66th Celtic Rally

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Joe O'Rourke
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66th Celtic Rally

Postby Joe O'Rourke » Fri May 09, 2014 12:36 pm

Last Friday night in the wonderful Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park we celebrated the 66th Celtic Supporters Association Rally. The Supporters Association was an idea conceived by Willie Fanning in 1944, and just like Celtic Football Club our history has continued unbroken.
Our Player of the Year as voted by our members for the second consecutive year was once again Kris Commons. Since his arrival in January 2011 Kris has been phenomenal, his goal tally for this year compares with the best in Celtic’s history, especially for a recognised midfield player.
Kris is now on 31 goals for the season with the match against Dundee United still to play. He is outscoring natural centre forwards like May, Sutton, McKay, Boyd, and even our very own Anthony Stokes he has settled into the No 10 role with ease, and has also had plenty of assists this season as well.
Kris has also shown our development squad players how to go about becoming a better player, he came to Celtic with a good reputation, and like the great Henrik, he has improved on that reputation. Hopefully Kris will finish his career at Celtic Park, he has plenty of targets still to aim for, and plenty of trophies and awards still to be won.
Our Guest of Honour this year was David Hay, few people have served Celtic with so much distinction, in so many different roles, he served as a player, manager, scout, and as assistant to Jock Brown, Davie truly is a Celtic Legend.
Davie joined Celtic in 1966, he quickly established himself in the reserve team known as “The Quality Street Kids” it couldn’t have been easy trying to progress to the first team, when the first team was “The Lisbon Lions” but progress he did, and along with Danny McGrain, Kenny Dalglish, George Connelly, Lou Macari, and Paul Wilson, he became a regular first pick for Big Jock.
Davie made his first team debut in 1968, and went on to play 230 games for the club. He won 5 league Titles, 2 Scottish Cups, and 1 league Cup. Davies’s progress was so swift that he played in the 1970 European Cup Final in Milan against Feyenoord; a match that he says was the biggest disappointment in his career.
Davie returned to Celtic as manager in 1983, he came at a time when a lot of money was being spent on the other side of the city, the board at Celtic at the time declined to compete in the same market, and maybe now that decision appears to be justified.
Celtic won the cup in 1985, beating Dundee United 2-1 in a good final. His best day as manager came in 1986 with the last day 5-0 victory over St Mirren at Love Street to pip Hearts to win the League Title, God Bless Albert Kidd.
Davie is still a regular at Celtic Park, he continues to be a fantastic ambassador for Celtic Football Club, and deservedly is held in very high esteem by the Celtic Supports.
The Celtic Rally is held every year with the main intention of raising money for worthy causes, we strive every year to follow in the footsteps of Walfrid by helping out with as much financial help as possible.
This year the main beneficiary is The Kano Foundation. The Kano Foundation evolved from the very successful Bring Martin Home Appeal. The Foundation purchase over 60 season tickets every year to take kids to Celtic Park to watch Celtic play, and hopefully some day to become supporters in their own right.
They encourage the kids to be very vocal in their support, but also to respect the views of others who might not be Celtic supporters. There has been plenty of occasions when a kid has went along for the first time not as a Celtic supporter, but has become one by the end of the ninety minutes. Long may Joe Makin and his volunteers continue their great work.
We will also make a donation to the Wayside Club in Glasgow. The club is open 7 nights a week to give support and help to people with additions, and the homeless, they provide a very valuable service to the community, Tom Boyd’s dad is one of their volunteers.
Finally, we will make a donation to the Walfrid Wells Fund. This fund was set up by the Association several years ago to provide clean water to villages in Africa, mainly in Northern Nigeria. The fund is managed for us by The Society of African Missions, and to date we have donated over £40,000.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came along to the Rally and helped to make it a big success. I thank our manager Neil Lennon for bringing along the whole first team squad, and Peter Lawwell for his continued support.
The raffle winners were as follows .. First Prize .. 2 Hospitality Tickets for Sundays match against Dundee Utd .. Martin Doyle .. Second Prize .. A signed print of Kris Commons .. Cathie Grant .. Third Prize .. A signed print of Davie Hay .. Scott Robertson & Jonny McSkimming. I would also thank George Smith our Artist for his excellent work, it is great appreciated.
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