| Match Pictures | Matches: 1942 – 1943 |
Trivia
- Celtic & World War Two
- Albion Rovers’ trialist centre half was one John Stein!
- Jock Stein makes his first connection with Celtic as a trialist with Albion Rovers.
- Celtic lose lead after Jimmy Delaney retires injured, allowing former Celtic-trialist, Johnny McIlhatton and his forwards to take advantage.
- The Scottish Southern League reached the half-way stage on Saturday and with the defeat of Hibernian at Shawfield it now looks likely that Rangers will again win it.
- Dotted along the site of what used to be Monkland Canal, Coatbridge are a number of memorials. This one marks Jock Stein’s debut for @albionrovers against @CelticFC on 14 Nov 1942 as the two battle out a 4-4 match (thx to Old Rovers pics @OldRovers )
Review
Glasgow Herald, Monday 16th November. Football Round Up: …Celtic in addition, took a point in a 4-goal draw at Coatbridge. Against Albion Rovers, Celtic established a 3-0 lead, lost their forward touch when Delaney was injured, and their defence wavered before the dashing Coatbridge attack in the second half
Dotted along the site of what used to be Monkland Canal, Coatbridge are a number of memorials. This one marks Jock Stein’s debut for @albionrovers against @CelticFC on 14 Nov 1942
see: https://www.thecelticwiki.com/stein-jock-memorial-coatbridge/
Teams
ALBION ROVERS:
Anderson, Kilpatrick and Dunsmore; Sharp, Trialist and McLetchie; McIlhatton, Findlay, Wilkie, Bell and Loudon
Scorers: McIlhatton, Louden, Bell (2)
CELTIC:
Miller, Hogg and Dornan; Lynch, McPhail and McDonald; Delaney, McAuley, Riley, McGowan and McLaughlan
Scorers: Riley, McGowan, Delaney, McAuley
Referee:Mr J Thomson, Hamilton
Attendance: 8000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Links
Articles
The following is an extract from “The Definitive Biography Jock Stein” by Archie Macpherson Published by Racing Post:
On 14 November 1942, William Walker, a clerk at Coatbridge’s railway station, at the start of a lifelong devotion to Albion Rovers, queued up to watch visitors Celtic play his beloved club at their home ground Cliftonhill. It was a dull, cold day; a raw wind whipped through the streets of that industrial town like a climatic reminder of the austere times of the early 1940s. By the time he had settled himself on the terracing, roughly ten minutes late, William had already heard two eruptions from the crowd. Celtic were two up. Not long after that they were three up, and William felt he was in for a gruelling afternoon, especially as he was surrounded by exultant Celtic supporters making light of a war environment which that day had seen a Fuel Communique issued by the government advising housewives to make economies in view of the importance of coal, and recommending the sharing of fires with friends and neighbours. By way of alternatives, watching your favourite team triumph could fire the bellies just as effectively. But William was not of a mood to share a blazing coal fire with any Celtic supporters, and feeling down at the mouth his uncharitable frame of mind blanked out the thought that the nation the following day would be celebrating the success of the recent Battle of El Alamein with the ringing of church bells. For what was even more perplexing was the sight of a new, lanky figure out there on the field, in central defence. William had never seen him before, and he seemed, in his gangly state, to be just short of invisible since his defence had been broached several times with apparent ease. The lean figure was simply listed as ‘Junior’ in the press coverage.
Neither William nor the Celtic support could have realised, as an easy victory seemed to be heading Parkhead way, that they were in at the start of one of the most illustrious careers in British football. For at the end of a game that saw an amazing Rovers fightback to 4-4, the young unknown and unnamed centre-half signed an autograph outside the ground. It read:‘J. Stein’.
‘I saw virtually every game that Stein played in for the rest of his career at Rovers,’ William said. ‘Yet in that game he didn’t register with me to be honest.’ The game didn’t register much with Stein either, for in later years he was to admit to a questioner that although it was his debut on a new stage, against one of the strongest teams in the land containing famous names such as Jimmy Delaney, Bobby Hogg and Willie Miller, he couldn’t remember anything about the match except the score. The Sunday Post noted that while ‘Rovers had a trialist in their raw, lanky junior centre-half, the ponderousness of his counterpart John McPhail cost Celtic two goals’.
It was not exactly a report that alerted the country to the birth of a star; it was more like an entry into a ledger noting that a small credit had been added to an account. I suppose the reporter in later years, re-reading words like ‘raw’ and ‘lanky’, with a certain looseness, and relating it to the giant Stein became, might have ranked himself with the Hollywood scout who dismissed a young man called Astaire with the opinion, ‘Can’t act. Slightly bald. Also dances.’ But what Stein had done was help Rovers, then at the foot of the table, overcome adversity, and even though he was simply a triallist hiding under the dreaded pseudonym of ‘Junior’, a name more historically associated with ‘hopeless cause’ rather than scintillating brilliance, he had not disgraced himself and he had done nothing to discourage the Rovers management looking on. Although he had not yet signed for the club and his future was still unclear he would have enjoyed the Sunday Post report of that match headed ‘Celts Fiddled, Rovers Burned!’