1904 and 1965 – Celtic’s most significant Scottish Cup Final victories

1904 and 1965 – Perhaps the two most significant Scottish Cup finals in Celtic’s history, this is the story of the 1904 Scottish Cup Final win over Rangers at the new Hampden where Celtic came back from 2-0 down to lift the cup thanks to a Jimmy Quinn hat-trick…

Celtic now with their support galvanised into action would have liked the semi-final against Third Lanark to be played the next Saturday, but this was not possible because Scotland were playing Wales in an International at Dens Park (then considered to be one of the best grounds in Scotland). In the event, Willie Orr and Alec Bennett played for Scotland in a 1-1 draw while Celtic beat St Mirren 3-1 in a League match before a “reasonable attendance”.

This game now saw Celtic into the Scottish Cup final, and the atmosphere was tangible around Parkhead. Young’s fine performance in this game – the word “outstanding” was used in several newspapers – also had another effect in that he was granted International recognition when he was chosen to play for the Scottish League against the English League (or as they called themselves, arrogantly, the Football League) at Bank Street, Manchester, the home of Manchester United on Monday 4 April 1904.

The League Internationals, sadly no longer played, were very important in those days, for they were looked upon as a spring board for a full International cap. Sunny had only really played as a regular right half since the end of February on that quagmire of a pitch at Dens Park, and here he was playing for the Scottish League at the beginning of April! Admittedly, he was not the first choice and only came in at the last minute, but nevertheless the opportunity to play against Bob Crompton and Steve Bloomer in front of a 40,000 crowd was an exciting one for the ambitious Sunny. Jimmy Quinn was also chosen for the left wing spot.

It was a fine day at Clayton (as Bank Street was sometimes called) and the holiday crowd enjoyed a good game in which the wind played a fairly significant part as the Scottish League were winning at half-time when they had the wind behind them, but lost out 1-2. This was of course no disgrace to lose by this narrow margin, and The Glasgow Herald says that Young “acquitted himself creditably”.

As important as anything else in these games was the social side of things. There was always a post-match dinner (sometimes called grandiloquently a “banquet”) and Young, sociable as always, sought out the England players like Bloomer, Greenhaugh and Baddeley, some of whom remembered him vaguely from his Bristol Rovers days, talked to them about the game, picked up a few tips, exchanged opinions, but told them that something was soon going to happen in Glasgow and that was the arrival of the Celtic to become the best team on earth. Pointing to the shy, introverted Jimmy Quinn, he said that this man was going to score all the goals. Everyone laughed good naturedly at such banter while the Englishmen began to boast about Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City or Bolton Wanderers as appropriate.

It is probably true to say that in 1904 what really mattered to all of Scotland was the full International against England. It would be talked about and anticipated with enthusiasm from soon after the New Year. It was more important than club games in that it attracted bigger attendances from all over the country, including a few who would claim to have arrived by that modern invention “the motor car”. Sometimes simply called “the International”, it was scheduled for Celtic Park this year and was to be played on Saturday 9 April 1904, only a few days after the League International which was in some ways looked upon as the trial match for the big game.

The ever optimistic Sunny Jim might well have hoped for a call up to this match as well, but the right half place went to Andy Aitken of Newcastle United, commonly known as “the Daddler”. Aitken stayed uninjured in the few days before the game, so Sunny watched the game from the gallery of the Parkhead pavilion beside other Celtic players and all the dignitaries like the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Sir John Ure Primrose, much fawned upon sycophantically by the Celtic Directors in spite of his Rangers connections.

Ironically for the game being played at Celtic Park, there was not a single Celtic player in the team, but there was a huge crowd with the police and ambulancemen on a high state of alert following what had happened at Ibrox two years ago. Fortunately nothing untoward happened in front of a slightly disappointing crowd of only 45,000 (foul weather and the genuine fear of another disaster in the big crowd keeping the attendance lower than expected) but all of Scotland was distressed when England won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Steve Bloomer of Derby County, sometimes called “the ghost” because of his pale face.

That was a disappointment, but Sunny and the rest of the Celtic team knew that next Saturday was what really mattered to them and the Celtic fans. It was the Scottish Cup final between themselves and the well-supported team from the west of the city called Rangers.

As we have said, at this stage of footballing history, there was no great sectarianism or bigotry from Rangers or even their supporters. They were however the main rivals to Celtic in terms of support and the size of their stadium, and therein lay the real rivalry. Queen’s Park, who had rigidly refused to turn professional had perhaps had their day, and Third Lanark were at the moment enjoying a brief moment of ascendancy, but it was Rangers who were always likely to be the main rivals.

Since they had won the Scottish League four years in a row from 1899 until 1902, there was an arrogance about them, a feeling that they were the team that was “meant” to win honours, and they certainly had the wealth and the support to do so.

Another factor that added spice to the 1904 Scottish Cup final was that it was to be played at New Hampden Park, the massive stadium erected by Queen’s Park and opened in a game against Celtic last Hallowe’en. There was little doubt that the purpose of building this stadium was to outdo Celtic Park and Ibrox and to host the biennial Scotland v England International and Scottish Cup finals, but it was an indication of the continually growing interest in football in Glasgow that the city now had three stadia capable of hosting big crowds, even though it would be some time before Ibrox could be used again for this purpose.

Great stress was laid on safety at Hampden in a fairly obvious dig at Rangers after their disaster, and a subtle reminder of the dangerous overcrowding that had been obvious at Celtic Park in 1896.

The New Hampden was rumoured to be capable of holding 80,000 at least and plans were in place to extend it so that a six figure crowd could attend the Scotland v England International of 1906 and so that it could be even bigger and more commodious than the famous Crystal Palace of London. It had been built just a little too late to be given the Scotland v England International of 1904, which, as we saw, went to Celtic Park, but as it turned out, the newly-built Hampden was the ideal neutral setting for the meeting of the Glasgow giants on 16 April 1904.

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