| Match Pictures | Matches: 1904 – 1905 |
Trivia
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League title 1904/05 Play-off match
- Following the completion of the 26 games, Celtic and Rangers were tied on 41 points each for the league title.
- In those days there was no goal difference or head-to-head to split teams equal on points, in which case Rangers may have won the title (a better goals difference).
- A Championship decider game was decided to be played on 6 May 1905 at Hampden Park.
- An English referee was brought in to officiate the game (F Kirkham of Preston), lest fear of bias but also due to the controversial games of late between the two sides where a recent Scottish Cup tie had to be abandoned.
- Celtic won the game, and began their amazing run of league titles, which at the time set a new record run of title wins (Seasons 1904/5-1909/10).
- This game also doubled as a Glasgow League fixture.
- Rangers had beaten Celtic just over a month before hand in the Scottish Cup 2-0, their prior meeting. The match had to be abandoned with ten mins left due to crowd disturbance.
Review
In 1905, following the completion of the full league season of 26 games in season 1904/05, Celtic and Rangers were both tied on 41 points each for the title (see table below)! In those days, there was no goal difference or head-to-head to split teams equal on points.
On 25th March, Rangers had defeated Celtic 2-0 in the Scottish Cup in a match abandoned with 10mins left due to crowd disturbances, so they could be said to have the upper hand, although Celtic had defeated them convincingly in the previous meeting (4-1 in the league). The earlier league meeting result was a draw, so there was not necessarily any clear favourite.
So a Championship decider game was decided to be played on the 6th May at Hampden Park, a winner takes all match.
This was one of the first Celtic v Rangers games which could be ranked in the legendary sense, and was probably the most important game that the two sides had played in to date (if not ever).
Due to the increasingly strained nature of the rivalry between the supports a neutral referee was drafted in from England to officiate, (F Kirkham of Preson), for fear of bias but also due to the controversial games of late between the two sides where a Scottish Cup tie had to be abandoned.
It was a close game, and all the goals came in a ten minute spell, one each for Celtic from Hamilton & McMenemy in quick succession after 60mins, and then a reply by Rangers to make the scoreline 2-1, and that’s how it finished, with Celtic the champions!
Celtic had won the league in a winner takes all game. A great victory title, which set Celtic up perfectly over the coming years with Celtic winning successive titles from 1904/5-1909/10 inclusive, a then record run of consecutive league title wins. On that basis Celtic were thus deserved and worthy winners of this play-off match.
The beginning of the first Golden Era for Celtic.
Teams
Celtic:
Adams, Watson, Orr, McNair, Loney, Hay, Bennett, McMenemy, Quinn, Somers, Hamilton.
Celtic Scorers: McMenemy 60′, Hamitlon 61′
Rangers:
Sinclair, Fraser, Craig, Gourlay, Stark, May, Robertson, Speedie, McColl, Donaghy, Smith
Rangers Scorer: Robertson 66′
Referee: Mr F. Kirkham (Preston)
Att: 30,000
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Articles
Another championship nailbiter thanks to mighty Quinn – Football
Times, The (London, England)
May 19, 2005
Author: Alex Murphy
At the end of the 1904-05 season, the Old Firm finished level on 41 points each and, according to league rules, the teams had to play off for the title. In hindsight, that seems a trifle harsh on Rangers, who had scored 15 goals more than Celtic in the 26-match campaign and conceded three fewer, but, nevertheless, they faced a title decider at Hampden Park on May 6, 1905.
A crowd of over 30,000 saw Celtic win 2-1, and it was a victory that swung the balance of power in Glasgow. Before that winner-takes-all shoot-out, Rangers had won four of the previous six championships but Celtic’s triumph set up a run of six titles in a row.
Although the Celtic goals that beat Rangers came from Jimmy McMenemy, the inside right, and Davie Hamilton, the outside left, the season really belonged to Jimmy Quinn, the centre forward, whose goals kept Celtic in the hunt when Rangers appeared to be marching away with the title. The campaign was a triumph for one of the most idiosyncratic characters ever to wear the green and white hoops.
Away from the park, Quinn was crippled by shyness and consumed by self-doubt. As a promising youngster he had come to the notice of Willie Maley, the Celtic manager, who made up his mind to sign the boy. But Quinn assured Maley he was not good enough for the big league and he wanted to stay with his pals in junior football.
Maley begged him to join Celtic, and in the end he got his man with methods only just the right side of chicanery. The move did not quell Quinn’s diffidence his nickname in the Celtic dressing-room was “Jamie the Silent”.
On the field, though, Quinn became a warrior in the Celtic cause, willing to fight his corner with the roughest defenders, and he would hobble home after matches, his legs grotesquely swollen with cuts and contusions.
All season long, Quinn maintained a running battle with referees and markers, but his never-say-die attitude lay at the heart of his team’s success. In the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at Celtic Park he was sent-off for fighting. The decision sparked a riot that brought the game to an early conclusion, and Celtic were obliged to forfeit the game.
