| 1888 1889 |
Celtic Games 1888 – East Stirlingshire
Trivia
- Scottish Cup Sixth Round Tie, played at Merchiston Park.
- Before 3,000 spectators.
Review
(from Celticfc.net site https://www.celticfc.com/news/2021/december/15/on-this-day-in-celtic-s-history—december-15/)
Celtic’s first ever game on this day was in 1888 when they travelled out to play East Stirling in the Scottish Cup. It was, understandably, the first time the clubs met and two goals from Neilly McCallum gave Celtic a 2-1 win in what proved to be the tightest of the team’s conquests on their way to their first Scottish Cup final. However, despite the narrowness of the one-goal win, East Stirlingshire, to give them their Sunday name, didn’t quite get to grips with top-class football and the clubs have met only rarely since.
Indeed, Celtic have faced the Falkirk club on only eight occasions, with the Hoops winning all meetings in the games that have been split evenly between the league and the Scottish Cup. They had two dalliances with the top division, in 1932/33 and 1963/64 (above), and the last time Celtic met them was in season 1980/81 in the Scottish Cup when an 18,000 crowd at Celtic Park saw goals from Mike Conroy and Murdo MacLeod give Celtic a 2-0 win.
Teams
East Stirlingshire:-Sharp, Keddie, Reid, Ritchie, Wilson, Jones, Kirkwood, Stewart, Dunn, McLachlan, Simpson.
Goal:- McLachlan.
Celtic:-Dunning, Collins, McKeown, Gallagher, Kelly, McLaren, McCallum,Dunbar,Groves, Coleman, T Maley.
Goal:- McCallum(2)
Referee:
Att:
Articles
- Match Report (See Below)
- Official Site
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Articles
South Wales Echo 15th December 1888
Glasgow Herald 17th December 1888
The Scotsman – Monday, 17th December 1888, page 9
East Stirlingshire v Celtic – This Scottish Cup tie was played on the ground of the former at Merchiston Park, Falkirk. The visitors losing the toss, Groves started the ball for them, and for the next few minutes had the best of the play. The shire, however, broke away, and had one or two likely tries at the Celts’ goal. Both teams now played up hard, each visiting the others goal in turn. Maley, by an awkward mistake missed a very likely chance. A corner also fell to the Celts, but they failed to improve it. After play had gone on for forty minutes, McLachlan scored the first point on the game for East Stirlingshire.
Half-time was called with the Shire leading by one goal to nil.
On resuming, the Celts made a determined effort to score, but the Shire retaliated and play was for a time pretty even. A foul fell to the Celts within a few feet of the home goal, but they failed to improve on it. The visitors put up a strong pressure within three minutes of time and notched their only two goals and thus won a hard game.