The Ghosts of Cathkin Park

The summer of 1967 was Scottish football’s finest hour, with one exception. Third Lanark Athletic Club, one of the country’s oldest, most successful football teams, and to date one of only four teams to defeat both Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final, played its final game. Michael McEwan brings this forgotten tale to life in this book. 

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The summer of 1967 was Scottish football’s finest hour. Celtic won the European Cup. Rangers reached the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Kilmarnock got to the semis of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Scotland defeated world champions England at Wembley. It was the best of times. With one exception. Third Lanark Athletic Club, one of the country’s oldest and most successful football teams, a founder member of the Scottish Football Association, and to date one of only four teams to defeat both Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final, played its final game. And hardly anybody seemed to notice. Why?



Michael McEwan brings rich archival research together with interviews with the key surviving players in the Third Lanark squad from that final season, as well as opposition players and other relevant figures from the era. 



Over 50 years on, the demise of Third Lanark remains one of Scottish football's darkest hours – and, by ludicrous coincidence, it occurred in the midst of one of its brightest.