Internationals at Celtic Park

Miscellaneous

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Details

Ref: Scotland Matches Played at Celtic Park
First match: First in 1891 (Scotland 2-1 Ireland)
Number of Scotland games played at Celtic Park: 26 Scotland games
Games: 7 in the 1800s, 16 in the 1900s, 3 in the 2000s
Record: * W18, D2, L6, Scored 73, Conceded 22

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• Celtic has played host to a handful of national team matches. Hampden is not far off, so that is always going to be the home for the national side. However, Celtic Park has been an amenable host and has been rated higher than Hampden for these games.
• There has also been a Scottish League v English League game played at Celtic Park, which used to be a regular fixture long back.
• Notably: There was also a Scotland v England Ladies match played at Celtic in 1918, see: link.
• Below is a summary of some of the more notable international games at Celtic Park.
• In 1894, John Reynolds, an Irishman, played for England and scored against Scotland away at Celtic Park (the ground of the [then referred to] ‘Irish club‘). He later moved and played for Celtic.

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Scotland matches played at Celtic Park

Year	Date	Opponent	Scored	Conceded	Competition	Note
1891	28 March 1891	Ireland	2	1	Home International Championship
1893	25 March 1893	Ireland	6	1	Home International Championship
1894	7 April 1894	England	2	2	Home International Championship
1895	30 March 1895	Ireland	3	1	Home International Championship
1896	4 April 1896	England	2	1	Home International Championship
1898	2 April 1898	England	1	3	Home International Championship	First defeat
1899	25 March 1899	Ireland	9	1	Home International Championship
1900	7 April 1900	England	4	1	Home International Championship
1901	23 February 1901	Ireland	11	0	Home International Championship
1903	21 March 1903	Ireland	0	1	Home International Championship	First defeat by Ireland
1904	9 April 1904	England	0	1	Home International Championship
1905	18 March 1905	Ireland	4	0	Home International Championship
1907	16 March 1907	Ireland	3	0	Home International Championship
1911	18 March 1911	Ireland	2	0	Home International Championship
1914	28 March 1914	Wales	0	0	Home International Championship
1920	13 March 1920	Ireland	3	0	Home International Championship	First match v Ireland (IFA) post War of Independence.
1922	4 March 1922	Ireland	2	1	Home International Championship
1924	1 March 1924	Ireland	2	0	Home International Championship
1930	22 February 1930	Ireland	3	1	Home International Championship
1933	16 September 1933	Ireland	1	2	Home International Championship	Irish Flag controversey
1997	2 April 1997	Austria	2	0	World Cup qualifier	Hampden refurb
1997	11 October 1997	Latvia	2	0	World Cup qualifier	Hampden refurb
1999	31 March 1999	Czech Republic	1	2	European Championship qualifier	Hampden refurb
2006	2 September 2006	Faroe Islands	6	0	European Championship qualifier
2014	14 November 2014	Ireland (Republic)	1	0	European Championship qualifier	Hampden out of use due to Commonwealth Games; Managers were both ex-Celtic managers (Martin O’Neill & Gordon Strachan)
2014	18 November 2014	England	1	3	Friendly	Hampden out of use due to Commonwealth Games;

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1891

Details To be added: 1891 (Scotland 2-1 Ireland)

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1893

1) The English League side who beat a Scottish League side that year by 4 goals to 3 at Celtic Park, Glasgow.

(top l-r) William McGregor (Founder of the Football League), Thomas Clare, John J. Bentley (Chairman of the Football League Division one, later President of the Football League), John Southworth, Charles Perry, R Molyneux, William Rowley and Harry Lockett (Football League Secretary).
(middle row l-r) William Bassett, Fred Geary, Robert Howarth, Harry Wood and Joseph Schofield.
(front l-r) John Reynolds and Ernest Needham

2) Celtic 6-1 Ireland (IFA)

British Championships 1893

Sat 25th March 1893

Parkhead, Glasgow (H)

Att: 12,000

Four Celtic players James Kelly, McMahon, John Campbell and Willie Maley playing for Scotland.Renton’s goalkeeper John Lindsay was also playing for Scotland which could help in part to additionally explain the heavy scoreline in Celtic’s favour as the Celtic First Team played Renton on same day winning 6-1.

