As part of the First Glasgow Exhibition, which was opened on 8 May 1888 by the Prince of Wales, later to succeed his mother Queen Victoria as King Edward V11 in 1901, a football tournament had been organised.
The matches were all played in the evenings and took place at the Exhibition Grounds in Kelvingrove Park.
The game which is the subject of this tale was between Celtic and Abercorn from Paisley and took place on this day in 1888, a Wednesday evening.
Further matches arranged for that week included Clyde against Northern (3 August) and Dykebar versus St Mirren (4 August).
4,000 spectators were present and the Celtic team was Dunning, McLaren, James Coleman, McKeown, Kelly, Gallagher, Gorevin, Johnny Coleman, Groves, McCallum and Madden.
There were only brief comments about the match in the press but it would appear that Celtic scored first and then Abercorn equalized, both goals coming in the first half. The second half appears to have been equally competitive –it was described in one report as ‘stubbornly contested’ – but no further goals were scored and the game finished – Celtic 1 Abercorn 1.
Charles McEleney was born in Glasgow on 6 February 1872.
His football career started with Greenock Volunteers then Abercorn, from where he joined Celtic on 2 November 1893.
Charlie spent the following two seasons with Celtic as a wing-half before moving down to Burnley for season 1895-96. After six months at Turf Moor, though, he came back up to Celtic and was a regular in the 1896-97 season.
Overall, Charlie made 34 appearances for the club with one goal to his name.
After his Parkhead career ended, Charlie had spells with New Brighton, Aston Villa, Swindon Town, Brentford and Morton.
On this day in 1908, Charles McEleney died in Greenock at the age of 36.
Jim Craig
