Scotsman Archive: Celtic fight back to win thriller

Hearts 3, Celtic 4 - The Scotsman, 22 November 1976

THERE is an old story about a Scots mother praying for her son during the Napoleonic War. When reminded that many a French mother was praying just as fervently for French glory, the lady asked condescendingly “Do you really think the Almighty would be understanding such rubbish?”

The ‘whae’s like us’ attitude, however, has taken a bit of a hammering in recent times, and nowhere more so than in the football realm. But I have to admit it – the great European game pleases the head more than the heart and beyond these waters there are many sides not only dull in themselves but the cause of dullness in others.

Hearts and Celtic contrived to give just over 20,000 spectators at Tynecastle a magnificent seven, and whatever reservations we might hold about the way some of them were scored, they were goals that gave us an afternoon of high Scottish drama.

It was an emotional, human kind of game; full of skill, unbelievable mistakes, changing fortunes, unexpected events and eventually a winner and a loser.

That Celtic were the winners and Hearts the losers can be put down not just to the fact that Celtic grasped the psychological upper-hand in the will to do well, but in the fact they played faster and better football. Having said that, Hearts – and Willie Gibson in particular – were desperately unfortunate not to take something from a game to which they had contributed so much.

Hearts had taken the lead in eight minutes thanks to a good flick by Drew Busby over the head of Roddy McDonald which was caught by Gibson after a fine piece of running. With admirable calm, he scooped the ball high over Latchford into the net.

Under two minutes later Gibson rather luckily bagged a second when he stuck out a boot and deflected a Donald Park drive out of the line the goalkeeper had been following.

Celtic, who had been quiet up front and not terribly impressive at the back during the first 20 minutes, pulled themselves back into the game with a well-worked free-kick. Danny McGrain crossed to Kenny Dalglish (watch out for more of these two heroes in later episodes) who backheaded the ball into the path of Roddy McDonald. He headed the ball strongly enough but I thought Brian Wilson was a little slow in reacting to the direction of the ball.

The game was wide open again and just when you would have expected Celtic to dominate, Hearts played their best football of the afternoon. And in 33 minutes Hearts scored the best goal of the game. It began with Shaw on the edge of his own 18-yard area and eventually involved five men. He touched it to Jefferies in midfield and a fine pass from that area was sent out to Jim Brown on the right. A cross from the full back was met by a diving header from Prentice at the far post. The ball came to the elusive Gibson and, in one confident movement, he whipped the ball past Latchford to complete his hat-trick.

Hearts, again two goals ahead, should have consolidated that position in the ten minutes or so which remained until half-time. But they have this terrible habit of chucking unexpected presents to the opposition and yet another one came up in 37 minutes. A fairly tame Lennox shot should have been comfortably held by Wilson, but having grasped the ball, the goalkeeper kneed it away. Dalglish (remember him?) moved in incredibly quickly, and the ball broke to Lennox and thereby went into the net. After the interval, it quickly emerged that only one side was likely to win the match – and it was not the team which held the half-time lead. Celtic equalised in 60 minutes with a dazzling piece of football. From a quickly taken free-kick, McGrain made his way into the box. With body movements worthy of Jimmy Johnstone he must have sold Roy Kay three dummies before taking the ball to the by-line. He cut it back to Dick Champion, saviour of the side (K. Dalglish to you) and with all the time in the world the Celtic captain placed his shot past two Hearts defenders.

Three minutes from the end yet another free-kick was not properly cleared and Roy Kay inadvertently put Dalglish (remember him?) in shooting position. Wilson did well to get to a powerful rising shot. The rebound, though, came into the path of Glavin and he put Celtic ahead for the one and only time in the match – the one that mattered. Afterwards Jock Stein was clearly as delighted as John Hagart was dejected. His side had plucked two points where one would have been an achievement. “It was a tremendous match,” he said, “ and to win it in the way we did was particularly satisfying.”

Certainly there can be no doubt about the commitment of the Celtic players to nothing less than victory, as they now prepare themselves for Wednesday night’s match against Rangers at Ibrox.

A clearly disappointed John Hagart said: “We should never have lost that one. But we gave away four bad goals and we’ve been doing that too often recently.”

After giving away 21 goals in 11 Premier Division matches, the manager has to do something about the defence if his side are going to reap any benefit from some fine outfield work.

Hearts: Wilson, Brown, Gallacher, Clunie, Kay, Jefferies, Shaw, Park, Busby, Gibson, Prentice. Scorers: Gibson (8, 10, 33).

Celtic: Latchford, McGrain, Stanton, McDonald, Lynch, Glavin, Dalglish, Aitken, Doyle, Craig, Lennox. Scorers: McDonald (31), Lennox (36), Dalglish (60), Glavin (87)

Referee: B Valentine. Attendance: 20,500.