Celtic warmed up for European Cup final in North Sea gale in Fraserburgh
Fifty years ago this week, Celtic visited Fraserburgh for a match in aid of the 1970 Lifeboat Disaster victims – eight days before their European Cup final date in Milan.
It wasn’t just any old Celtic team that turned up at Bellslea on the night of Tuesday, 28 April 1970.
Jim Craig, Davie Hay, Bobby Murdoch, Billy Mcneill, Jim Brogan, Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Lennox, Willie Wallace, Bertie Auld and John Hughes were all in the team which romped to a 7-0 win.
Hardly surprising, as Celtic were one of the top teams in Europe and had won the European Cup final in Lisbon three years earlier with many of the above players.
Indeed, ten of the players who took the field at Bellslea went on to face Feyenoord in the San Siro eight days later. Tommy Gemmell was out, mildly injured when he crashed his car the week before, but he was to return for the European Cup final, where he repeated his scoring feat of 1967, only this time he ended up on the losing side as the Dutch aces won 2-1 after extra time. Following Celtic’s last league game of the season against St Mirren on 18 April, the champions faced a hiatus until the European Cup final.
Some of the players were involved in the Home International series, but in an attempt to keep the squad fit and active, manager Jock Stein, pictured, organised two friendlies, the second one after Fraserburgh being an 8-0 demolition of Stenhousemuir at Parkhead on 1 May. Stein was an old friend of Andrew “Andra” Beattie, the owner of the Royal Hotel in Fraserburgh, and phoned him to see if he could do anything for the lifeboat fund, following the disaster of January 1970.
The Duchess of Kent lifeboat was overturned by a freak wave while escorting a Danish fishing vessel to safety. Five crew were lost, leaving five women widowed and 15 children without a father. Stein said in a televised interview that they came up to Fraserburgh to play the game for the lifeboat, because “these are very important people”.
A freezing gale-force wind whipped in off the North Sea as 6,500 braved the elements to see the Broch take on Celtic and in the process raise around £2000 for the Fraserburgh Lifeboat Disaster Fund.
Despite the scoreline, there schools and gyms reopening. Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has raised his concerns about returning to action while three Cologne players have tested positive for Covid-19 after resuming training.
But Sheridan, pictured,whohasthreecaps for the Republic, remains confident.
He said: “It hasn’t been in my
FRASERBURGH: Elrick, Rodger, Stephen, Mccann, Milne, Malley, Fordyce, Duthie, Noble, W Bruce (G Bruce 58), Reid.
CELTIC: Williams, Craig, Hay, Murdoch, Mcneill, Brogan, Johnstone (Callaghan 45), Lennox (Hood 58), Wallace, Auld, Hughes (Chalmers 70).
Goals: Milne og, Wallace, Craig, Hughes 2, Auld, Hood.
CELTIC (v Feyenoord): Williams, Hay, Gemmell, Murdoch, Mcneill, Brogan, Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace, Auld (Connelly), Hughes.
can have been little learned by Celtic from a match played on a narrow, bumpy pitch that would prepare them for their outing at the San Siro the following week. thoughts, that part of it, but I can understand people who will be feeling that. Even now it’s not something I’d be thinking of and, at the same time, I trust what they’re doing.
“The league and FA know the risks if they are making players come back to play. They won’t want to put players’ health at risk. They are
Before the coronavirus outbreak, it was announced that Celtic were due to play another match at Bellslea this year, to mark the 50th anniversary.
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell said: “Clearly we have a very close connection to the tragic events of 1970, with Jock Stein and the club ensuring in 1970 that the local disaster fund was supported.
“We know for many in the local area that these events will still cause hurt and pain even after 50 years.
“After discussions with Fraserburgh FC we felt that once again we should mark this anniversary year, come together and pay our respects to those who were lost.” going to put things in place to make sure it’s safe for everyone coming back.
“We’ve had to fill in a medical report every day which gets sent to the league so they have been monitoring every player for the last week.
“They are going to do it for two weeks and as soon as someone flags something up they have to go and isolate. As far as I know there are no players here who have caught it here.”
Poland started relaxing some restrictions last month, reopening forests and parks and also outdoor sports areas.
It is hoped full team training will restart in around a week and Sheridan, who moved to Plock in February after a spell with Ironi Kiryat Shmona in Israel, believes players must take responsibility.