belfast.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes, Host of Celtic AM pre-match show, & the Celtic Soul Podcast.
Celtic have had very few better players than Johnny Campbell. Born in 1872 in Glasgow the son of an Ironwork Labourer,, he joined Celtic in 1890 and won Scottish Cup medals in 1892,1899 and 1900, Scottish League medals in 1893,1894 and 1898, 3 Glasgow Cup medals, 3 Glasgow Charity Cup medals and 12 caps for Scotland. He had been away however for two years. Willie Maley, without being any too specific about it talks about Johnny being upset by the folly of a “committee member” and he left for Aston Villa in 1895. He was hardly a failure there however for he won a “double” in 1897, as the Villa became only the second club to win the English League and Cup in the same season.
But, like most ex-Celts he hankered for home, and it was no coincidence that Maley, appointed “Secretary” in April 1897, saw to it very quickly that Johnny returned to team up once again with his old friend Sandy McMahon in the forward line that won the Scottish League in 1898. Had it not been for the folly of that committee member in 1895, Campbell would never have been away in the first place, and one can see a parallel here with Bertie Auld who departed to Birmingham (by coincidence the same city as Campbell) when he lost confidence in the Celtic establishment, but returned to a better regime a few years later – and was no worse a player! Indeed, possibly a lot better.
But the turn of the 19th/20th century saw a very good Rangers team and no great success was forthcoming for Celtic or Campbell in the Scottish League, but the Scottish Cup was won in 1899 and 1900 and then lost unluckily in the finals of 1901 and 1902. It was 1902/03, however, that was the third barren season in a row (as far as Scottish honours were concerned) and one that raised a question about Campbell and McMahon. Indeed it was the bad defeat to Rangers in the Scottish Cup at the end of February 1903 that was the death knell for the Celtic careers of McMahon and Campbell.
It would be fair to say that most Celtic supporters felt that the discarding of these two veterans was justified. They had both played their part, but now, well past their 30th birthdays, the time had come for their replacement by younger men. But no professional football player likes to give up too easily. McMahon, although nursing lumbago in his back, flirted briefly with Clyde and Partick Thistle, but Campbell had a far more substantial contribution to make – for another year at least. He was made an offer by Third Lanark, and realising that he had little to lose, he decided to give it a try. He already owned a public house, and still loved football, with a feeling that he still had something to give.
The Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers, the “warriors”, the “sodgers” had recently appointed a huge Englishman to be their Manager. He had the unlikely name of Frank Heaven. There is a suggestion in Thomas Taw’s brilliant book on Third Lanark in the 1903/04 season that Heaven did not approve of the signing of Campbell – “a worn out relic, an empty husk” – but very soon, the two of them got on together, and Campbell seldom missed a game that season. Campbell was a competent goal scorer, still had some speed and also an excellent football brain which could read a game and which won loads of games for the Thirds. Campbell also had two other advantages – he had plenty of great players around him in Willy Wardrope, Hugh Wilson, Bobby Barr and John Cross with whom he fitted in well, and he also, when playing for Thirds, no longer had the pressure of playing for Celtic. Even as early as 1903, Celtic had a large impatient support for whom a defeat was a national calamity, whereas the pressure at Cathkin was nothing like as intense. Campbell, a thoughtful, intelligent and sensitive man, fitted in excellently to this more relaxed and less pressurised atmosphere.
By the end of November Campbell’s Thirds had defeated Celtic three times, once at Parkhead where Campbell having been well received by his old fans “combined generalship with sterling play” to defeat Celtic in August. He then repeated the performance a month later at Cathkin before scoring the only goal in the Glasgow Cup final replay at Ibrox in late November. This was a painful one for Celtic fans, who were not having a great season until the penny dropped that the best half back combination was Young, Loney and Hay and that the best centre forward was neither Sam Gilligan not Alec Bennett but the shy underperformer from Croy called Jimmy Quinn! Sadly for Campbell and Third Lanark, the mighty half-back trio was in position when Celtic beat them narrowly 2-1 in the Scottish Cup semi-final in March, and Quinn, though playing an inside right, scored one of the goals.
A week after Quinn’s hat-trick in the Scottish Cup final, Campbell’s Third Lanark beat Dundee to win the Scottish League. It was a great moment for the Cathkin side, and a fitting denouement to the career of Johnny Campbell, who now really did begin to struggle with injuries and old age. He retired in 1906, but lived on until 1947. He was a frequent visitor to Celtic Park and indeed Cathkin, and remained very proud of what he had done for both Glasgow clubs – and indeed for Aston Villa and Scotland. His death was much mourned by those who remembered him.
