At the turn of the year 1924/25, Celtic were going through a bad spell.
Since the beginning of November, they had been without the services of the injured Jimmy McGrory and in the 10 following matches, Celtic had won two – in one of which Willie Fleming scored four – but had also lost 6, goalkeeper Peter Shevlin having had to pick the ball out of the net 17 times.
On this day in 1925, Celtic faced Third Lanark, with a new boy, Vincent Grogan from Largs Thistle, at centre-half.
He did not have much to do that day, although the game was eventful. Tommy McInally was sent off for pulling the feet from the referee and apparently, when told to go the Pavilion, replied that he would rather go to the Empire – both of which were theatres in Glasgow at that time!
Apart from that, goals rattled in.
Right-wing Paddy Connolly, known as the ‘greyhound’, got the first in 7 mins; Willie McStay made it two from a penalty on the half-hour mark, although he missed another before half-time; and after the interval, Connolly again, left-wing Adam McLean with two, inside-left Alec Thomson and a rare one from centre-half Jimmy McStay made the final score 7-0, a result which would have made Willie Maley feel a lot better.
Outside-left John Brodie – born on this day in 1896 – joined Celtic from Dumbarton Harp in 1916 and made two appearances for the club, with one goal, before moving south to Chelsea in 1919.
Jim Craig
