1920-05-01: Celtic 3-0 Hearts, League Division 1

Match Pictures | Matches: 19191920 | 1920 pictures

Trivia

  • After a busy fortnight which saw Celtic play seven matches, the final game of the season sees them beat Hearts, but ultimatley lose out in the championship to rivals Rangers.
  • The Glasgow Herald carries an editorial on “The Riddle of Ireland” as the Home Rule Bill returns to Westminster for consideration. LINK
  • The same edition of the Glasgow Herald at Page 8 reports that Mr. W. W. Wilton, Manager & Secretary of Rangers F.C. was drowned yesterday (Sunday) morning in a yachting accident off Gourock pier.
  • An advert in the Herald tells us that Cranston’s Picture House is showing a film adaptation of H. Rider Haggards‘ novel”King Solomon’s Mines”.

Review

Teams

CELTIC:

Shaw, McNair, Livingstone, McStay Cringan McMaster, Gilchrist, McKay, McInally, Cassidy, McLean
Scorers, McKay, McInally, Cringan

Referee:
Attendance: 10,000

Articles

  • Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

  • Match Pictures

Articles

Match report from The Scotsman, 3rd May 1920

[…] The Heart of Midlothian seemed well on the way at Glasgow to give the Celtic a hard run for the League points at stake, not that that mattered so much with the championship a certainty for Ibrox. A good first half ended without scoring, and throughout that period there were few scoring chances. What opportunities there were were fairly divided. Kane got very little to do, and the same might have been said of Shaw, though the latter had the more anxious time, a fairly strong wind assisting the Hearts. The second period was dull, until McKay manoeuvred for position, and then beat Kane with a strong shot. Immediately afterwards McInnally headed a nice goal, and shortly afterwards Gringan got a brilliant third goal for the Celtic,the game ending at that. Thus the Celts wound up strongly, and the Hearts lost a game they seemed to have quite a good chance of winning. All was lost, however, in a bad five minutes the Hearts had. They could not recover.

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The Glasgow Herald, Monday 03 May, 1920
A RANGERS ACHIEVEMENT
As a rule the Scottish League competition possesses no interest for the majority of the clubs after the first three months of the season. The contest is generally narrowed down to a dual between Rangers and Celtic, and it must be admitted that the endeavours of these clubs to monopolise the leadership invest the closing stages of the competition with an interest that increases as the seasons come round. Last season Rangers held what appeared to be an unassailable position at the head of affairs, yet were deposed , not so much through the shortcomings of players as the injudicious alterations made by the Selecting Committee.

By going to the opposite extreme, by entrusting the fortunes of the club to 12 players, Rangers have this season denied themselves of a long-sought honour, the coveted Scottish Cup and League Championship in the same season. The staleness of the Ibrox team that made possible Albion Rovers’ entry into the Scottish Cup final might also have enabled Celtic to again overshadow their city rivals the more sustained and arduous competition.

As it happened, both clubs were equally handicapped by events that deprived them of prominent players at a critical period.
Dixon, Gordon, Cunningham and Walls, were all incapacitated in turn; McAtee, Gallagher, Watson and Dobbs also were involuntary absentees and as showing how accident plays its part in determining the issue of a contest that extends over eight months it may be pointed out that Rangers gained the deciding point at Dumbarton against a team unable to field any of the regular half-back line.

It is unfortunate that the Scottish League officials should so stultify the competition as to render Albion Rovers position at the bottom of the table interesting merely because of what the Coatbridge club accomplished in the cup competition against the League champions. The question of automatic promotion is not yet within the region of practical politics; the selfishness of the minor clubs discounts the League competition by 50 per cent.