| Match Pictures | Matches:1951 – 1952 | 1951-1952 Pictures |
Trivia
- St Mungo Cup tournament
- First Round Saint Mungo Cup, Celtic v Hearts
- A very sunny day at Celtic Park with both sets of supporters in shirt sleeves.
Review
Teams
Celtic:
Hunter; Fallon, Rollo; Evans, Mallan, Baillie; Collins, Walsh, McPhail, Peacock, Tully
Scorers: Walsh (35), McPhail ( )
Hearts:
Brown, Parker, Adie, Whitehead, Dougan, Laing, Sloan, Conn, Bauld,Wardhaugh, Cumming
Scorers: Rollo og ( )
Referee: J. A. Mowatt, Rutherglen
Attendance: 48,530
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Evening Times: 14th July 1951
Celtic's Day in the Sun: Good Winners in a One-Way Game.
Thousands of football fans neither desired nor required an alibi today and the brilliant sunshine left others with none. The result was that Celtic Park was quite a congested area for the visit of Hearts in the St Mungo Cup. The stand gates were closed, and a rush was made for the enclosure and terracing gates.
Celtic…….. 2 Hearts……. 1
The ground was a spread of carpet-like grass, as green as an emerald. It was a great setting for the start of the festival game.
Celtic were without Boden and Jock Weir of their Scottish Cup Final team., Mallan and walsh being fielded. Almost 50,000 saw the start.
Five minutes late Bauld kicked off and less than a minute later Hunter was taking a goal kick after Sloan had cut Wardhaugh's pass out of play.
In another minute Hearts were under challenge from a corner forced by Walsh and taken by Tully. Dougan cleared but was soon seen again at Brown's goal line. First Walsh then Collins hammered for a goal.
None seemed able to arrest Collins progress and finally he was seen almost stumbling as he fired a weak left-footer at Brown from an angle.
Great play from an inside position by Tully was spent on Baillie. The half back failed to raise his centre past Parker, and when Whitehead got the pass, he started an attack which spread over the whole front line.
Parker was winded in collision with Tully. Cheerful Charlie got the worst of the next bout with the Hearts defense and he went slotting off Brown when he challenged the keeper to a ball from McPhail.
First sign of real tactics came when Tully centred from a corner and Evans collected. He foxed Hearts by feinting to shoot and then spooned the ball to Collins. Again Dougan was on the spot to deny McPhail any chance.
An offside scored by Bauld after the referee had signalled the infringement let Celtic know that the Hearts centre carried a punch, he was 18 yards out when he hit the ball.
Parker kept ruffling Peacock's fall every time the Celtic inside man approached. Was he really playing at inside forward? It seemed that Peacock and Tully had yet to determine their positions.
Hearts Escape.
Tully was right in the centre and well ahead of McPhail when he fixed on a ball slipped through by Collins. Adie cut in and took the ball on his body. As Tully was shooting from six yards, there seemed to be no chance for Brown, and Hearts were lucky to survive.
The romping Tully all over the fieldscape was now a feature of the game that could easily otherwise have pailed on account of the failure of both attacks to manouevre for an open shooting position.
Hearts came in with real power when Wardhaugh piloted a pass to the unmarked Sloan. One expected the winger to go in for a shot but he preferred to centre for Cumming and the left winger proceeded to overrun the ball with only Hunter left in front of him.
Deserved Goal
It was all done at dear cost for Hearts as next minute – the 35th – McPhail dragged a pass forward to WALSH and the inside man, racing down the middle, gave such a tremendous power to his shot from inside the penalty area that Brown was incapable of saving. Thus Celtic went ahead – and rightly so.
Half Time:-
CELTIC 1; HEARTS 0
Second Half
Hearts almost made things very complicated for themselves when Dougan miskicked. In raced Tully to send the ball scrambling to Walsh. The Celtic man was in a scramble himself – otherwise nothing could have prevented Hearts from becoming two down.
They almost were in that position when McPhail stepped in to a Peacock pass and hurled a shot at Brown. The goalkeeper had no time to bend so he used both feet for a very grotesque clearance.
Backs To The Fore
Hearts attack was disappointing and neither individually nor as a five did the line function with anything approaching the skill or guile.
Again Hearts were indebted to a back – this time Parker – for a goal line save when Walsh headed in. Following this Adie took the full shock of a shot from Collins that would certainly have tested Brown
Confused Goals
Cumming failed from a header from Sloan's cross, and again Hearts paid dearly. Tully went galloping in along with McPhail and in the midst of a heaving defence the ball shot by McPhail was seen to go past Brown and into the net.
Then more confusion but at Hunter's end when Bauld got busy and outjumped Mallan. He headed weakly forward and Hunter might have got the ball had it not glanced off of Rolo and gone over the line. Anyway it was a goal for Hearts.
Pictures
- Match Pictures
