| Match Pictures | Matches: 1958 – 1959 | 1958-59 Pictures |
Trivia
- The draw was made for the first round of the Scottish Cup. Celtic were drawn at home to play Albion Rovers on the 31st January.
- In continuing sniping between the Glasgow Magistrates, the SFA and the clubs, the Magistrates called on the Secretary of State for Scotland to give them extra powers to license football clubs and grounds to enable them to enact the suggestions they had made to diminish hooliganism around the Glasgow derbies. There was disagreement on the limiting of attendance at these games and though there appeared to be agreement on the banning of flags and paraphernalia there was disagreement on who would enforce this ban. The clubs in turn wanted the magistrates to impose stiffer sentences on offenders, but most of these were dealt with by the Sheriff Court.
- In a change round to the team, young Billy McNeill lost his starting place to a fit-again Bobby Evans; Eric Smith came in for Pat Crerand; John Higgins was out with McVittie moving out to the right with Mike Jackson coming in inside of him; John Colrain was preferred at centre forward to Jim Conway and Johnny Divers came in at inside left.
- Matt Busby resigned as the Scotland team manager. He gave his reasons as purely for his health. The resignation took effect immediately from 4th December.
- Celtic signed goalkeeper John Fallon and his first reported game was today with the Reserves against Motherwell at Fir Park. The team was Fallon, Donnelly, Kennedy, Crerand, McNeill, Clark, Slater, Tully, Conway, Wilson, Byrne.
Review
THIS GAME WAS ABANDONED ON 82 MINUTES WITH CELTIC WINNING 2-0.
The match was played in fog and the ground showed a hard frost but the conditions were playable and visibility passable. Going underfoot was treacherous with players sliding around all over the place. Celtic took the lead when McVittie crossed and Divers and Weir contested the ball for it to drop for Auld to sidefoot home. Weir had to be stretchers off after the goal and Aitken went in goal. With the fog thickening Weir returned to drop a corner from Auld and Colrain prodded the ball left for Divers to score.
The players came out for the second half with the conditions about the same. As the game continued the fog thickened so that it was not possible to see the far side of the pitch. Weir was again hurt in a collision with Colrain and Aitken again hade to step in between the sticks. Weir returned at outside right with an injured arm. The fog continued to thicken so that it was impossible to tell player from palyer over more than a couple of yards. Eight minutes from time Morris abandoned the game.
Teams
Celtic:
Beattie; MacKay, Mochan; Smith, Evans, Peacock ; McVittie, Jackson, Colrain, Divers, Auld.
Scorers: Auld (20), Divers (29)
Motherwell:
H Weir; McSeveny, Holton; Aitken, Martis, McCann; A Weir, W Reid, St John, Quinn, Hunter.
Scorers:
Referee: R Morris (Falkirk)
Attendance: 26,000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures