Celtic Invincibles in Perth – Matt Corr’s St Johnstone Memories

The Celtic Star

·4 February 2023

Celtic Invincibles in Perth – Matt Corr’s St Johnstone Memories

Celtic Invincibles in Perth, Matt Corr’s St Johnstone memories…

On Sunday, 5 February 2017, Celtic travelled to Perth for a second clash in 11 days with St Johnstone, the midweek Parkhead game having been deferred due to the League Cup final in November. In 50-plus years of following Celtic, Saints had featured in more than a few memorable matches.

I first recall a glorious sunny day in August 1969, when over 60,000 crammed into the old ground to see the League Championship flag unfurled for the fourth successive year, before the clubs fought out a 2-2 draw. Such an attendance was unusual in itself, as other than Rangers or European ties, only a couple of games against Aberdeen over the next few years would draw similar crowds to Celtic Park, where 25-30,000 was the order of the day. To watch Stein’s teams. How times change.

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This was the era of St Johnstone’s greatest side, under Willie Ormond. They would lose out to an early Bertie Auld goal a matter of weeks later in the Scottish League Cup final, their first appearance in a major final at Hampden. Their League form would peak with a third-place finish behind champions Celtic and Aberdeen in 1971, Saints then returning to Glasgow that September to inflict a rare home defeat on Celtic, thanks to a John Connolly goal.

Both Connolly and his successor, Jim Pearson, would later secure big-money moves to Everton, with Pearson’s post-playing career including a lengthy spell as Nike’s Head of Football, as they established a foothold in the UK. The Perth side would enjoy their finest European hour in 1971/72, knocking out Germans SV Hamburg and Hungary’s Vasas Budapest, before succumbing to Zeljeznicar Sarajevo in what was then Yugoslavia, now Bosnia & Herzogovina. St Johnstone’s fortunes would take a dip after Ormond succeeded Tommy Docherty as Scotland boss in 1973, and it would be the best part of 30 years before continental football returned to Perth.

26.09.1973 Photo: imago/Colorsport. Tommy Hutchison, Billy Bremner, Danny McGrain, National team manager Willie Ormond, David Hay, Willie Morga

Saints would taste only the occasional victory over Celtic in Glasgow in the years to follow. I suspect by far the most enjoyable match for myself and most long-suffering Bhoys from those horrible nineties – the decade from Hell – was the day we “stopped the 10,” in May 1998, Wim and Murdo’s side of Larsson and Brattbakk, Lambert and Burley, Rieper and Stubbs and baby-faced assassins, McNamara and Donnelly, providing some brief respite in an otherwise trophy-barren era.

Henrik Larson & John Mcquillan – Celtic V St. Johnstone 11 May 1998 Photo Mary Evans Allstar David Gadd

But their supporters would be celebrating in that same Celtic Park arena 16 years later, when the Perth side, under current manager Tommy Wright, won its first major piece of silverware, beating Dundee United 2-0 to lift the 2014 Scottish Cup. Wright’s underdogs had disposed of Celtic’s conquerors, Aberdeen, in the semi-final at Ibrox, before defeating Tayside rivals, United – now managed by that same Jackie McNamara and featuring a trio of soon-to-be Celts, Gary Mackay-Steven, Stuart Armstrong and Nadir Ciftci in their starting line-up – to finally lift the famous old trophy at Parkhead.

Whilst Celtic’s home record overall had been impressive, away games were a different matter entirely. St Johnstone’s Muirton Park had proved one of the trickier away venues over the years, with Celts suffering several defeats and earning a few hard-fought victories, perhaps most memorably that dark day in January 1976, when a last-gasp, diving header from Johannes “Shuggy” Edvaldsson snatched a 4-3 victory for Sean Fallon’s Celtic, who had come from behind three times to stay in the match with the ultimately-relegated Saints, in the first-ever season of the Premier League.

Johannes “Shuggy” Edvaldsson

That was a happy journey home on the Cairn CSC minibus, which bore the moniker “Shanks’ Pony”, a play on the owner/ driver’s name. Bill Shanks drove us all over the country for years and had the happy knack of parking closer to the stadium than anyone else. In those days, trips to Perth invariably involved a visit for the “dads with sons” to a city-centre tearoom, whilst the single men hit the pub. These were fantastic, formative Celtic years for me, which I look back on most fondly.

