Celtic were in Paisley last night to face St Mirren. Back in 1894, the Celts were the first team to visit the Paisley team’s previous ground, St Mirren Park (Love Street). Over the years, the Bhoys have opened various teams’ home pitches. This article tells some of these stories…
In 1892, Newcastle East End took over Newcastle West End to form Newcastle United. In September of that year, East End played for the time at their new home venue of St James’ Park. Although this game was advertised as featuring ‘Newcastle East End’, in fact Newcastle United historians regard this as United’s first game at St James’ Park.
Their visitors for this maiden match were Celtic, who were taking part in an English tour. 5000 fans were in attendance to watch the game, and they saw the visitors claim a narrow 1-0 win. Johnny Campbell got the only goal, making him the first man to score at St James’ Park when it was Newcastle United’s ground.
Closer to home, St Mirren have played at various venues in Paisley. In 1894, they moved to their Love Street ground, which was properly called St Mirren Park. On 8 September 1894, the Celts were the first team to visit.
With the chance to see the new ground – and encouraged by good weather – St Mirren Park was packed for the Celts’ visit. Playing in a League game, the home side had little to cheer about on the park as they lost 3-0, thanks to goals for Celtic from Joe Cassidy and a Sandy McMahon double.
Love Street was of course a venue that would later have an important place in the hearts of Celtic fans. In 1986 – on the final day of the League season – the Bhoys famously won 5-0 to snatch the League title from Hearts, who fell to an Albert Kidd-inspired Dundee defeat.
Almost a year after the St Mirren game – on 3 August 1895 – Celtic were invited to play Motherwell. The purpose of this friendly match was to be the official opening of the new Fir Park. It was an utterly one-sided affair as Celtic hammered their hosts 8-1!
However, it could be argued that Motherwell and Fir Park later got revenge for this hammering. In 1937, Motherwell thrashed Celtic 8-0 at Fir Park, and this is the Celts’ biggest ever competitive defeat.
Strangely, the 1895 game saw Celtic playing twice in on the same day, using two different teams. Just as one set of green-and-white stripes was playing at Fir Park, another entertained Belfast Glentoran at Celtic Park, with the home side winning 6-0.
