There is no great tradition of Scottish Cup history between Celtic and St Johnstone.
St Johnstone have won the Scottish Cup on one occasion, beating Dundee United at Celtic Park in 2014, and that is the only time that they have appeared in a Scottish Cup final. They have played Celtic on only seven occasions in the Scottish Cup, and have beaten Celtic once on a famous occasion in 1936. The other occasions were 1932, 1969, 1989, 2007 and 2019, all won comfortably by Celtic. A peculiarity is that Celtic have never been to McDiarmid Park on Scottish Cup business, and only once to Muirton Park, the previous home of St Johnstone. (McDiarmid Park has been the home of the Saints since 1989).
Here is the complete record between Celtic and St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup…
30 January 1932 – St Johnstone 2 Celtic 4
8 February 1936 – Celtic 1 St Johnstone 2
1 March 1969 – Celtic 3 St Johnstone 2
25 January 1986 – Celtic 2 St Johnstone 0
23 February 2003 – Celtic 3 St Johnstone 0
14 April 2007 – Celtic 2 St Johnstone 0 (at Hampden)
10 February 2019 – Celtic 5 St Johnstone 0
The first game between the two of them was played in torrential rain at Muirton Park, a ground that had little shelter in 1932. Charlie Napier scored a hat trick and Alec Thomson scored one. At 4-0, the crowd decided that they had had enough of the rain and went home, so that there has hardly anyone left in the ground to see St Johnstone’s two consolation goals!
The game in 1936 was a funny one. 1935/36 was one of Celtic’s best ever seasons as they romped to the Scottish League title, but they did have off days. This sadly was one of them, with the Parkhead crowd astonished to see McGrory strangely subdued, and St Johnstone taking the chances that came their way. Willie Buchan scored Celtic’s consolation goal.
Probably the best Cup tie of them all between these two was in 1969, when St Johnstone under Willie Ormond had a really good side. Yet this quarter final was not so close as it seemed, for it was only in the last five minutes that the Saints pulled it back to 3-2 after Hughes, Lennox and Chalmers had scored for Celtic.
In 1986 it was Peter Grant and Maurice Johnston who scored the goals for Celtic in a low-key fixture watched by a poor crowd of only 15,000, and a similar low attendance of about 27,000 were there for the semi-final in 2007 when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored the two goals (one from the penalty spot) which won a rather undistinguished game.
The game in 2003 at Parkhead was comfortable enough for Celtic, we won 3-0 with 2 penalties from John Hartson and a goal from Jamie Smith and the 2019 game was very one-sided, the features being a hat-trick from Scott Sinclair and a cracker from a distance from Scott Brown. It was the third time that Celtic had played St Johnstone in recent weeks, and they beat them every time, with that honest man Tommy Wright paying tribute to Celtic.
It is difficult not to like and admire St Johnstone. A pleasant ground on the western extremities of the city with easy access and good facilities; douce, pleasant supporters with a high proportion of women and an almost total lack of bigots and idiots; Perth is by no means a hot-bed of football fanaticism, and that is why St Johnstone deserve our approval for the way they have kept Premier League football going in the Fair City.
David Potter
ALSO ON THE CELTIC STAR…
Three Away Days on the Road to Hampden and another HCTS Ballot.
Patryk Klimala – ‘he just needs to settle in and not put too much pressure on himself,’ Kennedy
Sandman Definitive Ratings – His phone being choked up with texts from the Finance Minister
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