CELTIC’S SCOTTISH CUP FINALS – Number 16…CELTIC 1-0 MOTHERWELL – HAMPDEN, 21 APRIL 1951 – If ever Celtic needed to win a Scottish Cup, it was today. Since the Empire of 1938, thirteen years of war and its aftermath had yielded little to be happy about, but the support had stayed loyal through many disappointments. Hampden was not far short of its 134,000 limit – indeed there seemed to be more than that – to see Motherwell, possibly a slightly better side, re-enact the finals of 1931 and 1933 with Celtic. It was John McPhail who put Celtic ahead in the first half with a deft flick and finish, but most of the rest of the game was grim defending until the referee’s whistle announced that Celtic had returned, and that dancing could return again to the streets of the Gorbals.
The Celtic team was: Hunter, Fallon and Rollo; Evans, Boden and Baillie; Weir, Collins, McPhail, Peacock and Tully.
The game was tight and little was given away with the score 0-0 at half time. Then Celtic got a break with a lucky own goal, Aberdeen pulled one back when Paddy Buckley for once got the better of Jock Stein, before a piece of magic on the right saw Willie Fernie cross to Sean Fallon to tap in the goal that won the 17th Scottish Cup for Celtic.
The Celtic team was: Bonnar, Haughney and Meechan; Evans, Stein and Peacock; Higgins, Fernie, Fallon, Tully and Mochan.