Born in 1948, David Potter first saw Celtic at Dens Park, Dundee in March 29. It was a 3-5 defeat, which equipped him admirably for the horrors of the early 1960’s. He had “followed” Celtic for a few years before that and recalls having been called upon to impersonate Jock Stein and receive the family silver teapot which had to do for the Scottish Cup as it was presented on April 24 1954, after he and his father had spent a nerve wracking afternoon listening to the radio! Since then, he has “followed” every Celtic game with bated breath, and has written extensively about the club in magazines and books. His favorite team was that of 1969 (which he rates marginally better than 1967) and his favorite player was Henrik Larsson.
His ambition for Celtic is for them to keep on winning silver in Scotland and to be something in Europe once again. His other interests are cricket and drama. He is 70, a retired teacher of Classical Languages, married with three children and five grandchildren. He now travels on the Joseph Rafferty bus from Kirkcaldy. He also loves Forfar Athletic.
No trophy Sunday, no session the night before with mates in a Glasgow watering hole followed by a few night-caps in a Glasgow hotel residents bar with fellow fans. No nipping next door for a kebab or a sausage supper, curry sauce optional.
No waking up slightly hung-over on match-day, No strong coffee or bacon bap, No text or phone calls ANY SPARES! No Celtic AM, No quick pint, No squashing in a taxi, No passing queues outside pubs waiting for opening time.
No scarfs for sale, No bucket collections, No walk up Paradise Way, No stopping to buy a fanzine or match-day programme, No stopping to see the Wise Old Men of Celtic standing between the Pools Office and the Chip van, No Lisbon Lions holding court outside, No welcoming the team off the bus. No last minute ticket for sale.
No spotting a celebrity fan or former player, No shaking hands or nod of the head to the fans who sit around you all season long who’s name you may not know but for 90 minutes they are comrades.
No Roar when Celtic come onto the pitch, No Huddle, No home fans, No away fans, No Ultras, No colour, No Green & White, No Noise, No Songs.
No Check In, No Pie, No Bovril, No Queues, No busting for a Pee, No halftime debate, No referees whistle, No celebrations, No Scott Brown lifting the trophy, No lap of honour, No throwing your scarf, No player to pick it up, No speeches.
No fans waiting for a selfie, No Paul the Tim, No walking down the Gallowgate, No post match pints, No dash to the ferry port, No carry out for the bus, No airport craic.
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
Celtic fans celebrated into the early hours of the morning and some will be waking up today with both hangovers and big smiles as the Celtic Fairytale continues. Car horns could be heard in the Belfast evening air, pockets of fans visited Celtic Park and I’m hearing that some fans even celebrated outside Ibrox.
Houses and gardens throughout the World were turned Green and White as fans observing social distancing celebrated and then took to social media to post pictures and videos. The ballads were belted out as musicians took to Facebook to perform live to celebrate in story and song.
Some fans of a certain vintage can remember when Celtic became the first team in Scotland to do 9IAR when Jock Stein and his Lions kicked off the 9 and were joined along the journey by the Quality Street generation.
Back in the sixties and early seventies during that first run to 9, Celtic fans were in football fan heaven. Names like McNeill, Murdoch, Johnstone, Dalglish and McGrain graced the jersey and were adored from the Jungle and beyond, respected and feared in Europe.
There were many years of disappointment for those fans before Celtic went on that amazing run, the foundation for success set in Hampden in 1965 when the Scottish Cup was lifted. Those Celtic fans were rewarded with the greatest period in Celtic’s unbroken history.
During the 90’s there were even more barren years but thanks to a fan driven revolt against the old board and a business plan by Fergus McCann, Celtic were able to rebuild both a stadium and a team in time to stop Rangers from doing 10 in a row and introduce us to Henrik Larsson one of the greatest players ever to don the Hoops.
This was the springboard for the success achieved by Martin O’Neill’s domestic success and an unforgettable run to Seville and a Uefa Cup final and the success that has followed.
Neil Lennon started the run to 9 with players like Wanyama and big Virgil and when he left Celtic after winning 3 titles in a row I don’t think he ever thought that he would be back to steer us to title number 8 and 9 following on from Ronnie Delia and invisibles of Brendan Rodgers.
Many players have played their part French Eddie, Demebele, KT to name but 3 but 2 men who have been here for all 9 titles are Scott Brown and James Forrest. Brown has been an inspirational leader and deserves all the plaudits but Forest also deserves much credit for his performances and his loyalty which sometimes goes unnoticed.
Now that the league has been decided maybe its time we start asking when football resumes will be get the chance to re-engage in the Scottish Cup and the quest for the Quadruple Treble. What a thought!
