So Celtic, I am informed, will play two games on Tuesday. Shock! Horror!
I hope no-one goes around saying that this unprecedented and cruel to players or anything like that! It maybe a little hard on the players – but then the life of a professional football player is not, as some people think, a bed of roses. It can be a wee bit tough, now and again.
But then what about 1916 when life was a wee bit tougher? War-time regulations obliged Celtic to play two games on the one day on Saturday 15 April – v Raith Rovers at Celtic Park at 3.15pm and Motherwell at Fir Park at 6.00 (or basically as soon as Celtic could get there in their charabanc).
Celtic won them both 6-0 and 3-1, with only one change in personnel, Joe Cassidy replacing Joe O’Kane for the second game. So glory be to Shaw, McNair and McGregor; Young, Dodds and McMaster; McAtee, Gallacher, O’Kane/Cassidy, McMenemy and Browning! Oh, and by the way, they won the Scottish League in so doing!
They said that Sunny Jim was going about Glasgow that night looking for a third team to play!
And observe the date.April 15 1916. The following Monday 24 April saw famous events in Dublin. I bet James Connolly, Scottish and probably a Hibs supporters but not unsympathetic to the Celtic, knew all about the two games in a day!
So two games in a day! Nae bother for the Celts!
David Potter
