Celtic on this Day – A legend passes, a broken leg for a starlet and a sorry transfer | OneFootball

Celtic on this Day – Celtic’s Iron Man, Sean Fallon passes away, Charlie Nicholas breaks his leg and Lou Macari leaves Celtic to sign for Manchester United…

Celtic management team at Broomfield in 1965. From left: Neil Mochan, Bob Rooney, Jock Stein and Sean Fallon. Photo The Celtic Wiki

18 January 1997

Celtic 4-1 Hibs. Five games in 16 days were starting to show and the players were clearly feeling it. Morton Weighorst, Phil O’Donnell, Simon Donnelly and Paolo Di Canio were all absent through picking up injuries. Ex-Celt Jim Duffy had just arrived as Hibs manager after taking over from caretaker Jocky Scott. The Hibees were in a bad way and had it not been for Jim Leighton, it could have been a humiliating day for the Edinburgh club. Van Hooijdonk bagged a brace with McLaughlin and Cadete also scoring.

18 January 2004

Celtic’s Stan Petrov celebrates his goal infront of the Hearts fans at Tynecastle on 18 January 2004. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Hearts 0-1 Celtic. Trio of ex-Celts Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon were all in Hearts starting eleven. The Jambos home support voiced their displeasure at the game towards their chairman Chris Robertson. Celtic continued their charge towards the title courtesy of Stan Petrov after a perfectly weighted pass by Henrik Larsson.

18 January 2014

James Forrest shoots. Celtic v Motherwell, 17 January 2014. Photo Big Lens

Celtic 3-0 Motherwell. Neil Lennon’s side extended their lead at the top of the table to 13 points whilst also having two games in hand over Aberdeen. This was Celtic’s biggest league victory at home up until that point in the league so far. The Hoops had just signed Norwegian midfielder Stefan Johansen from Strömsgodset for a fee of around £2m. It was a 10th successive league win — Kris Commons scored twice, and former Celtic defender Stephen McManus knocked one into his own net. Anthony Stokes was sent-off late on for a harsh red card.

18 January 1973

1st August 1973 Lou Macari Manchester United. Photo Imago Color Sports

Manchester United signed strike Lou Macari for a fee of £200,000. Playing in Celtic’s golden era, Macari later stated, “I had Jock Stein who changed my life taking me to Celtic as a young boy and then I went to Old Trafford with the Doc.”

18 January 1982

Charlie Nicholas suffers a broken leg against Greenock Morton in a reserve match.

Charlie Nicholas. Photo The Celtic Wiki

18 January 2013

Sean Fallon. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Celtic’s Iron Man, Sean Fallon, sadly dies aged 80. Utility man Fallon played both as a full-back and a centre-forward during his time as a player between 1950-1958 with the Hoops. Making 254 appearances and scoring on 14 occasions, Fallon cemented himself as a legend of the club. Of course, he later became assistant to Jock Stein when Stein became manager in 1965. Not only was Fallon Stein’s right-hand man for such a lengthy period but he played a pivotal role in securing the signatures of many Celtic greats including David Hay, Danny McGrain, Kenny Dalglish and Pat Bonner. “I can never hope to find words to express my feelings at becoming a member of the Celtic Football Club,” Fallon famously said.

Conor Spence

The late, great Celtic Historian David Potter’s Celtic Diary  each morning on The Celtic Star looked back at key Celtic events and matches on this day starting on 18th January 1896…

Dan Doyle scored a penalty

SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 1896 – Celtic, already League Champions and Glasgow Cup winners, go out of the Scottish Cup today by losing 2-4 to Queen’s Park. They are without the suspended Barney Battles (had the game gone ahead on its original date of 11 January, Barney would have been available) and are simply beaten by the better team on the day. Dan Doyle (with a penalty) and Jimmy Blessington score for Celtic. 20,000 (a huge crowd for the 1890s) are at Celtic Park to see a game which more or less ends Celtic’s season.

Alec McNair scored. Order his biography by clicking the image

SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 1908 – A temporary brake is applied to the Celtic steam engine as they are held to a 2-2 draw at Fir Park Motherwell with goals coming from Alec McNair and Peter Somers. Motherwell are well on top and leading 2-0 until the last fifteen minutes when an Alec McNair cross deceives the goalkeeper and goes in, then Peter Somers, himself a Lanarkshire man, scores the equaliser. It is in fact a good day for Celtic because main rivals Falkirk lose to Third Lanark.

Jimmy Johnstone scored

SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 1964 – A good win for Celtic today as they beat St Mirren 3-0 at Celtic Park in the Scottish League. It was an unpleasant game on a hard pitch with a St Mirren player ordered off and one or two Celtic players lucky not to share the same fate. It is only in the latter stages that Celtic secure the points with a couple of late goals from Jimmy Johnstone and John Divers to add to the one that Steve Chalmers scored in the first half.

THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 1973 – Lou Macari, who has been unsettled for some time, signs for Manchester United for £200,000. He is a fine player but has been looking for a transfer to England, and there have been occasions, notably in the League Cup Final of a month ago against Hibs and in the Old Firm game of 6 January, when he has not performed as well as the supporters might have expected. It is however still a very sad day for the club. It would not be true to say that the supporters wish him well. (More on this transfer on The Celtic Star archives).

SUNDAY 18 JANUARY 2004 – Tynecastle is never an easy place to gather points, but today Celtic are able to do just that with a 1-0 win which is more comfortable than it sounds. Stilian Petrov scores the only goal of the game before 13,753 fans.

David Potter

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