1980-04-08: Dundee Utd 3-0 Celtic, League

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Trivia

  • A Tuesday night game.
  • Doyle, who'd taken a leg knock in the Aberdeen game at the weekend was not fit for the game and George McCluskey was recalled. McAdam who had been subbed in that game after a head knock recovered and started.
  • Second half collapse throws the league race wide open.
  • Some Celtic historybooks show Edvaldsson as substitute but he had departed in late February for Tulsa in the USA. It was Jim Casey who was on the bench.

Review

Dundee United blow the league race wide open with their best display for months. With Aberdeen winning against Dundee at Pittodrie the gap was down to 3 points with Aberdeen holding a game in hand.

At half time the game was evenly balanced but Sneddon's error when he allowed a tricky bouncing ball past him allowed Dodds to score in 47 minutes and Celtic never recovered. The second came from a free kick which Holt headed against the upright and Dodds headed the rebound into an empty net. Burns and Casey came on shortly after the second goal but failed to change the constant flow against Celtic. On 78 minutes Celtic conceded a third through poor defending. Holt was allowed to slip the defense at a free kick and he headed home.
Celtic finished a man down when Provan had to be subbed after a head knock.

Celtic's defence found it difficult to cope with the Sturrock – Dodds partnership up front for United.

Table:
Team P Pts GD
Celtic 30 – 40 +23
Aberdeen 29 – 37 +21

Teams

Dundee Utd:
McAlpine, Stark, Kopel, Phillip, Hegarty, Narey, Bannon, Pettigrew, Sturrock, Holt, Dodds. Subs: Kirkwood, Milne
Goals: Dodds 2 (49, 61), Holt (78)

Celtic:
Latchford, Sneddon, McGrain, Aitken, MacDonald, McAdam, Provan, McCluskey (Burns), McGarvey (Casey), MacLeod, Lennox

Referee: E H Pringle (Edinburgh)

Attendance: 14,616

Articles

  • Match Report

Pictures

1980 Dundee Utd 3-0 CelticArticles

1980 Dundee Utd 3-0 Celtic report