This is possibly the oldest sketch of Celtic Park currently known.
See: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/celtic_graves/very-early-cartoon-image-scotland-v-ireland-25th-m-t1575.html

However not all were enamoured by the new club with a writer in 1893 in the North Britain Daily Mail derogatorily stating his unequivocal opposition to those of Irish heritage & pointedly at Celtic to be permitted to play for the national team:

“The Scottish Football Association was misrepresenting Scotland by allowing Irish, or Celtic players in a Scottish representative team. With all due deference to the Celtic men’s ability, I hold an accident of birth don’t make them Scotchmen. They, as a team, are banded together for Irish purposes”.

1893 The North Britain Daily Mail on Celtic, the Irish and playing for Scotland:

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1894

7 April 1894 – Scotland 2 England 2 [1-1]
Celtic Park, Glasgow
Att: 45,107
Scotland 2 England 2 [1-1]
Saturday, 7 April 1894Home International Championship 1893-94

• Three Celts: Alex McMahon, James Blessington, Dan Doyle
• Jack Reynolds, later short stint at Celtic, played for England. He was thus an Irishman playing for England to score against Scotland away at the ground of the [then referred to] ‘Irish club’ Celtic (whom he later played for).
• Interesting note is that at the Scotland v England match, this match has the oldest picture of Celtic Park, and there is a huge Union Jack flying in the background on the ground. Some history: this was the new League Title Flag and was unfurled for the first time at this match. The flag was in GREEN! The Union Jack in green!

Pictures courtesy of Jamie Fox (posted on social media), posting that :
“Not only is it the first photograph of Celtic Park but the first photograph of any International: Scotland 2 England 2”

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1895

Scotland 3-1 Ireland,
30 March 1895
Score 3-1 to Scotland
Competition British Home Championship
Venue Parkhead, Glasgow Attendance 21,000

Scotland
Starting lineup:
Defender/Forward John McPherson
Left back Daniel Doyle
Centre half Jack Taylor
Forward William Lambie
John Drummond (captain)
Neil Gibson
Daniel McArthur
David Russell
James Simpson
Thomas Waddell
John Walker I
Goals:
William Lambie G
John Walker I G
John Walker I G

Ireland
Starting lineup:
Thomas E Alexander
James H Barron
William K Gibson
Thomas McClatchey
Hymie McKie
Thomas Morrison
John Ponsonby
Lewis Irwin Scott
Thomas Scott
William Sherrard
Olphert Martin Stanfield (captain)
Goals:
William Sherrard

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1896

4 April 1896 – Scotland 2 England 1 [2-0]
Celtic Park, Glasgow

Saturday, 4 April 1896 Home International Championship 1895-96

Celtic Park, Kerrydale Street, Parkhead, Glasgow, Lanarkshire
Official Attendance: 51,345 but attendance most likely 56,500 (a new-world record attendance).

Receipts: £3640-£3744; Kick-off 3.55pm GMTScotland – William Lambie (‘Raikes threw the ball out, Lambie at once got the ball, and gave the goalkeeper no chance’ 25), Jack Bell (‘King kicked across the goalmouth, Bell got up and close in, kicked a goal’ 30).England – Billy Bassett (‘Goodall passed out to Bassett, who steadied the ball, and with a swinging shot, scored’ 75)

The mass attendance was not without its problems, many scaled fences and obtained entry without ticket. A number upwards of 60,000 present could be considered. The spectators stood right up to the touchline throughout and naturally handicapped the wing men.

Just one Celtic player in Scotland side, James Blessington.

