On this day in 1888…no mercy shown as the Bould Bhoys’s quest for the Scottish Cup continues…
The opening day of December 1888 saw the Celts head ‘doon the water’ for a friendly match with Port Glasgow Athletic at Clune Park. Details of the match are sketchy, although The Celtic Wiki records that outside-left Tom Maley scored twice for the Bhoys in a 5-2 victory, in a contest where only 30 minutes were played in each half.
The following Saturday, 8 December 1888, Clyde returned to Celtic Park for the rematch of the Scottish Cup fifth-round tie, which they had won 1-0 two weeks earlier, prior to a protest being raised by the Parkhead club around the state of the playing surface. The fallout had been acrimonious since the day of the tie, Clyde officials indignantly insisting that the grounds for such protest were flawed, whilst Celtic countered that the club’s displeasure had been appropriately represented, both in terms of its content and timing. Celtic’s protest was upheld with Clyde’s subsequent appeal only narrowly failing.
Thus, on the back of some strong feelings and resentment between the two clubs, 8,000 spectators packed into the ground to watch the following Celtic side have another go at their east-end rivals.
Willie Dunning;
Alec Collins & Mick McKeown;
Paddy Gallagher, James Kelly & James McLaren;
Neil McCallum, Johnny Coleman, Willie Groves, Mick Dunbar & Tom Maley.
Celts started as if they meant business, Tom Maley’s close-range finish and Jimmy McLaren’s header giving the hosts a 2-0 lead within 10 minutes. Back came Clyde, with their own ‘double-whammy’ to level things before another similar period had elapsed. First, Bully Wee centre-half Cherrie struck a low drive which went in off Willie Dunning’s upright, with the Celtic goalkeeper not looking too clever, then the same player took advantage of a second bite at the Celtic defence, to equalise in the next attack with an excellent finish. Maley then seized on a perfect through ball from James Kelly to restore the Bhoys lead just before the half-hour mark, as the play raged from end to end.
The interval arrived with Celts narrowly in front by 3-2, after a hard-fought contest. I suspect that very few of those spectators could have predicted the eventual outcome at that point.
Two key moments swung the second half and ultimately the tie in Celtic’s favour. First Neil McCallum got that crucial ‘next goal’ by heading powerfully past Clyde keeper Chalmers in the early exchanges of the second period. Then, as the visitors threw everything into remaining in the Scottish Cup, their left-back Hart suffered a bad shoulder injury, which effectively finished his afternoon. Within minutes, 4-2 had become 6-2, as Maley secured his hat-trick and Willie Groves got in on the scoring action, with a sublime finish. With 20 minutes remaining, ‘Darling Groves’ struck again with another unstoppable effort. There would then be further punishment inflicted on Clyde in the closing stages, as Celtic took their final tally to an improbable 9-2, albeit the scorers of those last two goals remain unconfirmed.
Matt Corr
