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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
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| May 13 2008, 3:09 PM EDT (current) | auldbhoy | |
| May 13 2008, 7:44 AM EDT | auldbhoy |
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Celtic Matches: Rangers, League Cup
Celtic:
Beattie, Donnelly, Fallon, Fernie, Evans, Peacock, Tully, Collins, McPhail, Wilson, Mochan.
Rangers:
Niven, Shearer, Caldow, McColl, Valentine, Davis, Scott, Simpson, Murray, Baird, Hubbard.
Referee: Mr. J.A.Mowatt, Burnside.
Match Report 1
The surprising thing about this match was not so much the 7-1 scoreline but the fact that it took 23 minutes for Celtic to open the scoring. Right from the kick off the Celts mounted attack after attack and hit the woodwork twice in the opening minutes. When the goal did come it was from the boot of Sammy Wilson, a free transfer from St Mirren who fired a first time effort into the back of the net from a Charlie Tully cross. Rangers defended desperately but the longer the game went on the more confident they became until just a minute from the break when Celtic winger Neil Mochan sped off down the left, sweeping past Rangers' right back Shearer and almost to the bye-line before unleashing a terrific left foot shot whichDick Beattie knows the score bulged the Rangers net and sent the Celtic fans into raptures.
Celtic started the second half exactly the way they had the first and on 53 minutes it was 3-0. Bobby Collins sent in a beautiful cross which was met by the head of Billy McPhail and glanced into the net. Rangers were now in total disarray and were switching players to different positions to try to stem the tide but with Celtic maybe thinking the game was already won, Rangers pulled a goal back with a Simpson header on 58 minutes.
Instead of the goal giving Rangers hope it seemed to inspire Celtic to go on and score even more and with Fernie and Mochan tearing the Gers defence to to shreds it was only a matter of time before the fourth goal arrived. With 68 minutes on the clock McPhail volleyed a Mochan corner but his net-bound shot was parried by keeper Niven but the ball came back to the Celtic ace and he calmly chose his spot in the net to put the Celts 4-1 up.
After 75 minutes, a cross from Wilson found the unmarked Mochan who bagged his second goal of the game to give Celtic a 5-1 lead but worse was to follow for the Gers whose supporters were headingfor the exits when a long ball from Beattie in the Celtic goal found McPhail who flicked the ball over Rangers' centre half Valentine, ran round him and collecting the ball from his own flick, headed for goal all on his own and as Niven came out to meet him he coolly slotted the ball beyond him and into the net to make it 6-1 with still 10 minutes to go.
The Rangers support could take no more and violence flared with supporters fighting among themselves and bottles being hurled into the air. The trouble spilled over on to the pitch and the police had to move swiftly to prevent it getting out of hand. The play went on despite the fracas at the Rangers end and Celtic were awarded a penalty in the 90th minute when McPhail was brought down in the box. Willie Fernie took the kick and scored easily to give Celtic their greatest ever victory over Rangers.
Former skipper Jock Stein who was at home in Hamilton recovering from another ankle operation had listened to the game on the radio and was pleasantly surprised when a car arrived to take him away to the victory dinner in Glasgow.
(Report from Jinky's Oars)
Match Report 2The Times, Monday, Oct 21, 1957; pg. 14; Issue 53977; col D
Glasgow Rangers Outplayed
League Cup for Celtic
Celtic 7, Rangers 1
Celtic, at Hampden Park, celebrated their first clash with Rangers in the Scottish League Cup Final, by giving a wonderful exhibition of football which lead to the beating of the Scottish League champions by seven goals to one.
The winning forwards moved with speed and precision. Fernie, at right-half, was their inspiration and he started many of the moves which brought goals. McPhail, at centre-forward, enjoyed a great afternoon and well deserved his three goals. Rangers in contrast, were disjointed and never looked likely to upset the cup holders.
At half-time Celtic lead by two goals scored by Wilson and Mochan. Afterwards there was only one team in it. A splendid header gave McPhail his first goal and although Simpson managed to snatch a goal for Rangers, Celtic did much as they pleased. McPhail rounded off his fine work with two more goals and Mochan and Fernie – the latter from a penalty – made the total seven in a thoroughly convincing triumph.
Links
- Match Photographs
- Hampden in the Sun - Song
- Sean Fallon recalls the game
- Bobby Collins recalls the game
- Sunday Post match report
- Times 50th Anniversary article
KStreet
Snippets/quotes/comments
Excerpted from Cyril Horne's report for the Glasgow Herald:
"Eleven football players of Celtic Football Club did more in 90 minutes at Hampden Park on Saturday for the good of football than officialdom, in whose hands the destiny of the game lies, has done in years and years. For with a display of such grandeur as has rarely graced the great vast ground they proved conclusively the value of concentration on discipline and on the arts and crafts of the game to the exclusion of the so-called power-play which has been a disfiguring weakness in the sport, but which has frequently been accredited through the awarding of international honours to 'the strong-men'."
"So devastating an effect had Fernie... this wonderful footballer..."
"Not since their brilliant Coronation Cup days at Hampden have Celtic played football of such quality."
"Valentine... a forlorn, bewitched figure.... repeatedly beaten in the air and on the ground in a variety of ways, and the disintegration of Rangers' defence undoubtedly stemmed from McPhail's mastery."
"[Mochan's] pace and penetrative dribbling... had Shearer in a dreadful dither almost from the first kick of the ball."
"In the first 20 minutes Celtic might have scored at least four goals..."
"...Evans, throughout a centre half of absolute competence."
"Soon Fernie was travelling half the length of the field again and running his opponents into the ground..."
"...Fallon again reduced the ill-supported Scott to a hapless young man..."
"Never have I seen Rangers so outclassed in half-back play; Fernie, Evans, and Peacock were, each in his own distinguished way, tremendous players in everything but brawn and bulk. No one Celt, however, did not but contribute handsomely to the team's glorious day."
"Perhaps only Fernie of all footballers in Scotland could have emulated Tully's first-half feat of ball manipulation which enabled him to outwit Baird, Davis, Valentine, and Caldow. Then as his team-mates poised themselves for the chip back from the goal-line, Tully struck like lightning and the ball cannoned off the very edge of the near post, passed between Niven and the goal-line, and out of play beyond the post. The goal of a century had been within half an inch of achievement."
