Tommy Callaghan’s Dunfermline Double dreams die as Celtic and Kilmarnock claim the prizes

The Tommy Callaghan Story – Part 6: Dunfermline’s Double dreams die as Celts and Killie claim the prizes…

The first Saturday of April 1965 in Scotland saw five teams still in with a chance of domestic silverware by the end of that month. Rangers’ shock home defeat to Morton in midweek had ended their hopes of retaining the flag, albeit the performance of two Danes for the Greenock side – goalkeeper Erik Sorensen and right-back Kai Johansen – would soon earn them a transfer to Ibrox, but the top four teams in Division One still harboured dreams of clinching the League title.

That would be a first-ever Championship for either third-placed Kilmarnock or Dunfermline Athletic, currently in fourth spot, whilst Hibernian supporters were looking for a first such win since the spring of 1952 in the heyday of their Famous Five forward line. The Easter Road men were currently tucked into second place, one point behind bitter rivals Hearts. The League leaders and bookies favourites had tasted a Championship win in the current decade, the flag flying proudly over Tynecastle in 1960.

Willie Cunningham’s Dunfermline actually had two paths to glory, outsiders in the title race now perhaps after their midweek defeat at Easter Road but still very much in contention for the Scottish Cup. The Pars were looking forward to a rematch of the 1961 final later in the month, where they would take on a rejuvenated Celtic team now under the leadership of Jock Stein.

Ironically, Stein had been the manager who had brought the cup to East End Park for the first time four years earlier, crushing the dreams of some of his young Parkhead proteges in the process. Celtic were out of contention for the League title, but their long-suffering supporters were looking to end a seven-year-plus wait for major trophy success which stretched back to Hampden in the Sun in October 1957. The Scottish Cup would do that job quite nicely, thank you very much.

Jock Stein’s immediate concern was a home League clash with Third Lanark, as he sought the team formation which would give him the best chance of ending that silverware drought, albeit the Celtic manager, perhaps unusually, missed the game to carry out a scouting mission in England.

The Hi Hi were under the stewardship of his old colleague Bobby Evans and were already doomed to relegation with just seven points from 29 games. Evans chose three former Celtic players in his team, two of whom had certainly been at Parkhead when Stein was coaching the reserves, former skipper Dunky MacKay and inside forward Mike Jackson.  The third visiting player with Celtic connections was outside-right John McGuire, although I am struggling to find much information on his career in the Hoops.

The match itself was a dreadful disappointment for those Celtic supporters who rolled up to see the same eleven who had reached the Scottish Cup final in midweek at Motherwell’s expense struggling to break down the bottom-dogs. Indeed, it took a late own goal from one of their former heroes – the aforementioned MacKay – to keep the two points at Celtic Park as the Hoops toiled to a 1-0 victory. Part of the credit for that goes to promising young Thirds goalkeeper Evan Williams, a Hoops diehard.