Details
Reference: Traditional derby game with Glasgow Rivals:
Match Rivals: Celtic versus (1) Rangers (OldCo) until 2012, (2) Partick Thistle 2013-2016, and (3) TheRangers (NewCo, Sevco) 2017 onwards
aka: Ne’er Day Derby, New Year Day Derby
First Ne’er Day meeting: Celtic 2-3 Rangers, Friendly Challenge Match, 1 Jan 1894
Background
In Glasgow, traditionally this was the setup for a scheduled annual match v Rangers, and the bragging rights were very much up for grabs.
Following the welcomed death of Rangers in 2012, the New Year’s Day derby was amended to matches v Partick Thistle but since the ascension of the Zombies (Sevco) in 2016 to the top tier, there has been switched to them.
History
For a very long time, incredible as it may sound now, but Christmas was not celebrated in Scotland. Asking many of the older generations, they will tell you about having worked on Christmas day and there were even league fixtures played on the day up until the 1970s which included Celtic. This was mainly due to that Christmas was seen by the less enlightened as ‘Papist’, and in preference in Scotland New Years Eve (Hogmanay) was the main festival day for winter celebration.
As was similar to England, the day after the big family gatherings, it was a public holiday and time for the men to get out the house. With spirits high, expats returned home and the men looking for a way to escape and meet up with the lads, a football fixture was perfect. With pockets dry from festive spending, local derbies saved on travel costs and time. Thus was born the festive derby fixture.
In England, Christmas was the big one, so Boxing Day was the football fixture date, and in some circles sporting fixture traditions sprung up, for example in Rugby League there was a traditional Wigan v St Helens match which was always hotly contested.
In Scotland, Hogmanay was the winter festival day of celebration, so New Year’s Day was the football fixture date. In the first years for Celtic, the New Year’s day fixture was used for interesting friendlies, and Everton played as Celtic’s opponents on the holiday.
The first derby match on New Year’s Day v Rangers was in 1894, a 3-2 victory for Rangers. This was repeated the next year with a reversal in the score, with Celtic winning 3-2 in what was tagged as a ‘Friendly Challenge Match‘ before 18,000 supporters and the match tradition was created. One prescient report remarked that:
“This holiday match, which has all the appearance of becoming an annual institution…”
That’s what it became in time: an annual institution. Some families even began to complain that some of their wanderers were only returning home for the festive season in order to go to the match.
Admittedly, due to the excessive festive cheer at the time fuelled by the booze, trouble could be not far off. As long as you were sensible, you could avoid the worst.
A poignant moment in this annual fixture was in 1971. A stairway gave way and collapsed in Ibrox Stadium, leading to a massive pile-up of spectators and a crush, which resulted in the death of 66 people in the Rangers end. No one should ever die at a football match, and our heartfelt sympathies to all those affected. RIP
One added point to the value of the fixture is that, the fixture happened at the turning point, practically at half way through the season. Victory in this match could therefore be the one to signal the outcome of the league title, or at least the performance of the two sides for the remainder of the season. No better example was in 1998, when Celtic had to win the derby else Rangers would have likely gone on to win ten-in-a-row (league titles) as they were favourites to do so. Celtic won this match, and the whole season turned on the back of it.
Whatever the case on this fixture, it was a great day out for all. It’s lost its lustre a bit as the fixture has been messed about by TV schedules and the saturated sports markets on TV, but it still holds a strong grip on all who have experienced it. Rangers death ended the traditional match, but the replacement with Partick Thistle was fine, and unsurprisingly the new TheRangers (Sevco) club has now taken over as the new derby counterpart for Celtic.
A wonderful tradition from which many Celtic supporters have many great memories of victories, and many sore heads from the hangovers too.
Notable fixtures
- 1894
Celtic 2-3 Rangers, Friendly, 1 Jan 1894
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/1894-01-01%3a-celtic-2-3-rangers%2c-friendly
First ever Celtic v Rangers Ne’er Day Derby match
- 1895
Rangers 2-3 Celtic, Friendly Challenge Match, 1 Jan 1895
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/1895-01-01%3a-rangers-2-3-celtic
First ever Celtic victory in Ne’er Day Derby game
- 1938
Celtic 3-0 Rangers, League Division 1, 1 Jan 1938
Highest ever attendance between the two teams, 83,500 (excluding games at Hampden).
- 1954
Celtic 1-0 Rangers, League Division A, 1 Jan 1954
Celtic defeat Rangers in an important game that helps to set up Celtic for the league title, the club’s first since 1938. Queen of the South at the turn of the year were actually in top spot, with Celtic in fourth and Rangers surprisingly even further behind.
- 1971
Rangers 1-1 Celtic, Division 1, 2 Jan 1971
The Ibrox Stadium disaster, 66 Rangers supporters died in a tragic accident at the end of the match following a stairway collapse. RIP
- 1994
Celtic 2-4 Rangers, SP Division, 1 Jan 1994
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/1994-01-01%3a-celtic-2-4-rangers%2c-premier-division
One of the most pivotal derbies was this 4-2 defeat in 1994. This match was another humiliation for Celtic, and killed off any league title aspirations and the season as a whole. The atmosphere was tense, coming amidst the days leading towards the Celtic Takeover, and this defeat more than any other set off the final chain of events that brought down the board.
This defeat following the match finally convinced the majority to put aside differences of opinions and work to bring down the Biscuit Tin holders. If ever a Rangers victory over Celtic had a positive impact for our club, then only in retrospective could this match be said to be one of those games. Albeit the benefits came over the long term, in the short term it was a disaster.
- 1998
Celtic 2-0 Rangers, SPL, 2 Jan 1998
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/1998-01-02%3a-celtic-2-0-rangers%2c-premier-division
This was the climatic win at any costs for both Rangers & Celtic, for the title to stop the Ranger’s 9 in a row. Celtic would have effectively lost the leg title if this match had been lost, having been 4pts behind before kick-off. Craig Burley and Paul Lambert pulled the rug from under the feet of the Huns, and Celtic pulled themselves back into the reckoning of the league title.