A Year and a Day by Graham McColl

Author:Graham McColl [McColl, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

CHAPTER 12

Czech-Mate

En route to Prague, Bobby Lennox had enjoyed a good laugh at Jimmy Johnstone’s passport photograph. In revealing black-and-white, it made the winger resemble Harpo Marx, the comedian, whose light and voluminous curls lay piled up high on his head. Johnstone retorted, ‘At least I don’t have a mouth hanging so open that you could put a fishnet on top of it.’ This was the winger’s take on Bobby Lennox in his own photograph.

A Tuesday afternoon in the Stadion Juliska soon sobered up every one of the jolly ensemble who had joked and japed all the way across the continent. The ping of a ball hitting a stanchion was one of the most reassuring sounds in Bobby Lennox’s world but in Prague in April 1967 it caused him palpitations. Lennox, one of world football’s fastest and most dynamic wingers, operated habitually in the vicinity of the opposing team’s goal but, in Czechoslovakia, a determined Dukla Prague pushed Celtic back so deeply during the game that even the freer spirits in the team found themselves chained to defence. At one point Lennox, back with his teammates, saw a shot flash past him and, before he could turn around, heard it hit the goal-frame. Immediately he feared the ball had beaten Ronnie Simpson but he instead found that the ping of ball on metal had been created by it hitting the outside of the stanchion after whistling past the post. Lennox and Celtic were able to enjoy a release of tension, for the moment, but this would feel like one of the longest afternoons of their lives.

‘That was a nerve-racking game,’ Tommy Gemmell said of the second leg against Dukla. John Clark, in turn, considers Dukla to have been of comparably high quality to Vojvodina and that while the Yugoslav side worked extremely well as a team unit, Dukla had several players who operated with considerable style as a means of opening up opponents.

Significantly, Lennox was the only change in the Celtic team from the first leg, coming in for John Hughes. Hughes believes that Stein had been ‘dithering’ between him and Lennox but Hughes had performed ordinarily in the first leg with Dukla. Every time Hughes got on the ball a huge murmur of excitement would rise from the crowd, which would give way immediately to an equally loud collective groan of disappointment whenever the player failed to meet the crowd’s expectations. Lennox had also played well against England at Wembley on the Saturday in between the two midweek ties with Dukla despite a wild challenge from Jack Charlton in the opening minutes that had left Lennox with blood seeping from his knee.

Suddenly, the season was reaching its climax for Celtic. The excitement surrounding the club even eclipsed Scotland’s victory over England, when the Scots had become the first nation to defeat the World Cup holders, who had been unbeaten in fifteen matches since early 1966. Celtic could, in the space of only a week, clinch the league title, lift the Scottish Cup and reach the European Cup final.

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