The Cairn was a close-knit bunch of supporters, good guys, some of whom I still see at Celtic Park, although most of the original members, such as my dad, John Mullen, Archie Grant and Frank Dolan, are sadly long since gone. I was really sorry to hear news yesterday of the sudden death of another of those lovely guys from those times, John Conway. God rest them all.

With the opening of a new Celtic Supporters Social Club in Springburn in the mid-’70s increasing the demand for membership of the buses leaving the area to follow the Bhoys each week, the Cairn finally relented to requests to extend to facilitate a full-size coach to games. At 18 years old, I was appointed club treasurer in the summer of 1979, as the new era was launched, following in my dad’s footsteps and mirroring his position in the Celtic Club, which he and others had fought so hard to establish.

St Johnstone had struggled since that relegation, three years earlier. Indeed, it would be 1983 before they would return to the top-flight. The extended Cairn did make the trip to Perth in August 1981, just a few days after Willie Garner Saturday, when the Hoops-mad defender made a nightmare debut in a home League Cup section-opener against the other Scottish Saints, St Mirren, scoring two own goals in a 3-1 defeat.

The Muirton match pitched Billy McNeill’s champions Celtic against second-tier St Johnstone, with all nostalgic thoughts of our long-awaited return to the old ground disappearing as a teenage Alastair McCoist notched the first of what would be many damaging goals against the Hoops. Celts would lose 2-0 on the night and would exit the competition at the section stage, despite four successive and emphatic wins in the remaining group games against the two Saints and Hibernian.

If that was bad then worse was to follow on my first visit to McDiarmid Park, in December 1990. Saints had sunk to the very depths of senior Scottish football after successive relegations in the mid-’80s, before fresh investment and a relocation to land donated by a local farmer, Bruce McDiarmid, revived their fortunes. Their new all-seater 10,000-capacity stadium, the first such constructed in the UK and opened in August 1989, was the catalyst for the modern-day Saints, the Perth club winning promotion to the Premier League in the first season at their new home.

Three days before Christmas, an under-fire Billy McNeill, now in the difficult post-Centenary period of his second spell in charge at Parkhead, took his struggling Celtic side to McDiarmid. Dad had been invited to hospitality by one of the suppliers to the social club and, wonderfully as I thought at the time, was encouraged to bring his son along. More alcohol was probably the last thing I needed the morning after the office Christmas party but sometimes duty calls, so suited and booted, I sat quietly in the back seat as we made our way to Perth.

After a nice lunch and some “squaring-up” beers, the afternoon went rapidly downhill. Saints striker Steve Maskrey scored in the first minute and they were 2-0 up within a further five, Harry Curran’s fierce 25-yard shot beating Pat Bonner all ends up as Celtic faced a third successive League defeat and, incredibly, a sixth loss in nine games. John Collins’ strike early in the second half provided some brief hopes of a comeback before a third home goal from Tommy Turner just after the hour killed us off. Tommy Coyne, as he so often did, then netted to pull it back to 3-2 from a Peter Grant through ball as we approached the last 15 minutes of the game but that was as good as it got.

Cesar and I would return to Perth for the final fixture of that dreadful 1990/91 season, Celtic twice coming from behind to gain a degree of revenge by edging a five-goal thriller. As in the December match, the home side were ahead straight from the kick-off, through Roddy Grant, before Charlie Nicholas levelled things in the 17th minute.

And Saints made a similarly blistering start to the second period, David Bingham making it 2-1 from Grant’s knockdown before most of the 9,500 spectators had retaken their seats. Mike Galloway’s cute lob on the hour-mark levelled things again then with just 11 minutes remaining, Coyne was fouled in the box. The striker dusted himself down before blasting home his 18th and final goal of the season, securing the two points for Celtic.

The 3-2 victory in Perth, combined with a stoppage-time Dunfermline Athletic winner against Dundee United, ironically scored by ex-Celt David Moyes, enabled McNeill’s Celtic to finish two goals ahead of the Tannadice club in third place, despite losing 12 of their 36 League games, thus claiming an unlikely UEFA Cup slot. However, my memories of that game are that the focus for most Celts was on events at Ibrox, where two Mark Hateley goals handed Rangers a third successive title.

Their opponents that day, Alex Smith’s Aberdeen, had arrived in Govan needing just a single point to clinch the flag. Cesar’s Centenary champions of just three years earlier had gone two seasons without silverware and were now depending on others to prevent their traditional rivals from stacking up the domestic trophies. It had been a swift, painful decline and it would prove the downfall of one of our favourite sons. Within days, Billy McNeill had left the manager’s office at Parkhead for the second and final time.

