And so the great day dawned. It was a bright, pleasant spring day, but it was not like any other spring day. Was this to be the day of deliverance, or was it to join the previous four Scottish Cup finals in its crushing disappointment? It was probably the case that Dunfermline were the better side – their League position certainly indicated that – but on the other hand, as the perspicacious Celtic supporters kept pointing out – they could not win last week against St Johnstone when they had to win to keep themselves in the League race.
Yet their men were all fit today and in Willie Cunningham they had an able Manager and tactician. They still had two men left from their win in 1961 – Alex Smith and Harry Melrose, whereas Celtic had five in Billy McNeill, John Clark, Charlie Gallagher, John Hughes and Steve Chalmers. But of course, the key thing was that Jock Stein had changed sides.
The journey to Glasgow for supporters that bright Saturday morning was animated with a surprising amount of conversation about who was going to win the League, rather than the Cup. There was still in 1965 among Celtic supporters a general respect (not exactly love or affection, however) for Hearts and a general dislike of Kilmarnock, who wore blue, were managed by Willie Waddell and had “kicked Billy and Boaby aff the park” that awful day last August at Rugby Park.
So if Hearts won, drew or even lost 0-1 today, they would win the League and that would not necessarily be the worst outcome in the world. “Ah dinnae like them, mind, but at least they are no’ Rangers!” Pleasure was then expressed at the almost total collapse of Rangers this season.
It was immediately obvious in the streets of Glasgow that morning as one disembarked at Buchanan Street railway station that there was a special atmosphere in the air. Lewis’s Polytechnic was full of green and white scarves, tammies and favours, and fewer black and white ones. But it was friendly with loads of banter. There are some teams’ supporters with whom Celtic fans get on well and Dunfermline were one of them.
Old grannies decked in the black and white were seen to put arms round wee Celtic boys, asking where they came from and what was their favourite TV programme, did they like the Beatles and of course the vital question of “Who was going to win today?” Old Celtic supporters told younger Pars ones that they remembered Peter Wilson becoming Dunfermline’s manager before the war. The young Dunfermline boys were impressed, but clearly did not have a clue who Peter Wilson was.
Lunch was consumed but not always digested. Such were the nerves and the excitement of the day. The lunchtime edition of The Evening Citizen was reassuring. “Even if, by some unkind quirk of fate, the Cup is not wearing green and white ribbons tonight, things will soon change at Parkhead,” but the focus was all on today.
At Central Station, awaiting the Blue Train (they might have changed the colour for one day!), we saw women with shopping, young men with cricket bats (they were getting a good day for the start of the season) and other people wandering around aimlessly as people sometimes do at railway stations, looking perhaps for friends of the opposite sex who had failed to appear, but the largest proportion of the crowd wore green and white.
The destination was Mount Florida. If the opposition had been Rangers, we would never have dared to take that train, for Mount Florida was at the western or “Rangers” end of Hampden. It would have had to be King’s Park, but that was not a problem today. A well-dressed man, a pleasant faced but somewhat apprehensive woman, and two wee boys with black and white Dunfermline Athletic scarves got on. It was clearly their first time at Hampden.
A group of beery green and whites came on and the Pars family feared the worst. But one of the Celtic chaps with few teeth bent down and said to one of the youngsters, “And what’s your name?” Before we knew where we were, the conversation was all about holidays in Fife, “my granny came frae a place called Cairneyhill (dae ye ken it?)” and “I hope we get a good gemme the day.”
CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE…
