1936-12-26: Celtic 4-0 Albion Rovers, League Division 1

Match Pictures | Matches:19361937 | 1936 Pictures

Trivia

  • The feature of Scottish football on Saturday was St Mirren's hard-earned draw with Hearts to stop the Edinburgh team's sequence of eight successive League match victories. Celtic as expected won comfortably.
  • More remarkable than any upsets of form were the great crowds at all the grounds where English League football was staged on Boxing Day. Almost 1,000,000 people in the aggregate watching the 44 matches (declared attendances 985,000), and at Goodison Park, where Arsenal visited, the gates were closed with 55,000 people inside, but owing to the pressure some spectators encroached onto the playing arena.
  • Scots featured prominently in Huddersfield’s 4-2 victory over Preston with Willie Macfadyen (Ex-Motherwell) getting the winning goal and Frank O’Donnell getting two for Preston.
  • Johannesburg: In a very hard fought contest, Johnny McGrory, the 21-year-old Glasgow boxer, added the Empire title to his British Feather-Weight Championship when he outpointed Willie Smith, the South African champion, over twelve rounds at the City Hall here.
  • In Berlin it was announced that two divisions of about 25,000 men are to be dispatched to Spain to aid General Franco's troops as well as more German warships.

Review

Teams

CELTIC:
Kennaway, Hogg, Morrison, Geatons, Lyon, Paterson,Delaney, Buchan, McGrory, Crum, Murphy.
Scorers:
Murphy, Delaney, (2); McGrory.

ALBION ROVERS:
Morrison, Miller, Waddell, Anderson, Bruce, McFarlane, Trotter, Tom Lyon, Dudley, Murray, Stewart.

Referee: D. F. Reilly (Port Glasgow).
Attendance: 12,000

Articles

  • Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

Articles

The Scotsman – Monday, 28th December 1936, page 3

CELTIC NOT STRETCHED

Celtic had no difficulty in overcoming Albion Rovers. The Coatbridge team are seriously threatened with relegation, and on their latest showing will be decidedly lucky if they are members of the First Division next season. Only at one period during the game did they look like even contesting the issue, but for the most part it was a case of the home attack versus the visiting defence. In the Rovers' rear two men stood out, Ferguson and Bruce. The goalkeeper had plenty to do, and performed most creditably, while the centre half-back strove heroically to stem the Celtic avalanche.

The champions started off very eagerly, Delaney and Murphy being prominent with fast raids and accurate crosses. Murphy early had the measure of his man and in twelve minutes the outside left scored a smart goal, it looked as though many more goals would follow, but Bruce and Ferguson defied all further scoring efforts until the interval. Lyon, the Rovers' leader strove manfully to turn the tide and his bouts with his brother—at centre-half-back for Celtic—brought applause and good-natured chaff from the spectators.

The resumption saw Celts serving up some dazzling footwork, and Buchan laid the ball on for Delaney to increase Celtic's score with three minutes gone. This half was largely a repetition of the first with Celtic more penetrative than earlier. The visiting attack had faded out completely. Lyon had changed places with Connor but to no purpose.

With nine minutes to go McGrory first-timed a Delaney cross into the net, and three minutes later Delaney, with, great deliberation , scored Celtic's fourth and last goal when he shot an accurately-placed Murphy corner kick past Ferguson.

The champions were never stretched. Murphy, has come back to form, and Morrison is improving. Of the others, Lyon was best, with McGrory ever eager.

The attendance was 12,000.
Celtic v Albion Rovers Dec 1936