[BOTB] SongQuest III - Seven Sensational Seasons - Songs Only

First Round

1978/79

'Ten Men Win the League'


Danny McGrain is held aloft the night 10 Men won the League

Times were not so great after the glory days of the Jock Stein era. The Big Man himself had survived a near fatal car crash but which left the club in the hands of caretaker Sean Fallon, and perhaps every bit a seismic shift was the departure of Kenny Dalglish for Liverpool.

Celtic were still struggling to get their footing back, although now under the helm of Cesar himself, Billy McNeil. It was a team that on paper should have been far better than what had been seen. The likes of Bobby Lennox, Danny McGrain, Shuggy Edvaldsson, Tommy Burns and a young and raw Roy Aitken on the club's books, think it's fair to say that the team were underperforming.

On paper.

In reality it was a different story. In the aftermath of Dalglish's departure Celtic had struggled through the 1977/78 season, and that situation only got worse when Danny McGrain suffered what appeared at the time an innocious ankle injury that would not see him kick a ball competitively for not much short of 18 months. Lennox was being used increasingly sparingly by his old skipper and while those brought in to fill for these were clarly not to the same standard. That would be impossoble at the best of times. I mean, how can you find a like for like replacement for someone like Danny McGrain? Simply, you can't.

What was clear, Celtic were underperforming as the 1978/79 season was well underway and headed toward Christmas that year.​

On the 23 December 1978, Celtic had lost 1-0 to Morton, which meant that the Bhoys would have sat down to Xmas Dinner, no doubt with a few appropriatly chosen wors from Cesar, and aware that in a league table topped by Dundee Utd followed by Partick, Aberdeen, R******, the Hoops had now also been leapfrogged by Morton.

Sixth. In a 10 team Premier Division.

I would like to think that Xmas Dinner may not have sat well with them that day. As fortune would have it. they would have basically the next 2 months to digest it and have a good think about what was happening, what was going wrong and what needed to change to fix the situation..

The Scottish winter pretty much shut down football until March. In the intervening period, Celtic managed to play a scarce number of away friendlies, including in Portugal, while the weather was playing havoc back home. The heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures made things very complicated for all clubs, not just Celtic, and even though they had managed to squeeze in 2 Scottish Cup games prior to the end of February, the league had been at a stand still since before Christmas.

And as if the weather wasn't bad enough, Margeret Thatcher had been voted into office.

Yes, times were not good, bhoys and ghirls.

But it wasn't all bad news.

The break had afforded McNeill the time needed to sort things out. To the relief of everyone, Danny McGrain was finally back and ready for action, which would have handed everyone around the club a massive boost. Meanwhile Celtic had been busy in the transfer market also, bringing in the quality of record signing Davie Provan for £125,000, and Murdo MacLeod from lower division, Dumbarton.​

Hail, Cesar! Billy McNeill in 1979 had a lot on his plate

It worked. It was the chance to get the team firing. Heading into the last few months of the season players, staff and fans alike were going to be fully tested with fixture pile up and congestion. But it mattered not. Aside from an exit at the next round of the Scottish Cup, the Hoops barely stumbled from that point on, dropping just 7 points the rest of the season, including winning the last 10 consecutive games straight.

It all culminated in a match at Paradise on May 21 1979.

A transport strike had prevented many that thought they may have been able to tune in on tv to watch it all unfold. As fortune would have it, a snap TV strike that day meant that it would not be televised. History is one thing. Had to be there, is another. As it turned out the drama would unfold in front of an attendance of approximately 52,000 - roughly 30,000 shy of what had been expected before all the strikes kicked in.

R****** were hunting down a back to back domestic treble, but Celtic had their noses in front in the league. Indeed, this game was actually the rearranged new year's derby that had been postponed because of the weather. For Celtic, there was no choice, no option, nothing less than a win would be enough, as this was to be Celtic's last league fixture. The visitors, on the other hand, arrived at Parkhead needing only to avoid a loss and the title was theirs for the taking. A win or a draw would suit them fine, as they still had a couple of games up their sleeve.

Things took a downward turn when the visitors went 1-0 up against the run of play after 9 minutes and it would stay that way heading into the break. 45 Minutes to save the season.

Those in attendance faith would have been tested even further on 51 minutes when Johnny Doyle saw red for kicking out at a R****** player and was given his marching orders. A goal down. Now a man down. Celtic could not draw. They had to win. It would take 2 goals without reply with a man down. It did not look good.

But for players it is different from us supporters. Because as players they have the ability to impact a game. One such was the raw Roy Aitken, having the game of his life. He had already hit the crossbar in the first half, but now with the team flagging he was simply inspirational, driving forward, unleashing shots, lifting not only his teammates but giving very fan in attendance belief that they could get back into this.



The Inspirational Roy Aitken celebrates his equalizer​

On 66 minutes it happened. Aitken managed to get onto the end of a Provan pass in a goal mouth scramble and suddenly it was 1-1!

Roared on by the Celtic faithful in the old Jungle, the Bhoys were in this and were going to give it absolutely everything.

Eight minutes later, the Bhoys hit the front, when George McCluskey managed to hook the ball home after yet another Roy Aitken shot has been deflected in his direction. 2-1!

