Scottish Cup, 1888 – Chaos As Celtic Protest

Having defeated Shettleston 5-1, Cowlairs 8-0, Albion Rovers 4-1 and St. Bernard’s by the same score; Celtic went into the Scottish Cup Fifth Round tie against Clyde, on 24 November 1888, with a high degree of confidence. Despite such esteem, it was Clyde who started the brighter at Celtic Park, carving out several good chances in the opening 15 minutes. The bulk of the near 8,000 crowd began to relax thereafter as Celtic got a foothold in the game and looked increasingly dangerous. However, the Barrowfield side stunned their hosts when they took the lead just before half time and showed stubborn resistance to keep Neil McCallum and his Celtic colleagues at bay. The match ended: Celtic 0-1 Clyde.

Despite the game being described in The Scotsman newspaper as ‘fast and exciting’, Celtic lodged an official complaint to the SFA, claiming that the Clyde players had taken too long to change their illegal footwear, which meant that the match commenced late and finished in darkness. The club closed their letter of complaint with a request for the tie to be replayed.

An SFA committee meeting was held at 55 Waterloo Street, Glasgow City Centre, on Wednesday 5 December 1888. The post meeting report was published in The Scotsman newspaper that evening:

Scottish Football Association – Last night the monthly meeting of the committee of the Scottish Football Association was held in the rooms, 55 Waterloo Street, Glasgow—Mr Crerar, the President, in the chair. Attention was called to the circumstance that the Professional Committee had several matters before it regarding which it had felt it had no power to deal: it was decided by the casting vote of the Chairman that full power should be given to the committee to deal with all professional matters. The Celtic protested against the Clyde being awarded the cup tie played on 24^th November, because the ground was unplayable, and that for the last fifteen minutes, the game was played in darkness. Mr Harrison, the referee, explained that the teams started to play a cup tie with the consent of both captains, that for the last eight minutes he could not follow the game, and that the game was late in starting, part of the delay being caused by several Clyde players having to remove bars from their boots. Mr Reid (Airdrieonians) moved that the protest should be sustained, and this was seconded by. Mr J. B. Walker (Renfrewshire Association.) Mr Boag (Partick Thistle) proposed that the protest should be dismissed. Mr Graham (Renton) seconded. On a division, the protest was sustained by 7 votes to 4 and the tie was ordered to be replayed on the ground of the Celtic on Saturday first.

Celtic took full of advantage of being granted a replay and went 2-0 ahead through set piece goals, within ten minutes. Clyde bounced back with tenacity. A deflected shot found its way into the goal, via the post, on the 20-minute mark. By the 21^st minute the scores were level! James Kelly of Celtic was in inspired form and regained the Hoops’ advantage six minutes later, when he sent a long diagonal ball into the path of Tom Maley, who netted with ease. The score remained that way until the half time interval.

In 1903/04, Willie Maley won the Scottish Cup as manager of @CelticFC & his brother, Tom Maley, won the English FA Cup as manager of @ManCity

The Maley’s are incredible figures in Celtic’s history. You can read their story in Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys https://t.co/NScKKtkb0M pic.twitter.com/RXqEGje0LH

— Liam Kelly (@cfcliamk96) September 21, 2020

In the second half, Clyde’s players showed the reaction expected of a trailing outfit, still teeming with anger at having to re-eliminate the Celts. Indeed, they enjoyed a lot of possession in the early post interval play, but it was in vain as Neil McCallum headed on target to extend Celtic’s lead to 4-2.

Neil McCallum , the man who scored the first ever goal for Celtic 🍀 pic.twitter.com/xTSI61mvAv

— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) October 14, 2020

The match was all but settled when Hart, Clyde’s left back, suffered a major shoulder injury, which forced him to leave the field and his team to play with ten men (this was in the days when there were no substitutes). Celtic added another five goals before full time – only Chalmers in the Clyde net prevented double figures and the proverbial cricket score.

The tie’s drama did not end there. Celtic had not necessarily prevailed! A meeting was called by the SFA, on Thursday 13 December 1888, to hear an appeal from representatives of Clyde Football Club. The meeting also discussed a similar appeal from Third Lanark, who had lost to Abercorn in a forced replay under identical circumstances. The discussions lasted some two hours before the votes on each case were revealed. Third Lanark’s case was dismissed by 8 votes to 2, whilst Clyde’s case was also rejected, by 8 votes to 7.

The Bhoys travelled to East Stirlingshire in the Semi-Final two days later, where they again rode their luck. On that occasion, Neil McCallum rescued Celtic with two goals in the final three minutes. The full-time score was East Stirlingshire 1-2 Celtic.