Celtic On This Day – 20th October – David Potter’s Celtic Diary

The late, great Celtic Historian David Potter’s Celtic diary highlights key Celtic-related events relevant to each day, today covering 20th October…

SATURDAY 20 OCTOBER 1917

The war continues in spite of the arrival of the Americans (as yet in small numbers) and the casualties keep rising, but today at Ibrox, Celtic beat Rangers 2-1 with goals from Jimmy McColl and Andy McAtee. 40,000 are there to watch a rather feisty encounter between the two sides.

SATURDAY 20 OCTOBER 1934

1934 has been a poor year as far as Celtic are concerned, but today we at last see a good performance from the team as they beat Partick Thistle 3-1 at Firhill with two goals from Frank O’Donnell (above) and one from his brother Hugh (below).

SATURDAY 20 OCTOBER 1956

Willie Fernie and Bobby Collins were away playing for Scotland against Wales in a 2-2 draw (Fernie scoring a brilliant goal) while at home Celtic drew 1-1 in a slightly disappointing game against Raith Rovers. Billy McPhail scored Celtic’s only goal, but the biggest cheer of the day was for the re-appearance of Charlie Tully who had been out injured.

WEDNESDAY 20 OCTOBER 1971

Even without the injured Billy McNeill, Celtic have few problems in defeating Sliema Wanderers 5-0 at Celtic Park in the European Cup. Harry Hood scores twice, and Jim Brogan, Lou Macari and Tommy Gemmell score the others in front of a slightly disappointing crowd of 29,000.

WEDNESDAY 20 OCTOBER 1982

The death is announced at the age of 78 of Jimmy McGrory, arguably the most famous Celt of all time. He has been ill for some time. Meanwhile Celtic are in Spain playing and losing 0-2 to Real Sociedad in the European Cup.

David Potter

About Author

David was a distinguished Celtic author and historian and writer for The Celtic Star. He lived in Kirkcaldy and followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. He was a retired teacher and his other interests were cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns. David Potter passed away on 29 July 2023 after a short illness. He was posthumously awarded a Special Recognition award by Celtic FC at the club's Player of the Year awards in May 2024. David's widow Rosemary accepted the award to huge applause from the Celtic Supporters in the Hydro.

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