| Matches: 1887 1888 1889 | 1887-1900 |
Celtic Games 1888 – Shettleston
Scottish Cup First Round
Trivia
- Celtic’s first ever Scottish Cup tie.
- Celtic’s first ever match in one of the major competitions (the league didn’t start up for a few more years, and the league cup until the 1940s).
- Match played at Celtic Park.
- “Glasgow Celtic – a club composed of players of the Catholic persuasion” – Dundee Courier (1888)
- John O’Connor recorded in some databases to have scored all five goals but probably not correct. We believe that one source had it marked as “O’Connor 5x P” which some record as being as if scored 5 penalties, but firstly penalties didn’t exist back then and unlikely Celtic would ever be awarded so many in a match! We believe it was a typo and meant 5 x untraced. The only news reports are short with no goal info other than 1 was maybe an OG.
- James Coleman’s only competitive game for Celtic.
Review
Records seem to claim that John O’Connor scored all five goals in this one game, but this is probably not correct.
Two newspaper reports from the day don’t state that he did, and probably it’s a case that as he was the centre-forward on the day, he was attributed all the goals by some lazy scribe somewhere. Still on paper has has been marked to have scored that incredible tally in just one game.
We believe that one source had it marked as “O’Connor 5x P” which some record as being as if scored 5 penalties, but firstly penalties didn’t exist back then and unlikely Celtic would ever be awarded so many in a match! We believe it was a typo and meant 5 x untraced. The only news reports are short with no goal info other than 1 was maybe an OG.
John O’Connor only played two more league & Scottish Cup games for Celtic.
Teams
Celtic:-
Dunning, McKeown, Coleman, Gallagher, Kelly, McLaren, McCallum, J Coleman, Groves, M Dunbar, O’Connor.
Goals:- O’Connor (5) [likely incorrect]
Shettleston:-
Flannigan, Wilson, Coyle, McKenna, Gray, Stead, Jack, Campbell, McCrimmond, McCombie, Stead
Goal:- Unknown.
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
- Official Site
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Dundee Courier 31st August 1888, Kelly & McCallum join the team of “Catholic persuasion”
Glasgow Herald 3rd September 1888 :
Celtic v. Shettleston.—These teams played their Scottish Cup tie at Parkhead before a fair attendance of spectators: Owing to heavy rain the ground was in a greasy condition, Both teams were represented. The Celts winning the toss, played with a strong wind in their favour. The Shettleston at once surprised their opponents by laying siege to their goal, Dunning on several occasions having to use his smartest tactics to avoid disaster. Through a miskick by one of the bucks, the Celts gained their first point. From this till half-time play was pretty equal. The home team managed a second goal just before the whistle sounded. In the second portion the Shettleston fell away entirely while the Celts added other three points, thus getting into the second round by five goals to one.