14th February – Five Memorable Celtic Moments on This Day

ONE – SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 1891 – Celtic win the Glasgow Cup for the first time by beating Third Lanark 4-0 at Second Hampden. This is their first big trophy and is much celebrated by their fans in the 10,000 crowd “with an outburst of singing” at the ground and at the Alexandra Hotel in Bath Street where the post-match banquet is held and the Cup presented. The goals are scored by Johnny Campbell (who scored two), Peter Dowds and an own goal.

TWO – SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 1903 – At the fourth attempt (following two games and an abandonment), Celtic eventually see off St Mirren in the Scottish Cup by winning 4-0 at Celtic Park before a large crowd of about 30,000. Paddy Murray opens the scoring and Sandy McMahon, Hugh Watson and Johnny Campbell score the others to put the green and white vertical stripes into the next round.

THREE – SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 1931 – Jimmy McGrory scores a hat-trick as the mightily impressive Celtic team sweep Morton to one side in the Scottish Cup at Cappielow before a packed crowd of 20,000. Alex Thomson scores the other goal, but it is “the ubiquitous McGrory, strong and elusive”, who is the “battering ram” of Celtic.

FOUR – WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 1968 – The best one can say about Celtic is that they are “hanging in there”. The task seems impossible because they have to win all their games and hope that Rangers somewhere along the line drop two points for the clubs will never meet again in the League this season. Celtic are also now out of the Scottish Cup, but they are still technically the holders of the European Cup. It was hard going tonight in front of a disappointing crowd of 17,000 against Stirling Albion at Parkhead, but the team won 2-0 with a penalty from Tommy Gemmell and a goal from Willie Wallace.

FIVE – TUESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2012 – Technically, it has nothing to do with Celtic, but everyone knows that it has. Another Glasgow team announces today that it is going into administration as the great Goddess Nemesis who punishes the wicked, visits the West End of Glasgow in a big way. The reasons are complicated but it has been caused by gross overspending, and an arrogant refusal to play Income Tax.

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