Celtic On This Day – 12th May – David Potter’s Celtic Diary

SATURDAY 12th MAY 1894 – Celtic win the Glasgow Charity Cup for the third season in a row by beating Queen’s Park 2-1 at Ibrox before a crowd of 12,000. Sandy McMahon is out ill but Jimmy Blessington scores both goals
to add the Charity Cup to the Scottish League for the season.

TUESDAY 12th MAY 1914 – Celtic make it three trophies out of four for 1914 when they beat Third Lanark 6-0 at Hampden in the Glasgow Charity Cup with two goals from Jimmy McMenemy and one each from Johnny McMaster, Joe Dodds, Jimmy McColl and Peter Johnstone. The team is about to depart on a tour of central Europe including Budapest, Vienna and Berlin. Life looks good for Celtic,who are probably the best team in the world at the moment.

SATURDAY 12th MAY 1917 – Two excellent first half goals from Jimmy McColl were enough to beat Rangers at Ibrox in the Glasgow Charity Cup semi-final before an excellent crowd of 35,000. Meanwhile in France the British are reported to be making gains in their spring offensive – but then again, they always seem to be making gains, according to the Press.

WEDNESDAY 12th MAY 1971 – Celtic, disappointed by a late Rangers equaliser on Saturday, make no mistake this time as they win the Scottish Cup for the 21st time in the replay before 103,332 fans at Hampden. Lou Macari scores first, then Harry Hood scores a penalty before half time. Rangers pull one back through an own goal early in the second half but Celtic, their midfield of Connelly and Callaghan immense, finish the game well on top.

SATURDAY 12th MAY 1990 – One of the most heart breaking days of supporting Celtic even in the lean years, as Celtic lose the Scottish Cup final to Aberdeen in a penalty shoot-out. Celtic were far from favourites in this game, because they had not had a good season, but today they held their own against a good Aberdeen side for 120 minutes and went down 8-9 on a penalty shoot-out. The Aberdeen player who scored the final penalty made a remark to the effect that God was on his side. This comment was rightly resented by Celtic fans.

David Potter

David’s bestseller The Celtic Rising ~ 1965: The Year Jock Stein Changed Everything is completely sold out in print on but is available on Amazon kindle, with all the photographs of the hardback edition, for HALF PRICE at just £3.49…