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1898

2 April 1898 – Scotland 1 England 3 [0-2]
Celtic Park, Glasgow
Att: 40,000

Celtic Park, Kerrydale Street, Parkhead, Glasgow, LanarkshireAttendance: ‘close upon’ 40,000 receipts: £3229 10s 6d; Kick-off 4.00pm GMT;England – Fred Wheldon (‘shot the ball through following a scrimmage’ 3), Steve Bloomer (‘a high shot’ 23, ‘a Spikesley centre gave Bloomer what was practically an open goal’ 70)Scotland – James Millar (‘after missing one shot, sent home another’ 46)

Two Celts: Dan Doyle, John Campbell

Provisions were made to accommodate 60,000. The Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders not only provided the pre-match entertainment, but also added as extra security to assist the large staff of policemen already assembled.
Crushing in the south-west corner occurred an hour before kick-off. There were no casualties

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1900

7 April 1900 – Scotland 4 England 1 [4-1]
at: Celtic Park, Glasgow
Att: 63,000
Only 1 Celtic player in that whole team (J Bell), five Rangers players.

“Celtic Park furnished a great display of Lord Rosebery’s racing colours, which the Scottish eleven also wore as a mark of their appreciation of his visit…”

Receipts £4,387 9s. 6d.;
Kick-off 3.30pm GMT
Scotland – Bob McColl (‘from a throw-in, the ball was turned over to McColl, who easily beat his defenders and scored with a wonderful shot’ 1, ‘Smith and Campbell got through to make an opening for McColl’ 30, ‘a fine piece of combination by the forwards ended in a McColl goal’ [England’s 100th goal conceded] 44), John Bell (‘got the ball and dribbled it through’ 6)
England – Steve Bloomer (‘Athersmith’s pass, Bloomer’s faultess shot’ 35)

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1904

9 April 1904 – Scotland 0 England 1 [0-0]Celtic Park, Glasgow
Att: 40,000

Celtic Park, Kerrydale Street, Parkhead, Glasgow, LanarkshireAttendance: 40,000; Receipts £1900 (gate) £600 (stands); Kick-off 3.32pm GMTGlasgow Herald states 45,000, whilst The Mirror states ‘just short of 50,000.England – Steve Bloomer (‘Blackburn received from Harris. The former tried to pass across, and Watson to clear, but he missed his kick, and the ball came to Bloomer, who found the net with a high shot’ 64)

No Celtic players
Goalkeeper McBride replaced the original choice, Hibernian FC’s Harry Rennie, who had injured his ankle in the inter-league match. Other changes include Tom Jackson replacing Newcastle United’s Andrew McCombie at right-back. In the forward-line, Sandy Brown replaced Rangers FC’s Bob Hamilton in the centre and Ronald Orr replaced Manchester City FC’s Livingstone on the left.

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1920

The Scottish national team at Celtic Park on 13/3/1920 for a match against Ireland. Goalkeeper has less of a bunnet and more of a service cap on! The attempt at “Céad míle fáilte” must have put Ireland off as the lost 3-0

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1921

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1922

Scotland 2-1 Ireland,
4 March 1922

Ireland v Scotland at Celtic Park
Tournament: British Home Championships

Scotland Goals: Andrew Wilson 61′, 83′
Ireland Goal: Billy Gillespie 43′

Attendance: 40,000
Referee: Arthur Ward (England)

The 1921-22 British Home Championship was an international football tournament played during the 1921–22 season between the British Home Nations. Scotland were victorious as part of a string of seven victories during the 1920s. England and Wales came joint second with Ireland coming last.

Frank Collins was capped for Ireland whilst a Celtic reserve, and played for Ireland v Scotland in this game.

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1933

Scotland 1-2 Ireland, 16 September 1933

att: 27,135, Celtic Park Glasgow

Created controversy from the IFA (i.e. Belfast based FA) who complained about the presence of the Irish flag being flown at Celtic Park for this match (see link). Last Scotland game played at Celtic Park until 1997, possibly the protest was the reason (in whole or in part) for this, as future Scotland Ireland games were played elsewhere in later years. Note also, that  Scotland had a dire Home Nations Championships this season (1933/34), coming fourth, when generally they were always challenging for the title. So possibly attributed the defeat at Celtic Park in part on this.