McDiarmid Park would also prove to be the graveyard of McNeill’s successor, Liam Brady, just over two years later. Another two seasons without a trophy – if you discount the Tennent’s Sixes victory in January 1993, the first time my then five-year-old son had witnessed green-and-white ribbons on silverware of any kind – and no sign of an 11-a-side version arriving anytime soon, had left the Irishman a dead man walking.

On a wild night in Perth, in October of that year, his Celtic side went down to a 2-1 defeat, a third loss in the opening 10 League games. With only two wins in a dismal opening to the do-or-die campaign, Brady resigned the following morning, before the axe came down.

A generation later, back-to-back victories at McDiarmid Park had kick-started the new Jansen regime and the talismanic Larsson’s glorious career at Parkhead. However, just six months after the 10 had been stopped, the Dutchman’s successor as Celtic manager, Jo Venglos, would return home pointless, after another 2-1 reverse in Perth. It was the first time I had managed to get Away tickets for all three of my Celtic-daft kids, and we headed excitedly up the A9 in November 1998 to take our place in the Ormond Family Stand.

The previous week had been eventful to say the least, following the 4-2 defeat in Zurich and the subsequent resignation of controversial General Manager, Jock Brown, immediately prior to a home game with Dundee, which marked the debut of the so-called “dud Czech,” Lubomir Moravcik. Whilst I had witnessed events first-hand in Switzerland – the unpopular Brown the main target for supporter abuse as he left the team coach before the game – I had missed the Dundee match, to graduate in Paisley, and was pleasantly surprised to hear later how the midfield genius had lit up Celtic Park with a sparkling performance, setting up a hat-trick for Henrik in a 6-1 win, to vindicate his manager and countryman’s faith in bringing him in from MSV Duisburg at the ripe old age of 33.

Lubo would not enjoy the same freedom or space at McDiarmid Park the following Saturday, in a game best-remembered for the tremendous assist by another new recruit, Vidar Riseth, whose inch-perfect cross was met at the far post for the winning goal…by Saint Johnstone substitute, Kieran McAnespie! To add insult to injury, this was a second victory over Celtic that season for the newly-promoted Perth side, who had lost 7-0 at Ibrox in their previous outing. Two days after Riseth had signed, he had watched from the bench as Saints recorded their first victory at Celtic Park since September 1971.

Fast forward another 18 years to Wednesday, 11 May 2016, and my now-adult daughter and I are standing behind the opposite goal for Ronny Delia’s final away game in the Celtic dugout. The title had already been clinched with a 3-2 victory over runners-up Aberdeen at Parkhead three days earlier, the Norwegian then taking the opportunity to hand Ryan Christie a starting debut with teenage full-back Anthony Ralston hoping for the nod from the bench to launch his own first-team career. In the corresponding fixture the previous May, Deila had given promising 18-year-old left-back Kieran Tierney his first outing in a Celtic shirt. That had been a great call.

The main story of this night was whether or not Leigh Griffiths could become just the eighth player in the Bhoys’ long history to score 40 goals in a season. The Scotland striker duly obliged, waltzing past several defenders to impudently flick the ball past Zander Clark in the home goal, eight minutes after the break, before promptly plucking one of his kids from the crowd just a few yards to our right, to share in his big moment. That would be it from a Celtic perspective, as the curse of McDiarmid Park struck once more.

As someone once said, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Two minutes after the breakthrough, another Norwegian, Stefan Johansen, decided to emulate his countryman Riseth’s feat of November 1998, the midfielder robbed in his own box to present Saints striker Steven MacLean with a gift he would happily accept. Then, with 12 minutes remaining, we had more comedy defending to endure, Efe Ambrose and Celtic’s new Belgian goalkeeper Logan Bailly colliding whilst dealing with a harmless cross, both men then looking on helplessly, as we did, as St Johnstone substitute Graham Cummins knocked the loose ball into the net to win the match.

It would prove to be Celtic’s last domestic defeat for a very long time.

To be continued…

Hail, Hail!

Matt Corr

Both extracts from Invincible by Matt Corr, the story of that wonderful, magical 2016/17 season, available in hardback via Celtic Star Books. Invincible is now also available on Amazon kindle, link below. Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue

Invincible by Matt Corr. Now available on Amazon kindle…