Andrew Milne started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
The Rangers fans are set to continue to self isolate long into the summer after Celtic were confirmed champions of Scotland for the 9th season in a row. It is hard to see Celtic fans celebrating throughout the World for these once loyal servants of Rangers.
The fans of this new club are known by many as Sevconians, although some still call them Zombies after letting their club die after years of winning tainted titles by financial doping, dodgy dealings and even dodgier handshakes.
Whatever you like to call them they are hurting. The Daily Record Hotline and being renamed the Hootline after been inundated with calls from pure raging Sevconians who are hell bent on shaking up Scottish football with some head scratching ideas.
As they struggle to come to terms with Celtic’s continued dominance of Scottish football guided by Neil Lennon (even his name sends shivers down their spines) and a bare blue room over Ibrox way they are clearly not thinking straight and they have added to the joy for Celtic fans on social media with some Rockets posting on twitter in particular.
One fan calls on a boycott of all away grounds, which should bring relief to towns and villages throughout Scotland. A Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning without that mob passing through the streets of Scotland can only be a welcome addition to the football calendar and make for a more pleasant weekend for everyone concerned.
Another loyal fan wants to go to away stadiums so he can support his team. He is prepared to buy a match ticket but boycott buying Pies, Bovril and Mars Bars. However he did not specify if that would include Chips and other confectionary sold on match day but I’m sure in time that another Statement will be released as to what should and should not be bought on match days.
The radio phone in have not been spared this lunacy either one bear with a sore head ringing up to suggest forming a breakaway league with Hearts, Stranraer and wait for it Linfield. The Loyal Lunatics are out doing themselves as they head into a summer meltdown.
Here we go 101AR
Andrew Milne started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
Ronnie Deila was Manager of Celtic for two years. He is however hard to classify as either a “good” Manager or a “bad” one. In fact he is probably the most difficult of the lot to analyse. Maley and Stein were good. Brady, Mowbray and Barnes were awful and the rest are somewhere to the positive or the negative.
But Ronnie Deila? He won 3 domestic trophies out of 6, he had some real bad luck in semi-finals, his European record was disappointing (but so is the record of most Celtic managers!) and the antipathy that he aroused in the support was sometimes quite amazing.
There can be little doubt that attendances fell, so much so that the the upper tier of the Lisbon Lions stand was not used on many occasions and had a banner with “Celtic – A Team Like No Other” put there by the club. Yes indeed, a team like no other!
But visiting supporters and journalists were often at a loss to understand how it came about that a man like Ronnie Deila who won the Scottish Premier League two seasons out of two (a 100% record!) could be so unpopular and so often the topic of lowered voices, and sometimes more voluble ones which tended to use words like “no comin’ back” rather too often.
His two League winning seasons, of course, were done without the opposition of Rangers, still in the lower Leagues doing penance for their financial mismanagement and other more grievous sins. The only opposition to speak of was Aberdeen, a club with the more or less permanent ability to blow up when their supporters needed them to do otherwise.
They were not without their good players, but Celtic defeated them by 17 points and 15 points respectively, even though in the second of the two seasons, 2015/16 Aberdeen in early February came within a few points of Celtic and their supporters exhibited a banner saying “We’re coming to get you”. Their collapse however was as miserable as it was predictable.
In domestic Cup competitions, Celtic won the Scottish League Cup of 2014/15 by beating Dundee United in the final after having disposed of Hearts, Partick Thistle and Rangers with an aggregate score of 14-0. Another two in the final made it 16-0. So no argument there.
But then we come to three Celtic semi-final horror stories. April 19 2015 saw Celtic against their old Scottish Cup bugbears of Inverness. In front of a strangely half-empty Hampden, the game hinged on two decisions by referee Steven McLean.
One was when he failed to spot a clear handball by an Inverness defender, which really should have been a penalty and a red card, and the other (the real game-changer) was when goalkeeper Craig Gordon was sent off and a penalty awarded. This allowed the Highlanders to equalise, and poor Lukasz Zaluska, Gordon’s replacement, did not have a very good game. In addition, Virgil Van Dijk and Jason Denayer who had been outstanding at the back all season were found wanting to day and Inverness sneaked home by 3-2 in extra-time.
Fingers however were not yet pointed at Ronnie Deila. There was an element of bad luck about this game, although many supporters disliked having to juxtapose “Celtic” “Inverness” and “bad luck”, even though Inverness were third in the League that season.
Where one might have wondered about Deila in this game, however, was when he took off James Forrest (to allow Zaluska on). Forrest was one of Celtic’s more creative players that day, and he remains one of those men who might just conjure or spirit up a goal out of nothing.