Scotland
Starting lineup:
Wing half Alex Massie
Outside right Jimmy Boyd
Andrew Anderson
John Harkness
James King
Alexander ‘Toby’ Low
Peter William McGonagle (captain)
James McGrory
Robert McPhail
William Telfer
Alexander Venters
Goals:
Robert McPhail

Ireland
Starting lineup:
Bertie Fulton Defender
Alex Stevenson Inside forward
Hugh Blair
John ‘Jackie’ Coulter
Jack Jones
John ‘Jackie’ Mahood
David Kirker ‘Boy’ Martin
Johnny McMahon
Billy Mitchell
Elisha Scott
Goals:
David Kirker ‘Boy’ Martin (x2)

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1997-99

Three Scotland games played at Celtic Park in the late 1990s: 2-0 v Austria, April 1997 2-0 v Latvia, October 1997 1-2 v Czech Republic, March 1999

TBC

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14 Nov 2014

Scotland 1-0 Ireland

Celtic v Celtic – Battle of the Celtic Managers

Back in 2014, Glasgow was host to the Commonwealth Games and put together an incredibly well done event that really brought all together and helped to heal some of the past issues from the fractious independence referendum. This led to the problem that Hampden was thus out of use for a period of time as it was refitted following the games, and Celtic Park was picked as the venue for important European Championship Qualifiers v Ireland. Both sides needed this win as the group was the closest of any going in the tournament, defeat for Scotland likely would have killed off any chances of automatic qualification before the half-way stage.

Additionally, there was added spice for the Celtic fans. If you ever read back to the old match threads, reports and reviews by Celtic fans from the 2000’s, a common argument was “MoN v WGS“, as who was the better manager: Martin O’Neill or Gordon Strachan? The comparisons were difficult, and the arguments at times nauseating, but in 2014 both Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan were made the new Ireland and Scotland managers respectively, and were drawn to face each other in competitive matches for the Euro Championships. Add in ex-Celt Roy Keane being MoN’s assistant, and it was a tasty showdown, but nobody was going to truly believe this would settle any old arguments. Time had passed by for the old debaters, and both managers were respected for their time at Celtic.

We don’t need to explain on this site on the interesting historical aspects to this showdown. Celtic (a club with Scottish & Irish roots) playing host to the Republic of Ireland v Scotland at our own homeground, so who exactly was it a home match for?

The weird aspect was for the Scotland-supporting Celtic fans supporting a team in blue against a team in green at Celtic Park. The Irish were noisy as hell and more than made their own felt despite being outnumbered at Celtic Park.

The FAI and SFA ended up in a spat after the SFA only gave 3000 tickets to the Irish fans, although there were plenty of Celtic fans supporting Ireland dotted around the place. The FAI had actually messed up and the arguments can be left for elsewhere.

The great thing about the match was the lack of TheRangers involvement. No Sevco players in the starting team, although ex-Rangers OldCo player Naismith was playing. The backbone of the team turned out to be Celtic players current & former: Marshall, Brown, Mulgrew and Maloney. The Celtic contingent ran the game, and it was a wonderful goal by ex-Celt Maloney with an assist by Celtic captain Scott Brown which won the game for Scotland. There was also a Celtic contingent in the Irish squad too, including ex-Celt Robbie Keane (subbed on) who whinged afterwards as he was not given a starting place in their First XI for the first time in ten years or so.

WGS went home happy, and MoN was left frustrated at the end. He admitted it was the first time he’d ever been in the away dressing room at Celtic Park too. Ireland, Scotland and Germany were now all in second place on 7pts, with Poland top on 10pts.

A great night for Scotland with no trouble. Notably, various commentators were stating that Celtic Park was far superior to Hampden, including Scott Brown (Scotland Captain), Davie Provan and even ex-Scotland manager Craig Brown.

“Hampden, we should find a new use for. It’s a waste of space.”
Davie Provan

The match was tarred as certain of the tabloids tried to stoke up tensions due to ex-Celt Aiden McGeady playing for Ireland instead of his country of birth (Scotland). It didn’t reflect well on the Scottish support for the level of booing & even abuse he was receiving from them during the match.

On a sadder note, one Scotland supporter died in an accident on the stairs as the crowd was dispersing (there were no suspicious circumstances), and to his family our sincere condolences.

