In the early decades of the 20th century, a football team known as Solway Star was based in Annan, Dumfriesshire.
The team had been founded in 1911, initially only being involved in friendly matches and cup ties but in season 1923-24, they were invited to join the newly-formed 3rd Division along with Arthurlie, Beith, Brechin City, Clackmannan, Dumbarton Harp, Dykehead (Shotts), East Stirlingshire, Galston, Helensburgh, Leith Athletic, Mid-Annandale (Lockerbie), Montrose, Nithsdale Wanderers (Sanquhar), Peebles Rovers, Queen of the South Wanderers and Royal Albert (Larkhall).
In the Scottish Cup of 1921-22, Solway Star were beaten 7-2 in the first round by St Mirren. They then missed out in qualification for the 1922-23 and 1923-24 competitions but did get through to the 1924-25 Scottish Cup, where they beat Stenhousemuir 4-2 in Round One before overcoming Vale of Leven in Round Two by 2-1 in a replay after the first match ended in a 3-3 draw.
That, of course, put the Borders side in the draw for Round Three and when the teams were paired up at the SFA offices, the Solway Star officials must have been both delighted and a little apprehensive when their name came out alongside that of Celtic – pleased that they would pick up some money from the gate at Parkhead but possibly a little nervous about playing a side two divisions above them.
On this day in 1925, a crowd of 7,000 was inside Celtic start to witness the tie. Right from the start Celtic took control but their finishing was not good. Alec Thomson (pictured)eventually opened the scoring with a header and near the interval Jimmy McGrory made it 2-0 to Celtic.
In the second half, Solway Star did come back into the match but their finishing was as erratic as the home team and Celtic held out fairly comfortably for a 2-0 victory.
The Celtic side on the day was Peter Shevlin, Willie McStay, Hugh Hilley, Jimmy McStay, Vincent McGrogan, John MacFarlane, Paddy Connolly, Patsy Gallagher, Jimmy McGrory, Alec Thomson and Adam Mclean.
Solway Star might have gone out of the competition but their share of the gate takings of £320 would have eased their disappointment a little.
Jim Craig
Great new site. Love the logo. Il be checking in daily for a good read.
The design work from Cartuja is pretty special.
As well as the articles, I’ll be working with Kevin Graham to create more podcast and video content.
Plenty of new material on its way.
Another brilliant blog by Jim. Really looking forward to seeing the site progress as looks brilliant and the quality of content is excellent too.
How great is it to have Cairney’s daily input?
A true Celtic ambassador!
Enjoying the whole site guy’s keep it up hail hail
Nice one, Shug.
Got another prominent writer on board, and hopefully we can announce who it is very soon.
Its always a pleasure to read the words of a man thats stood alongside giants. Thanks Jim
The only person that we could say has great hair in the current Celtic team is Stuart Armstrong.
Not a patch on Chris Morris back in the day.
That’s a great photo of Jimmy McMenemy! I was at school with Napoleon’s great-nephew!
We publish Jim’s diary as a news story first thing in the morning and that remains on the site permanently. On the diary post we update the text each day around mid-morning so that the latest diary contribution from our former dentist is showing.
So you will find the Jimmy McMenemy photo on the morning post from yesterday.
Cheers!
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Another excellent article by Jim, truly different class. The real issues at hand tonight are whether the defence will be remain concentrated throughout and whether we take our chances. The Bayern game at CP was like a Jekyll and Hyde of Celtic’s European performances – poor defending, tenacious attack but didn’t take our chances and were punished. The big boys will do this to you and tonight is no different. Zenit spent over £80m in the summer and will see the double header as straightforward. Hopefully we can go for them and get the win.
Jim’s Diary is a must read.
As I said in the preview no matter who plays all our defenders have a mistake in them. We require full blown concentration.
Our injury list reads like a phone book. Apart from Bayern this season we haven’t turned up against anyone in the big group games at CP. This Zenit side comfortably took Rosenburg apart a team we crept through against.
I just want Zenit to feel like they were in a game after 90 mins and us not just being part of one.
Our biggest problem in Europe just now is Fear, lose the fear and we will be fine. Big losses in recent times have been playing on the guys mind i feel, drop all that and go for the jugular. The odd long ball now and again would help too, been too predictable building from the back every single time.
I think the players certainly raised their game tonight jim. Great display, great result.
Brendan had his tactics spot on and the players response was fantastic we were up against a very good side who tried to leave with a clean sheet I am looking forward to the away leg I think we can get a winning result COYBIG
First things first. What a night last night. Great disciplined passionate, skilful and brave performance. Celtic Park was the place to be in Europe last night!
Secondly, the picture used of Mowbray, Grant and Venus. While the list of “what was Mowbray thinking?” during his time as manager is very long, surely that suit jacket and polo top combo must be high up it?
Thirdly, I got my Scotland Supporters Club membership pack through the other day. They have reduced the price and gave some more favourable terms and conditions.
But, the appointment of the man who knew about the biggest cheating scandal in Scottish Football history, admitted his success was based on this cheat, then who left the Scotland job the first chance he could get for the delights of Birmingham and then crashed and burned at every job since hardly will see me rushing to part with my membership money.
For them to get from Michael O’Neill to Alex McLeish via Walter Smith shows the how backward, boring and blinkered the SFA are. But it’s no surprise when you know that Alan McRae is making the decision after his public utterances and appearance on the ACSOM podcast…..
Yes, I doff my cap to Mowbray for The Huddle, but there are many garments to be worn under a suit jacket, and the polo shirt is not one of them.
As for McCrae and the incompetency of the sinister SFA, I think this weekend would be a good time to add his appearance on the podcast to The Celtic Star archive.
It seems that you are not allowed to criticise the management team. The manager rightly got praise the other night and unfortunately for him his gamble yesterday didn’t come off.
If we had won then none of us would be talking about it.
I don’t David’s match report is an attack but its balanced and I heard worse at the game.