1967: A tremendous year for Scottish football not just Celtic

STV show puts the spotlight on an incredible year

STV is a fairly terrible channel and WeKnowSFA has very little time for the commercial station.

However, it may just have hit upon a winner with The Football Years, a new series which starts Thursday 7th January at 2100.

The first focus is on quite possibly the greatest year for Scottish football.

Celtic fans, you won’t need reminded what happened in 1967. Scottish club football’s greatest achievement came on the 25th May when Celtic defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon to become the first British team to win the European Cup.

Not only were they pride of Scotland that summer, every member of the Lisbon Lions was born within 30 miles from Glasgow.

Can you imagine a team with that background winning the Champions League these days? Not even on Pro Evolution Soccer!

Celtic were also league champions in 1966/67, clinching the league title with 58 points, three ahead of close rivals Rangers.

A 2-0 win over Aberdeen with two goals by Willie Wallace also meant that the Scottish Cup was coming home to Paradise.

Celtic won the League Cup tournament for the 1966/67 season by defeating Rangers in 1966 but also won it in 1967/68. A 5-3 win over Dundee in October meant that 1967 was a phenomenal year for the club.

They also won the Glasgow Cup, meaning the club had picked up 5 trophies and joined a very select few teams that won every competition they entered in a season.

With Celtic having so much joy, you would think it would be a terrible season for Rangers but to be honest, it was a bitter sweet story, full of what may have beens.

The year started with what was probably the biggest shock in Rangers history when they were humbled out of the Scottish Cup 1-0 by lowly Berwick Rangers. Strikers Jim Forrest and George McLean were ushered out of the club after this defeat…a decision which may have denied the club later glory.

Rangers had been in fine form up until this point and in the end pushed Celtic all the way in the Scottish football league. Rangers also made it to a European final that season and in the week following Celtic’s triumph in Lisbon, Rangers had the opportunity to make it a Scottish double.

The final against Bayern Munich was played in Nuremberg in Germany and the match was scoreless after 90 minutes.

The German team managed to grab the only goal of the game in extra-time and the inability to score was Rangers downfall.

Many Rangers fans still wonder if they were able to call on these strikers in the final, would there have been a different outcome.

Kilmarnock came very close to making it a Scottish final treble but were denied by Leeds United in the Fairs Cup. A 4-2 defeat at Elland Road gave Kilmarnock a mountain to climb at home and a 0-0 draw left the Ayrshire club wondering what might have been.

And if that wasn’t enough, Dundee United beat Barcelona home and away in the earlier part of that season. United of course repeated this trick in 1987 on their way to the Uefa Cup final but it was a tremendous achievement for the Tannadice club.

Dundee United also defeated Celtic twice this season, the only domestic club to beat the champions.

So, an unbelievable European performance by Scottish sides but many Scottish football fans take greater pride in the national team, and they did not disappoint.

1966 was a grim year with a Russian linesman proving an ability to see lines was not a requirement for linesman…and haven’t we heard about it since?

You knew the first time Scotland played England after their World Cup triumph, there would be a massive desire to put them back in their place.

Scotland went to Wembley needing a win to clinch the British Home Championship and the 3-2 score line did not do justice to the Scottish performance.

The World champions were torn apart and the image of Jim Baxter juggling the ball on the Wembley turf is as iconic an image in Scottish football as you will ever see.

It wasn’t all great news though, sadly, Third Lanark were liquidated in the summer of 1967 after years of mis-management.

The club, which played at Cathkin Park, a powerful shot away from Hampden Park were a welcome alternative to the other football outlets in Glasgow.

So, if you have the time, check out the show on STV or check their website to see if they have it available on their video-player. If it is and we find it, we’ll upload a link.

What year would you like to see on the Football Years?

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