Austin Noonan's goal gave Cork Celtic derby glory and first national title - 60 years ago today
The Cork Celtic team that lined out in the first match of the 1960 League of Ireland campaign.
Cork Celtic were elected to the League of Ireland in June 1951 under the name Evergreen United — the change of name came in July 1959 ahead of the 1959/60 season.
The Evergreen club was founded in 1933 and enjoyed success at regional and national level, winning the FAI Minor and Junior Cups and the Munster Senior League among several more honours.
Their achievements in the 1950/51 season — beaten finalists in the FAI Intermediate Cup, winners of the Elvery and Burkley Cups and a brave performance in defeat to the mighty Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup — led to their election to the top flight the following season.
Along with Cork Athletic, the city again had two League of Ireland teams for the first time since 1933/34 when Cork and Cork Bohemians competed.
Their elevation to senior football did not faze Evergreen and, in their first nine seasons, they failed to finish outside the top four only three times and claimed the runners-up spot on three occasions.
They were beaten finalists in the 1953 all-Cork FAI Cup final and they won the Independent Cup, more commonly known as the Top Four Cup, in 1957, 1959 and 1960.
In the earlier years, they had the services of the great “Big” Seanie McCarthy, Tommy Moroney, Liam O’Neill, Con “Brasso” McCarthy, Mick Taylor, Seamus Madden, Derry Barrett to name but a few.
Tommy Moroney replaced Jackie Lennox as manager in August 1956 and he built a team from local talent. By 1960, the team was more or less picking itself every week, barring injuries of which there were fortunately few, and was described as probably the best-blended combination in League of Ireland football.
Irish amateur international Bobby Brohan replaced Derry Barrett in goal in 1956 and had missed only a handful of matches since his debut.
Inter-League player Connie Buckley was partnered at full-back by Mick O’Keeffe, whom many considered unlucky not to have also played for the League of Ireland.
The centre of defence was manned by the colossus John Coughlan, team captain, and the equally fearsome Ray Cowhie, both of whom were also amazingly overlooked by the League of Ireland despite the fact that Cowhie was called up to the Irish international squad in 1964.
The “Golden Boy” Paul O’Donovan and “Cockney” Donie O’Leary played on the wings, while the middle of the park was marshalled by Johnny Moloney and the brilliant Frank McCarthy, the choice of many as Evergreen/Celtic’s best ever player.
Completing the line-up was the lethal strike force of Donie Leahy and Austin Noonan, who between them had scored 72 of Celtic’s 106 goals in 1959/60. Leahy was leading scorer in the League of Ireland in the three seasons to 1958/59 while Noonan’s 27 league goals in 1959/60 put him top of the scoring charts. Dick Higgins was a valuable squad member who could play in any position.
At the time, the League of Ireland consisted of 12 clubs. The Shield was played on a round-robin basis, consisting of 11 matches for each team, before the league season began and it was the third-ranked competition after the league and the FAI Cup. Prestige and medals were the only reward for the winners; it did not lead to qualification for European competition.
Celtic handed 19-year-old Charlie O’Mahony his debut, in place of the injured Johnny Moloney, for the opening Shield fixture against the holders St Patricks Athletic at the Mardyke on August 21, 1960.
Charlie scored the first goal in a comprehensive 5-2 victory with Donie Leahy and Austin Noonan sharing the other four goals.
The same three were again the goalscorers a week later when Celtic travelled to Dublin and overcame Drumcondra 3-2 at Tolka Park. Joint leaders Dundalk were the visitors to Cork on September 4 and the “three amigos” again scored along with Donie O’Leary in a 4-2 win that left Celtic a point ahead of Shamrock Rovers at the top.
That was Celtic’s 16th match without defeat dating back to the previous season, but the wheels came off the track in the next seven days.
Celtic had reached the final of the Dublin City Cup, an early season knockout competition, and they were hot favourites to lift the trophy in the final against Drumcondra in midweek.
Unchanged for the fifth successive match, Austin Noonan scored from a first-half penalty to put Celtic on what they thought was their way. But, after Donie Leahy suffered a leg injury that reduced him to “passenger” status (there were no substitutes back then!), Drums staged a second-half recovery with the season’s Footballer of the Year Dan McCaffrey scoring twice to win the competition in which they had been beaten finalists in the previous four seasons.
It was the first of three trophies for Drums that season as they went on to win the League of Ireland and Top Four Cup.
