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This game was played at Hampden as Parkhead was under reconstruction in the main stand area. The authorities gave the game a 12 o'clock kick off to try and avoid any crowd trouble. Half the Celtic end was unopened due to being in disrepair and after the Ibrox disaster no one was for taking chances.

Glasgow Herald Monday September 18 1972

CELTIC SO MUCH ON TOP THAT FANS LAUGH OFF MISSED CHANCES

By John Downie

Celtic 3, Rangers 1

The final score gave little indication of Celtic's superiority over Rangers in Saturday's match at Hampden. That was far better demonstrated by the displays of “keepy-uppy” with which Connelly in the first half, and Macari in the second entertained the crowd and the good nature with which Celtic supporters laughed off the many missed chances by their team in the last quarter of the match and cheered the last minute goal from Rangers' captain, John Greig.

Even the fiercely competitive Greig apparently, had by then accepted the situation, for he acknowledged the opposition salute with a wave of a hand. It was a pity that he had lost his aplomb for just long enough to spoil an otherwise heroic performance.

Immediately after Celtic's third goal had confirmed Rangers' fears that had been growing from the scoring of the first in only three minutes Greig conceded a foul for tripping Dalglish. Within a minute he was in worse trouble when he initiated a bout of jostling with Callaghan. Both Greig and Callaghan were booked, which on the visual evidence of those out of earshot seemed hard on the Celt. The name of Stein had preceded theirs into the book in 19 minutes when McCluskey was hurt in a tackle.
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Yet this was never a rough match. Far worse offences go unpunished in matches where there is less nervous emphasis on preserving the peace.

Celtic gained the whip hand at once by announcing Jimmy Johnstone’s return as outside right and then playing him at outside left. This ruse persuaded Rangers to transpose their backs so that Mathieson, as usual, faced Johnstone, and it seemed more than a probability that the switch contributed to the defensive confusion that overcame Rangers at various stages of the game.

QUIET GAME

Johnstone himself has often been more consistently active. Over the piece he had a relatively quiet game, only one bout of dribbling around Denny being reminiscent of the height of his arrogance. Yet he was directly involved in the scoring of the first two goals, and it seems likely that wondering what Johnstone was up to behind his back led to the weak pass to his goalkeeper with which Jardine teed up the third for Macari.

But the indirect value of Johnstone had influenced the match long before that, for seldom can Celtic players have found against Rangers the freedom of movement enjoyed by Macari, Dalglish, and Deans.
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It might have been otherwise had Celtic not scored so early. Rangers after all, initiated the first attack, a splendid thrust by Stein, playing on the right wing, and Willie Johnston. A minute later Rangers hopes must have risen when a misunderstanding between McCluskey and Callaghan caused the back to let the winger’s cross run for a corner.
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After only three minutes however, a wide arcing cross by Macari drew McCloy out to the right of his goal. Jimmy Johnstone headed the ball over the goalkeeper and Kenny Dalglish touched it into goal.

The next quarter of an hour was exciting with good shots by Jardine and Greig for Rangers on either side of a splendid McCloy save at the feet of Dalglish. But in 18 minutes the Johnstone-Dalglish double act again went into effective action. Jardine fell as Dalglish beat him on the outside and before the back could fully recover Dalglish cut in along the goal-line and pushed the ball towards Johnstone. The winger's first attempt to meet the pass landed him flat on his back in the goalmouth alongside the fallen goalkeeper, but Johnstone got a second stab which put the ball into the net.

COMPLEX

Celtic, with Connelly, McGrain, Murdoch, and Callaghan fetching and carrying for those in front, could have had two more in quick succession as Macari and Deans came close to success. Rangers responded with a complex advance in which Denny, Greig, Smith, MacDonald, Stein, Willie Johnston and Derek Johnstone combined to set up a chance for MacDonald, who scooped over.

But three minutes into the second half Macari knocked the bottom out of the match. His lob over Jardine looked like an invitation for Jimmy Johnstone to cut in, but the wing hung back, and when Jardine passed back too softly for McCloy, Macari himself was quickly in to neatly clip the ball into goal.

The most outrageous of a number of incidents in the Rangers goalmouth thereafter was a pile up in 54 minutes with the ball jammed against the front of McCloy's left-hand post. Jackson eventually persuaded the goalkeeper to release enough pressure to allow him to scrape the ball round for a corner.

SPIRITED

Conn, who replaced the injured Willie Johnston in 64 minutes, played with enough spirit to suggest that the match had been less depressing for a Ranger to watch than to play in and Greig kept trying to rally his troops. Yet nearly all the action was towards the Rangers' end, where three shots were stopped on the line by the backs, Jardine once blocking a shot by Macari by the right post and immediately getting over to the other side to meet a drive from Dixie Deans that winded him painfully.

So it all went on until in the last minute, a fine run and pass by Smith enabled Greig to gain Rangers' goal and that Celtic cheer, which one suspects, was not entirely ironic.