Celtic Debuts – A story of incredible dramas and occasional misfortunes

Over the years, many Celtic players have had memorable debuts. Sometimes this is for positive reasons, but other times these moments are best forgotten. Let’s tells some of these stories…

When it comes to disastrous debuts in the Hoops, there are no shortage of examples. For some of these players, the debut was an event from which they never recovered. Others went on to earn forgiveness.

Days to forget for Willie Garner and Frank Munro 

Perhaps the most infamous Celtic debut came in 1981. Willie Garner was a defender who was recruited from Aberdeen in July of that year.

Garner made his Celtic bow versus St Mirren in the League Cup in August. The Celts went on to lose 3-1 in this match, which is one reason for it to be a poor debut. However, the main problem for Garner was that he scored two own-goals as part of this!

In the end, he played very few games for the club, and moved on a year later. However, despite this, Garner was a Celtic fan and still says he loved getting the chance to pull on the Hoops.

Another player whose debut was similar to Garner’s experience was Frank Munro. In 1977, the Dundonian defender arrived from Wolves as one of Jock Stein’s final signings.

Like Garner, his debut also came versus St Mirren at Celtic Park. This time however it was a League game in October 1977. Once more, the Celts fell to defeat.

And again, it was an own-goal from Munro that helped stop Celtic claiming any points. He scored the first of the game, and eventually future Celt Billy Stark made it 2-1, which was the final score.

A day to forget for Munro, although at least he only scored one own-goal!

Continued on the next page…