Them's The Breaks

The winter of 1978/79 saw an unexpected shutdown .

- Joe Sullivan

THE Celts are currently going through their paces in Dubai as part of their warm-weather training camp regime.

It’s a routine that has served the team well over the past few seasons, with the Hoops returning refreshed and ready to tackle whatever lies in front of them after the traditionally-harsh Scottish winter.

Winter breaks haven’t always been the norm, though, and Scottish footballers would usually resort to wearing long sleeves and just get on with it.

There was, though, one enforced winter break for Celtic exactly 40 years ago this season when they didn’t play any league games at all between December 23, 1978 and March 3, 1979, leaving the side with a horrendous backlog of games to play.

That matchless winter, however, paved the way for one of the most exciting and last-gasp title wins the club has ever known – it was the season of the 4-2 game and the legend of ‘10-men-won-the-league’.

The reason for the lack of matches was simple – snow, and lots of it, and although we don’t recall if it was the right sort of snow to stop trains (it no doubt did), it certainly stopped football games, and Celtic games more than most. As the first two weeks of the New Year saw no Celtic action, Billy McNeill took his squad to Portugal and a nostalgic trip to Lisbon for some warm(er)-weather training and a 4-0 win over FC Estoril in a friendly.

Before playing another league game, there would be closed-door games closer to home – Clyde (3-0), Queen of the South (2-0) and Stirling Albion (1-1), while the start of the year also saw training games on snow, indoor track work and trips to the swimming baths, as well as letters in the Celtic View calling for a winter break and the use of electric blankets and underground heating.