DAVID POTTER’S Seven Magnificently Random Celtic Stories continues the morning…starting with an Honest Mistake from 1962.
1.OVER THE LINE
Celtic have been involved in more than their fair share of controversial incidents over the years, none more so than a game at Tannadice Park, Dundee on 1 September 1962. Celtic needed a win to qualify from their section of the Scottish League Cup and half way through the second half, had the ball quite clearly over the line in a goalmouth scramble before left half Stewart Fraser kicked the ball out again. Neither the referee, nor the linesman gave the goal, but it was obvious that the ball was over, an opinion shared by a photographer, a policeman and apparently by Fraser himself in later years. It happened at the “shed” end of Tannadice in front of the Celtic fans whose mood was not improved when the game finished 0-0 and Celtic lost out on qualification to Hearts who beat Dundee at Tynecastle that day.
2.THE FASTEST HAT-TRICK
On 14 March 1936 in a 5-0 win over Motherwell, Jimmy McGrory scored a hat-trick in three minutes, earning the nickname “goal-a-minute”. This hat-trick came between the 65th and 67th minute and is arguably the fastest hat-trick of all time. One goal came from the work of Jimmy Delaney and the other two from the wing play of Frank Murphy. This came in McGrory’s great season in which he beat the goalscoring records of Steve Bloomer and Hughie Ferguson and scored 50 League goals.
And wait a bit, don’t be so fast
We’ve left the star turn to the last
There in the midst of all his glory
Goal a minute James McGrory!
3. ARTHURLIE
In the same way that Inverness Caledonian Thistle haunted Celtic in the early years of the 21st century, the name Arthurlie sent shivers of horror down the spine of all Celtic fans who were alive in 1897. This was because of a horrendous 2-4 defeat in the Scottish Cup at Dunterlie Park on 9 January 1897. The pitch was bad but that was only part of the story, for the main reason was internal dissension in the team. Celtic’s two great stars of the age – Sandy McMahon and Dan Doyle were both missing, Sandy was injured and Dan simply didn’t turn up for reasons that were never explained. But good came out of bad, because a few months later Willie Maley was appointed as secretary/manager.
4. MERRY CHRISTMAS
Until recent times Christmas Day was just an ordinary working day in Scotland and if it fell on a Saturday, football was played as normal. On at least four occasions, Celtic had a particularly Merry Christmas. In 1909 Celtic won 1-0 at Kilmarnock thanks to a wonderful Jimmy Quinn goal as he charged the length of the field beating man after man in the mud, in 1937 Kilmarnock came to Celtic Park under their new manager Jimmy McGrory and were put to the sword to lose 8-0, in 1965 Celtic played scintillating football to beat Morton 8-1 to entertain 21,000 fans at Celtic Park and in 1971, also at home, in a fine game of football Celtic beat Hearts 3-2.
5. ALL THE TROPHIES IN A MONTH
April 1969 was a remarkable month. A fire at Hampden in October 1968 meant that the Scottish League Cup Final was postponed until 5 April 1969. There a glorious display of attacking football saw Celtic beat Hibs 6-2 and win the League Cup; on 21 April a draw at Kilmarnock was enough to clinch the League Championship and then on 26 April in the Scottish Cup Final, Celtic beat Rangers 4-0 in one of their best ever Cup final displays, and thus all the domestic trophies had been secured within three weeks!
6. ALBERT KIDD
Albert is one of the heroes of Celtic, yet he never played for them! His career had struggled and he was probably heading for obscurity when Destiny called upon him on that fateful day of 3 May 1986. Hearts and Dundee were drawing one each at Dens Park, something that would have given the Jambos the Championship in spite of Celtic’s hammering of St.Mirren. And then Albert came on “cometh the hour, cometh the man” and scored two goals (one of them a real cracker) to give Dundee a 2-0 victory and Celtic the Championship. At Ibrox, the Rangers fans cheered when they heard that Kidd had scored, thinking that it was Walter Kidd of Hearts rather than the lesser known Albert of Dundee whom it would be fair to say that very few people had heard of until his moment of immortality.
7. CELTIC’S COLDEST EVER GAME?
Winter in Scotland can of course be cold, but December 2010 was reckoned to be, by any standards, bad. On midwinter’s night of 21 December with the temperature given as minus eight, 44,522 appeared to watch Celtic take on Kilmarnock. Thomas Rogne headed a late equaliser to earn Celtic a 1-1 draw. This game cannot be proved beyond doubt to be Celtic’s coldest ever game, but those who were there would have supreme confidence in putting it forward for the honour. Scottish football is not of course for “softies”!
David Potter
There will be another Seven Magnificently Random Celtic Stories from David Potter tomorrow morning on The Celtic Star.
