| Matches: 1892 | 1893 | 1887-1900 | Forum |
Trivia
- Quater-finals
- Third Lanark played Sexton of the interestingly named London Casuals in goals for them.
Review
Teams
Celtic Team:-
Cullen, Reynolds, Doyle, Maley, Kelly, T. Dunbar, Towie, Blessington, Madden, McMahon, Campbell
Scorers:- McMahon (3), Towie (2)
Referee:
Attendance: 8000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Articles
The Scotsman – Monday, 23rd January 1893, page 10
Celtic v Third Lanark – Played at Celtic Park before 8000 spectators.
The Celtic were fully represented. The Volunteers played Sexton, of the London Casuals, in goal, Stevenson for Lochhead at half-back, and Wilson for Mackay forward.
The Celtic kicked off, but the Third were first to press. They kept play in the Celtic territory for the first five minutes.
Even play followed of the hardest description. The first serious try came from the Celtic.
A brilliant bit of concerted manipulation was finished by McMahon putting on the first goal. Play ruled brisk and even brilliant. In half an hour Wilson smartly squared the score by a goal, which was unsuccessfully appealed.
The Volunteers were forcing the play. Their dash was in striking contrast to their last appearance. Just on the interval, M’Mahon put the Celts in the ascendancy. The Celtic settled first on to play after the resumption, but they had to fall back and defend at close quarters.
A swift shot from the Volunteers’ right just shaved the Celtic uprights. Rapid runs on both sides followed. Then the Celts took up the tale, swarmed round the Volunteers’ defence, and Seaton had frequently to fist. The Third made several determined breaks away, but were well held in. The Celts scored a third goal, which was unsuccessfully appealed.
The Volunteers retaliated with a dangerous dribble, but they failed at close quarters, and had to return to their own end. The home attack was most persistent and always dangerous.
The Volunteers, although having all the worst of it, were playing in plucky fashion. After Sexton had saved McMahon scored a fourth goal. The Volunteers made many plucky efforts to reduce the lead, but lost another. Result:- Celtic, five goals; Third Lanark, one goal.
Celtic Team:- Cullen, Reynolds, Doyle, Maley, Kelly, T. Dunbar, Towie, Blessington, Madden, McMahon, Campbell
Scorers:- McMahon (3), Towie (2)
CelticFC.net Jan 2014
1893
The very first game played by Celtic on this date was in 1893 when they hosted Third Lanark in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup in front of a crowd of 8,000.
The Celts had already defeated Linthouse by 3-1 and the 5th KVR by 7-0 in the previous rounds and in this game they beat their South Side visitors 5-1 with Sandy McMahon grabbing a hat-trick while the other two goals came from Tom Towie.
McMahon, of course, has gone down in Celtic history as a club legend but the name Tom Towie isn’t as well known.
In fact, he joined on loan from Renton who always seemed to be at loggerheads with the SFA and when the Celts borrowed Towie, it was for cup games only and he played in all of the club’s Scottish Cup and Glasgow Cup matches between September 1892 and March 1893 and none of the games were played outside of Glasgow.
He played in five of the six Glasgow Cup games and scored one goal against Partick Thistle but, despite a 2-1 win for the Celts, the game was replayed with the second game finishing 1-1 while the third and final game ended with a resounding 8-0 win for the Bhoys.
Just five days after beating Third Lanark 5-1in the Scottish Cup, the Bhoys then defeated the same side 5-2 in the Glasgow Cup semi-final but that happened to be the only cup game that Towie missed for the Celts that season.
He was back for the February 18th final of that competition but, unfortunately, the Celts lost 3-1 to Rangers in front of 9,000 at Cathkin Park with McMahon getting the solitary goal.
That was the first of THREE ‘cup finals’ Towie played for Celtic in successive games. The reason being that the Scottish Cup final of February 25th against Queen’s Park was rendered null and void – but it looked as though Towie’s 70th-minute goal in the ‘Pretend’ final at Ibrox had given the cup to Celtic.
However, when the real game was played on March 11, in front of a crowd of 13,239, again at Ibrox, the Celts lost 2-1 to the Hampden side with Jimmy Blessington getting the goal.