Celtic 0
Dundee 1
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Sunday Post.

Dundee kept alive their hopes of European football next season with their first win at Parkhead since April 1975, writes a Sunday Post Reporter.

But that was just about the only thing of note to emerge from this encounter. Try as I might, I cannot camouflage the fact this really was pretty dreadful.

As preparation for Celtic's cup-final appearance in a fortnight's time, the game was a non-starter with no fewer than six regulars missing from Celts' line-up.

And neither their stand-ins nor the remaining regulars did anything to guarantee their place against Dundee United.

The Dark Blues, mean- while, battled gamely enough and were well worth the points. But they, too, were guilty of misplaced passes, wayward shooting, and a lack of composure that had Celtic's smallest crowd of the season numb with boredom long before half-time.

Dumbarton visit Celtic Park next week and the mind boggles how many will turn up for that one.

The game's only goal came at a time when not even Ernie Platt would have put money on the deadlock being broken.

A crunching McGugan challenge on McCall gave Dundee a free-kick 20 yards from goal.

Pat Bonner leapt about frantically marshalling the five-man wall in front of him. But it was to no avail as John Brown stepped up and curled a beauty with his left boot into the corner of the net.

Celtic responded by intro-ducing young Ronnie Coyle to defence and pushing Roy Aitken into midfield. That gave their play a more urgent approach and they launched a number of assaults in search of the equaliser.

A Johnston drive was goal-bound on the hour until Shannon headed over, and. from the resultant Colquhoun corner, Aitken's bulleted header was brilliantly saved by Geddes.

Then, 15 minutes from time, the 'keeper was again the Dark Blues' hero when he blocked a McClair drive at point-blank range before Mcinally blasted the rebound into the terraces. No one will grudge the Dens Parkers the points.

Geddes, McCormack, Shannon, Rafferty, and Brown were the rocks on which the Celts foundered and Tosh McKinlay did his chances of a transfer no harm at all with a solid display.

For the Celts, only MacLeod and Aitken escape criticism from me.

Man of the Match? That's a hard one. But I'll go for BOBBY GEDDES, whose sterling work ensured justice was done.