FOOTBALL pitches were not really that bad in the old days.This is Celtic Park under a layer of straw, as groundsmen tried to keep the pitch from freezing so the game against Motherwell in December 1963, could go ahead.

The ground staff remind me of guards with pitch-forks trying to capture Allied escapees in The Great Escape.

Anyway, their efforts paid off as Celtic went on to win the game 2-1.

It was, though, a cold weekend. As the Herald football writer eloquently put it: “The little fires which supporters lit on the terracing on Saturday to warm their frozen feet flickered brightly but briefly in the dusk and then were extinguished for lack of fuel.

“They somewhat resembled the game itself, which flashed only momentarily out of dullness into the excitement and distinction we had hoped to see from teams of the calibre of these two.”

Still, fires would hardly have damaged these rough old terraces.

The win only took Celtic to fourth, behind Kilmarnock, Rangers and Dundee. Although Celtic that day had players such as Gemmell, Johnstone, McNeill, Clark, Chalmers, Murdoch and Lennox, it was not until Jock Stein arrived as manager they coalesced into the talented team that went on to win the European Cup.