After the first round matches in the Empire Exhibition Trophy competition in 1938, the four teams still involved were Aberdeen, Celtic, Everton and Hearts. When the draw for the semi-finals was made, it paired Aberdeen with Everton and Celtic with Hearts.
The latter encounter took place, as did all the matches in the tournament, at Ibrox and on this day in 1938, a crowd of 48,000 was present to see the all-Scottish affair.
There was some pre-match dissatisfaction in the Tynecasle camp that Hearts had only had two days to recover from their efforts again Brentford in the first round, whereas Celtic had the benefit of a week’s rest since their matches against Sunderland.
Celtic put out the same side that had beaten Sunderland in the replay – Kennaway, Hogg, Morrison, Geatons, Lyon, Paterson, Lynch, MacDonald, Crum, Divers, Murphy – but for the first 70 minutes of the match were very much second fiddle to a very energetic Hearts side.
That fact that Celtic’s two best players were goalkeeper Joe Kennaway and centre- half Willie Lyon was probably significant.
In the first half, Hearts hit the bar and had a goal disallowed for offside. Early in the second, they had what looked like a good penalty claim turned down after a foul by Bobby Hogg.
Midway through the second half, though, came the turning point in the match. A cross by Matt Lynch was diverted into the middle by John Divers and Johnny Crum hooked the ball in from six yards or so, the Hearts keeper getting his hands to the ball but unable to stop it going into the net.
Celtic’s confidence suddenly grew, they took a tighter grip on the game and might have scored one or two more if Hearts keeper Waugh had not been in such outstanding form.
Final Score: Celtic 1 Hearts 0
Jim Craig
