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Trivia
- The old management team of Lou Macari and Chic Bates were out – Bates with a pay-off but Macari was to go to the courts; the new manager in Tommy Burns was in with his assistant Billy Stark; Davie Hay had been appointed as Chief Scout; Charlie Nicholas and Pat Bonner had another year each, Carl Muggleton was sold to join Joe Jordan at Stoke, and Andy Walker had been re-signed from Bolton for a second term with the club..
- The go-ahead had been given to move to Hampden Park for the home fixtures for the coming season whilst Celtic Park was rebuilt. Premier Reserve fixtures would be played at Albion Rovers Cliftonhill ground and Celtic withdrew from the lesser Reserve League West tournament.
- Ashley Grimes, youth team coach under Macari was said to be cleaning boots at Celtic Park. He would soon depart to be replaced by Willie McStay who had been managing Sligo Rovers.
- Deals were set to be signed with Simon Donnelly, Mark McNally
- Chris McCart, captain of Motherwell was in the sights of Tommy Burns as a signing. McCart had played right through the Celtic Boys Club but had not been offered a contract at Celtic and had been with Motherwell since 1984 rising to club captain. Other names being mentioned were Neil McCann of Dundee, Billy Dodds of St Johnstone
- Pieces of the Celtic Park turf went on sale to raise money for the Daily Record’s Childrens Hospice Appeal. The turf was stripped and sold off prior to the demolition and redevelopement of Celtic Park. A 3ft x 1ft turf would set you back about £5
Review
Pretty much a bounce game for the Celts giving Tommy Burns a chance to cast his eyes over the squad.
Teams
Cork City:
Harrington, Cotter, Napier, O'Donoghue, Hyde (Phillips), Murphy, Giltenan (Barry), Woods, Bell (Warren), Gaynor, Caulfield (Ludzic)
Scorers: Woods (18), Liam Murphy (88)
Celtic:
Marshall, Smith, Boyd, McNally, MacKay, Grant (O’Neil), Galloway (Byrne), McStay (McGinlay), Donnelly (Nicholas), Walker (Falconer), Collins (McLaughlin)
Scorers: McStay (11), Donnelly (21), Collins (56 )
Referee: P Kelly (Cork)
Attendance: 5,000
Articles
- Match Report(see below)
Pictures
Celts give Burns flying start
Daily Record 27/07/1994
Tommy Burns was last night given a flying start to his new era in charge of Celtic.
But after watching his side beat Cork City 3-2 in Ireland Burns' verdict was: "Good-but we can be an awful lot better."
The victory was more comfortable than the score suggests and Burns added:
''l told the players that we have to learn to bury teams.
''We'll work morning, noon and night from now until the start of the season to get things right for the big kick off.
''lt was an encouraging performance. We showed a lot of good movement and nice touches. But the one disappointing thing is that we didn’t score enough goals.''
Skipper' Paul McStay' who grabbed the first goal after just 11 minutes' was outstanding.
And Burns insisted there is a place at Parkhead for Mike Galloway, who operated wide on the right and looked faster and fitter than he has been for the last two or three seasons.
Burns said: ''lt was good that the captain scored the first goal. He is going to be a big' big player for us this season.
"It looked like the old McStay out there and the only way we're going to turn things around i6 if everyone can turn it on like he did. "Galloway did particularly well. He is an aggressive player and I think the style we're going to play will suit him. There is a place for him here.'' Slimline Galloway admitted: ''l really enjoyed that – but so did everyone else.
''We are all excited at what's happened in the last week or two with Tommy and Billy Stark coming here.
"They are both Celtic through and through and will give their all for the club – and so will we."
McStay set the ball rolling with a sweetly taken goal in the 11th minute.
Collins' corner from the right was only partially cleared and McStay does not waste gifts from 15 yards.
He struck the ball low and hard and keeper Phil Harrington had no chance.
Cork drew level seven minutes later when Billy Woods sent a spectacular volley flashing past Gordon Marshall.
Celtic regained the lead in the 21st minute with a goal which simply confirmed all the promise which young Donnelly had shown towards the end of his rookie season.
It was a goal of stunning simplicity. Galloway sent in cross and Donnelly bulleted the ball home from close range.
It all happened so quickly, if anyone in the crowd had blinked they would have missed the goal.
Celtic used the second half to give all six substitutes a feel of the ball.
And one of those who came on, Charlie Nicholas, set up the third goal after 56 minutes.
Cheeky Charlie produced a little back heel from his extensive repertoire to wrong-foot the Cork defence and Collins steered a 15 yard shot into the net.
Celtic were cruising and should have gone further ahead but Byrne's lob in the 65th minute struck the bar.
Then, another sub, Willie Falconer, missed with a simple header in front of goal two minutes later. When Murphy scored two minutes from the end it came as the result of a lapse in concentration in the Celtic defence
- Manager Interview
Tommy Burns Pre-Match:
"I've detected a feeling of apathy among the players and support recently and that's got to change.
"People had become fed up with the place and the atmosphere. I sensed things had gone flat when I came to Parkhead with Kilmarnock and hopefully we can lift the gloom hanging over the club.
"There is no magical formula, but if Billy Stark and I can make this a happy place to work, then we can build from there."
Burns also made it clear that Fergus McCann is the ideal person to be in charge.
"A lot of noses needed to be pushed out of joint and Fergus was the right man to do it," said Burns. "The problem with Celtic is that it was basically run by committee and no one person took the blame.
"David Murray is undoubtedly the leader at Ibrox and that is something Celtic have lacked for a long, long time."
"I think the players we have here are capable of a lot better than they've shown.
"They are under-achieving and there are reasons for it – not least being told they weren't good enough in the first place. They need to get back the belief in themselves and I want to bring back the confidence to those who have felt a bit down in the dumps.
"So far, they've done everything we've asked of them and the spirit on the training ground has been first class."