Celtic in 1903 were not doing at all well. They were well aware that if you discounted the one-off British League Cup (or Coronation Cup as some called it) in 1902, Celtic had won nothing since 1900, and it was hard to resist the conclusion that hegemony was passing (indeed possibly had already passed) across the city to Rangers who had won the Scottish League from 1899 until 1902.

This year they had lost that particular crown to Edinburgh, to Hibs, but had more than made up for it by landing the Scottish Cup by beating Hearts at Celtic Park 3-0 after a replay. No-one knew it at the time, but it would be 25 years before the Ibrox men would repeat that feat.

It is important to realise that at the time that Jimmy Young, a non-Catholic, joined Celtic in 1903, there was as yet no huge issue of sectarianism in Scottish football. It did exist, of course, with Celtic being seen as the “Irish” team of Glasgow, so that those of other persuasions might tend to drift to the “non-Irish” team which was rising in the west of the city. But there was nothing hard and fast about it, and the driving force behind the rivalry was of course money.

Some would say, that even in the 1920s when Rangers unashamedly identified themselves with Protestantism and Orangeism, the driving force was still money! But until the end of the Great War in 1918, sectarianism was not a major issue in Scottish football.

Alec Bennett and Willie Kivlichan played for both teams before the Great War. Indeed, even when it did become enshrined in the rivalry between the clubs, the problem tended to exist mainly in the minds of supporters, even though Rangers did not help matters by their “no Catholics” policy of the 1920s which pandered to the bigotry in the minds of their less clear seeing supporters.

Celtic had been woefully inconsistent in 1902/03 in the League and finished up a distant fifth, and had gone out of both Cup competitions to 0-3 defeats. The Glasgow Cup final in October 1902 had seen them go down 0-3 to a very fine Third Lanark side, but quite a few of the Celtic fans in the 20,000 crowd had been distressed by Celtic’s lack of fight; the exit from the Scottish Cup had been even worse.

40,000 had been at Parkhead to see Rangers score three first half goals and stay on top in the second half with old warriors like Sandy McMahon and Barney Battles clearly outplayed by a younger and more determined Rangers team.

Maley, now coming up for six years as manager, knew that sooner or later he would have to bite the bullet and go for younger players. Some of the booing from his own supporters had not been pleasant for anyone to listen to, and Maley’s feelings were of anger at the ingratitude shown to the great Sandy McMahon for example by the disgruntled fans.

Yet in his heart of hearts, Maley knew that Sandy was going to have to go, as indeed would Johnny Campbell. Young Quinn, Maley was reluctant to drop, for he was strong, and Maley always felt that if only the fragile young Crojan could close his ears to the barracking of the impatient, he might make something of him yet. Like most boys from mining villages, Quinn was socially inept in the big city and needed careful and tactful handling.

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There was some talent in that young McMenemy and his friend Bennett as well, but there were still too many players in that team who were not of real Celtic class. But Maley, who had suffered some dreadful knocks in his private life, and who was already aware that he was a great deal fonder of the Celtic than he should be – a paid employee should not be as obsessed with his firm as he was! – decided that 1903 was going to be the year that things were to change.

Already, with the backing of the Board, he had decided to change the format of the strips – still green and white, but horizontal rather than vertical – from the start of next season and he would like to think that there would be a permanent change in the team’s fortunes as well. More players would be required.

Jimmy Young’s arrival at Celtic Park was fortuitous, to put it mildly. Maley had heard good reports of an ex-Clyde and Kilmarnock right winger called Bobby Muir, currently playing for Bristol Rovers. Muir was apparently homesick and wanted to return to Scotland, and he was good enough for Celtic to become interested. Accordingly, committee man Mick Dunbar was despatched south to have a look at him and to offer Muir at least a trial for Celtic, if he was interested.

Sometime in late April, Dunbar was successful in persuading Muir to come north, having agreed it all apparently over lunch at the Black Swan Hotel near Eastville, the home of Bristol Rovers. But there were another two players there as well at that lunch, both also from Kilmarnock, an inside right called John Graham and a centre half called James Young.

Dunbar was impressed by their sincerity – Young in particular saying that he wanted to try again in Scotland as he did not really fit in at Bristol Rovers, and he felt he would like to play for a Scottish team with a large support.

He was honest enough not to utter specious nonsense that “Celtic were the only team he ever wanted to play for” – because that would have been blatantly untrue – and said he was a professional footballer, and now suspecting that he would soon have a wife and child to support, he needed money.

All four men enjoyed their lunch that day, and Dunbar, apparently acting on his own initiative, (for in 1903, in the absence of mobile phones and texts, it would not have been easy to establish instant contact with Glasgow), decided that he would take all three of them to Glasgow, but in the case of Young and Graham, without making any promises.

He sent a telegram to Maley. Maley might well have chuckled at the thought of these two youngsters being brought along as an afterthought, for was not that the way that he himself had joined the Celtic 15 years ago? The committee men in 1888 had been interested in his brother Tom, but then one of them had said “Why don’t you come along as well?”

