Supersonic Peter Latchford interview

by Joe McHugh For any 40-something like myself the Supersonic 70s will be remembered as the era when we discovered the club that dominates so much of our life.

Too young for Lisbon, the seventies provided a glimpse of the past, some incredible successes and a look into the future with Roy Aitken and Tommy Burns.

Some of the Lions were still around, big Billy, Jinky, Bobby Lennox and Bobby Murdoch, new heros from the Quality Street Gang such as Danny McGrain and Kenny Dalglish came through and a host of others who made a significant input into the club such as Dixie Deans, Harry Hood, Stevie Murray, Ronnie Glavin, big Shuggie and Peter Latchford.

Gerry McDade has recreated the action and attitudes of the seventies skilfully mixing the football with popular culture and current affairs weaving the miners strike and the birth of punk in with the footy.

BROTHERS

In goals for Celtic throughout the second-half of the 70s was the laid back Peter Latchford. One of three brothers who made their name in the game, brother Bob earned 12 England caps whilst at Everton with Dave, also a goalkeeper, playing for Motherwell and Birmingham City.

Peter had a special relationship with the Celtic support, no pre-match build-up was completed without the supporters calling for a wave with Latchford duly responding to the chant of 'Give us a wave, give us a wave Peter Latchford'.

Latchford spend 12 years at Celtic before moving on to Clyde for a short spell and was back at Celtic Park for the launch of the Supersonic 70s book.

"The terrible clothes? The terrible hair? I don't know where to start," the keeper laughed when asked about his top memory from the seventies.

"We just played the football, we didn't really care about the era, it was just a great time to be involved in the game and this club.

MEMORIES

"There are great memories from that time, I could talk about the 4-2 game for hours on end. I looked through the book and found a lot of things that I'd forgotten about, it twigs the memory and I was away remembering things that I'd virtually forgotten."

Latchford was initially signed on loan from West Brom by Jock Stein in February 1975 and finished the season with a Scottish Cup winners medal as Celtic beat Airdrie 3-1 in Billy McNeill's last game as a Celtic player.

Englishmen moving to Scotland was very rare in the 70's with Latchford overcoming the initial culture shock to make Scotland his home for over 30 years.

He added: "My boss at West Brom, Don Howe, asked me if I'd like to go on loan to Celtic. I said 'yes, great, where is it?' That was my very words.

"He said 'no, Glasgow Celtic you fool'. I asked to go out on loan and anywhere locally would have suited me, Scotland was the last thing on my mind.

"A few hours later I spoke to wee Bud (Willie) Johnston who was at West Brom at the time and he said 'Go, do it, you'll love it, it'll be the best thing that you've ever done, it's fantastic'.

ENCOURAGED

"There were a couple of other Scottish lads at the club and they said exactly the same. They encouraged me to go although I was going to go anyway. For first team football, I'd have gone anywhere."

Latchford added: "It was a bit of a culture shock when I got up here, the bin strikes were on, that was another seveties thing, Glasgow wasn't at it's prettiest as I arrived, I remember wondering around the city thinking 'what the hell have I let myself in for here'.

"I soon settled in, I fitted in easily, my wife found it much harder, but the boys at Celtic were brilliant and I fitted in quite easily. Once I got my bearings the football was great and I really enjoyed it."

Joining Celtic didn't just have an effect on the 'keeper, thirty years on from taking the journey up the M74 the Latchford family are still reminded of Celtic.

Deep in the Amazon jungle (not the place for buying books) is an unlikely outpost for football but Latchford's daughter Rebecca found that her famous family name brought her instant recognition.

The keeper added: "It doesn't matter where you go in the world there are always people that come up to you and want to talk about Celtic.

AMAZON

"My daughter Rebecca was in Brazil, up along the Amazon on an eight month field trip as part of her university course.

"She was working at a logging camp, a third of the way up the Amazon before her group went into the jungle.

"There were two guys there that she met, one was an Everton supporter and the other supported Celtic, as soon as she mentioned her name that was it- she never bought another drink on the trip!

"She was amazed. Anywhere in the world that I've gone I've seen the Celtic shirt, that strip is so recognisable that you see it everywhere.

"Folk come up and chat to me, there isn't anywhere in the world that you can go and not be aware of Celtic".

CLICK HERE to purchase Celtic The Supersonic 70s

PART TWO coming soon, the great 4-2 match and the modern pressures on players