Celtic were forced to make changes for their Shield match against league champions Limerick at the Markets Field on September 11. Dick Higgins and Johnny Moloney replaced the injured Leahy and Frank McCarthy. Paul O’Donovan was on international duty with the Ireland B team against Iceland and his place on the right wing was taken by 17-year-old Pat O’Mahony who, 19 seasons later, would play in Celtic’s last ever match against Dundalk in April 1979, having made 513 appearances, the club record.
Incidentally, his late brother Noel‘s 441 appearances for Cork Hibernians was also a club record and their younger brother Declan made a combined 126 appearances for Hibs and Celtic, so over 1,000 appearances between them.
Pat had just returned from London where he had spent two years as an apprentice at West Ham United. His debut was looking good with 11 minutes remaining and Celtic leading by a first-half goal scored by Donie O’Leary. But former, and yet-to-be-again, Celtic player Georgie Lynam scored twice to blot the copybook that thereafter remained unblemished.
The 20-year-old Ollie Moloney, youngest of the famous trio from Glasheen, made his debut in the 6-1 thrashing of Sligo Rovers at Turner's Cross on 18 September. Bradley’s consolation goal for Sligo in the 78th minute was the last goal conceded by Celtic in the competition. The Golden Boy scored a hat-trick as Celtic claimed top spot, but only four points separated the top eight teams after five matches.
A drab scoreless draw away to Shamrock Rovers on 25 September at Milltown saw Celtic surrender the lead to Shelbourne on goal average, which preceded goal difference and was calculated by dividing the number of goals scored by the number of goals conceded. A week later an equally unimpressive 1-0 win over Bohemians at the Mardyke, courtesy of an Austin Noonan strike in the 40th minute, put Celtic back on top but only because Shelbourne’s match was postponed.
O’Leary, Noonan and Pat O’Mahony each struck twice as Celtic trounced Waterford 6-0 on 9 October and, with Shelbourne reclaiming top spot on goal average after winning their rescheduled match in hand, the football public were getting excited at the prospect of a final-day showdown between the two in Dublin.
Celtic travelled to Harold’s Cross on 16 October and Austin Noonan’s second-half header was enough to secure the victory over Transport.
Sold for development in 2017, Harold’s Cross stadium had served the Dublin sporting public for nearly 90 years, continuously as a greyhound track and variously as home to five League of Ireland clubs between 1929 and 1993.
Shelbourne were held to a 2-2 draw by St Patrick's Athletic across town at Tolka Park and Celtic took a one-point lead at the top with just two matches remaining.
Celtic’s local rivals, Cork Hibernians, had stayed in touch with the leading duo with six wins in eight matches and were in third place, three points behind Celtic with a match in hand. That set up a mouth- watering local derby on 23 October: a win for Hibs could put them in a position to take the title if they won their remaining matches; a win for Celtic would consolidate their position; and a draw could bring five teams into contention with Limerick and St Patrick's Athletic lurking below the top three.
As reported in the on 24 October: “Yesterday’s 'local derby' at the Mardyke will always be remembered as the match in which the Shield was won without the crowd being aware of it until well after they had left the venue. By car and on foot came the thousands of fans who made this crowd one of the biggest since that record “gate” at this venue in the second round of the FAI Cup between Cork Athletic and Evergreen United in 1956, and they saw Celtic win by the only goal of the game, which came from leading scorer Austin Noonan. What they did not realise at the time was that Shelbourne were going down to defeat at Milltown, thus ensuring that Celtic’s meeting with Shelbourne next Sunday would be only a formal affair for the Turner’s Cross side instead of the expected Shield decider.”
For the record, the match with Shelbourne ended in a scoreless draw. Celtic's record read: played 11, won 8, drew 2, lost 1, goals scored 28, goals conceded 9. Hibernians claimed the runners-up medals, edging out Limerick on goal average.
Celtic were installed as favourites to win the league but they never recovered from a mediocre start and finished in fourth place, seven points behind champions Drumcondra.
Nevertheless, Celtic had won their first major national title and the following are the men who achieved it: Bobby Brohan (11 appearances), Mick O’Keeffe (11), Ray Cowhie (11), John Coughlan (11), Austin Noonan (11 – 9 goals), Donie O’Leary (11 – 6 goals), Paul O’Donovan (10 – 3 goals), Donie Leahy (10 – 5 goals), Frank McCarthy (10), Connie Buckley (8), Pat O’Mahony (7 – 2 goals), Charlie O’Mahony (5 – 3 goals), Johnny Moloney (2), Dick Higgins (2), Ollie Moloney (1).
Happy Anniversary!
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