September 1888 was a memorable month in the short history of Celtic Football Club. It included a couple of significant milestones, as Celts entered the Scottish Cup for the first time and took part in first-ever cup final.
The first day of the month saw no fewer than 166 clubs across the country play in the first round of the major national football competition of that time, the Scottish FA Challenge Cup, better known as the Scottish Cup. It would be a further two years before the inaugural Scottish League championship would kick in, in the summer of 1890. Celtic had gained entry to the SFA just ten days before the first round, on 21 August 1888, together with another seven clubs, whose names make interesting reading some 130 years or so later.
From Glasgow came the wonderfully-named Temperance Athletic, whilst the Irish community in Coatbridge would now be represented by Whifflet Shamrock.
Further east, Champfleurie hailed from Linlithgow, Adventurers were from Edinburgh and Leith Harp would provide local competition for the original Edinburgh Hibernians, the Scottish Cup-winners in February 1887. Over on the west coast, any 19th-century Oban ultras could support Balaclava Rangers, whilst down in Ayrshire, Darconner Britannia would deliver Scottish Cup football to the banjo-playing goatherds of Auchinleck.
Of the eight new entrants, only Celtic and Adventurers would survive the first round, with some severe maulings dished out. Just three years earlier, Arbroath and Dundee Harp had managed an incredible 71 goals between them in defeating their respective opponents from Aberdeen, Bon Accord and Rovers. Whilst those staggering performances were not quite repeated, there was some serious scoring taking place that Autumn day, with many of the new clubs sadly on the receiving end of that.
The draw was heavily regionalised, producing a number of local derbies.
Britannia were definitely not ruling in Ayrshire, beaten 5-1 at Annbank, whilst Whifflet Shamrock lost 6-1 to their Carfin namesakes. Leith Harp also shipped six, this time without reply at Bathgate to Erin Rovers. Three of the others lost by double-figures. Champfleurie were beaten 12-0 by Armadale, whilst Balaclava Rangers would have been thankful for their headgear on the way home from Lochgilphead, having lost 15-1. Faring worst of all were the good folk of Temperance Athletic. I suspect a few may have fallen off the wagon in need of a stiff drink after a 18-2 defeat at Gourlay Park from Cowlairs.
Celtic and Adventurers did strike a blow for the new guys, the Edinburgh side beating Linlithgow Athletic 6-2 away from home in their first foray in the senior competition. At Celtic Park, the fledging club played its initial Scottish Cup tie against a side from just along the road, Shettleston.
The Celtic team lined up for this momentous occasion as follows:
Willie Dunning; James Coleman & Mick McKeown; Paddy Gallagher, James Kelly & Jimmy McLaren; Neil McCallum, Johnny Coleman, Willie Groves, Mick Dunbar & John O’Connor.
Five of the Celtic team had been plundered from Hibernian, allegedly due to the promptings of their former teammate Tom Maley, whilst a further two, James Kelly and Neil McCallum, had joined from Renton, having previously promised their services to the Edinburgh club. As these sides had won the previous two competitions, there was plenty of Scottish Cup experience in that Celtic eleven, indeed Willie Groves had scored the winner for Hibernian against Dumbarton at Second Hampden in the 1887 final, whilst Neil McCallum had netted his customary double in Renton’s 6-1 rout of Cambuslang at the same venue 12 months later.
The resentment felt by Hibernian towards Celtic for more than a century can almost certainly be traced back to these events of 1888, the fortunes of the Edinburgh side plummeting whilst the Celts went from strength to strength, thanks to the input from many of their former stars.
There was a humorous nod to this almost 120 years later, in the Gordon Strachan era, when the Celtic manager, himself a boyhood Hibernian supporter, took his charges to play at Easter Road on 23 September 2007. This would mark Scott Brown’s first return to Leith since his summer transfer, the midfielder one of five Celts involved that day who had previously plied their trade in the green and white of the capital side, Gary Caldwell, Paul Hartley, Derek Riordan and Chris Killen being the others.
The visiting fans displayed a banner proclaiming Hibs as ‘Celtic’s feeder club since 1888!’
Sadly, the joke would be on us that day as the Hibernian player I always felt we should have signed, striker Steven Fletcher, was on target in a 3-2 home victory.
Celtic’s initial Scottish Cup match with Shettleston on Saturday, 1 September 1888, was a one-sided affair, the Bhoys 1-0 up after five minutes then adding a second just before the interval. A spate of three goals within several minutes midway through the second half took the score to 4-1 before Celts added a fifth as we entered the closing stages, the hosts eventually running out comfortable 5-1 winners.
Curiously, some records assign all five goals to left-winger John O’Connor (sometimes known as Connor), although newspaper reports of the time would appear to have ignored that feat and Celtic themselves have not acknowledged this, to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps tellingly, there is no reference to it in either the definitive ‘Celtic Story’ history books by Willie Maley or Dr James Handley.
There were a number of other Scottish Cup ties of interest in that first round, played on the same day.
Dundee Our Boys beat Dundee East End 5-4. These two clubs would amalgamate five years later, in 1893, to form the present Dundee FC. Within another two years, on 26 October 1895, they would lose 11-0 to Celtic in a Scottish League game at the new Celtic Park, still a club record win to this day.
Dumbarton’s 13-1 win over Kirkintilloch Central at Boghead included a goal from Johnny Madden. He had featured for Celtic the previous month in the Glasgow Exhibition Cup match against Abercorn and would later star at Parkhead before making his name as the Father of Czech Football in the new century with Slavia Prague.
Perhaps the biggest shock was the 2-1 defeat of 1887 Scottish Cup-winners Hibernian by Mossend Swifts at West Calder, whilst holders Renton, minus the departed James Kelly and Neil McCallum, were still far too strong for neighbours Bowling, emerging victorious by 8-0. Eight-time Scottish Cup-winners Queen’s Park won a five-goal thriller in Springburn, by edging out Northern at Hyde Park.
Matt Corr
* An extract from Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys – Celtic’s Founding Fathers, First Season and Early Stars which is published on 2 September. Further extracts are available below. The book has three sections, each with a different Celtic author. Liam Kelly covers Celtic’s Founding Fathers, David Potter tells the stories of Celtic Early Stars while Matt writes about the club’s first season.
ALSO ON THE CELTIC STAR…Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys – “St Bernard Battles, the Patron of Parkhead”
AND DON’T MISS THIS…Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys – Celtic’s first Broony one of five ex-Hibees chosen as the Irish clubs meet for the first time
