On This Day – December

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December

1st 1974: Simon Donnelly is born in Glasgow
2nd 1911: Patsy Gallacher makes his Celtic debut in a 3-1 home league win over St Mirren.
3rd 1938: Celtic defeat Hibernian 5-4 in thrilling league clash at Celtic Park
4th 1951: Jock Stein signs for Celtic from Llanelly.

 

1982: Celtic lift the League Cup after a 2-1 win over Rangers at Hampden.

5th 1973: Harry Hood hits a hat-trick as Celtic beat Rangers 3-1 in the League Cup semi-final at Hampden Park.
6th 1966: Celtic sign Willie Wallace from Hearts for a fee of £30,000
7th 1966: Celtic beat Nantes 3-1 in Glasgow to qualify for the quarter-final of the European Cup.
8th 1888: Celtic 9-2 Clyde in the Scottish Cup 5th Rd

 

1951: Jock Stein makes his Celtic debut in a 2-1 home league win over St Mirren.

1979: Celtic’s game at Dens Park is postponed. Some fans make their way back to Hampden where Aberdeen draw 0-0 with Dundee United in the League Cup final.

9th 1933: Celtic’s Peter Scarff dies at the age of 25 after suffering from TB.

 

2022: Celtic’s Juranovic plays a MOTM performance to help push his side to a shock victory over Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar.

10th 1966: Celtic 4-2 Motherwell League, Stevie Chalmers scores a hat-trick

 

1997: Celtic sign Harald Brattbakk from Rosenborg

2015: Fernerbahce 1-1 Celtic, UEFA Cup – first ever competitive match for Celtic v Turkish sides

11th 1974: A crowd of 30,000 attend Parkhead to watch Celtic take on Benfica for the Children’s Cup (UNICEF Cup). This one-off fund-raising match is won by the Portugese side on penalties after an exciting 3-3 draw. An impressive £20,000 was raised for charity on the night.

 

1999: Celtic hammer Aberdeen 6-0 in the league

12th 1880: All time Celtic great Jimmy Hay born in Beith, Ayrshire

 

2012: Celtic qualify for the Champions League KO Stages for the third time after a 2-1 win, a nervy display v Spartak Moscow.

13th 1913: Raith Rovers 1-2 Celtic, League; Raith score what was to be the last goal the great Charlie Shaw was to concede for an estimated 1287 minutes! A record that lasted for around 90 years in British football.

 

1958: John Colrain grabs a hat-trick as Celtic win home league tie with Stirling Albion 7-3!

14th 1895: Scottish League: Celtic 6-2 Rangers, Celtic demolish Rangers over festive Period which effectively set Celtic up for league title

 

1957: The Shawfield Disaster – Celtic v Clyde; Wall collapse at game led to the death of one young child, RIP.

1971: Tommy Gemmell moves to Nottingham Forest for a fee of £35,000

15th 1888: Celtic 2-1 East Stirlingshire in the Scottish Cup 6th Rd

 

1917: Motherwell 3-4 Celtic, League. According to the Glasgow Herald match report, Celtic only had 7 players at the scheduled start and kicked off minus one player. Debut and sole game played by Arthur McInally, the elder brother of Celtic great Tommy McInally.

16th 1950: John McPhail scores a goal after only six seconds in a 6-2 victory over East Fife at Celtic Park.

 

2000: On-loan defender Ramon Vega scores twice on his Hoops debut as the Bhoys thrash Aberden 6-0 at Parkhead.

17th 1898: Celtic 3-2 Heart of Midlothian, League; notable landmark in Celtic history, as one of the players on the field was John Walker of Hearts: the first non-white player to have played in a Celtic First Team game (either for or against Celtic)

 

1921: Celtic thump Clydebank 6-0 at Parkhead

2017: Hearts defeat Celtic 4-0 to end Celtic’s record 69 games undefeated record.

