2nd March – Five Memorable Celtic Moments on This Day

Five memorable Celtic moments, with a nod to the late Celtic Historian and Celtic Star legend David Potter, on this day starting in 1907…

ONE – SATURDAY 2 MARCH 1907 – In “easily the most interesting game seen at Pittodrie for many years” according to The Aberdeen Press and Journal, Celtic, without the suspended Jimmy Quinn, the injured Willie Loney, and Sunny Jim Young who is away playing with the Scottish League, draw 2-2 with Aberdeen, the goals coming from Peter Somers and a penalty scored by Willie Orr.

TWO – SATURDAY 2 MARCH 1963 – At long last the big freeze is over. The thaw arrives suddenly, and there is quite a lot of flooding throughout Scotland, but Celtic are able to play their first League game since 5 January. Airdrie come to Parkhead and Celtic win 3-1 with a couple of goals from John Divers and an own goal.

THREE – SATURDAY 2 MARCH 1968 – After some indifferent form over the winter, Celtic seem to have turned the corner with a very impressive 6-0 demolition of Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. 14,000 see Willie Wallace score four goals, the other goals coming from Bobby Lennox and Jimmy Quinn junior (grandson of the great Jimmy). But the man of the match is without doubt Jimmy Johnstone who has a personal axe to grind with Kilmarnock’s trainer Walter McCrae. Some ten days earlier when both were with the Scotland squad, McCrae asked Johnstone to act as a linesman in a practice match. Jimmy refused, but to-day as he walks off the field, he says to McCrae “No’ bad for a linesman, eh?”

FOUR – SATURDAY 2 MARCH 1985 – Games against Dundee United at Tannadice are not famous for providing goal fests, and today’s goalless draw does a lot of harm to Celtic’s League chances for Celtic really needed a victory if they were to keep up their challenge to Aberdeen. Sadly young Peter Grant misses a penalty.

FIVE – WEDNESDAY 2 MARCH 2011 – 57,847 people see Celtic get the better of Rangers at Parkhead in the Scottish Cup. The only goal of the game is scored by Mark Wilson, but the score line does not reflect Celtic’s superiority. The game ends in chaos with three red cards awarded to Rangers players, but the media and the politicians choose to get upset about a minor dust-up between the two managers Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon. It wasn’t even “handbags” in the context of what had gone before!