Patsy Gallacher, backs to the wall and the day that it all ended for Celtic

13 April 1918 was the day that it all ended for Celtic, and it almost all ended for the British Empire as well. The German Ludendorff Offensive had been launched a month before and was clearly succeeding with a breakthrough to the Channel looking likely. Sir Douglas Haig had issued his “backs to the wall” order on the Thursday, and by the Saturday wild rumours were sweeping Glasgow about a British surrender.

But Celtic, League Champions for the past four years, had the visit of the quickly improving Motherwell to deal with at Parkhead for their last League game of the season, while Rangers had the less than impressive Clyde at Ibrox. Both teams were level on points, and if both teams had won, there would probably have been a play-off as there had been in 1905.

Without being in any way too impressive, Rangers beat Clyde 2-1 but Celtic were held to a draw. Patsy Gallacher scored half way through the second half, but then Motherwell took advantage of shoddy defending from the makeshift Celtic half-back line to equalise just on half-time.

Patsy Gallacher

The second half was one of constant Celtic attack as Patsy Gallacher (“the most talked about man in the trenches”) and Jimmy “Napoleon” McMenemy inspired Celtic – but they simply could not score as Motherwell’s defence of Rundell, Robertson and McSkimming; McIntosh, Finlayson and Stewart held out “with their backs to the wall” as a Sunday paper put it.

Rangers thus won the League (they had invested a considerable amount of money to hire “guest” players all through the season), and 30,000 frustrated Celtic fans left Parkhead to face what seemed like an uncertain future. It wasn’t all that bad, though, for before the end of the season, they won the War Shield Fund trophy and the Glasgow Charity Cup – and of course, the British Army with considerable help from the French and (decisively) the Americans eventually held the line and turned the tide.

David Potter

About Author

I am Celtic author and historian and write for The Celtic Star. I live in Kirkcaldy and have followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. I am a retired teacher and my other interests are cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns.

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