Classic Match: Celtic 1 Hearts 3, April 23, 1956

The Edinburgh club had been acclaimed for the skill and ability of their sides for years – yet they always flattered to deceive.

When they finally laid the hoodoo, it was with a display of real fighting spirit at a time when it was most needed.

The Tynecastle team always looked better than Celtic yet, when they went in at half-time only one goal to the good, and having had the aid of a strong breeze, there were those who said that Hearts had lost their chance.

That idea was quickly dispelled when a second goal arrived just after the restart.

Then Celtic came into the picture for a spell and reduced the leeway midway through the half – only to find Hearts fighting back again to make victory certain.

In the end, Hearts played as a team while Celtic were a disjointed company.

Supporters of the Glasgow side were unhappy at the decision to play right back Haughney at inside right; on the face of it, a strange transposition but Celtic had a heavy injury list and Haughney had originally been signed from Junior football as a forward.

Dave Mackay, John Cumming and Ian Crawford were the key men for Hearts when things looked as if they might take a turn for the worse.

Mackay had the job of watching the left wing pair of Tully and Fernie, the latter one of the cleverest players in the game, and performed magnificently to blunt that spearhead.

With Celtic's Neilly Mochan held in complete check by centre-half Freddie Glidden and Cumming, despite a nasty cut above his left eye which required stitches, the Celtic forward line never got a chance to function as a unit.

Crawford's goals came when they were required to settle the nerves of his team-mates.

His first came after 20 minutes when Willie Bauld made a pass to Alfie Conn, who promptly transferred the ball to Crawford.

Beattie managed to get his fingers to his shot ball but could not keep it out of the net.

A Mochan header then swirled inches past the post for Celtic but the half-time verdict was that it had been no epic so far.

Three minutes into the second half, Crawford got a second goal.

Bauld was the architect.

He trailed the ball down the left wing, eluded Evans, and then sent over a nice cross.

Young was on the spot to head it down to Crawford, who had moved into the inside-right berth, and Hearts were further ahead.

The jubilation of the Jambos was curbed when Haughney caused Willie Duff to drop a Tully free kick and the back-turned-forward prodded home one for Celtic.

It was then that Hearts answered their critics.

Celtic stormed forward but the Tynecastle side gradually got on top again and, with ten minutes left, they settled the issue with a third goal.

Conn was the marksman but, again, Bauld was the man who started the move.

Celtic: Beattie, Meechan, Fallon, Smith, Evans, Peacock, Craig, Haughney, Mochan, Fernie, Tully

Hearts: Duff, Kirk, McKenzie, Mackay, Glidden, Cumming, Young, Conn, Bauld, Wardhaugh, Crawford.

Taken from the Scotsman