It was a painful day but the League was won a couple of weeks later, and it was generally agreed that Ronnie, give or take one or two imperfections had had a good season. Two trophies out of three was not a bad yield, even though the cynics were right to point out that a Scottish Premier League without Rangers, Hearts or Hibs (who were all playing in the Championship that year) was a strange one.
It was the two even more painful semi-finals on 2015/16 that sealed the fate of the likeable Norwegian. The first was the League Cup semi final at the end of January against Ross County. Celtic scored in the first minute through Gary Mackay-Steven, and what could go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually.
First Efe Ambrose got sent off and penalty kick awarded for what had to be said was minimal contact but the zealous Craig Thomson did not see it that way, and Ross County equalised. Eric Sviatchenko had then to be brought on for his Celtic debut, and the ten men Celtic struggled.
Ross County scored twice in the second half, and then, as if to prove the old adage that the real horror of life is not availing oneself of a lifeline, Celtic missed a penalty (as soft as the one that Ross County got), which might have given them a chance. When, three days later, Celtic lost at Pittodrie in the League, the knives were being sharpened for Ronnie.
But it was the Scottish Cup semi-final that killed him. On the face of it, a defeat after a 2-2 draw after extra time in a penalty shoot-out to Rangers does not seem, on the face of it, to be a sackable offence, but there were several other factors – one was that League form had been poor in recent weeks (e.g. a cringeworthy draw at Hamilton one Friday night, followed by a feckless 0-0 draw against Dundee), another was that this game should have been put to bed long before the need of a penalty shoot out, another was that Rangers were not yet in the Premier League (it was thus technically a giant-killing!), but of course the main thing was that it was Rangers.
Defeats by Rangers in any circumstances are very hard to take, and this was simply one defeat too far for Celtic and Ronnie Deila. A couple of days later it was announced that a new Manager would be in place next season, although Ronnie was to be allowed to finish the season. The League was more or less won, in any case.
And his forays into Europe? One would have to say a disgrace – but no more or less so than other managers. In 2014/15, Celtic actually managed to get put out of the Champions League twice – once by Legia Warsaw (who fielded an illegal player, however) and then by Maribor after a truly shocking performance.
However, we got into the Europa League, scraped through the sectional games in a series of dull, easily forgettable encounters against tough but unskilful opponents, before turning on a respectable but ultimately unsuccessful performance against old pals Inter Milan. The next year was a lot worse.
Once again it was the consolation of the Europa League, but we finished bottom of the group in a campaign that no-one really wants to remember, and it was probably our performances against such mediocre European opposition like Malmo and Molde which turned so many of our supporters against Ronnie.
In addition to the lack of basic European nous and knowledge about how to play in European ties away from home, there was even an apparent lack of motivation from several players, and the supporters made their feelings very plain.
His success in the two League campaigns is something that Ronnie deserves credit for, but the first campaign was far better. In 2014/15 we had Van Dijk and Denayer at the back, and there was usually a certain solidity there. The following season, Denayer was away and Van Dijk followed after a few games.
But the key difference was Stefan Johansen, who was outstanding in 2014/15, deservedly winning player of the year awards, but whose form, fitness and motivation dipped alarmingly the following season. “Injuries” were given as an excuse, but the fans were not convinced. And then there was Emilio Izaguirre who had been brilliant a few seasons earlier, but fell off badly as well with a particularly annoying habit of charging up field, beating a few men by speed and then firing the ball aimlessly across the face of the goal without looking for a colleague.
But there was Scott Brown, Leigh Griffiths and John Guidetti (in 2014/15), and Tom Rogic whose late goal for Celtic in March 2016 at Rugby Park probably won us the League that year. It was an early kick-off for TV purposes,
Born in 1948, David Potter first saw Celtic at Dens Park, Dundee in March 29. It was a 3-5 defeat, which equipped him admirably for the horrors of the early 1960’s. He had “followed” Celtic for a few years before that and recalls having been called upon to impersonate Jock Stein and receive the family silver teapot which had to do for the Scottish Cup as it was presented on April 24 1954, after he and his father had spent a nerve wracking afternoon listening to the radio! Since then, he has “followed” every Celtic game with bated breath, and has written extensively about the club in magazines and books. His favorite team was that of 1969 (which he rates marginally better than 1967) and his favorite player was Henrik Larsson.
His ambition for Celtic is for them to keep on winning silver in Scotland and to be something in Europe once again. His other interests are cricket and drama. He is 70, a retired teacher of Classical Languages, married with three children and five grandchildren. He now travels on the Joseph Rafferty bus from Kirkcaldy. He also loves Forfar Athletic.
