1979-03-17: Celtic 2-1 Motherwell, Premier Division

Match Pictures | Matches: 19781979 | 1978-79 Pictures

Trivia

  • Donegal born Irish goalkeeper Pat Bonner makes his Celtic debut, appropriately enough on St Patrick's day. Peter Latchford paid the price for letting in two soft goals in the Scottish Cup quarter final. Alfie Conn was out and Bobby Lennox started given his good display as a sub in the cup game against Aberdeen.
  • McNeill confirms he has made enquiries about Gregor Stevens and Willie Pettigrew both of Motherwell. Pettigrew had been an on-off transfer down south with a number of teams for quite a while. He didn't play in this game and Gregor Stevens was also out. New manager, and ex-Scotland manager Ally MacLeod had been going about re-organisation at Fir Park having sent the keeper they started the season with – Peter Latchford's brother – back out on loan south of the border.
  • In the Reserves game at Fir Park Weir and Coyne scored for Celtic in a 2-1 win. The team was Latchford, Sneddon, Reid, Lumsden (Coyne), Young, Duffy, Mackie, Filippi, Casey (Godzik), Glavin, Weir.

Review

Bobby Lennox, the last of the Lisbon Lions, proved his worth at the age of 35 and that he was still going strong with two good goals.
Celtic went ahead in the fourteenth minute with a move started by Tommy Burns. Combining with Doyle the keeper failed to grab the ball and it fell to Lennox in the right place at the right time and he made no mistake. Despite good chances for Doyle the score remained 1-0 to Celtic at half time. That soon changed on resumption of the action. Provan sent over a great cross and Lennox rose above the defenders to head home. Macdonald nearly made it three and Lennox had a good chance to make his hatrick. However on 63 minutes a Donnelly shot gave Pat Bonner no chance in a move started by ex-Celt Paul Wilson.

Celtic should have won by more but got nervous when Motherwell scored to make it 2-1.

Teams

Celtic:
Bonner, McGrain, Lynch, Aitken, MacDonald, Edvaldsson, Provan, Macleod (McAdam), Lennox, Burns, Doyle. Sub not used:: McCluskey
Scorer: Lennox 2 (13, 50)

Motherwell:
Rennie, Wark, Smith, Kane, Dempsey, Kennedy, Rafferty (Mungall), Wilson, Larnach, Clinging, Donnelly (Somerville).
Scorer: Donnelly (63)

Referee: E H Pringle (Edinburgh)
Attendance: 16,000

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1979 Celtic 2-1 Motherwell report