I had to be completely honest and truthful with the man who had signed me from Dumbartonin 1978 and shaped my career as a footballer. I got married while I was still a Dumbarton player and bought a house not far from their famous old ground, Boghead.
The house didn’t have a phone so when the doorbell rang and I opened it to find the manager, Alex Wright, there I wondered what was wrong. He said: “You need to get to Celtic Park straight away. We’ve agreed to sell you to Celtic and Billy McNeill’s there waiting for you to sign the contract.”
I had to be completely honest and truthful with the man who had signed me from Dumbartonin 1978 and shaped my career as a footballer. I got married while I was still a Dumbarton player and bought a house not far from their famous old ground, Boghead.
The house didn’t have a phone so when the doorbell rang and I opened it to find the manager, Alex Wright, there I wondered what was wrong. He said: “You need to get to Celtic Park straight away. We’ve agreed to sell you to Celtic and Billy McNeill’s there waiting for you to sign the contract.”
Within months I would be involved in a match against Rangers that would be described by some Celtic supporters as the greatest night of their lives and by others as having provided a moment which ranked alongside the day when Inter Milan were beaten in Lisbon and Billy became the first British player in history to lift the European Cup.
Big Billy always said there was a fairytale aspect attached to Celtic and it is true. ‘Ten Men Won the League’ became a phrase which would enter folklore and my winning goal would be enshrined as the greatest ever scored by a Celtic player in an Old Firm
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