Celtic On This Day – 9th August – 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 9 August…

SATURDAY 9 AUGUST 1941

Celtic’s war time woes continue with a dreadful 0-3 opening day defeat at Tynecastle in front of a surprisingly large crowd of 20,000. The war continues to go badly as well, although Britain now have an ally in the Soviet Union.

SATURDAY 9 AUGUST 1958

26,500 are at Shawfield to see the first game of the sectional stage of the Scottish League Cup. Celtic, the holders, beat the home side 4-1 with goals from Charlie Tully, Bobby Collins, Sammy Wilson and Bertie Auld.

SATURDAY 9 AUGUST 1969

Celtic play superb football to beat Airdrie 6-1 at Parkhead before a crowd of 40,000 in the opening game of the League Cup. One of John Hughes’ two goals is a great individual goal, and the other goals come from Harry Hood, George Connelly, Willie Wallace and Tommy Gemmell.

SATURDAY 9 AUGUST 1997

Unusual opponents today at an unusual ground, as Celtic beat Berwick Rangers 7-0 in the Scottish League Cup at Tynecastle, Shielfield Park being considered unsuitable for the big crowd. It is one way traffic. Simon Donnelly scores 2, and the others are scored by Andy Thom, Henrik Larsson, Morten Weighorst, Darren Jackson and Regi Blinker.

SATURDAY 9 AUGUST 2003

Celtic open the new season at East End Park, Dunfermline with a slightly disappointing 0-0 draw. Normally relations between Celtic and Dunfermline supporters are good, but this time there is a certain residue of feeling about Dunfermline’s poor performance against Rangers on the last day of the season at Ibrox which effectively gave the title to Rangers. Some Dunfermline supporters in private admit to feelings of “disappointment” that day as well.

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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