While the Jungle was still celebrating, R****** managed an almost immediate reply, when from a corner Bobby Russel saw his shot go in off the post. 2-2.

With time fast running out, the brave Bhoys in green and white continued to press and push, almost exhausted but determined not to give it up now - not now that they had fought so hard to just get back into it. Again Aitken was thick in the action, seeing yet another brilliant effort of his being superbly saved. It was a reprieve only though, for with 7 minutes remaining a cross from McCluskey drew a parried save from the R****** 'keeper, only to see th ball go in off of one of Colin Jackson for an own goal.

Celtic were now 3-2 up and even with Celtic Park jumping, veryone knew that it would only take one slip up for the visitors to get back on level terms and take the draw that they needed. One slip up and euphoria would turn instantly to disaster. Celtic were valiently holding on as R****** pressed and pushed more men forward, searching for that vital goal as the Bhoys, exhausted, outnumbered and on their last legs doing everything to keep them out.

With just a minute to go, the ball is punted forward and out of the danger area by Tom McAdam, one of Celtic's unsung heroes that day, finding Murdo MacLeod, who was able to bring the ball under control. Maybe nowadays the tactic would have been to run the ball down into th corner and either see out time or punt it into the grandstand to buy up a few valuable seconds. But 35 yards from goal, MacLeod let loose with an unstoppable shot, as the ball cannons into the top corner of the goal!

To say that the place erupted is an understatement. The Jungle erupted! The joy overflowing. 4-2! The job was surely done now. Seconds later the final whistle blows, and some of the players were running around, others on their knees, from sheer exhaustion as much as it was in relief and unbridled joy of having clinched the title in the most dramatic and, very likely, never to be repeated way possible.

They had written their chapter in history.

It is a shame that because of the transport strike that day that there were not more there to witness it, and equally a shame of the snap TV strike that there was no TV there to cover the match either. All we have is the gritty photos that captured the euphoria on the terraces and on the pitch, those newspaper articles to recount the events and days like this when legends are made.

Roy Aitken had scored one, his deflected shot had resulted in another, had hit the woodwork and brought out a superb save. By all accounted he had been everywhere that night, proverbially covering every blade of grass. He had played an absolute blinder. It wouldn't be the first time he had been the inspiration for the Hoops, and most assuredly would not be the last.

But every one of the 10 Men Who Won the League deserve their place in this story, their place in our history, and a result that even thinking about it almost 40 years later, even for those not there, who may not yet had started school, nevermind being on the other side of the planet.

The sheer magnitude of clawing back from 6th to 1st in less than 3 months, capture the league championship with so much riding on that one game, and not least of which, to deny our erstwhile city rivals their chance at back to back domestic treble, can and never will be forgotten.​

Let's get this party started!

Round 1 Songs


Hopefully this will inspire some great choices, are there are no shortage of quality tunes from those years to pick from.

So to this Round, those taking part will need to submit a song that was originally released in 1978 or 1979.

Good Luck!​

 

Please NO POSTING in this thread.

This thread is for songs only.

Just thought it would be neat to have each of the Seasons that the songs will be from highlighted here as well as in the main thread.

So...

~~~~~~~~ NO POSTING IN THIS THREAD ~~~~~~~~
​

 

Group A

Dire Straits



ABBA



​

 

Group A (Cont)

Boogie Oogie Oogie



Cheap Trick



Commodores

​

 

Group B

Supertramp



The Buggles



​

 

Group B (cont)​

The Police



Boomtown Rats



Elvis Costello

​

 

Group C

Madness



The Jam



​

​

 

Group C (Cont)

The Clash



Earth, Wind and Fire



Pink Floyd

​

 

Group D

B-52's



The Undertones




​

 

Group D (cont)

Gerry Rafferty



Joy Division



The Knack

​

 

Format & Voting

Voting is now OPEN for Round 1.

You can also submit your Round 2 song selection along with these Round 1 Votes.

FORMAT CHANGES

Remember that the format has changed this time, so it is not a straight knock out at this point.

Think of it like the World Cup format, of Group Stages and then Knockout Stages.

There are 20 at this stage.

The Group Phase will last 3 Rounds, so everyone is in the running through 3 Rounds.

After 3 Rounds the overall accumulated scores for each Group to that point will determine who progresses.

Only 10 will progress to the Knock Out Stage

The Top 2 from Each Group will progress

AND

There will also be 2 Wildcard spots up for grabs.

The 2 Wildcard spots will be determined as 2 of the 4 3rd place getters (one from each Group), and the 2 who have the highest aggregate scores trhrough the Group stage will be the 2 to progress.

ROUND 1 VOTING

Voting is now open.

But I don't expect people to listen to all these.

Because of the formt change am trying to streamline this, so people don't have as much to get through.

So for each of the first 3 Rounds, you will only have to vote and rank 1 Group of Songs.

If your song appears in Group A, you are Group A. If it is featured in Group B, you are Group B & so on.
​

• If you are in Group A - vote just the Group B Songs
• If you are in Group B - vote just the Group C Songs
• If you are in Group C - vote just the Group D Songs
• If you are in Group D - vote just the Group A Songs

Any Questions, feel free to ask in the Main SQ thread or PM me.

Can a mod please sticky this and the main SQ thread also please?

Thanks in advance.

Good Luck All!
​

 

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