The incident stirred up so much ill-feeling that a neutral English referee -Mr Kirkham from Preston -was drafted in for the title play-off. The Scottish Football League felt it would be impossible to find any referee in Scotland not infected by the ill-will that ran between the two clubs.
Yet, for all his problems with officialdom, the mighty Quinn managed to score 19 goals in the 21 games for which he was not suspended. The tally included hat-tricks against Port Glasgow Athletic and Motherwell, and a priceless double in the penultimate game of the season, when Celtic beat Rangers 4-1 at Ibrox to drag themselves back into the championship reckoning.
Quinn’s battered limbs finally failed him in 1915, when he retired with his place in the Celtic pantheon assured. He died in 1945, and Maley penned a fitting valedictory: “He was the keystone in the greatest team Celtic ever had.”
Another Newspaper Match Report
These clubs, having tied with forty-one points each, met at Hampden Park, Glasgow, in the deciding game for the Scottish League Championship. The weather was fair, but cold, and there was an attendance of 30,000. The Rangers won the toss, and decided to play against the wind for the first half. The Celtic opened with a spell of futile pressure, and the first real shot of the game came from McColl, who, from a difficult position twenty yards out, gave Adams a high ball to dispose of.
The game early developed a great pace, and both sets of defenders were kept constantly on the move. McMenemy next became conspicuous with a fast shot from the penalty line, but Sinclair was ready and cleared. The off-side rule came very largely into operation, and that, combined with the introduction of other infringements, which, by the way, were mostly from the Celts, made stoppages very frequent. Close on half-time, Robertson got well in on the Rangers right and drove in a hard shot, which, however, went just a little too high. Of the goalkeepers, Sinclair had perhaps more to do than Adams, but at the interval neither side had scored.
The Parkhead forwards resumed with the same dash as had characterised their work in the first half, and while it was not of the same studied style as that of the Rangers, still it proved effective. McMenemy getting a soft shot past Sinclair after twenty minutes’ play. the cheering and excitement which greeted this success was only equalled by that which followed a couple of minutes later, when, following a corner, Sinclair was beaten for the second time by a deceptive shot from Hamilton from the vicinity of the corner flag, the keeper striking the ball against the inside of the post.
From kick-off, The Rangers pressed, and three minutes later Robertson, at close range, converted a pass from McColl. The players resumed with great determination and Adams did not have much to spare when he tipped the ball over the bar from a long free kick shot. the Celtic then commenced putting off time, and Hamilton was spoken to by the referee for deliberately kicking the ball out of the field. Ten minutes from time Gourlay had his leg injured in meeting Quinn, and had to retire for the rest of the game. Play was fast till the finish, but no further scoring took place.
The match also counts as a league fixture
Glasgow Cup Glory for Celtic in 1904 ‘Old Firm decider’
By David Potter
12 December, 2022 No Comments
Sunny could hardly wait for the start of the new season. He trained hard in his determination to be as fit as possible, for he knew that in Scottish football there was nothing easy. There was no such thing as an easy game or an easy team. He was also aware that Celtic were one of the teams that everyone else wanted to beat. Third Lanark, of course, were the League Champions, and Rangers were the biggest rivals in terms of support, but a strong challenge could also be expected from the two Edinburgh teams, and further afield, from Dundee. As it turned out, Airdrie would also be a good team this year.
Various friendlies and benefit matches were arranged, but the League season opened on 20 August 1904 in glorious weather at Meadowside the home of Partick Thistle. To Sunny Jim went the honour of scoring the first goal of the season in ten minutes from a free-kick, and Celtic remained on top for the whole game, even without Jimmy Quinn who was used sparingly in his recovery from his horrendous injury of last May.
Willie Black and his cup winners medal
Young himself picked up an injury in a benefit match against Rangers in midweek and missed the next two League games, the capable Willie Black filling in for him at Clune Park, Port Glasgow in an easy win and in a less pleasant game, the visit of Hearts to Parkhead. Sunny was badly missed as Hearts were allowed a late and undeserved equaliser. The appearance of Parkhead was odd, for there was now no stand on the North side of the ground after the fire of May 1904 and although Celtic wanted to build a new enclosure, they were held up until 1907 by the bureaucracy of Glasgow Corporation.
Hearts gave Celtic a certain amount of trouble in autumn 1904, for they beat them at Tynecastle on the Edinburgh Holiday Monday of September 19 as well, and this time Sunny was playing. It was one of the those days when Celtic played as well as Hearts did, but it was the Tynecastle men who got the goals. Curiously, on that same Holiday Monday, Rangers also travelled to Edinburgh to play Hibs, with both sets of fans apparently mingling harmoniously on the trains! It is difficult to imagine that scenario today!
