There were men and women – the women often more garishly dressed in green than the men, again some old, some young, some trying to look younger than they were – but everything had this in common – the stress and pressure on their faces. “We’ll forgive everything, Cellic, everything, if ye’s jist win the day.” There had indeed been an awful lot to forgive.
The Evening Times reports some strange behaviour by the Dunfermline Manager Willie Cunningham. The team bus arrived well over an hour before kick-off and the party of 16 players were all hustled into the away dressing-room (Celtic had won the toss for the home dressing-room, apparently) and stayed there until they emerged down the tunnel at 2.55pm. The Directors went upstairs for their refreshments with their Celtic counterparts, but the players were nowhere to be seen.
Just what was behind this, we cannot tell. Maybe Cunningham had not yet finalised his team selection; maybe he just did not want them talking to the Press; maybe he did not want them to see the massive Celtic support, which was building up, but in any case, their players were deprived of their walk on the Hampden turf.
No-one would have thought it significant at the time, but Pars’ centre-forward Alex Ferguson was dropped, presumably being blamed for Dunfermline’s inability to beat St Johnstone last weekend. It must have been a major blow for the youngster, whose playing career in Scottish football did not always enjoy the best of luck nor the greatest success. The team chosen, however, was the team that had beaten Rangers some ten days ago, and it was clearly this one on whom Dunfermline placed their major hopes for success.
Celtic on the other hand, their team having been picked and briefed, were able to have a short stroll on the pitch. It was not the habit in those days to have a warm-up on the pitch as they do now, and they were all in civvies as they waved to the crowd, giving the impression of being totally relaxed, a relaxation that presumably they did not feel.
The teams that appeared were as follows;
Celtic:
Fallon, Young and Gemmell; Murdoch, McNeill and Clark; Chalmers, Gallagher, Hughes, Lennox and Auld.
Dunfermline Athletic:
Herriot; W Callaghan and Lunn; Thomson, McLean and T Callaghan; Edwards, Smith, McLaughlin, Melrose and Sinclair.
Referee: Mr H Phillips, Wishaw.
Billy McNeill won the toss and elected to play towards the King’s Park end. The actual 90 minutes are of course well reported in contemporary newspapers and are available on YouTube, but they do not begin to convey the sheer emotion involved on that day. The standard of football by both sides was amazingly high considering all that was involved, and the Celtic performance, particularly in that second half was such that quite a lot of Celtic supporters given to mysticism wondered whether it was all “meant.”
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