1972-04-01: Celtic 3-1 Partick Thistle, League Division 1

Match Pictures | Matches: 1971 – 1972 | 1971-1972 Pictures

Trivia

• Harry Hood, Jim Brogan and David Hay were all out injured. Back in again came Jimmy Quinn at left back. Jinky too was back to full fitness after being tested in a Reserve and Challenge game and told to buck his ideas up and get after it. With Macari rested and Dalglish rested to the bench back in came Vic Davidson and Dixie Deans.
• A rainy day and a muddy pitch.
• Vic Davidson scores after 16 seconds and again after 12 minutes to give late-comers a shock.

Review

The game was up in 25 minuters and Celtic were 3-0 to the good. The Jags managed to pull one back before half time.

Teams

Celtic:
Williams, Craig, Quinn, Murdoch, McNeill, Connelly, Johnstone, Davidson, Deans, Callaghan, Lennox . Substitute: Dalglish
Scorers: Davidson 2 (16 secs, 12), Johnstone (25)

Partick Thistle:
Rough, Reid, Forsyth, Smith, Clark, Strachan, McQuade, Glavin, Coulston, Rae, Lawrie. Substitute: Gibson.
Scorer: Coulston (42)

Referee: R. Gordon (Glasgow).
Attendance: 29,000

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Articles

The Glasgow Herald Monday April 3 1972

Champions ease off after three quick successes

Celtic, 3 Partick Thistle 1

CELTIC beat Partick Thistle on Saturday at Parkhead the best way— in other words, the easy way, writes Raymond Jacobs. All three of Celtic's goals were scored in the opening 24 minutes and for most of the remainder of the game they were content to practice the kind of containing game they will be hoping to perform successfully in Milan.

Saturated by heavy rain the pitch looked more suitable for growing rice than for playing football and one half expected little Jimmy Johnstone to appear with a lifebelt round his waist. These were not the conditions in which a defence in the smallest degree lacking in composure could operate comfortably and Thistle’s at fault collectively and individually, were doubly swamped.

The apocryphal spectator who picks up his programme, and missed the knockout would equally have been deprived of seeing the first goal scored by Davidson in 16 seconds from the rebound of a shot Lennox was allowed to make through defensive hesitation. After 12 minutes Murdoch touched a free kick to Davidson, whose drive passed under Rough's body and another 12 minutes later, Johnstone, unmarked in the centre forward position, produced another of those telling headers of his from Quinn’s cross.

Fully extended

In one sense, therefore, Celtic’s lead at that stage was flatteringly wide. Smith and Rae gave thistle as much of the play, McQuade frequently had the beating of Quinn, and Coulston and Glavin kept McNeill and Connelly on their toes. But whereas Celtic had the capacity to switch their power on and off at will Thistle were fully extended and for all their advances Williams was hardly ever seriously involved.

Murdoch showed marvellous control of the strength and direction of his passes in these con­ditions and called the tune for Celtic, capably assisted by Davidson, taking up Dalglish’s midfield role, and the boundless energy of Callaghan. Johnstone alternately lay low and made it difficult for Forsyth as he continued the process of playing himself back into top form. Deans and Lennox, throughout Celtic's only permanent front runners, were not given much space by Smith and Clark.

Thistle did deserve credit for their willingness to keep going forward and to try to play entertaining football. The game was open and entertaining for the crowd of 29,000, and Thistle’s efforts gained reward five minutes from half-time when Coulston, having advanced across the left side of the penalty area against a retreating defence, deceived Williams with an accurate shot into the far top corner of the net.

For almost the whole of the second half Celtic played a cautious game and did so well within themselves. Connelly showed once again how creative a nominally destructive player can be

when he has the ball at his feet to use, and Thistle were held mainly where Celtic wanted them to stay, in midfield, on a treadmill, as they worked hard, only to stay in the same place.

There was one brief and riotous flurry around Rough some 15 minutes from time. In rapid succession Forsyth turned away a shot from Lennox at the post, and after the corner, Deans had a header saved and struck the cross-bar after another shot had been stopped on the line. Near the end McQuade saw his header from Lawrie's cross, scrape outside a post, but long before that it had been conceded that Celtic were home if not dry.