Loney didn’t play in that game – injured presumably and his place in the replay went to Willie Grassam – but it was a totally different game with Jimmy Quinn hitting four goals and Jimmy McMenemy scoring one. Quinn’s second goal was a brilliant individual goal, much appreciated by the 4,000 crowd, the larger attendance reflecting the fine weather.
At the back, Young was outstanding, being singled out for praise for his “splendid tackling”. Maley was jubilant, making a point of congratulating the two Jimmys (or as he kept calling them “Jamies”), Quinn and Young. Indeed Maley felt a tingle for the approaching Glasgow Charity Cup final in Saturday that he had not felt for a long time.
This game in many ways defined Celtic of this time. It was the last time that the team would play officially in the green and white vertical stripes; it was the first trophy won since the Scottish Cup of 1900; and it was the harbinger of really great things for Celtic with several players, not least Jimmy Young, making their first mark on the Scottish game.
The opponents were St Mirren, another non-Glasgow team invited to take part in view of the money required for the Ibrox Disaster Fund, and there was a certain amount of “history” between the teams that season, for Celtic had removed them from the Scottish Cup at the third attempt, and there had been a distinct “over- familiarisation” between certain players and a few vendettas being played off. It would be the first time that the Buddies would see James Young, though.
The weather was splendid with loads of sun on 23 May, and a huge crowd of 15,000 turned up, something that was far too much for the inadequate pay-boxes at Cathkin. “A few scoundrels managed to enter without parting with their sixpence” said the Press, and The Glasgow Observer talks about the huge crowds along Batson Street, Cathcart Road and Allison Street. The takings were a healthy £500, however, for the Charity Cup committee to “disburse as they thought fit”.
The teams were:
Celtic: McPherson, Battles and Watson; Moir, Young and Orr; Loney, McMenemy, Bennett, Somers and Quinn
St Mirren: Rae, Jackson and Cameron; Greenlees, Bruce and McAvoy; Lindsay, Hamilton, Reid, Wilson and Robertson.
Referee; T Robertson, Queen’s Park.
There is some dubiety about the Celtic team selection and the newspapers disagree. The Evening Times and Daily Record and Mail’s accounts of the game give Muir (Bristol Rovers), as if he had not yet signed for Celtic and was currently on loan. The Glasgow Herald and The Glasgow Observer, on the other hand say that Willie Loney is on the right wing, whereas the right half is Jimmy Moir who has indeed played there for a considerable part of the season. Loney is an unlikely right winger, but he was also said to have played there in the 0-0 draw against Hibs, and it is unlikely that Jimmy Moir would be dropped in a Cup final in favour of a man on loan. We shall never know, of course, but the confusion, presumably, arose from the similarity of the names and the traditional and notorious bad spelling and writing of Edwardian journalists. Indeed there was no such thing as a football correspondent in many cases.
An exception however was “Man In The Know”, but he was not really a correspondent, more a “fan with a pen”, and like quite a few fans, was fickle and changeable. He certainly underwent a sea change in his attitude to James Young afte this game. “After his two latest displays, I am inclined to revise my first impression of Young the Celts’ Bristol capture, who now bids to prove a good deal better than a “common player”. He uses his head in more ways than one and his judicious placing and feeding have had a good deal to so with the recent successes of the Celtic forwards…”
Young was indeed impressive. He had an outstanding game being described as a “glutton for work” and being part of a defence which was “ a safe division” of the team, according to The Glasgow Herald which also praises the forward line, although there are reservations that the forwards may be too light for a whole season. St Mirren scored first from a corner kick which goalkeeper McPherson did not deal with, but then Celtic took a grip of the game with goals from Alec Bennett, Jimmy Quinn and Alec Bennett again, before a collision between Alec Bennett and St Mirren goalkeeper Louis Rae saw Rae taken off with what looked like a broken leg. In the second half Willie Loney scored with a header, before Alec Bennett attained his hat-trick as the ten-man St Mirren side began to fade, nevertheless scoring a consolation goal at the end.
Continued on the next page…
