Scotland’s fourth 6 in a row

Six league titles in-a-row was achieved for the fourth time in Scottish football yesterday as Celtic retained their championship, the third time the club reached this mark.

Jimmy Quinn, Celtic’s first superstar, powered the club to six-in-a-row between seasons 1904-05 and 1909-10, but that run ended there.

It would be 60 years before the feat would be repeated as the club’s greatest team made its final mark. This would be the final season of Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, John Clark, Bertie Auld, John Hughes and Stevie Chalmers. Ronnie Simpson had already retired. The Quality Street Gang picked up the mantle without skipping a beat. Although the club won their sixth successive league title, they failed to six League Cups in-a-row as Partick Thistle upset the odds in the final.

Celtic fans look back on this era as their nine-in-a-row, but in truth, those seasons were two eras. The first five years, ending at the European Cup Final in 1970, saw Celtic win five leagues, five League Cups, two Scottish Cups, the European Cup, as well as reaching that 1970 final in Milan. They regularly humbled top teams in this period.

The final four of the nine-in-a-row seasons saw Celtic eliminate (in total): Kokkola, Waterford, Copenhagen, Sliema Wanderers, Rosenborg, Turku, Vejle and Basel from European football, all of them from (then) semi-professional leagues. The team would run out of steam before 10-in-a-row.

Rangers got in on the act, winning their sixth successive title in 1994. Like the Quality Street Gang they would go on to add another three titles, but reflective history will always point to the ousting of the old Celtic board in March of that year as the point at which the tide began to turn.

This Celtic team is very likely to go on and achieve the illusive 10. Instead of signs of regression, they are only getting stronger. The apparently impossible objective – winning League, League Cup and Scottish Cup, undefeated in all, is now a serious possibility

They have a manager and a core of players who are a the top of their game and enjoying the challenge at Celtic. This may be Scottish football’s fourth six-in-a-row, but the current Celtic are by far the strongest team to reach this mark.

Enjoy every minute of it, your support has made it possible.

PAYPAL UPDATE

As many of you will know we have had a technical issue with the PayPal link on http://www.cqnbookstore.com since Friday. This should now be resolved and please resume the ordering process for our new book In The Heat of Lisbon with the great looking and iconic Jock Stein T-shirt for £19.67.

This is a not for profit promotion which is intended to benefit the Lisbon Lions themselves. Let’s give them a proper thank you from the Celtic support. 

Click on the ad below to order then navigate to the correct t-shirt size required before proceeding. 

Thanks
Winning Captains