1977-04-30: Celtic 2-0 Ayr United, Premier League

Trivia

  • Bobby Lennox returns after 6 months absence with a broken leg to huge acclaim from the fans.Ronnie Glavin dropped out with an injury picked up on international duty on the Wednesday night (see below). In came Tommy Burns.
  • Jim Brogan turns out for Ayr and is given a warm reception.The Ayr Utd players applauded Celtic onto the pitch.
  • When players attempt to throw scarves and balls to the crowd, young supporters invade the park. Papers describe it as an 'orgy of unruliness' and only Stein's personal intervention clears the field and he does so forcibly.
  • Celtic's mind clearly on next weeks Scottish Cup final against Rangers.
  • Willie Ormond leaves Scotland to become Hearts manager and rumours grow about Stein's departure.
  • Danny McGrain scores in the dying seconds but the referee blows his whistle before his shot crosses the line! He had just been named Scotland's Player of the Year by the Scottish Football Writers Association.
  • Immediately after the game work began on ploughing up the Celtic Park playing surface and planting a new pitch for the following season and repairing drainage.
  • Highlights were shown on Sportscene that night.
  • McGrain, Glavin and Dalglish all played for Scotland on the Wednesday prior against Sweden at Hampden winning 3-1.
  • Ex-Celt Bobby Murdoch is tipped to take over as manager of Middlesbrough after the resignation of Jack Charlton. Murdoch had had a second career after his move from Celtic to Middlebrough.

1977-04-30: Celtic 2-0 Ayr United, Premier League - The Celtic Wiki

Review

Celtic play well within themselves and only flashes of the true team are seen. All the previous games against Ayr Utd had turned out to be decent games. In this game however they chose to be unadventurous and as a match it was a bit of a borefest.
Ayr Utd played a canny offside trap. Celtic opened the scoring when a corner from Doyle fell to Dalglish who swept it into the net. Edvaldsson came on for Alfie Conn at half time. With 12 minutes to go the big Icelander made it 2-0 with a shot from close in.

Teams:

Celtic:
Latchford, McGrain, Lynch, Stanton, MacDonald, Aitken, Doyle, Dalglish, Craig (Lennox), Burns, Conn (Edvaldsson 45)
Goals:- Dalglish (37), Edvaldsson (78)

Ayr Utd:
Geoghegan, Rodman, Fleming, McAnespie, Brogan, Murphy (Phillips), Fillipi, McCulloch (Hislop), Cramond, McCall, Masterton

Referee:
T Muirhead (Stenhousemuir)
Attendance:- 17,000

Articles

  • Match Report (see below)

Pictures

Articles
1977 Celtic 2-0 Ayr report

1977 Celtic 2-0 Ayr report

1977 Celtic 2-0 Ayr report