1977-12-31: Ayr United 2-1 Celtic, Premier Division

Match Pictures | Matches: 19771978 | 1977-1978 Pictures

Trivia

  • The state of the club was that it hung on tenterhooks on whether Frank Munro would return and sign a deal to stay at the club. He had done two loan periods of 1 month each and returned south of the border biding his time and mulling over whether to commit fully to Celtic. He finally signed on the 30th for £20,000.
  • Game delayed for 5 minutes to allow large crowd into Somerset Park.

Review

Celtic went down to a fine late goal by Ayr's Brian McLaughlin who only left Celtic a matter of weeks previously. The fans realise the League is beyond the team now.

Ayr scored first through Masterton and Edvaldsson equalised with a blistering shot. The game was heading for a draw when Brian McLaughlin scored with an excellent shot.

The irony was not lost on the Celtic fans as McLaughlin had only joined Ayr from Celtic weeks previously.

Celtic finished the year in a mid-table position having clawed their way back from being second from bottom after a disastrous start.

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
Rangers 19 12 4 3 42 23 +19 28
Aberdeen 20 11 4 5 34 19 +16 26
Partick Thistle 18 10 3 5 29 26 +3 23
Dundee Utd 19 8 5 6 23 15 +8 21
Celtic
18
8
4
6
28
23
+5
20
St Mirren 19 7 4 8 30 30 0 18
Hibernian 19 7 3 9 17 19 -2 17
Motherwell 19 5 4 10 23 29 -6 14
Ayr Utd 18 5 3 10 18 34 -16 13
Clydebank 18 2 3 13 10 36 -26 7

Teams

Ayr Utd
Sproat, Rodman, Kelly, Fleming, Hyslop, McAnespie, McCall, McSherry, Masterton, McLaughlin, Cramond. Subs: McAlister Christie
Scorer: Masterton (8), McLaughlin (89)

Celtic
Latchford, Filippi, Lynch, Aitken, MacDonald, Munro, Doyle, Edvaldsson, McAdam, Craig (G McCluskey), Conn Sub: Dowie.
Scorer: Edvaldsson 46

Referee: G R Smith (Edinburgh)
Attendance: 14,000

Articles

  • Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

Articles