No Lisbon Reprise For Crestfallen Celts

This proud walk and the shock match which followed heralded an unprecedented era of dominance for Jock Stein’s legends. The previous week, a more sizeable stadium, Hampden Park, hosted the greatest team in Celtic’s history when Willie ‘Wispy’ Wallace slayed Aberdeen to put the icing on a domestic cake.

Wispy’s double became Celtic’s Treble, and the rest, as they say, is a beautiful tale. That squad (with further additions including Danny McGrain, David Hay, George Connolly and Kenny Dalglish) took on all-comers for the next nine years, as Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, Bobby ‘Lemon’ Lennox, Bobby ‘Chopper’ Murdoch and co. ran riot in Scotland, and lorded it in Europe.

Aberdeen has become a name synonymous with Celtic, and Scottish Cup Finals down the years, so, on the 58th Anniversary weekend of the Lions’s European triumph, they returned to Hampden to attend to our emotional needs, i.e. to play the villain as our heroes Hooped it up with more silverware.

However, the Dons fluffed their lines and were largely responsible for dismantling Celtic’s celebratory grandstands which were being hastily erected outside Parkhead in anticipation of…well, you know the rest.

Aberdeen came with a game plan; stop Celtic at all costs, and don’t lose 5-1 to the Bhoys as they did on their own Pittodrie patch last week. The Celtic fans expected another goalscoring riot in the Final, but, apparently, so did some of Brendan Rodgers’ men!

In truth, it was one of the most placid, turgid Finals I have encountered since my introduction to the beautiful game in the early 60s. The few snippets of genuine action worthy of getting bums off seats were the little pockets of ‘biffo’ which the northerners clearly expected to get away with.

But get away with it they did, courtesy of the inept Don Robertson. Now, I’m not going to throw the bumbling whistler under a bus to save Celtic’s blushes, but, he was so far out of his depth I’m surprised the SFA didn’t throw him a life raft.

The facts are these; Aberdeen defended like they were auditioning for The Alamo, whilst Celtic toyed with their prey without actually taking a meaningful bite. When they did bare their teeth and Carter-Vickers managed to get one on target, it was a deflection off a Don which put Celtic into the lead.

Celtic hit the woodwork twice, whilst, in a rare foray, a low centre from the wing mysteriously evaded the grasp of the diving Kasper Schmeichel and found its way home. Celtic had 81.4% possession but managed only three shots on target. Aberdeen ended with only one shot less.

Celtic’s penalty efforts were tame, whilst the winners rifled theirs into the net. There’s yer dinner!

This term has been so up and down I half expect us to sign a New York bellhop! We won the League Flag in a canter, despite being schooled by theRangers at times. We won the League Cup on penalties after being held 3-3 by the Ibrox side.

Many will claim that with two out of three trophies in our cabinet this season, and, after a very decent run in Europe, we should be grateful. I am. I’m not blind though and can see that Brendan now has a task to overhaul a fitfully inconsistent squad, and I believe my views on who must be replaced are aligned with yours. Most are obvious, and other writers have covered the sword-wielding victims, so I’ll leave that to them.

The squad who will engage in the upcoming season will know by now that they have hit a small jackpot; Celtic will be seeded in the draw for the ECL play-offs. That’ll be some form of light relief, but there are still banana skins all over the continent, and we have no right to anything, particularly in light of Hampden.

Despite this, I expect to see the name, CELTIC, in the draw for the biggest club tournament of them all. Going into the 59th year of Jubilee since the illustrious Lions, the fans expect. So, it’s now down to Michael Nicholson and Brendan Rodgers to conjure the players who can take Celtic to the heights in Europe once again.

Yes, two outa three ain’t bad, but, as history tells us, we can do better.

Enjoy the break, Bhoys and Ghirls. The close season and the upcoming matches are sure to be eye-opening, so, we wait, and hope and pray!

Hail Hail to the Champions!

Eddie Murray

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