6. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. MALEY!
Willie Maley was born on 25 April 1868 at Newry. On three occasions, he celebrated his birthday with a League Championship.
25 April 1908 saw Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox, a week after they had won the Scottish Cup. It was a rough game at Ibrox with both Jimmy Quinn and Jimmy McMenemy injured by brutal tackles, but Alec Bennett scored the only goal of the game, and Maley thus reached his 40th birthday at the peak of his career, having managed his team to back-to-back Scottish League and Cup doubles.
25 April 1910 saw Celtic clinch their sixth League Championship in a 0-0 draw against Hibs at Celtic Park before a paltry crowd of 2,000. It was a Monday afternoon after Celtic had lost 0-2 to Falkirk at Brockville on the Saturday. This game had thus an air of anti-climax about it, but no doubt Maley celebrated his 42nd birthday in style.
25 April 1936 saw Celtic, even without the injured McGrory, beat Partick Thistle 3-1 at Firhill to put an end to a wretched ten years of under-achievement and win the League Championship for the first time since 1926. Maley was now 68, and he showed few signs of wishing to retire.
7. RECORD ATTENDANCES
Celtic and record attendances go together, for they hold the record attendance for the Scottish League, Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup and European Cup…
Scottish League – Rangers v Celtic at Ibrox – 2 January 1939 – 118,567
Scottish Cup – Celtic v Aberdeen at Hampden – 24 April 1937 – 147,365
Scottish League Cup – Celtic v Rangers at Hampden – 23 October 1965 – 107,609
European Cup – Celtic v Leeds Utd at Hampden – 15 April 1970 – 135,826.
Attendances for the Glasgow Cup and Glasgow Charity Cup are harder to pin down, but it it a fair bet that Celtic would feature in the record attendances for both competitions.
Celtic fans queuing for tickets for the European Cup semi-final against Leeds Utd at Hampden in 1970.
A week before the Scottish Cup final of 1937 (mentioned above), Hampden saw an even bigger crowd of 149,547 for the Scotland v England game. One player played in both games. Who other than Jimmy Delaney? And he was on the winning side both times!
David Potter
CELTIC v RANGERS – THE BHOYS GREATEST VICTORIES
*David Potter’s latest book which I was delighted to receive a copy of earlier this week, is titled Celtic v Rangers – The Bhoys’ Greatest Victories. Having had a quick flick through it does exactly what it says on the cover. The Celtic historian has selected 50 notable and most enjoyable victories over the various clubs playing out of Ibrox and calling themselves Rangers.
There’s Jimmy Quinn’s hat-trick in 1904, the astonishing Scottish Cup semi-final skelping in 1925, the 7-1 League Cup final from 1957, the 4-0 Scottish Cup Final doing from 1969, the 6-2 ‘Demolition Derby’Game in 2000 and there are even victories over the new club established by ‘founding father’ Charles Green in 2012.
David I suppose accurately uses the O** F*** term, referring to the wins against the Ibrox club that died in 2012, so please don’t let that put you off. Book review to follow in a few days…
Click on cover to order from Amazon
David’s new ‘feel good’ Celtic book is out now on Pitch Publishing and you can order via Amazon.
