The remarkable story of Celtic’s six-in-a-row from 1905-10

1906-07

The start of the 1906-07 season showed again the strange relationship which existed in this era between Celtic and Rangers. They were increasingly bitter rivals – especially the fans – and yet positive links remained too.

The Bhoys opened the season with a trip to Ibrox for a benefit game for Rangers’ Finlay Speedie. Such games were common between the sides at this time. Rangers won 4-2 but the main issue of the day was a serious injury to Celtic goalkeeper Davie Adams, who would be out of action for some time.

As a result, Rangers loaned their reserve ‘keeper Tom Sinclair to Celtic. And Sinclair ended up setting a Celtic record that stood alone for more than a century when he kept clean sheets in Celtic’s six opening league games, and eight games in total including two Glasgow Cup ties.

This helped Celtic en route to claiming their third Glasgow Cup in a row, although again they lost in the Charity Cup. Their Scottish Cup experience proved to be historic, part of a momentous four days for the Hoops.

Jimmy Hay was appointed Celtic’s captain in 1906, and he wanted to mark this with more silverware. After winning the Glasgow Cup, the next trophy available was the Scottish Cup.

On 20 April 1907, the Bhoys went to Hampden for the Scottish Cup Final. In front of them stood the current holders, Hearts. 50,000 watched what proved to be a simple victory for Celtic. Two goals from Peter Somers and a penalty from Willie Orr ensured the Bhoys won their fifth Scottish Cup.

Four days later, history was made. Celtic went to Glasgow’s west end to play Partick Thistle at Meadowside. Victory would ensure that Celtic were champions for the third successive time. In this case, goals from Bennett and Quinn gave Celtic the points they needed.

This was a notable Scottish football moment as the first time that a team had completed the League and Scottish Cup double, although it would not be the last time. Perhaps disappointingly, only 4000 had attended this Wednesday night fixture to see history being made.

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