On this day in 1902, Celtic met Hearts in the first round of the Charity Cup at Celtic Park.
Now, perhaps the first question that springs to mind is – why was a team from Edinburgh like Hearts taking part in the ‘Glasgow’ Charity Cup? Well, on 5 April of that year, during the first half of the match between Scotland and England at Ibrox, a section of the Broomloan Stand had collapsed and caused the death of 25 people, with another 25 seriously injured and over 400 slightly injured.
A fund was immediately set up to raise funds for the dependents of those who had lost their lives or had been injured and as part of their contribution to the fund, the committee which organised the Charity Cup competition decided that in the years 1902 and 1903, in order to attract more interest and, they hoped, bigger attendances, clubs from outside the city would also take part.
Unfortunately, the crowd at Celtic Park that day was a disappointing one of around 3,000 and the Celtic eleven was McPherson, Watson, Davidson, Battles, Marshall, Orr, Loney, McCafferty, Campbell, McDermott and Hamilton.
The first half was fairly even, although Celtic got the only goal when Davie Hamilton squeezed the ball home in a crowded goalmouth. After the interval, Celtic controlled the play and got two further goals through Tommy McDermott, with Hearts pulling one back.
Final Score Celtic 3 Hearts 1
That result put Celtic into round two, where they would face Third Lanark at Cathkin.
Jim Craig
The latest podcast is out today- it’s part 2 of the brilliant interview with Celtic’s SLO John Paul Taylor where he selects the games and the soundtracks of his own personal Celtic journey. Loved his memories of the 4-2 game in the first part of his interview. Here’s the latest instalment from the UK’s Football podcast of the year…
Listen to “John Paul Taylor with A Celtic State of Mind (Part 2/3)” on Spreaker.