Both Muir and Young (Graham’s chance would come later) were given a fairly immediate opportunity on Monday 27 April 1903. Celtic had arranged a friendly with Manchester City, both managers of course being the brothers Maley – Willie of Celtic and Tom of Manchester City. It was a poor game on an end-of-season bumpy pitch before a meagre crowd of 2,000, not helped by the weather breaking an hour before kick-off, and it ended in a goalless draw.

Young played at centre half under the pseudonym of “Smith” whereas Muir was “Jackson” for the purpose of this exercise with The Evening Times predicting that “Celtic will try out a few new recruits tonight”. The team was McPherson; Watson and Battles; Loney, Smith and Weir; Jackson, McMenemy, McLeod, Somers and Thomson.

The game may have been a poor one, (it is hardly mentioned in the press which is far more bothered about the imminent visit of King Edward VII to Scotland in a few weeks time) but Maley was impressed by his centre half James Young. He made a few mistakes, but his attitude was first class and he radiated command of the situation, not being afraid to shout at men like Barney Battles when he felt he was a little slow in getting to the ball.

Read This…Video: The Celtic link to Man City’s First Ever Trophy – “The Importance of Tom Maley”

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Willie Maley talked to his brother Tom at the post-match dinner, and Tom agreed that Young was worth persevering with – “Efter a’, even wi’ Meredith playing, we didnae score!”. This was a reference to the great Billy Meredith of Manchester City and Wales, and arguably, the best player in Britain. Some of Tom Maley’s contacts in Bristol had also talked highly of him.

Young may have tamed Billy Meredith but he was still technically a Bristol Rovers player, and immediately after this game, all three aspirant Celts had to return to Bristol to play in the Gloucestershire Cup Final against city rivals Bristol City at St John’s Lane, then the home of City. This took place on Wednesday 29 April. It was the third game, the other two having been drawn, but on this occasion, Rovers made no mistake, winning 4-2 and the three Scotsmen earned themselves a medal each with Young having an outstanding game at centre half.

The medal whetted Young’s appetite. He was a professional football player and needed more money, for he intended to marry Florence Coombs, who was now beginning to suspect that she was “expecting” a baby. She said she would be happy to go to Scotland with him. He still wanted to return to Scotland, and after winning the Gloucestershire Cup did just that.

He talked to Maley again. Maley offered all three men from Bristol terms. They accepted happily, on a part-time basis initially, and this suited Young, for he would be able to resume his trade as an Iron Turner in Kilmarnock, just in case his footballing career did not work out.

Young promised Maley that he would work on his football, because “I want tae win medals, just like the Gloucestershire Cup one”.

”That’s the spirit”, thought Maley, “I can go places with young men like that!”.

Maley then asked what his plans were about houses etc., offered his help if necessary, and hoped that he would have a long and bright future at Celtic Park. Both men shook hands, but neither of them quite realised how long and how bright it was going to be.

“Man In The Know” in The Glasgow Observer of 9 May is distinctly unimpressed by all this. “I don’t think much of Celtic’s English captures. These three Bristol men – Muir, Graham and Young were reputed to be clean done (sic) before they left Scotland…I really fear that unless the Parkhead managers have a few better arrows in their quivers, there will be another season of disappointment for Celtic supporters.”

He was however impressed by Bennett from Rutherglen and “Allan McLeod, the Dunfermline youth”, but it is clear that “Man In The Know” is going through an unhappy phase of his life, for he says that the season just ending has been a “beastly bore” and then goes on to state that supporters “wear a depressed air of chronic sadness born out of the conviction that only through sheer force of habit are they wasting an afternoon in watching fifth rate football”.

It is of course not uncommon for supporters of teams who have had an unsuccessful season to complain about the general standard, and one feels that “Man In The Know” pessimistic outlook on life has a great deal to do with the poor performances of his beloved Celtic, rather than the standard of football in Scotland as a whole.

As to who “Man In The Know” was in this Roman Catholic newspaper which talked about Celtic most of the time and the other teams as a sort of afterthought, no-one knows. Some thought it was Tom Maley, Willie’s elder brother; others thought it was the rising Labour politician John Wheatley. The truth was possibly that it was simply the Oberver news staff getting together and concocting a piece.

The next few days after Young signing for Celtic were spent in arranging the “flitting” – a complicated business from Bristol to Kilmarnock (he had decided to stay in his home town, rather than Glasgow) and also training hard. His next game was also a friendly at Ayr on the night of Wednesday 13 May when most of Scotland was thrilled about the Royal Visit to Glasgow and elsewhere of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

A great deal less prestigious was the 2-2 draw at Ayr in which Young actually scored what may well have been his first senior goal. A centre half scoring was of course quite common in Edwardian football, for he was expected to go “up” whenever he had the opportunity as an extra forward and leave the defending to the full backs and the half backs.

Young was then delighted to find that his name was on the team sheet for the Glasgow Charity Cup game against Hibs against Parkhead. (The Glasgow Charity Cup had been expanded this season and included quite a few non-Glasgow teams with the laudable attention of raising more money for the victims and their relatives of last year’s Ibrox disaster fund, when a stand had collapsed at the Scotland v England game).

Thus it was that Young found himself playing his first competitive game for Celtic against this year’s Scottish League Champions and winners of last year’s Scottish Cup – Hibs.

To be continued…

David Potter