Danny featured at #8 in our Top 12 countdown here on The Thistle Archive →
Saturday 1st March 1975
SFL First Division - game 26
Celtic [a] L2-3
“We’ve got Danny Kellachan, number three, we’ve got Danny Kellachan, number three, we’ve got Danny Kellachan, number three, we’ve got the best team in the land.” ♪ ♫
Oh, those golden oldies.
With no hint of irony whatsoever, Thistle fans would sing that one minute, and the next minute one of them would shout something like “Hawl Kellachan – you couldnae tackle a fish supper ya big ginger beanpole ye!”
Personally, I can’t recall for sure whether the former or the latter viewpoint would be closest to the truth but this fortnightly terracing panto certainly left a lasting impression on this young schoolboy – it was all part of “the banter”!
Although I went to a few games as a toddler, it was season 1975-76 when I started to get going regularly and, being a championship winning season, that gave me a real fondness for Bertie’s boys which remains strong to this day – first love and all that!
Danny was on the books for several years and was close to an ever-present in the three seasons from 1973-74. Here in season 1974-75 he experienced the pain of “artificial relegation” as we narrowly missed the cut for the all-new Premier League. Of course, this was counter-balanced by the joy of a Championship winners’ medal the very next season. When Jags took their place in the Premier League of 1976-77, Brian Whittaker took over at left-back and that effectively signalled the end of the first team action for Danny, which resulted in him leaving for Hamilton in September 1978.
In todays’ game, lining up against Jags were Ronnie Glavin, Dixie Deans and Paul Wilson – one from our past and two from our future. With Alan Hansen taking care of Ronnie Glavin, Thistle had a right good go. In an action-packed first half Benny Rooney hit the bar and only a Celtic penalty kept the interval score-line respectable for our East End rivals; Celtic, 1 Partick Thistle, 2.
It was in that first half, with the score tied at 1-1, that DANNY KELLACHAN stepped up to take a free kick, some 40 yards from goal. There seems to be some confusion as to whether it was direct or indirect which, I surmise, is why the press unanimously denied Danny his goal.
This goal has long been credited to Peter Latchford as an o.g. but, as video evidence clearly shows, he was nowhere near the ball. Latchford, on loan from West Bromwich Albion, took pelters in the press – and poor Danny received neither praise nor credit for his audacious and successful effort. Dear old Arthur Montford gave the goal to Danny though – and as anybody knows that’s as good as common law in Scotland. (Ignore, if you will, the fact that he gave the first goal to Dougie Somner rather than Joe Craig as that doesn’t suit the story.)
Only a last-minute heart-breaker from Harry Hood denied Thistle something from the game, which seems a great shame. Surely, the least we can do now is take the consolation prize and acknowledge Danny’s great goal? He scored a 40 yarder against the ‘Tic and he might well be the only Jagsman ever to have done that. I for one am giving the man his dues!
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