So the Premier Sports Cup draw has paired us against Raith Rovers! On the surface it would appear to be an easy enough game against a lower tier team at home, but there are pitfalls. Not all that long ago, we had Morton paying a rare visit to Celtic Park on League Cup business – and they beat us, simply because our forwards were feckless and incapable of scoring, and the Greenock men won after extra time. It was a painful night in September 2013, and one that no-one wants to see again.
But to Raith Rovers. A good side well managed by the experienced John McGlynn and with some good players like Lewis Vaughan and the wonderfully named Kyle Benedictus who sounds as if he would be a better monk than he would be a football player. But he is a football player and a good one with loads of experience, and the Lang Toun men were well worth their victory over Aberdeen who possibly made the fatal mistake of under-rating them. Ange, one hopes, will not make a similar mistake in September.
Celtic and Raith Rovers have crossed swords 14 times in the Scottish League Cup with Celtic winning 11 times, one draw and two defeats. Let’s get the big bad defeat out of the way first, shall we? We all try to forget this one! It was 27 November 1994 in the final at Ibrox. Oddly enough, Ibrox is by no means Celtic’s worst ground for performances – we won our first Scottish Cup there in 1892, the Empire Exhibition Trophy in 1938, for example, but this one was a cataclysm and arguably one of our worst results of all time.
Celtic, just recovering from the Kelly era and with Tommy Burns now the Manager, were as yet failing to string together any form, the whole thing not helped by the fact that home games were being played at Hampden that year with Parkhead being rebuilt.
Neverthless they were expected to be too good for Raith Rovers, relegated last year but fighting back under their energetic Manager Jimmy Nichol and a few good players like Shaun Dennis and Ronnie Coyle (both fervent Celtic supporters in their spare time), Steve Crawford and Colin Cameron. They were actually playing well.
Raith scored first, Andy Walker equalised with a diving header, and then with the minutes ticking away Charlie Nicholas seemed to have it won until Gordon Marshall couldn’t hold a fierce drive and ex Ranger Gordon Dalziel scored with his nose! Painful extra time followed and it went to the tragic penalty shoot-out in which Paul McStay, by some distance the best player in Scotland at the time, had the misfortune to see his shot saved.
“Agony” did not quite cover that one, but there have been happier memories too. The following year at a windy Parkhead with no stands at either end and the pitch consequently festooned in litter, a late goal by Simon Donnelly settled the issue.
Celtic’s best performance against Raith Rovers was the quarter final first leg of 1965/66 when Celtic went to Stark’s Park to win 8-1 with hat-tricks each for John Hughes and Joe McBride with Bobby Lennox and Jimmy Johnstone completing the scoring. In the present century, Raith have been three times at Celtic Park and each time the game might have been summed up with the cliche of “the gallant Rovers tried hard, but found top class opposition too much for them. But there is the compensation of a good pay day”
The results are as follows (Celtic score given first)
1950/51 2-1 Celtic Park (McPhail 2); 2-2 (Collins, Peacock) Stark’s Park. Sectional stages
Charlie Tully in action against Raith Overs
1959/60 1-2 (Mackle) Stark’s Park; 1-0 Celtic Park (own goal) Sectional stages
1965/66 8-1 (McBride 3, Hughes 3, Lennox, Johnstone) Stark’s Park; 4-0 (Auld 2, Murdoch, Chalmers) Celtic Park Quarter finals
1969/70 5-0 (Wallace 2, Hood, McNeill, Hughes) Celtic Park; 5-2 (Hood 2, Chalmers 2, Brogan) Stark’s Park Sectional stages
1991/92 3-1 (Miller, Creaney, Fulton) Celtic Park
1994/95 2-2 (Walker, Nicholas) after extra time, Raith Rovers won 6-5 on penalties. Final at Ibrox
1995/96 2-1 (Van Hooijdonk, Donnelly) Celtic Park
2000/01 4-0 (Johnson 2, Sutton, Thompson) Celtic Park
2012/13 4-1 (Hooper 4) Celtic Park
2015/16 2-0 (Commons, Johansen) Celtic Park
Photos from the most recent encounter at Celtic Park shown below…
Gordon Marshall – worst goalie we ever had for any length of time. Cost us this trophy with that blunder and never got near a penalty. In goals trying like a bear for opposition on both Helicopter Sunday and 2003 at Killie. Just awful.