Kyogo Furuhashi Becomes The First Celt To Score A Hat-Trick On Home Debut Since William Fleming In 1924

New Bhoy, Kyogo Furuhashi made an immediate impression in front of the Celtic faithful with an outstanding hat-trick against Dundee on his home debut yesterday afternoon. The Japanese star was in inspired form, netting all three of his goals inside 67 minutes, before being replaced by Odsonne Edouard. Furuhashi received a rapturous reception from the 24,500 supporters allowed into Paradise and was later named as the Dafabet Man of the Match.

After the match, many fans began to wonder who the last Celtic player to score a hat-trick on their home debut was. With that in mind, I started thinking back through recent seasons to no avail, before a friend of mine, Fred McNeill (@FredMcNeill6 in the Twitter world), threw down the gauntlet and asked me for the answer. Having had my Celtic itch scratched, I researched every single hat-trick scored throughout the club’s history and then investigated whether it was the player’s home debut.

After many hours of trawling through the wonderful resources of The Celtic Wiki, the British Newspaper Archive and FitbaStats; I finally reached a conclusive answer.

There are five Celtic players to have scored a hat-trick on their home debut.

The first was ‘Handsome’ Tom Maley, who achieved the feat in the club’s inaugural match at the original Celtic Park on 28 May 1888 (Celtic 5-2 Rangers).

Next was David McLean. He netted his trio of goals in a league match against Port Glasgow on 2 November 1907 and, in doing so, became both the first Celt to score a home debut hat-trick in a competitive fixture and the first to do it at the new stadium.

Following in David’s footsteps was the legendary Tommy McInally, who scored all three goals in the Hoops’ 3-1 league win over Clydebank on 16 August 1919. McInally also got a hat-trick in his second game for the club a week later!

Meanwhile, the last Celtic player to score a hat-trick on their home debut, prior to Kyogo Furuhashi, was William Fleming. William scored four goals in Celtic’s 6-0 victory over Kilmarnock, in the league, on 8 November 1924.

It is hard to believe that Fleming’s record stood for almost a century! It also surprising that Celtic only led Killie 1-0 at half time on that iconic day, before a late flurry from the Bhoys turned the game into a rout. Indeed, the following report from the 10 November 1924 edition of The Scotsman newspaper gives a fascinating summary of proceedings:

CELTIC GET SIX GOALS

The play at Celtic Park, Glasgow, where Celtic opposed Kilmarnock, was of a moderate class, and there was no real excitement after the interval. There was always a chance of Kilmarnock bringing off a surprise, but with the ordering off of Smith and the retirement of Morton, the latter stages were really a farce. There was not a great deal between the sides in the first half, in which the Celtic forwards showed the better football. But they were good up to a point only, and when it came to shooting they were no better than the visitors. Fleming got the only goal of the first half, two minutes after the start. For twenty-five minutes of the second half Kilmarnock held their own, but a run by Gallacher opened the way for Connelly to score a second goal. Two minutes later Wilson scored what seemed a good goal, but the Kilmarnock players got round the referee, protesting, and ultimately Smith, Kilmarnock’s best forward, was ordered to the pavilion. Morton, who had been injured earlier, also retired, and the visitors were left to fight with nine men. They were kept continually defending and Fleming, who was leading the Celtic attack, scored three goals in succession. Gould kept a good goal for the visitors and could in no way be blamed for the heavy defeat. The attendance was 6000.

It was quite a different affair when Kyogo matched the feat yesterday afternoon! Let’s hope the man from Japan continues to push the boundaries and has us historians scanning the record books again soon. What a start he has made to his Celtic career.