1966/67… a season like no other

It was 60 years ago that Celtic embarked on what would become the most successful season in the club’s history, and throughout this current season we’ll be taking a trip back to 1966/67 to follow the journey that Jock Stein’s Celtic side took. It began with a League Cup sectional tie away to Hearts, when the Hoops won 2-0 at Tynecastle, and culminated with a historic 2-1 victory over Inter Milan in Lisbon’s Estadio Nacional to lift the European Cup. In between, Stein’s side won the League Cup, the Glasgow Cup, the Scottish Cup, the league championship as well as, of course, that European Cup win on May 25, 1967. This unique quintuple remains as impressive now as it was 60 years ago, perhaps even more so given that it has never been repeated and the magnitude of it is really appreciated. At the time, while Celtic fans were savouring the success, they were in the midst of this golden era, when Celtic were Kings of Europe and the men who wore the green and white Hoops were amongst the best in world football. So, 60 years on, we will be celebrating this momentous campaign and re-telling a story that only gets better each time it is read or heard. And while the 1966/67 season kicked off in August, we’re starting our story 60 years ago today, on September 10, 1966 when the Hoops made the short journey from Celtic Park to Shawfield to take on Clyde in the opening game of the league season… LEAGUE It was a wet and miserable Saturday afternoon on Saturday, September 10, 1966 when Celtic kicked off their league campaign with an away game against near neighbours, Clyde. A crowd of just under 17,000 braved the elements, and they saw Celtic deliver a comfortable and comprehensive 3-0 victory. Stevie Chalmers opened the scoring after just 10 minutes and Joe McBride doubled the lead eight minutes later. And though Celtic had to wait until the 73rd minute for another goal – a John Hughes header – to complete the scoring, it was a performance which pleased Jock Stein. Writing in the following week’s Celtic View, the Celtic manager said: ‘The league season has opened well for Celtic, for not only did we win our first fixture convincingly, we played in a manner which must have pleased our supporters…I don’t think I’m being unfair to Clyde when I say that they were lucky to go under only by 3-0. After the opening goal, Celtic had the game in hand and victory was never in doubt.’ Celtic’s second league game would be seven days later, a home game against Rangers, though they had to deal with the first leg of their League Cup quarter-final against Dunfermline Athletic first.LEAGUE CUP Celtic’s first competitive goal of the 1966/67 season came at Tynecastle on August 13 when Joe McBride netted in a League Cup sectional tie against Hearts. That opening goal came from the penalty spot after 18 minutes, and McBride made it 2-0 with his second goal of the game in the 88th minute. Celtic won all six of their sectional ties against Hearts, Clyde and St Mirren respectively, scoring 23 goals and conceding just six. That set up a quarter-final clash with Dunfermline Athletic, and the first leg at Celtic Park on September 14 would see the Hoops establish a first-leg lead with a 6-3 win over the Fife side, when Billy McNeill scored inside the opening minute and Celtic led 5-1 at the break. GLASGOW CUP Celtic had kicked off their Glasgow Cup campaign in spectacular style with a 4-0 victory over Rangers at Ibrox on August 23. It was Billy McNeill who opened the scoring after just eight minutes, firing the ball home from close range. And then Bobby Lennox doubled Celtic’s lead with the first of his three goals in the game, swerving past two defenders before firing a powerful shot into the net. Lennox’s two other goals for the hat-trick came in the last 10 minutes of a match that Celtic dominated, and in front of a crowd of around 80,000 although, as Bobby Lennox later said, ‘I don’t think there was 80,000 left in Ibrox at the end of it.’ It’s a game that the Lisbon Lion has often cited as his personal favourite as a Celt. Recalling it in the Celtic View, he said: ‘After the game finished I got picked up by my two brothers, Andrew and Eric, outside Ibrox. If we were playing at Ibrox, Love Street or Kilmarnock I’d go straight home to Saltcoats, rather than go back into the city on the bus. I enjoyed meeting them after games and they were delighted when they met me that day. Typical brothers, they were thrilled, absolutely thrilled, it was great. The team played well that day, for us to win 4-0, but just scoring a hat-trick at Ibrox makes it a special one for me.’EUROPEAN CUP While Celtic’s league campaign kicked off on September 10, they already knew their opponents in the first round of the European Cup. Having qualified for the tournament for the first time following the previous season’s title triumph, Celtic were taking part in Europe’s premier club competition for the first time, and their first European Cup tie would be against Swiss champions, FC Zurich, with the first leg at Celtic Park on Wednesday, September 28.