Chapter Three
Good Buy, Big Man - Goodbye, Joe!
OUTWITH the odd
spectacular gaff, reminding us he was really only human after all, Jock Stein was one of
the shrewdest operators the Scottish transfer market has seen. No single piece of business
underlined that expertise more emphatically than the happy acquisition of
‘Wispy’ Willie Wallace from Hearts on 6th December, 1966. Several
factors had influenced the manager’s decision to go for the chunky forward in what
would prove to rank amongst the club’s most significant signings ever: firstly,
centre-forward Joe McBride was struggling with a cartilage problem which might require
surgery at any time - experienced cover was thin on the ground; secondly, Wallace was in
dispute with the Edinburgh club, a problem inherited by manager John Harvey from his
predecessor, Tommy Walker and the new man’s apparent sympathy with the player’s
position had led him to promise not to stand in his way if a suitable move came along; and
thirdly, Rangers were known to be interested. If Stein could edge them
out, he would strike a major psychological blow in the battle for domestic supremacy and
silverware.
…………………………
The Saturday before Christmas is traditionally the worst of the season
attendance-wise. Such was the attraction of the 1966 Celts, though, that Pittodrie Park,
Aberdeen, held a respectably large crowd of 31,000 for their visit on Christmas Eve. The
‘Dons’ were as tough a nut to crack on their own patch then as they are now, so
it was with some relief that Celtic left the ‘Granite City’ with their unbeaten
record still intact. Lennox had put Celtic ahead after twenty-five minutes but Harry
Melrose, their old adversary from the 1961 and 1965 Cup Finals against Dunfermline,
levelled for Aberdeen on the half-hour mark. Celtic may have gained - or, as Jock Stein
would have it, lost a point - but worst of all, this was the
match that finally brought down the curtain on Joe McBride’s season.
One of the most outstanding statistics of
Celtic’s remarkable ‘Season in the Sun’ remains that it’s wondrous
feats were achieved despite being deprived of such a prolific scorer for so long. History
records that McBride had run up an astonishing thirty-seven goals before Christmas and we
can only speculate as to what his tally for the season might have ended up had cruel fate
not intervened. As it was, he remained the country’s joint-top-scorer at the
season’s end without kicking a ball in anger for almost the final five months. That
truly remarkable fact and the style, courage and personality which underlie it, to a great
extent explain the genuine warmth and affection with which Joe is remembered and why, in
Celtic circles, he is almost universally considered the twelfth ‘Lisbon Lion’.
……………………………..
Saturday, 28th January, 1967, dawned unseasonably mild, a
grey ‘Glasgow’ day with no threat of rain, but equally no promise of sun. As
always, the last Saturday in January was the day the ‘big guns’ entered the
Scottish Cup. The draw had been kind to the ‘Old Firm’, giving Celtic a
routine-looking home tie against an industrious Arbroath side from the middle reaches of
the Second Division and the men of Govan a pleasant day-trip down to the Tweed to dispatch
the ‘Wee Rangers’ with their customary finesse. However, Berwick, inspired by
their goalkeeper-coach, one Jock Wallace, had forgotten to read the script
-
but that’s another story!
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Chapter 4
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