Celtic on this Day – John Clark’s debut and notable European victories

The Celtic Star

·3 October 2024

Celtic on this Day – John Clark’s debut and notable European victories

Celtic on this Day – A Celtic debut for a future Lisbon Lion, the Partizan Tirana game and Celtic defeat the then best team on the planet…

John Clark, the week before Lisbon…

3 October 1959, John Clark makes his debut for Celtic. He did not bad, eh? Interestingly, Clark, on that day, was the youngest player at 18 years-old to feature in Celtic’s youngest ever side with an average age of 21 years and 113 days. This came at Gayfield in a 5-0 win over Arbroath. Five 19 year-olds played for the Celts against The Red Lichties, which included Billy McNeill. The oldest player to have started for Jimmy McGrory’s side 65 years to the day was Neil Mochan who was 32 years-old. Doubles from Chalmers and Jackson along with a Conway strike sealed Celtic’s biggest win of the 1959/1960 season.

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3 October 1979, Celtic come from a goal down on aggregate to defeat Partizan Tirana 4-1 in the 2nd leg. Preparations for the game hadn’t been exactly ideal for the Albanians who had failed to apply to the Home Office for visas four days before the 1st round European Cup clash. In contrast, Billy McNeill took his players to Seamill to get ready for the match. An Aitken brace coupled with MacDonald and Davidson on target culminated in Celtic being 4-1 up at half-time and cruising. A comfortable second-half meant that Celtic eased into the next round of the European Cup. They were then however defeated in the quarter-final by Real Madrid.

40 years ago today, Celtic overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit to beat KAA Gent at Celtic Park. It was special occasions for both Peter Grant and John Colquhoun who were making their inaugural European appearances at Parkhead. Rarely, Celtic were playing in a changed strip with the Belgians displaying all-white. This meant Celtic had to wear the famous 84’ away top of all green. A cagey affair, the Hoops knew an away goal at 2-0 would be a killer. McStay calmed the nerves striking a third with a minute of normal time to play. This was after McGarvey had grabbed two goals which put Davie Hay’s side in front in the tie for the first time. Thus, Celtic advanced to the second round of the European Cup Winners Cup.

Blackburn Rovers in front of the original Celtic Park, 3rd October 1889

135 years ago today, Celtic hosted English side Blackburn Rovers in a friendly. Willie Groves netted the solitary goal in the game. Possibly the oldest pictures of Celtic Park originate from this fixture. Blackburn had come to Glasgow as heavy favourites having been one of the top English clubs around at the time. With it being a late kick off of 4:00pm, 12,000 spectators watched on as Celtic were victorious.

Jota celebrates after scoring our second goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on October 03, 2021. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

3 October 2021, Aberdeen 1-2 Celtic. A real turning point of the Ange Postecoglou era. The Australian had lost his first three league games away from home and was going to Pittodrie under considerable pressure. Jota scored the winner, and the victory against a poor Dons side kickstarted a season full of brilliant moments leading to reclaiming the league title in May.

17 years ago today, Celtic 2-1 AC Milan. The Hoops defeated the best club side on the planet in 2007 who had lifted the Champions League trophy just five months previous against Liverpool. A last-gasp Scott McDonald winner followed up by the embarrassing antics of Milan goalkeeper Dida solidifies this game as being one that will live long in the memory.

Conor Spence

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