Sport

Celtic - The Lisbon Lions, A Celebration of the European Cup Campaign 1967 by Andy Dougan; Virgin, £14.99 in UK.

ON MAY 25th, 1967, Celtic won the European Cup in Lisbon, beating Inter Milan 2-1 in the final

By PAT MCGOLDRICK
Sat Mar 29 1997 - 00:00

ON MAY 25th, 1967, Celtic won the European Cup in Lisbon, beating Inter Milan 2-1 in the final. I was 21-years-old and I was there. At the final whistle I did not jump the moat and clamber onto the pitch. Instead, I just stood on the stone steps of the National Stadium and wept uncontrollably.

I have felt like weeping many a time since, especially in recent years, but, sadly, for entirely different reasons.

Andy Dougan's 30th anniversary history of the event, Celtic, The Lisbon Lions, takes us back irresistably to an era when Celtic players wouldn't freeze at the sight of a blue jersey, when we could not be kicked out of a game, when no amount of dubious refereeing decisions from masons in black could even begin to make a dent in our superiority.

It was a wonderful era, a comfort blanket for these, the dog days of supporting the greatest football club on the planet.

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Dougan seems to think the victory came as a shock to Celtic fans. Well, not to some of us, I have to say. The week before that extraordinary, win everything season started, in the final pre-season game, Celtic played Manchester United and slaughtered them.

Three up in 10 minutes, the game finished 4-1 - and it could have been eight. We were not to know that sunny afternoon that we were watching the next two winners of the European Cup.

The author is somewhat iconoclastic in his view of Jock Stein, a great manager certainly, but one with blind spots. Reading between the lines, one can readily see why Celtic, the best team in Europe for five or six years, never repeated the feat, though they did go close.

I have one bone to pick with an excellent book. For 28 years I have been telling anyone who still listens, especially pig-ignorant football hacks, that the club is Celtic Football Club.

Dougan labours under the misapprehension that the club's title is Glasgow Celtic Football Club. Well, Andy, it doesn't say that in any history of the club that I have read, it doesn't say so outside Parkhead or on the club crest, and it doesn't say so on my share certificates.