18th 1971: Celtic defeat Motherwell 5-1 in league clash at Fir Park

 

1993: Celtic 1-0 Hibs, League, Celtic fans hold a classic protest banner via t-shirts bypassing the board’s efforts to stop protest at the ground to ‘Sack the Board’.

19th 1931: Jimmy McGrory scores four goals as Celtic win league tie 6-0 at Leith Athletic. The game would be Peter Scarff’s last for the Hoops.

 

2014: Unveiling of Billy McNeill statue on the Celtic Way

20th 2002: Daily Record forced to make retraction of “Thugs & Thieves” front page after admitting their report was wrong.

 

1924: Celtic 0-2 Hamilton Academicals, League; Celtic said to have ben playing as if : “Celtic were like sheep without a shepherd”.

1997: Celtic 5-0 Hibernian, Premier Division; Celtic win with Burley double; partly overshadowed by another player spat with McCann

2009: Ten men Celtic take the lead but end up 2-1 losers in a league clash with Hearts at Tynecastle.

2020: Scottish Cup: Celtic 3-3 Hearts; Celtic win on penalties delayed Scottish Cup to complete a record fourth treble in succession, 12 trophies in a row. Quadruple Treble

21st 1935: Jimmy McGrory hits his fourth hat-trick of the season as Celtic defeat Aberdeen 5-3 in league clash at Parkhead.
22nd 1956: Airdrie 3-7 Celtic, League, Celtic’s first floodlit league game. One of the highest scoring games Celtic have ever played in.
23rd 1893: Celtic win 5-4 in a league clash at Dumbarton.

 

1978: Ex-Celt Andy Ritchie scores the only goal as Celtic lose against Morton at Cappielow. This would be Celtic’s last league game until March 3rd 1979.

24th Games On Christmas Eve

 

1955: Celtic defeat Hibernian 3-2 in a league clash at Easter Road.

25th Games on Christmas Day

 

1965: Celtic thrash Morton 8-1 at Parkhead in a league tie.

1971: Celtic defeat Hearts 3-2 at Celtic Park in the last league fixture to have ever been played on Christmas day. *In total Celtic have played 20 times (16 times competitive matches) on Christmas day winning fourteen.

26th Games On Boxing Day/St Stephen’s Day

 

1883: Alec McNair born

1935: Stevie Chalmers born in Glasgow.

27th 1947: Severe sectarian violence spilt onto the pitch at a Belfast Celtic v Linfield match at Windsor Park, set in motion a chain of events that saw the demise of Belfast Celtic

 

2018: Celtic defeat Aberdeen 4-3 away in one of the most pulsating games between the two ever. Aberdeen awarded two penalties, with the second definitely not a penalty. Many Celtic fans say first shouldn’t have been a penalty too. Aberdeen came back twice to equalise, then scored a late consolation goal but Celtic hung on to win,

1969: Celtic thrash Partick Thistle 8-1 in a league clash at Parkhead.

1980: Celtic lose heavily by 4-1 at Pittodrie against Aberdeen. The team were 4-0 down when Charlie Nicholas scored the consolation and gets the biggest roar of the day from the huge faithful Celtic support.

1982: Charlie Nicholas scores his 30th goal of the season in the 5-1 home win over Morton on bank holiday Monday. He wins a prize from the Daily Record in the process for being the first Scottish player to hit 30 goals that season.

28th 1901: Celtic defeat Kilmarnock 4-2 in a league clash at Parkhead.
29th 1979: Rangers 1-1 Celtic at Ibrox in Celtic’s last game of the decade. Bobby Lennox has the distinction over scoring the last Celtic goal of the 70’s.

 

2007: In the Motherwell v Dundee Utd game, Phil O’Donnell fell to the ground near the end of Motherwell’s 5-3 victory, and sadly passed away that same day, aged only 35. RIP

30th 1961: Charlie Nicholas born in Cowcaddens
31st 1898: Celtic travel south of the Clyde to take on Third Lanark in a league tie the Bhoys win 4-2