Sunday 12 March 2017 12:53, UK
The funeral of Celtic icon and Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell has taken place in Glasgow.
Gemmell, who passed away at the age of 73 after a lengthy illness last Thursday, made his final journey from Celtic Park to nearby Daldowie Crematorium.
Crowds lined the route for one of Celtic's greatest players, who scored the team's equaliser and helped set-up the winning strike for Stevie Chalmers in the 1967 European Cup final, as Celtic came from behind to beat Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.
Gemmell also scored in the 1970 European Cup final, giving the Hoops the lead in Milan, but on that occasion the Scottish champions lost 2-1 to Feyenoord.
Fellow Lisbon Lions Jim Craig, John Clark, Bertie Auld and Bobby Lennox were the pallbearers along with former journalist Alex Gordon and ex-Rangers star Willie Henderson, who was a close friend of both Gemmell and the late Jimmy Johnstone.
Gemmell played almost 250 games for Celtic between 1961 and 1971 and as well as his European Cup triumph, he won six league titles, three Scottish Cup medals and four League Cup medals, scoring 37 goals for the club. He also earned 18 caps for Scotland.
He won the League Cup with Dundee, a 1-0 victory over Celtic, after a short spell in England with Nottingham Forest, and Gemmell was also manager at Dens Park for three years and he had two spells as boss of Albion Rovers.
One of the mourners at Daldowie was Eddie Gray, the former Leeds United winger, who faced Gemmell and Celtic in the 1970 European Cup semi-final, and he still has vivid memories of both games at Elland Road and Hampden, where a record crowd watched the Hoops progress to Milan.
"Tommy was a tremendous player, a great character, he played for one of the greatest British football teams ever," Gray said to Sky Sports.
"I'll never forget the games he played against Leeds United, especially the game at Hampden in the second-leg.
"But Celtic were a great team then. I mean the crowd that night, over 135,000, it's something you never forget and looking back at Tommy and the rest of the players he played with, they go down in history."
Craig, who was Celtic's other full-back on that historic day in Lisbon, was asked about his memories of Gemmell.
"An excellent player, good defender, great coming forward," he said.
John Fallon, who did not play in Lisbon but was understudy to goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson in Jock Stein's squad during that period, reckons the fact Gemmell beat off competition from Willie O'Neill and John Gorman was a sign of his ability.
"He must go down as one of the best left-backs that we've had," Fallon said. "In modern times he's up there with the best.
"When you think he kept Willie O'Neill out, who was a great player, and young John Gorman learned a lot from him. John Gorman went to Tottenham, he was great. So Tommy was good, laugh a minute, that was him."
