The story of Celtic’s dramatic league title play-off victory over Rangers

However, 120 years ago, Celtic clinched the League title in very different and unusual circumstances. In doing so, they became the only Scottish football club to ever do this and emerge as sole winners.

On 6 May 1905, Celtic went to Hampden to face Rangers. At stake was not a trophy such as the Scottish Cup. Instead, victory meant the winners of this playoff would be the League champions.

Season 1904-05 proved to be a memorable and successful one for the Bhoys. Back in August 1904, in the words of one newspaper, “they began their intercourse for the season” and went on to claim two cups, winning the Glasgow Cup and Charity Cup.

Celtic also performed well in the League, although were often behind Rangers. With two games to play, the Bhoys went to Ibrox for a must-win fixture, or their title hopes were gone. A stirring performance meant the green-and-white hooped men gained a 4-1 win, following it up with a 6-2 victory over Motherwell.

This ensured that Celtic finished the season on 41 points. However, unfortunately, this was also the case for Rangers.

In those days, the only thing that could separate teams was a points difference; actions such as goal difference or goal average were not yet used. Instead, in these circumstances, a special one-off game was held to decide the destination of the League flag.

1905 was not the first time such a game had taken place, although it is the only occasion that there has been a definitive result.

In the first season of the Scottish League – back in 1890-91 – Rangers and Dumbarton each topped the table with 29 points. A playoff game was held which ended in a draw, and so the title was instead shared. That’s 50% each so when they these days talk about 55 they include Dumbarton’s share, so it should really be 54.5 IF you include the one title won by the latest Ibrox club, or 53.5 if you don’t.

Therefore, to settle the question of who would be 1905 champions, a playoff was to be arranged between Celtic and Rangers. However, before this could take place, the two sides met in the Scottish Cup. To say the least, it was a controversial game.

On 25 March 1905, Rangers came to Celtic Park for a semi-final tie. Celtic dominated the opening 20 minutes, but an injury to defender Donald McLeod meant the Celts were down to 10 men, in the days before substitutes were allowed.

Although it was still even at half-time, in the second half, Rangers made their numerical advantage count, scoring in the 65th and 80th minutes. It seemed there was no way back for Celtic, and this was definitely the case when forward Jimmy Quinn was sent off, putting his team down to nine men.

At this point, chaos began amongst the spectators. Some Celtic fans were outraged at the referee and rushed onto the pitch, eventually attacking the match official. The police managed to get him to safety whilst the Rangers players took refuge too.

Order was finally restored and an attempt was made to restart the game. However, once more, many fans spilled onto the pitch, making it impossible to finish the cup tie. It was then decided to abandon the match.

Despite eight minutes remaining in the game, the decision taken by the Scottish FA was to award the win to Rangers, given that they had been leading at the time the game stopped, and also because it was deemed as Celtic’s fault that their fans had invaded the pitch.

Furthermore, Celtic specifically did not seek a replay. The Hoops noted that there had only been around 100-150 fans on the pitch – out of a crowd of 35,000 – and that most were young boys playing around, rather than engaging in serious violence. However, the club also said they wanted to send a message to fans about the consequences of pitch invasions.

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