But there was no real doubt that the competition that was exercising the minds of the Glasgow population in autumn 1904 was the Glasgow Cup, then competed for with much intensity and excitement between the six teams of Glasgow – Celtic, Rangers, Partick Thistle, Third Lanark, Clyde and Queen’s Park, and the final normally held on the weekend of the Glasgow Autumn Holiday. The format was of “two ties and two byes” and Celtic were not lucky enough to get a bye in the first round and had to entertain Queen’s Park, with an Englishman, one John Lewis from Blackburn Rovers, invited to referee, lest there might be accusations of bias about Scottish referees!
The weather was beautiful on 10 September at Celtic Park, and Celtic, with Young, Loney and Hay in commanding form in midfield, won comfortably 3-0 in front of a good crowd of 21,000. Two weeks later the weather was a lot less hospitable and the crowd correspondingly smaller at Parkhead as Celtic took on Partick Thistle in the semi-final. Only 6,000 were there, a larger attendance being seen at Ibrox to see Rangers take on the League champions, Third Lanark. The Glasgow Herald claims (improbably) that “Thistle were easily the better team” but it was Celtic who got the goals through Peter Somers and Willie Black, and thus, as Rangers beat Third Lanark in the other game, New Hampden would stage its third “Old Firm” (as Celtic and Rangers were now called because of their ability to make money) Cup final of 1904.
Celtic had won the Scottish Cup, and Rangers the Glasgow Charity Cup last year. This would be the decider, as it were, and some reports say that 65,000 (more than the Scottish Cup final) were there to see it. 31 turnstiles were now in operation at Hampden Park, and the ambitious claim was made that 900 hundred could be admitted every minute!
The consensus of opinion, however, seems to indicate that the attendance was 55,000, and they saw the following teams take the field on Saturday 8 October . Celtic, having beaten Queen’s Park in the Scottish League the week before with Young being singled out “as the best of the winners” in The Daily Record and Mail were confident of a victory, although the Press tended to think that Rangers were marginally better.
The teams were;
Celtic: Adams, McLeod and Orr; Young, Loney and Hay; Bennett, McMenemy, Quinn, Somers and Hamilton
Rangers : Allan, N Smith and Fraser; May, Speedie and Robertson; Mackie, Kyle, Hamilton, McColl and A Smith.
Referee: T Robertson, Queen’s Park
The weather was ideal, and the turf in perfect condition. In spite of the early loss of a goal, Celtic came really good in this game, as the Rangers attack “died away”. Sunny Jim, having mastered the dangerous Bob Hamilton, took control of the midfield, spraying passes, shouting, cajoling, winning balls and feeding Bennett and McMenemy. Quinn (some say Bennett) soon equalised and then in the second half, Alec Bennett (who, it will be remembered did not play in the Scottish Cup final because his loyalty could not be depended upon!) scored the winner off a rebound after Davie “the Dancer” Hamilton hit the bar. (”The air was vocal with Celtic jubilation” says The Glasgow Observer. ) Rangers then renewed their efforts for an equaliser, but Celtic defended well with goalkeeper Davie Adams playing “out of his shell” in the last desperate ten minutes. But Celtic held out for a narrow but deserved win, until “Tom Robertson’s bugle sang truce” in the poetic words of the triumphant Glasgow Observer.
“The Celts now romped off the field” winners of the first Cup of the season. It was totally deserved on the turn of play. It was (amazingly) their first win in this competition since season 1895/96 and Sunny Jim now had won in less than eighteen months a winner’s medal in four different Cup competitions – the Gloucestershire Cup, the Glasgow Charity Cup, the Scottish Cup and the Glasgow Cup. And he was still only 22!
“Bedouin” in The Daily Record and Mail sums up this game by saying that “By an all round exhibition of pluck and determined play, the side least expected to win rose to the occasion against an eleven reputedly more clever in attack, and gained the Glasgow Cup in a manner than left no dubiety in the minds of the vast throng as to which was the most deserving side on the run of the game”. The Evening Times credits the Celtic defence for the victory, and in a classic piece of Edwardian prose says that “ Hay and Young were largely responsible for the spoliation of Rangers deadliness forward”.
The Glasgow Observer is in gloating mood. It puts its opinions into the mouth of a fictitious character called Riley who talks about “… the teetotal (sic) failure of the Rangers forwards. For two months now the country has rung with the praises of the Ibrox front line. Their skill was poetic, miraculous. It hasn’t taken Sunny Jim long to burst that bubble… the halves (Young, Loney and Hay) are guilty of a sort of athletic gluttony. They monopolise the play”.
The Glasgow Cup, being held in October, was like the Scottish League Cup in the 1950s and 1960s when it was normally done and dusted at that sensible time of the year. The winners had a sense of achievement that stayed with them for the rest of the season. It was a great encouragement. Flushed with this success, Young stepped up his game. A Scottish League medal was still missing, and Sunny was determined to get the full Scottish set.