| Match Pictures | Matches: 1952 – 1953 | 1952-53 Pictures |
Trivia
- An unchanged team from the New Year's Day game against Rangers.
- The Rangers game was the first time in the season that Celtic had lost back to back games. This dropped them to fourth in the table. This loss to Motherwell made three losses on the trot and dropped them a further place down to fifth below league leaders East Fife, Hibernian, Rangers and St Mirren..
- Ex-Celtic player Jock Weir was up before the beaks on a drink and drive charge having been stopped on London Road near Templeton Street on 3rd January.
Review
A heavy pitch but the fog that had covered much of Scotland for that week had cleared.
Both sides had chances early on but the main feature was a skittish ball on the playing surface which everyone found hard to control. After 15 minutes Peaock switched to inside of Tully with immediate results. He brought the ball in from the wing, beat his man then passed to McIlroy who laid it on for Fernie to shoot and score. The goal proved to be a shot in the arm for the Celtic attack and they came into the game more with Evans directing and Fernie supplying good crosses and all generally combining to force saves from Johnstone. Celtic should have been fuerther ahead that the 1-0 they stood at the interval.
Motherwell equalised on 55 minutes when a shot from Forrest was palmed into the air and Hunter was hustled out of the ball Robinson stealing into to tap home. Celtic got a second just after when a Collins cross was headed in by Peacock. Cox headed the ball out but it ad already crossed the line. The pace of the game had increased and Aitkenhead levelled again from a long clearance which he waltzed into the goal. A hard tussle then developed before Paton headed in a free kick and at the death Aitkenhead got a second from a penalty.
A decent game in which Cltic lost the superiority they showed in the first half and allowed a reorganised Motherwell to equalise and then take the game.
Teams
Motherwell:
Johnstone; Kilmarnock, Shaw; Forrest, Paton, Cox; Sloan, Humphries, kelly, Robinson, Aitkenhead.
Scorers: Robinson (55), Humphries (75), Aitkenhead 2 (61, 89 pen)
Celtic:
Hunter; Haughney, Meechan; Evans, Stein, Rollo; Collins, Fernie, McIlroy, Tully, Peacock.
Scorers: Fernie (20), Peacock (57)
Referee: G Mitchell (Falkirk)
Attendance: 20,300
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)