Four Celtic greats line up for the Scots against the English at Celtic Park | OneFootball

Four Celtic greats line up for the Scots against the English at Celtic Park…

So Ruth Rendell CSC is back on the case with another fabulous photo from the collection of Steven Quinn, the great-grandson of former Celtic and Scotland Trainer Will Quinn.

Photo courtesy of Steven Quinn.

This time the location is unmistakeable

At least this time the location is unmistakeable, as one of the distinctive facades of the old north enclosure at Celtic Park is clearly visible on the left. From memory, those were erected around 1907/08, so we now have an earliest date to work on.

Some familiar faces jump out from the pages of history. Celtic legends Alec ‘Icicle’ McNair and Jimmy ‘Napoleon’ McMenemy are standing together in the back row, whilst teammate Joe Dodds is seated front and centre with the ball, indicating that he is the team captain. Andy McAtee is sitting on the left of the group and Will Quinn himself is standing extreme left.

Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle. Available from Celticstarbooks.com

The paler jersey and mixed socks suggest to me that this will be a Scottish League match rather than a full international, although I know Alec McNair played for both at Celtic Park, and so it transpires.

The combination of location, period and the four Celts playing together makes this task quite straightforward

The combination of location, period and the four Celts playing together makes this task quite straightforward. This photo is taken before the match between the Scottish League and the English League at Celtic Park on Saturday, 20 March 1915, some eight months after the First World War had commenced.

As a consequence of that horrific conflict there were no full internationals played that season. Willie ‘Sodjer’ Wilson of Hearts, who was making his representative debut, was the only Scottish player to have signed up for the army at that point. The 21-year-old winger was one of 16 Hearts players who made up the famous McRae’s Battalion in November 1914. He was wounded in the Battle of Arras three years later, another gruesome event which claimed the life of current Celtic star Peter Johnstone.

The Scottish League team that afternoon at a wet and windy Celtic Park was as follows.

The English League team lined up as follows.

Charles Buchan – A Lifetime in Football. Photo Matt Corr

Two names jump out

Two names jump out at me from that line-up. Charles Buchan produced many great football books when I was a kid, one of which I still have to this day, whilst Sam Chedgzoy has come up before in my research for the Celtic in the Thirties books, both available at Celtic Star Books in hardback and on Amazon for Kindle.

Celtic in the Thirties – Volume One

Celtic in the Thirties – Volume Two

Sam played for Montreal Carsteel against Celtic on that historic tour of the ‘New World’ in the spring of 1931, by which time he was 42 years old. That was the famous match where Celtic’s Peter Scarff scored five goals in a 7-0 win whilst wearing a green dress shirt borrowed from a spectator!

Chedgzoy best remembered for forcing a change in the laws of the game

Chedgzoy played his final match for Carsteel in the Canadian Cup final in 1939, having passed his 50th birthday, but is perhaps best remembered for forcing a change in the laws of the game. Whilst with Everton in 1926, he famously dribbled the ball directly from a corner-kick to have a shot at goal, then argued successfully with the referee that what he had attempted was perfectly legal. The rules were subsequently amended to reflect that a player taking a corner kick could have only one touch before another player made contact with the ball.

Former Manchester United skipper Charlie Roberts of Oldham Athletic captained England at Celtic Park and was the best player on the field. And if some of the English clubs listed seem unfashionable by today’s standards, then it may help to note that Oldham were favourites for the First Division title that season, one point behind leaders Manchester City but with two games in hand, whilst Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday, Everton and Sunderland made up the top six at that time. Everton would eventually pip Oldham to the title by a single point.

The Scots were seeking a third successive victory in the fixture

The Scots were seeking a third successive victory in the fixture, but it was not to be, England two goals to the good by the interval despite playing against the wind. Eddie Latheron crashed a shot past Jimmy Brownlie off an upright midway through the first half to give the English League a lead which was doubled within three minutes by Harry Martin’s wonderful solo effort.

George Elliott put the English 3-0 up on the 70-minute mark before Joe Dodds reduced the deficit two minutes later with a penalty kick, his second and final goal at that level, after Tom Fleetwood had handled in the box. Sam Chedgzoy ended the scoring at 4-1 with nine minutes remaining to send most of the 45,000 spectators home disappointed.

As a sad footnote to that English League team, first goalscorer Eddie Latheron was another tragic victim of war. He was killed in the Battle of Passchendale near Ypres in north-west Belgium on 14 October 1917, just 29 years old.

A bit of further detective work has now enabled me to identify each Scottish League player in the photograph, although as always, I’m happy to be corrected.

Photo courtesy of Steven Quinn.

Back row; John Wright, Willie Wilson, Willie Reid, Alec McNair, Jimmy McMenemy & Jimmy Brownlie; Front row; Andy McAtee, Jimmy Gordon, Joe Dodds, Peter Nellies & James Bowie.

As an aside, Annie Nellies, the sister of Hearts’ wing-half Peter, married Celtic captain Willie Cringan in 1916, and the two men played together in the half-back line for the Scottish League in a 3-1 defeat to the English League at St Andrew’s, home of Birmingham City, on Saturday, 22 February 1919. Alec McNair also featured in that match, but Celtic’s home League fixture against Partick Thistle went ahead the same afternoon, goals from legends Patsy Gallacher and Adam McLean earning the Hoops a 2-1 win.

Back on that Saturday in March 1915

Back on that Saturday in March 1915, the Celtic contingent chosen by the Scottish League meant that the scheduled domestic fixture was deferred. Hearts took advantage of that by beating Partick Thistle 3-1 at Tynecastle to move four points clear at the top of the table, albeit the Celts had two games in hand.

Willie Maley’s men would recover to clinch the second of four successive League title by four points from the Gorgie men. A Celtic side was in action that day though, the Hoops losing a two-goal interval lead to go down 5-3 at Second Division Clydebank in a friendly. That was the first season in senior football for the Clydeholm-based club who would provide a development platform for the teenage Jimmy McGrory in 1923/24.

Hail, Hail!

Matt Corr

Follow Matt on X – @Boola-vogue

Celtic in the Thirties by Celtic Historian Matt Corr is published in two volumes by Celtic Star Books.