Matches: 1887 1888 1889 | 1887-1900 | Forum

Celtic Games 1888 - Queen's Park

The Scotsman - Monday, 19th November 1888, page 9

Celtic v Queen’s Park - This match played on. the Celtic' ground at Parkhead was generally regarded as the most important yet played in connection with the. Glasgow. Cup. Upon, its decision largely depended the location of the cup itself. Consequently in spite of the very inclement weather, a crowd of 5000 or 6000 surrounded the ropes. The Celtic were represented by their usual eleven, while the Spiders were without Sellar and A. Hamilton. The Queen's lost the choice of ends and kicked off towards the south. In a minute a regular daisy-cutter from the toe of Berry just got through low down at the corner. Notwithstanding a perfect downpour, a greasy ball, and a soft pitch the play now waged furiously from end to end. The Celts put in some excellent work, but they were met by a dogged half-back line, and Smellie at back was in his best style. The Queen’s Park forwards seemed to gain in confidence from the excellence of their defence, and troubled the Celtic rearguard frequently, and occasionally very dangerously. The dirty weather and heavy ground seemed to suit the Queen’s, and they rattled away in determined style. The Celts’ precision of passing and excellence of manipulation seemed to be greatly handicapped by the adverse conditions, but they could fairly claim to have had the best of the play, though not the most dangerous tries at goal in the first half. When the teams crossed over, the Queen’s led by a goal to nil. The hard play of the first half did not appear to have had any appreciable effect on the players, who again went at it vigorously. The Celts were the first over, and for the first few minutes had the best of it. Then the Spiders took up the running, and from a third corner in succession Robertson headed a second goal for the visitors amidst great cheering. The reverse did not seem to improve the Celts’ play. It lost its effectiveness, and became erratic and wild, while the Spiders were now playing better than ever, and tried severely the good home defence. A portion of the crowd who had got inside the enclosure dragged one of the officials into the crowd, where he was badly handled, and all round threats were showered on the referee. The conduct of the game was above cavil, and had nothing whatever to do with the result. Fortunately the prevailing excitement did not reach the players, who, although playing hard and vigorously, did not descend to foul play. For the greater part of the last half the Spiders completely outplayed their opponents, who, although coming very near to scoring, had in the end to retire with a most unexpected defeat of two goals to love against them.

Celtic Team:-
1. Dunning
2. Gallacher
3. McKeown
4. Maley W
5. Kelly Jas
6. McLaren
7. McCallum
8. Dunbar
9. Groves
10. Maley T
11.J Coleman

Scorers:-