| Match Pictures | Matches: 1957 – 1958 | 1957-58 Pictures |
Trivia
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The Shawfield Disaster
- One fan dies and fifty injured after a wall collapses.
- The one fatality among them was a nine-year-old boy named James Ryan from Bridgeton whose chest was crushed, RIP.
- For further detail please see: The Shawfield Disaster
- This was a high profile match as Clyde were the Scottish Cup holders, and Celtic had just recently retained the league cup.
- Following this match & the tragedy that enfolded, Celtic went on a four match losing run. Incredibly the first in that run, was Celtic’s first league defeat of the season.
- Collins had recovered from the ankle knock picked up in the away Friendly to Middlesbrough, but Tully was still recovering from his dead leg and Eric Smith came in at outside right.
- The day of the match was both cold and foggy and at one point there was serious doubt as to whether the game would go ahead. In the event, the ground was opened at 2:00pm and a bumper crowd turned up. and the floodlights were turned on five minutes before kick off.
- John Colrain, playing with the Reserves, was up in front of the Referee’s Committee, having been sent off in the previous week’s reserve game against East Fife at Methil. He was sent off for dissent – saying things he should not have to the referee.
Review
Crowd of around 26,500 were at this game with reports stating the stadium was “bursting at the seams”, and there was some crushing as was much the norm in the old days on the terraces. It was also normal for children in the crowd to be passed over the heads of the adults out of the terracing. In this instance the juveniles were passed over the four-foot-high terracing boundary wall onto the greyhound track and sat on the track to watch the match, with their backs to the wall.
On four minutes the Clyde right half laid on a pass for Neil Mochan accidentally. Mochan took the ball on then squared for Billy McPhail who took a step to the left then fired the ball home from 10 yards. In the crowd celebration that followed the bounday wall collapsed leading to the tragedy.
A total of 50 persons were injured, almost all of them children, with 13 detained in hospital suffering serious injuries and one fatality among them: a nine-year-old boy named James Ryan from Bridgeton whose chest was crushed.
The Resumed Match
After 20 minutes the game was resumed, despite some of the players being physically distressed at what had just occurred.
On 16 minutes Billy McPhail scored a superb second goal. He picked the ball up and took it nearly all the way to the by-line before screwing the ball back and into the top corner of the net. It looked to be all over in the 23rd minute when Neil Mochan’s shot cannoned off of Clinton and into the net. Clyde, though, were far from finished. Beattie was called on to make important saves and on 34 minutes Robertson smashed home a ball deflected back from the crossbar after a Keogh header to make it 3-1. They pulled another back on 40 minutes when Robertson again fired home a superb goal. Despite the disaster the teams went in after an excellent half with Celtic edging it at 3-2.
Clyde started the second half on the attack. McPhail missed an open goal. But on 57 minutes Smith scored only to be again pegged back by Clyde to 4-3 with a well taken Keogh goal. Both teams were going all out for it and the final score was in doubt right to the very end.
During the Fatal Accident inquiry the following February his uncle stated that James had been lifted over the wall onto the track only seconds before it collapsed, and other boys who were injured also stated that they had still been in the stand at the time the goal was scored and had jumped over the wall to avoid being crushed just prior to it falling.
The inquiry heard evidence that the wall had been inspected following the incident and was of sound and legal construction, and it was only the extreme force that caused it to collapse.
The accident was blamed on unruly persons in the crowd who had repeatedly been rushing forward irresponsibly, and on the absence of any crush barriers in that area of the terracing which would have lessened the forward pressure exerted.
The police also stated that they had not formally agreed for any persons to be on the track at the time (although it was permitted in exceptional circumstances), and even larger attendances had previously been recorded at Shawfield for fixtures against Celtic and Rangers.
Teams
Clyde:
McCulloch; Murphy, Haddock; Walters, Finlay, Clinton; herd, Currie, Keogh, Robertson, Ring.
Scorers: Robertson 2 (34, 40), Keogh (64)
Celtic:
Beattie, Donnelly, Fallon, Fernie, Evans, Peacock; Smith, Collins, McPhail, Wilson, Mochan.
Scorers: McPhail 2 (3, 16), Clinton og (23), Smith 2 (57, 89), Wilson (72)
Referee: R Rodgers (Stonehouse)
Attendance: 26,500
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Links
Pictures
Articles
Shawfield wall collapse, 1957.
When tragedy struck at the football
THE story behind this picture is a very sad one. It seems innocuous enough, with workmen taking sledgehammers to a collapsed brick wall at Clyde’s then football ground at Shawfield in Glasgow. However they are clearing up after a tragedy. This is December, 1957, and the ground was packed for a Clyde Celtic game. Schoolboys jumped over the wall to sit in front of it in order to avoid the crush of the crowd. It was a fatal decision. Within seven minutes Celtic scored, and the crowd surged forward. The wall collapsed on top of the young boys, killing a nine-year-old boy from Bridgeton who had only been put over the wall seconds earlier by his uncle, fearing for his safety. A further 11 boys, none older than 15, were admitted to hospital.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry ruled that the wall had in fact been well built, and the accident was the result of unruly behaviour by sections of the crowd.
The Herald
