Celtic On This Day – 26th March – David Potter’s Celtic Diary

SATURDAY 26 MARCH 1910 – It is beginning to look as if Celtic are on course for their sixth successive Scottish League Championship. Today at Parkhead a slightly disappointing crowd of 8,000 sees Celtic beat Partick Thistle 3-0 with all the goals coming (almost inevitably) from the great Jimmy Quinn.

SATURDAY 26 MARCH 1921 – A possibly fatal blow is struck to Celtic’s League aspirations this year as they go down 2-3 to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Joe Cassidy and Tommy McInally score the goals, but Kilmarnock’s late winner means that Rangers are now six points ahead of Celtic.

SATURDAY 26 MARCH 1955 – Curiously, both Scottish Cup semi-finals Celtic v Airdrie at Hampden and Clyde v Aberdeen at Easter Road end up as 2-2 draws! In Celtic’s case they had to fight back after losing a goal in 15 seconds and before any Celtic player had touched the ball! But Willie Fernie and Jimmy Walsh score for Celtic to earn a replay. Celtic in fact really should have won, in the opinion of many newspapers.

SATURDAY 26 MARCH 1966 – Without being too impressive, Celtic were nevertheless good enough and professional enough to reach the Scottish Cup final with a 2-0 defeat of Dunfermline at Ibrox. Bertie Auld and Steve Chalmers score the goals, one in each half before a crowd of 53,900. The other semi-final between Rangers and Aberdeen ends up in a draw.

WEDNESDAY 26 MARCH 2014 – Celtic win the Scottish Premier League for the third year in a row by beating Partick Thistle 5-1 at Firhill. Two goals are scored in stoppage time, making the score line a little hard on Thistle. Anthony Stokes scored twice and the other goals came from Liam Henderson, Stefan Johansen and Kris Commons. It is a great triumph for Neil Lennon’s men, but the rest of the season has been disappointing with no real success in Europe or in the two Scottish domestic tournaments.

David Potter