Celtic On This Day – 22nd February – David Potter’s Celtic Diary

Celtic Historian David Potter each morning on The Celtic Star looks back at key Celtic events and matches on this day starting on 22nd February 1902. David’s latest bestseller The Celtic Rising ~ 1965: The Year Jock Stein Changed Everything is available now in print on Celtic Star Books, and also on Amazon kindle, links below…

Sandy McMahon scored twice

SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 1902 – Sandy McMahon scores twice today to the delight of the 27,000 crowd at Celtic Park as Celtic beat Hearts 2-0 in quarter final of the Scottish Cup. It is a measure of revenge for Celtic, for it was Hearts who beat Celtic in last year’s Scottish Cup final.

Jimmy McMenemy scored twice

SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 1908 – On a foul day of wind and rain, Celtic visit Kirkcaldy on Scottish Cup business to beat Raith Rovers 3-0 with two goals from Jimmy McMenemy and one from Willie Kivlichan. The Kirkcaldy Burgh Band try to make the visitors feel at home with a programme of “Songs of Ireland”, but the spectacle is ruined by the vile weather. Only 14,000 attend when more were expected.

Peter Latchford made his debut for Celtic

SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 1975 – Celtic’s 1-2 defeat at Easter Road before 31,000 fans follows some indifferent form with draws against Arbroath and Dumbarton, and it is now generally recognised that Celtic will not now make it “Ten In A Row” League Championships that the supporters so crave. The atmosphere on the trains going home indicates that the supporters feel that the good days have now gone. Yet the team performs well enough at Easter Road with Paul Wilson’s 85th minute goal just too late to make a difference on a day when Peter Latchford made his debut for Celtic.

SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 1986 – Not since the 1960s have Hearts been mentioned in the same breath as “title challengers” but on this day they bring a huge travelling support to Parkhead to see a thrilling 1-1 draw in which John Robertson equalises a Maurice Johnston counter. The crowd is given as 45,346 but not for the first time, folk suspect that there might have been a few more, particularly as the whole “Rangers” end of the ground is filled with Hearts supporters.

SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2004 – Celtic travel to Firhill and defeat Partick Thistle 4-1 with two goals from Chris Sutton and two from Stan Varga. Former Celtic favourite Jorge Cadete was playing for Partick Thistle but to no avail as Celtic have now won a record 24 League games in a row, and it now seems a matter of time before they can be crowned Champions again.

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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