| Match Pictures | Matches: 1952 – 1953 | 1952-53 Pictures |
Trivia
- The Final played at Hampden Park; Queen's Park had beaten Rangers on the toss of a coin after a 1-1 draw at Ibrox. Rangers themselves had just won the League on goal average from Hibernian and the Scottish Cup beating Aberdeen 1-0 after a replay, the first game being drawn 1-1 – thus making this a Double year, their seventh, for Rangers.
- Neil Mochan was signed for Celtic from Middlesbrough on the day before the game for £8000. McGrory also tried to sign a goalkeeper, Scotland and Morton 'keeper Jimmy Cowan, but had been thwarted by the Greenock club's valuation of their player
- The game was played in terrific sunshine.
Review
The first half was a fairly lazy affair with both teams suffering from the heat and appearing to conserve their energy. Celtic appeared to be waiting for the new arrival Mochan to perform a miracle. Mochan and Peacock had attempts at one end and O'Connell at the other. Evans and McPhail, with superb marking and excellent passing of the ball forward, looked to be making the foundations for Celtic. Celtic scored on 30 minutes rather against the run of play. Mochan took the ball out to the left wing and beat a defender, beat another, cut back to the goal line and chipped over a pass for Fernie to just about walk into the Queen's goal. Mochan got a second not long after the restart when Bell failed to field a speculative lob from Rollo. Celtic built the pressure to the end of the first half with efforts from Collins, Fernie and Tully but failed to add to the score. Tully began the second half with a sparkling spell of play. On 65 minutes Mochan got a third controlling a Collins pass to shoot home. The Queen's Park players protested that he had used an arm to control the ball but the goal stood. This roused the Queen's Park attack and Bonnar was the most active man on the field saving from O'Connell, Church and Callan but he was finally beaten 3 minutes from time by an O'Connell shot from an acute angle.
A major part of the success for Celtic was the superb keeping of Bonnar in the second half and the outstanding marking and defensive play of McPhail in the first.
This was Neil Mochan's first game back in Scotland since he had left Morton to join Middlesbrough in May 1951. At Morton he had been a very useful player – indeed he'd scored a few goals against Celtic – and his ability had sealed his departure to Middlesbrough for a five figure sum – a great deal of money in transfer fees at that time. Despite the fact that he had had very few games down south, he clearly came back to Celtic and Scotland a far better player than he had been when he left. Observers of this his debut with Celtic remarked that finally it looked as though Celtic had found the centre forward they had been looking for all season – if truth be told for several seasons. That they had found a forward of consummate skill and ease on the ball, a player that could bring the other forwards into the game and whio was now a two-footed player with a right foot to match his devastating left foot shot. He would go on to be one of the foundation players in the next season's adventures for Celtic.
Teams
Queen's Park
Weir; Harnett, Stewart; Cromar, Bell, Hastie; Callan, O'Connell, Church, Dalziel, Omand.
Scorers: O'Connell (87)
Celtic:
Bonnar; Haughney, Rollo; Evans, Stein, McPhail; Collins, Fernie, Mochan, Peacock, Tully.
Scorers: Fernie (30), Mochan 2 (32, 65)
Referee: W Brittle (Glasgow)
Attendance: 40,600
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
