1906-04-18: Borders League Select 2-4 Celtic, Friendly

Match Pictures | Matches: 19051906 | 1905-06 League

Trivia

  • Friendly on Wednesday 18th April 1906 at Mossilee Park, Galashiels.
  • A cracking old photograph that appeared on my FB timeline 5 years ago today. It was posted by the Dunse Historical Society, who were looking for information about the image which they found in a collection of old photographs.
  • The San Francisco earthquake occurred today an hour or so before this game kicked off.

Review

1906-04-18: Borders League Select 0-4 Celtic, Friendly - The Celtic Wiki

Friendly on Wednesday 18th April 1906 at Mossilee Park, Galashiels.

According to the Southern Reporter, the special trains were “largely patronised, with the exception of the excursion from Hawick”. Unfortunately the match report is very brief.

Celtic travelled to Mossilee to take on the ‘pick of the Borders’, bringing with them almost 1,000 supporters. Not surprisingly, Celtic strolled through the match and were 4-0 up with 20 minutes to go when they took pity on the struggling Borders side.

To great amusement from the 2,000 spectators Celtic keeper Adams bent down to tie his bootlace as a weak shot approached, letting the ball trickle past him into the net. Near the end a Celtic defender hammered the ball past his own goalie to make the final score 4-2.

This seems to have been the first of that series of matches played against the ‘glamour’ league opposition. On the following Wednesday it was a visit from Rangers with “the Border XI entirely different from that which opposed Celtic last week.

According to a Rangers history book the Ibrox team won 6-1 crowd 2,000. Finally on the next Wednesday it was a visit from Hearts who won 3-1, gate £38. Hearts had won the Scottish Cup that season and apparently paraded the trophy at the game. Celtic had won the Scottish League.

It goes onto say: Such spring-time matches were common in the first half of the twentieth century, to give a boon and a financial help to local leagues. He has also been able to confirm that there were two Duns players in the Borders X1, Blaikie and Cowe. (no first names known).

Teams

Celtic:
Adams, MacLeod and Watson; Young, McNair and Hay; Garry, McMenemy, Quinn, Somers and Bauchop

Scorers:Garry, Hay, unknown, McMenemy

Borders Select

McPherson (Peebles) D Nichol (Gala Villa) Kyke or Kyle (Gala Renton) Melrose (Selkirk) Ormiston (Peebles) Hart (Peebles) Pearson (Gala Renton) Blaikie (Duns) R Sanderson (Peebles) Cowe (Duns) Rorrison or Morrison (Hawick)

Scorers:

Referee: unknown
Attendance:

Articles

  • Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

  • Match Pictures

Articles
1906-04-18: Borders League Select 0-4 Celtic, Friendly - The Celtic Wiki

1906-04-18: Borders League Select 0-4 Celtic, Friendly - The Celtic Wiki