23rd Oct 1971 Partick Thistle 4 Celtic 1 (League Cup Final)

matches:1971-72: ← 21game 2223 →

36y, 5m, 18d	Davie McParland	Jock Stein

Ronnie Glavin
Charlie Smith

Alex Rae (1-0, 10 mins); Bobby Lawrie (2-0, 15 mins); Denis McQuade (3-0, 29 mins); Jimmy Bone (4-0, 37 mins)		Kenny Dalglish (4-1, 70 mins)

Ronnie Glavin (Johnny Gibson, 73 mins)		Jimmy Johnstone (Jim Craig, 20 mins)

19y, 10m, 28d	Alan Rough	Evan Williams
21y, 8m, 20d	John Hansen	Davie Hay
19y, 8m, 18d	Alex Forsyth	Tommy Gemmell
20y, 6m, 26d	Ronnie Glavin	Bobby Murdoch
25y, 7m, 26d	Jackie Campbell	George Connelly
32y, 8m, 2d	Hugh Strachan	Jim Brogan
20y, 9m, 17d	Denis McQuade	Jimmy Johnstone
29y, 0m, 18d	Frank Coulston	Kenny Dalglish
22y, 1m, 1d	Jimmy Bone	Harry Hood
25y, 2m, 0d	Alex Rae	Tommy Callaghan
23y, 11m, 9d	Bobby Lawrie	Lou Macari

23y, 9m, 1d

20y, 10m, 0d	Johnny Gibson	Jim Craig

TTA report

Four goals in the first 37 minutes gave Thistle their first major trophy win for 50 years. The bookies rated Celtic as 1/5 on to win. Rae (10), Lawrie (15), McQuade (29) and Bone (37) got the goals in one of the biggest upsets in Scottish football. The teams sparred with each other at the start, making little in the way of serious attacks then McQuade had a shot from 25 yards that whizzed past the post. The speed of Lawrie was giving the Celtic full-backs all sorts of problems. Rae scored with a shot from the edge of the box from a corner kick - right into the postage stamp corner of the net. Thistle, effectively with 2 men in midfield (Glavin and Rae) controlling things, scored again when McQuade won possession in the middle of the park then passed to Coulston who swung over to Lawrie and he cut inside Hay and cracked a beauty into the far corner. 2-0. Celtic hit back with a corner but Rough clutched it safely. Johnstone “clashed“ with Glavin and went off injured and Celtic had to re-organise when Craig came on. Hansen was knocked out when he got in the way of a Murdoch shot but soon recovered. Next, Campbell fell heavily and lay on the pitch for more than a minute before the referee stopped play. Ironically Thistle came close to a third goal while he was down. On the half hour a Lawrie corner was swung over and the Celtic defence looked all at sea. Coulston should have scored but McQuade made no mistake. Soon after McQuade beat three men and was brought down heavily. He required treatment before he could continue. Next, McQuade was in the thick of it again and it should have been number four. A cut-back by Bone to Lawrie was crossed over and McQuade missed a sitter in front of goal. Glavin was injured in the Celtic penalty box but the referee ignored him and didn't stop play. He limped off for attention and while Thistle were down to ten men Bone scored goal number four when he more or less walked the ball into the net from a Lawrie chip - the Celtic defence statuesque. Thistle supporters in the North Stand stamped their feet and cries of “Easy! Easy!“ went up. Gemmell and Glavin had a joust for the ball and Glavin had to go off for a second time. Hood came close with a header just as Glavin came back onto the field. 4-0 at half-time! When the half-time scores were being announced on BBC's “Grandstand“ programme, the score was correctly given but the presenter was certain it was the wrong way round and that it would be checked. Early in the second half the ball was moved around five players in some uninhibited play and McQuade shot over the bar to deny Thistle a 5-goal lead. Thistle were playing out of their skins and giving Celtic all sorts of problems down the wings and through the middle. Next, Dalglish knocked the ball over with just Rough to beat then Rough had a magnificent save from a Gemmell cross as Celtic turned on the pressure. On the hour Rough made a magnificent point-blank save from Macari but he was eventually beaten when Dalglish scored with 20 minutes left. There was no panic however and Thistle saw out the remaining minutes with Gibson coming on and displaying his skills in holding onto the ball, running down the clock. Thistle, for once, had beaten Celtic at their own game.

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