Now in his 35th year, Tom McAteer then left Clyde for the six-in-a-row champions, Celtic, signing three weeks later, on 10 May 1910, ostensibly as cover. He would make his Hoops debut in the opening League match of the new campaign, a home game with Airdrieonians, on Saturday, 17 August 1910, replacing ‘Sunny Jim’ Young in a defence which included most of the other legends of the day, Davie Adams, Alec McNair, Joe Dodds, Willie Loney and Jimmy Hay.
Goals from Loney and a Jimmy Quinn double would give McAteer a winning start as the quest for an unprecedented seven-in-a-row titles commenced with a comfortable 3-0 victory, however, that wonderful prospect would appear remote following three successive League defeats at the hands of Falkirk, Morton and Kilmarnock.
Tom would feature in eighteen matches in his first season at Parkhead, contributing four goals, including Celtic’s equaliser in the Ne-erday fixture at Ibrox, and the second and clinching goal in the dying seconds of the 2-0 Scottish Cup final replay win over Hamilton Academical at the same venue in April 1911 (his medal is shown below).
As mentioned earlier, Jimmy Quinn had opened the scoring in that 1911 final. By that time, he was already a Celtic legend, having signed a decade earlier from Smithstone Albion, the local rivals of Tom McAteer’s Smithstone Hibernian. Quinn would make his Celtic debut on the left-wing at Love Street, Paisley, in a League match on Saturday, 19 January 1901, scoring once in a bruising 4-3 win over St Mirren, a match where the crowd burst on to the field following an incident involving Sandy ‘The Duke’ McMahon, Parkhead president John Glass assaulted in the ensuing melee. Two goals from centre-forward Johnny Campbell and one from outside-right John Hodge had complemented Quinn’s debut goal to give the ‘Stripes’ a commanding 4-1 lead at the interval, before the Buddies fought back.
Jimmy Quinn would play just two more games that season, however they would both be significant. On Saturday, 23 March 1901, another goal from Campbell against that same St Mirren side would see Celts win a Scottish Cup semi-final at Parkhead, in the days when only the replays of last-four games were held at neutral venues. And two weeks later, he would line up for the Bhoys against Hearts in the Scottish Cup final at Ibrox.
Maley’s Celtic were chasing a third successive win in the competition, a feat achieved by both Queen’s Park – who did this twice – and Vale of Leven, in the first nine seasons of the national tournament, the Bhoys having followed up their initial success against the Hampden amateurs in 1892 by beating Rangers seven years later then the Spiders again in 1900.
Sadly, the 4-3 scoreline from the previous season would be reversed as the Edinburgh club won another seven-goal thriller, thus matching Celtic’s tally of three wins, despite second-half goals from Quinn and McMahon pulling it back to 3-3 with just ten minutes remaining. Mark Bell would win it for Hearts at the death. Strangely, despite Celtic’s fantastic record in the Scottish Cup, they would miss many opportunities to break that ‘three-in-a-row’ hoodoo over the next century and beyond. It was perhaps appropriate that when they did finally achieve this, on Lisbon Day 2019, thanks to a French Eddie double, the Gorgie club were once again providing the opposition.
Quinn and McMahon would line up again in the following season’s Scottish Cup Final, on Saturday, 26 April 1902. The visitors were Hearts’ great rivals, Hibernian, the final moved to Celtic Park due to the first Ibrox disaster earlier that month, where 25 spectators lost their lives and more than 500 were injured as the new west terracing collapsed during the Scotland v England home international. The perceived ‘home’ advantage would prove non-existent, Celts losing to a late Andrew McGeachan goal. It would be Hibernian’s last win in the competition for an incredible 114 years, until Alan Stubbs’ side beat Rangers at Hampden in May 2016, in the first-ever such cup final between two second-tier clubs.
The disaster of April 1902 would trigger the one and only playing of a British League Cup to this day. In an attempt to raise funds for the benefit of the families bereaved at Ibrox, a knock-out tournament involving the top two sides north and south of the border was organised for that close-season. Celtic, Everton, Rangers and Sunderland competed for a trophy won by the Govan club at the previous year’s Glasgow International Exhibition, where they had beaten the Bhoys 3-1 in the final at Kelvingrove.
Four days after their Scottish Cup defeat by Hibernian, Wednesday, 30 April 1902, Celtic beat the new English Champions, Sunderland, 5-1, Rangers then drawing 1-1 with Everton the following night, both games played at Ibrox, which I have to say somewhat surprised me, given the circumstances.
A replay on Saturday, 3 May 1902 at Celtic Park would see Rangers edge a five-goal thriller with the Merseyside outfit, setting up a Glasgow Derby for the British League Cup final. The match was scheduled for June, to tie in with the Coronation of the new British monarch, King Edward VII (Queen Victoria had died the previous year), however that ceremony was eventually deferred until August, due to his appendicitis.
