A wink was good news for Cammy, but not Tommy
Anyone of a St Mirren persuasion turning up for Celtic’s Paisley visit this afternoon won’t need reminding of what happened the last time the Hoops were on the road in the Premiership.
Ange Postecoglou’s side hit nine without reply against Dundee United, a result which led to Tangerines’ manager, Jack Ross, being asked to empty his desk at Tannadice.
Cammy Murray knows only too well what it feels like to be on the end of a Celtic thrashing.
In his first game against them for the Buddies back in November 1962, Stevie Chalmers hit a hattrick as the visitors scored seven without reply.
The only Saint who had a good afternoon was former Celt, Willie Fernie, who was forced to sit it out after trodding on a rusty nail in the warm-up.
But Cammy, just 18 at the time, soon learned that no two games are the same as the Saints drew 1-1 at Celtic Park the next time the teams got together.
“Back in those days, Celtic were no different to the team we see today,” said Cammy.
“If you stood off, and allowed them to play, they could destroy you. But if you went on the front foot from the kick-off, it would be a different game.
“I’m not saying St Mirren should be gung-ho today, but if they’re not intimidated and try to start as fast as Celtic do, that will give them a better chance.
“I was talking to Bobby Lennox only recently, and he said the Celtic team he played with, which became the Lisbon Lions, loved teams
sitting off them. At St Mirren, we always looked to give them a game. Sometimes that paid off, sometimes it didn’t.
“But the season they swept the board at home and won the European Cup, we were the first team to deny them victory in the league when we got a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park.
“The fact they had Bobby Murdoch sent off that day probably helped!”
For whatever reason, meetings between the clubs through the Sixties could be towsy affairs, and Cammy remembers one incident that still makes him laugh.
“I think the game was at Love Street when me and Tommy Gemmell had a coming together in the box,” Cammy recalls “It was 50-50 whether or not it was a penalty, but the referee waved play on. Tommy went off his head, and berated the official, Bill Mullan, in no uncertain terms.
“Then in the second half, a similar thing happened, and I have to admit I thought it was a penalty.
“Yet again, however, Bill Mullan – who was a really good referee waved play on. I remember him giving me a wink as he ran past me just afterwards, as if to say: ‘There was no way I was giving him a penalty after his previous outburst’!
“But that Lisbon Lions team was something else, and in the top three of the teams I played against in my 16 years as a professional.
“The others were the Chelsea team that beat us 5-2 at Love Street in 1963, with the likes of Peter Bonetti, Eddie McCreadie, Terry Venables, Ron Harris and Bobby Tambling in their side.
“Then there was the Dundee team that had won the league the year before they thrashed us 9-2 at Dens Park – and that was after me and ‘Cockles’ Wilson had each cleared three off the line!”
For all his years in the game as both a player and a coach, Cammy, now 78, laments the way the game has gone, preferring to dwell on the humour that permeated his career.
“Arbroath were my last senior club, and I remember going to play Clydebank in the winter of early 1977,” he recalled.
“It was a gloriously sunny day when we left the east coast, but when we got to Kilbowie, it was freezing and the pitch was like an ice rink.
“As nobody had warned us beforehand, we had brought the wrong boots, and we were slipping all over the place as they ran rings round us and won 8-1, with Davie Cooper getting a hat-trick.
“When we later worked together at Motherwell, rarely a day passed without ‘Coop’ asking me: ‘Cammy, what was the score that time you came down to play at Kilbowie?’”