Scotland:
Marshall, Whittaker, R Martin, Hanley, Robertson, Maloney, Mulgrew (D Fletcher 88), Brown, Anya, Naismith, S Fletcher (C Martin 55).
Subs not used: Gordon, Berra, Dorrans, Greer, Bannan, Burke, Russell, May, Gilks.
Booked: Hanley, Robertson.
Goals: Maloney, 74.

Rep. of Ireland:
Forde, Coleman, Keogh, O’Shea, Ward, McGeafy, Hendrick (Keane 78), Gibson (Quinn 69), McClean, Walters, Long (Brady 68).
Subs not used: Randolph, Clark, Christie, Meyler, Pilkington, Given, Murphy, Pearce.
Booked: Coleman, McGeady, Hendrick.

Ref: M Mazic (SER)
Attendance: 59,239.

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17 Nov 2014

Scotland 1-3 England – Friendly

In 2014, Scotland was going through quite an eventful time. The Scottish Independence Referendum became a major concern for everyone, but the result saw the status quo remain yet nothing was to remain the same.

Following only a few days after the impressive win against Ireland, Celtic Park was to again host Scotland but against the Auld Enemy England in a needless friendly.

The match followed not too long after the divisive independence referendum, and for some tensions were still high outwith the ground. Still, it was a friendly and it was hoped to go without any problems.

The match itself was one sided as England swept easily over Scotland despite a late ray of light with a Scottish consolation goal. Two goals from Wayne Rooney sealed the win which saw neither side really move out of the low gears to make a maths things. Many fans were angry at the fare on show when compared to the extort price for the tickets. For Rooney it was a proud moment as being a sympathiser to Celtic he had finally got to score at Paradise…and the England players did a Celtic huddle!

The main talking point ended up with that on the terraces. Obvious banter between the two sets of supporters was inevitable, however a large contingent of England fans began taunting the home support with anti-Irish and anti-IRA chants. Misplaced they were but it was disgusting and showed that England still had that hardcore scum element who saw a grand opportunity at Celtic Park to belt out the Hunnish tunes.

Following the match, the English FA apologised for a small number of fans who took part in anti-IRA singing. It emerged the FA had contacted the England supporters’ band at half-time to stop playing when it inadvertently provided background music to the chanting. Manager Roy Hodgson said: “I didn’t have a clue what they were chanting. If anyone was offended, I’m sure the FA would like to apologise to them.” Respect to them for that as in Scotland, nothing would happen.

Anyhow, at the end of the day Scotland lost, match easily forgotten and the world didn’t budge from its axis. So all still in order, and for many a thankful end to the international games for the moment.

Scotland 4-2-3-1:
Marshall 7 (Gordon 46, 6), Whittaker 5.5, R Martin 6.5, Hanley 5 (May 66, 6), Robertson 7, Maloney 6.5 (Russell 81), Mulgrew 7.5, Brown 6 (D Fletcher 46, 6.5), Anya 5.5 (Bannan 61, 6), C Martin 6 (Morrison 46, 6), Naismith 7.
Subs not used: Bryson, Berra, Dorrans, Greer, Burke, Macleod, Forsyth, Paterson, Gilks.
Goal: Robertson 83.
Booked: Mulgrew.
Manager – Gordon Strachan:

England 4-4-2:
Forster 7, Clyne 7.5, Cahill 6.5 (Jagielka 46, 6.5), Smalling 6, Shaw 6.5 (Gibbs 66, 6), Oxlade-Chamberlain 7 (Lambert 80), Milner 7, Wilshere 7.5 (Barkley 87), Downing 6 (Lallana 46, 6.5), Rooney 8, Welbeck 6.5 (Sterling 46, 6.5).
Subs not used: Foster, Chambers, Henderson, Walcott, Berahino.
Goals: Oxlade-Chamberlain 32, Rooney 47, 85
Manager – Roy Hodgson

Attendance: 60,000
Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)

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Scotland v England game at Celtic Park

From this book on Edinburgh http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv3c40e0b3

The book is dated 1899, so it’s probably the 1898 match, although could be 1896.

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