Celtic On This Day – 23rd January – David Potter’s Celtic Diary

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 23rd January 1909…

Jimmy Quinn scored a hat-trick

SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 1909 – Celtic begin their quest for the Scottish Cup at Logie Green in Edinburgh with a 4-2 win over Leith Athletic. Jimmy Hay scores early on, and the other three are scored almost inevitably by Jimmy Quinn. Leith, now in the Second Division, fight well and twice equalise, but the speed and the class of the Celts are too much for them.

Neil Mochan scored twice

SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 1954 – Last week’s game at Raith Rovers was a shocker, but today is a lot better as Celtic beat Queen of the South 3-1 at Parkhead with two goals from Neil Mochan and one from John McPhail.

SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 1965 – A remarkable game at Cappielow today in which Celtic are 3-0 up and coasting with goals from John Hughes, Bobby Lennox and Tommy Gemmell and with Bertie Auld now back from Birmingham and looking the part. But then Morton come back, bring it back to 3-3 and seem to have scored at the end, but the referee had blown for time as the ball was in mid air.

Mark Viduka scored

SUNDAY 23 JANUARY 2000 – Not everyone is in favour of a midwinter shutdown, and tonight’s terrible performance by Celtic against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in the first game after the restart of normal footballing activities adds fuel to the discussion, for, although Celtic earn a 1-1 draw through a Mark Viduka goal, the performance is shocking in the opinion of most of the 14,126 crowd and the large Sunday night TV audience.

WEDNESDAY 23 JANUARY 2002 – Another fine performance from Celtic as they beat Hearts 2-0 at Parkhead with a couple of goals from Henrik Larsson before 57,177 spectators (for a League game on a cold January night!). Celtic are so far ahead in the League race that Rangers supporters are privately conceding that they cannot now catch Celtic.

David Potter

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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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