1893-02-25: Queen’s Park 0-1 Celtic, Friendly (Scottish Cup)

Matches: 1892 | 1893 | 1887-1900 | League Tables: 1892-93 | Forum

Trivia

Scottish Cup, Final
Played at Ibrox Park (Paisley Road), kick-off: 15:30.
** Match declared void due to difficult on field conditions. Replayed on March 11.
The money taken at the gates, irrespective of stands, amounted to £552, sch 5.

Review

February 25, 1893
Match: Scottish Cup, Final, at Ibrox Park (Paisley Road), kick-off: 15:30.
Celtic – Queen’s Park 1-0 (0-0).
Attendance: 30,000; gate receipts: £1,700.
Referee: Mr. R.F. Harrison (Scottish FA).
Celtic (2-3-5): Joe Cullen, Jeremiah “Jerry” Reynolds, Dan Doyle, Willie Maley, James Kelly, Thomas Dunbar, Thomas Towie, James Blessington, John Madden, Alex “Sandy” McMahon, John James Campbell.
Queen’s Park (2-3-5): Andrew Baird, Donald Sillars, Robert Smellie, John Gillespie, Tom Robertson, Allan Stewart, William Gulliland, Thomas Smith Waddell, James Hamilton, William Lambie, William Sellar.
The goal: 1-0 Towie.
** Match declared void due to difficult on field conditions. Replayed on March 11.

Teams

Celtic (2-3-5):
Joe Cullen, Jeremiah “Jerry” Reynolds, Dan Doyle, Willie Maley, James Kelly, Thomas Dunbar, Thomas Towie, James Blessington, John Madden, Alex “Sandy” McMahon, John James Campbell.
The goal: 1-0 Towie.

Queen’s Park (2-3-5):
Andrew Baird, Donald Sillars, Robert Smellie, John Gillespie, Tom Robertson, Allan Stewart, William Gulliland, Thomas Smith Waddell, James Hamilton, William Lambie, William Sellar.

Attendance: 30,000; gate receipts: £1,700.
Referee: Mr. R.F. Harrison (Scottish FA).

The Scotsman – Monday, 27th February 1893, page 5
Association
Scottish Cup Final

Queen’s Park v Celtic – Probably no match of the year arouses such widespread interest as the final tie in the Scottish National cup competition when the combatants are well matched; but when, as is the case this year, the competing teams come together for the first time in the season, additional importance attaches to the game.

The attraction afforded by the meeting of two such clubs as the Queen’s Park and Celtic was fully attested last year on the occasion of the first meeting of the teams in the final of the same competition, when a record gate was established. In all respects, therefore, Saturday’s game was looked forward to as one of the first magnitude. On the one hand it was looked upon as a contest of League v Anti-League, and on the other as a trail of skill between professional and amateur talent; while the match also was not devoid of an international element, the members of the one team being of Irish nationality, and the other of Scottish. It was all the more to be regretted, therefore, in view of these circumstances, that the weather, as it has so often done this season with other matches of interest, proved so unpropitious, more especially in view of the large crowd which turned out to witness the struggle.

A hard frost setting in on Friday night, the ground at Ibrox Park, the scene of the contest, on the forenoon of Saturday was found to be as hard as iron and everything pointed to a postponement of the tie. Notwithstanding the ominous outlook, however, the officials, along with the referee, apparently did not deem it to be their duty to come to a prompt decision, and make that decision known to the public, but allowed the expectant spectators to make their way to and throng into the ground in their thousands in the hope of the referee’s decision, after an inspection just prior to the start, being favourable to the playing of the tie.

Naturally, once the ground was packed with a crowd numbering 50,000 people, it was deemed unwise, for fear of the consequences, to make it known that the inspection had shown it to be impossible to proceed with the tie, and those present, save a few in the inner circle, were kept in blissful ignorance of the fact that they were to witness only a friendly match. Still, once the teams took the field, the difficulty which the players experienced in keeping control over the ball and maintaining their equilibrium on the hard and slippery ground – in spite of a liberal sprinkling of sand and hayseed over the greater part of its surface – could not escape notice, and with no official declaration on the subject having been made known, a feeling of doubt and uncertainty as to the nature of the contest prevailed, which was discreditable to the officials of the Association, inconsiderate to the members of the public, and detrimental to the best interests of the game.

As the play proceeded, however, the apathy and unconcern with which the players proceeded about their work made the true state of the case apparent to most, and this feeling soon spread to the spectators, whose bearing was a most undemonstrative one for a crowd of such dimensions. By half-time the secret could be no longer kept, and ere the second period was well under weigh the news had spread rapidly round the enclosure that the two clubs were3 expending their energy and the spectators their patience over a friendly game.

When this came to be fully known such expressions of dissatisfaction were heard on all hands at the action of the officials in not making the fact known early in the day, as might have easily have been done, that the ground was too hard for the Cup contest to proceed, and thus have saved thousands the needless trouble and expense. In the circumstances, considering the game will require to be played again on an early date, though this has yet to be fixed, it is needless to enter into any detailed description of Saturday’s game.

The only alteration on the teams previously announced was that Gillespie took Macfarlane’s place in the Queen’s Park ranks. As an exhibition of football by two such teams the game was a poor one, as could only have been expected on ground so hard, and bearing inn mind also the fact that none of the players cared to risk much. The Celts certainly adapted themselves better to the unfavourable conditions, but at half-time the teams still stood level, without scoring.

In the second period some better and more spirited play was seen, and the Celtic, by the aid of Towie, put through a goal, ultimately retiring victors by one goal to nil. The money taken at the gates, irrespective of stands, amounted to £552, sch 5.

Celtic – Cullen; Reynolds and Doyle; Maley, Kelly, and Dunbar; Blessington, Towie, Hamilton, McMahon and Campbell.