1986-08-05: Arsenal 0-2 Celtic, David O’Leary Testimonial

Match Pictures | Matches: 19861987 | 1986-87 Pictures | Friendlies – Away

Trivia

  • Pierce O'Leary captains Celtic on the night in his brother's testimonial. David also captains Arsenal.
  • 8,000 Celtic fans pack in to the away end at Highbury.
  • Game kicked off 15 minutes late to allow travelling Celtic fans to get in.
  • Alan McInally was taken off only to be sent back on later to score as Celtic only had 3 subs and all were used up.
  • This was George Graham's first game at Highbury as Arsenal manager.
  • Bayern Munich beat Rangers 2-0 at Ibrox.

Review

This game was keenly contested by both sides with the large travelling Celtic support giving ex Celt Nicholas a hard time.

Celtic took the lead 10 minutes from time with a brilliant header from Johnston from an Aitken cross.

With 5 minutes left McInally raced from half way to beat Lukic with a powerful shot.

The quality of Celtic's goals were excellent and the supporters made a good impression on the Arsenal public.

Teams

Arsenal:
Lukic Anderson Sansom Robson O'Leary Adams Rocastle Davis Quinn Nicholas Rix Subs: Williams Caesar Allinson Caton Wilmot

Celtic:
Bonner W McStay Whyte Aitken O'Leary (McGugan) MacLeod McClair (McInally) P McStay McInally (Johnston) Burns Archdeacon (Grant)

Scorers: Johnston 80 McInally 85

Referee:
Attendance: 30,000

Articles

  • Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

Articles

Arsenal 0-2 Celtic

Football: Arsenal so wasterful
Times, The (London, England)
August 6, 1986
Estimated printed pages: 1

Arsenal ………….0 Celtic …………..2

Billed as a testimonial to Arsenal's David O'Leary, last night's game at Highbury was for 80 minutes a testimony to the fact that football on both sides of the border is poverty-stricken of old fashioned forwards with the ability to put the ball in the back of the net.

Arsenal were the most to blame, albeit because especially in the first half, they had the lion's share of the proceedings. Nicholas, playing against his former club, set up enough first half opportunities to have won the game four times over. After 20 minutes he set up Robson with a clear opportunity only for Pierce O'Leary to block the shot on the line, surely an uncharitable act when your brother is having a testimonial for the other side. In ritualistic fashion Celtic supporters who made up a third of the 29,634 crowd, burnt a British flag before the start. In the 80th minute they erupted into a display of green to rival a St Patrick's parade in New York.

McStay pumped the ball to Atkins and Johnson beat the helpless goalkeeper Lukic from the cross. Four minutes later McInally muscled down the right and blasted the ball into the far corner.

Pierce O'Leary and brother David

1986 Arsenal 0-2 Celtic

David O'Leary Test.2-0 86

Evening Times 6th August 1986

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