The late, great Celtic Historian David Potter’s Celtic Diary each morning on The Celtic Star looks back at key Celtic events and matches on this day starting on 18th January 1896…
Dan Doyle scored a penalty
SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 1896 – Celtic, already League Champions and Glasgow Cup winners, go out of the Scottish Cup today by losing 2-4 to Queen’s Park. They are without the suspended Barney Battles (had the game gone ahead on its original date of 11 January, Barney would have been available) and are simply beaten by the better team on the day. Dan Doyle (with a penalty) and Jimmy Blessington score for Celtic. 20,000 (a huge crowd for the 1890s) are at Celtic Park to see a game which more or less ends Celtic’s season.
Alec McNair scored. Order his biography by clicking the image and it’s now half price in our winter sale!
SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 1908 – A temporary brake is applied to the Celtic steam engine as they are held to a 2-2 draw at Fir Park Motherwell with goals coming from Alec McNair and Peter Somers. Motherwell are well on top and leading 2-0 until the last fifteen minutes when an Alec McNair cross deceives the goalkeeper and goes in, then Peter Somers, himself a Lanarkshire man, scores the equaliser. It is in fact a good day for Celtic because main rivals Falkirk lose to Third Lanark.
Jimmy Johnstone scored
SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 1964 – A good win for Celtic today as they beat St Mirren 3-0 at Celtic Park in the Scottish League. It was an unpleasant game on a hard pitch with a St Mirren player ordered off and one or two Celtic players lucky not to share the same fate. It is only in the latter stages that Celtic secure the points with a couple of late goals from Jimmy Johnstone and John Divers to add to the one that Steve Chalmers scored in the first half.
THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 1973 – Lou Macari, who has been unsettled for some time, signs for Manchester United for £200,000. He is a fine player but has been looking for a transfer to England, and there have been occasions, notably in the League Cup Final of a month ago against Hibs and in the Old Firm game of 6 January, when he has not performed as well as the supporters might have expected. It is however still a very sad day for the club. It would not be true to say that the supporters wish him well. (More on this transfer on The Celtic Star later this morning).
SUNDAY 18 JANUARY 2004 – Tynecastle is never an easy place to gather points, but today Celtic are able to do just that with a 1-0 win which is more comfortable than it sounds. Stilian Petrov scores the only goal of the game before 13,753 fans.
David Potter