Trivia

• The Patsy Gallacher Cup Final!
  

Review

Teams

Celtic.
Shevlin; W. M'Stay and Hilley; Wilsonn. J. M'Stay, and M’Farlane; Connelly, Gallagher, M'Grory, Thomson, and M’Lean.
Goals:

Dundee.
Britton; Brown and Thomson; Ross, W. Rankine, and Irving; Duncan, M’Lean, Halliday , J. Rankine, and Gilmour.
Goals:

Referee. — J. Dougray, Bellshill.
The receipts, without booked seats, amounted to £2370.
Attendance:

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)
  

Pictures

• Match Pictures
  

Articles

The Scotsman - Monday, 13th April 1925, page 10

SCOTTISH CUP FINAL GREAT CELTIC RALLY

LAST MINUTE'S GOAL DECIDES.

Though it was a last-minute score that gave the Celtic their victory in the Scottish cup final with Dundee at Harnpden Paik, Glasgow, it was well-merited success, for all through the second half, when they were struggling to wipe out the goal lead recorded against them in the first half, the Celtic revealed the will-to-win spirit, and once they did get on level terms they never eased up. It looked for long as if the Dundee defence would hold out but a. brilliantly headed goal by M'Grory upset escalations and dashed the Dundee hopes of a replay, and so the cup went to Parkhead once more.

Taken all over, it was a great game, end as a cup-tie battle was much more impressive and spectacular than the semi-final match between Celtic and Rangers. The fortunes of the teams were followed by 75,000 spectators, who saw a much dourer and more exciting struggle than was provided either by the semi-final or by the previous week's international. How the balance of the play swung first one way and then the other was rather curious. In the frist half Dundee could do nothing wrong, unless it were that they did not score often enough. They played in the open like a team inspired, and the half-backs forced on the game magnificently. They got no more than there due when M’Lean scored with half an hour gone, and when the interval arrived they seemed to have the game well in hand. In many respects the second half was a complete reversal of the first. The Celtic half-backs , who in the first half had never managed to really counter the quick, open game of the Dundee forwards, suddenly assumed command, and right to the end it was a case of the Dundee backs and half-backs struggling, without success, to raise the siege.

A COSTLY MISTAKE

For half an hour they withstood the onslaught grimly, and with plenty of determination, but it was only a just reward that came to the Celtic when Gallagher put the teams on level terms, following a free kick. That kick resulted from an infringement by Brown, and it was a faulty clearance by the same player which allowed Gallagher, in company with a couple of other Celts, to rush the ball into the net. The Dundee defence , which had never wavered until that moment, then became shaky, and it was a case of backs to the wall Another free kick came three minutes from the end, and this time M'Grory from a seemingly impossible position, got his head to the ball, and turned it into the net out of Britton' s reach. The Dundee forwards swarmed down on Shevlin immediately, but their last-minute spurt came too late. In many respects the victory was due to Gallagher, who, more than any other player, infused the fighting spirit into the Celtic in the second half. He was as bustling and elusive as ever, a rare schemer, and an inspiring personality M'Grory, apart from his goal, got few chances, for he was shadowed everywhere he went by W. Rankine. M’Lean, once he got the measure of Ross, put in a fine day's work, and sent over some fine crosses. The half-backs were ineffective to begin with, but improved greatly, and none did better than J. M'Stay in the second half There was nothing wrong with the backs on either side, the play of all being sound, save for that costly mistake of Brown's.

Dundee should have made more of their first half chances. They had openings then, but their marksmanship was faulty,.Hailiday, however, was a clever and dangerous leader and M’Lean was one of the hardest workers in the Dundee team. To the interval the half-backs were brilliant, but they were a spent force after the resumption. Britton had some great saves, and it was mainly due to him that the margin of defeat was not greater.

Celtic.—

Shevlin; W. M'Stay and Hilley; Wilsonn. J. M'Stay, and M’Farlane; Connelly, Gallagher, M'Grory, Thomson, and M’Lean.

Dundee.—

Britton; Brown and Thomson; Ross, W. Rankine, and Irving; Duncan, M’Lean, Halliday , J. Rankine, and Gilmour.

Referee. — J. Dougray, Bellshill.

The receipts, -without booked seats, amounted to £2370.

Magic Moments in the Scottish Cup Final 1925 from “The World’s Greatest Soccer Player, Patsy Gallagher”

“Dundee were leading 1-0 and despondency was creeping into the fans when Patsy, as so often before, produced a moment of pure elation. Getting the ball just inside the Dundee half, he rolled past challenge after challenge, sometimes appearing in danger of toppling over as he swerved and swayed dangerously close to the ground. No Dundee boot or body could stop him completely as he veered, sure foot as a young deer, towards their goalmouth. Finally a heavy, desperate tackle grounded him inside the six-yard box. Patsy hit the ground and for an instant his brave effort seemed to be at an end. But Patsy had not yet parted company with the ball, which remained between his feet. A quick somersault and both Patsy and the ball ended up entangled in the Dundee net for the most unorthodox goal in a Scottish Cup Final.

‘There was something magical, “out of this world”, about it’ the Dundee players said. It was the greatest feat of skill and determination they had ever seen on a football field.’”

He was then aged 32.“Anyone who treated Gallagher badly got his own medicine back, nor did it matter the size, the bigger they were, the harder they fell.”

http://www.gallagherclan.org/sporting_soccer_patsy.aspx