Beeb had us all bubbling at ’67

KUDOS to BBC Scotland for Glasgow ’67: The Lisbon Lions, a documentary so poignant Clydeside welders were groping for the Kleenex. A moving slice of social history, the story of Celtic’s finest team was a reminder that even greying, working-class heads need tear ducts. The 50th anniversary of Jock Stein’s Lions posed the question of how a group of skinny Glaswegians emerged from a dank, overcrowded and heavily polluted industrial city to outplay the best football teams Italy, France and Spain had to offer (Real Madrid were beaten in Alfredo di Stefano’s Bernabeu testimonial ten days after Lisbon). Stein’s team not only became the first British team to conquer Europe; they did it in style. In the process, they somehow managed to remain humble, likeable human beings. On Thursday,

Sportsmail reproduced the match stats from the final against Inter Milan and they made for staggering reading. Celtic had 42 attempts on goal in 90 minutes. Inter had only five. Hugh McIlvanney memorably described it as ‘a 2-1 slaughter’. By the end of a touching hour of television, then, Scotsmen of all ages and allegiances were wiping something from their eye. Tears of nostalgia, yes. And one or two of sorrow and self-pity. In 1967, Celtic won the European Cup, Rangers lost the Cup-Winners’ Cup final after extratime and Kilmarnock reached the last four of the Fairs Cup. We don’t know how it happened, but we do know this much. We won’t see the likes again.