Q "Who
was the first player to move between Scottish clubs for a £100,000
fee?" asks Gareth Evans
A It was Colin Stein from
Hibs to Rangers in 1968
From great games to the game's
greats. If you have a query concerning Scottish football, this is
the place to send it to. We'll answer as many as we
can but regret that we cannot respond individually to requests.
So bookmark this site and look in regularly as questions
and answers are frequently updated.
Q John O'Neill asks: "Have
Celtic ever won the League at Ibrox and if so when?
Results and scorers please."
A It's happened twice.
On Apr 25th 1908 Celtic, with three games remaining, were
a point ahead of Rangers and Falkirk who both had one match to play.
Rangers last game was at home v Celtic and the title was decided
by virtue of an Alec Bennett goal which gave Celtic a 1-0
victory. Falkirk drew their last match to take the runners-up spot.
Alec Bennett had signed for Rangers by the start of the following
season!
On May 6th 1967 Celtic travelled to Ibrox heading the table
by a single point from Rangers. They had two to play but this was
Rangers' final game so anything other than a home win would send
the title to Parkhead for the second successive season.
Sandy Jardine gave Rangers the lead but after
a Bobby Lennox shot came back off the post Jimmy Johnstone
latched onto the rebound to level the game at half-time.
Fifteen minutes from time a Johnstone 25-yarder put Celtic ahead.
Roger Hynd equalised for Rangers close to the end but the
2-2 draw was enough to give Celtic the flag.
In 1981 Charlie Nicholas scored the only goal of the game
at Ibrox to leave Celtic six clear of Aberdeen with three to play.
Technically speaking the title wasn't won that day as a Celtic collapse
and a run of Aberdeen victories would have kept the title with the
defending champions at Pittodrie. Celtic beat 3-2 Dundee United
four days later to officially secure the championship.
The unkind might also suggest 1968 when with both Old Firm
clubs on 61 points with one game to play, Rangers lost for the first
time that season, to Aberdeen at home. That meant that unless Celtic
lost their final game at Dunfermline by 16-0 they would be champions.
So, although they weren't playing there, you could argue that Celtic
won the title at Ibrox by virtue of Rangers defeat!
Q Why
SFAQs? What does that mean?
A FAQs (Frequently Asked
Questions) can be found on many websites, mostly relating to
technical matters and SFA stands for (amongst other things)
Scottish Football Association. So a neat amalgamation of
acronyms gives us SFAQs which means Scottish Football
Answers (to) Questions.
For old SFAQs click here
|
Q From Douglas
Fleming: "Did Clyde ever participate in the Anglo-Scottish
Cup, and if so, what is their record ?"
A Clyde took part just once.
They were beaten 2-1 by Celtic at Parkhead on Aug 3rd 1978 and lost
the return leg at Shawfield 6-1 two days later.
Q Two queries from Jason
Browne. Firstly, he asks "It's a big 'IF', but if Celtic
remain unbeaten this year, will they be the first 'Top Division'
club to go through a league season unbeaten, both in Scotland
and throughout the world?"
A Not by a long way. To give
just two examples: the very first season of organised League football
was in 1888-89 and Preston North End were unbeaten throughout
the campaign. In Scotland Rangers won every match in 1898-99.
Q Jason comes back with "Is
it possible to ask the question again in the 'modern' era?
There's a big difference between winning every game in 1898-99,
and doing it now!"
A What is the modern
era? Even looking at the last few seasons there are several
examples of sides going through a season unbeaten. In Europe alone
it happens regularly in Andorra and in Latvia Skonto Riga
won two titles in succession without losing a match in the mid-1990s.
Of course these Leagues have nowhere near as many matches as in
Scotland and the Aberdeen v Skonto Riga debacle aside
cannot be considered to be of a high standard. Mind you the current
SPL doesnt bear consideration to some of the top leagues.
For instance, at the time of writing Arsenal are also currently
unbeaten in the English Premiership.
But a good example of a League with a reasonable number of games,
of a decent playing standard and with unbeaten champions in recent
times is Romania.
For three seasons in succession 1986-87, 87-88 and
88-89 Steaua Bucharest completed the 34-game season
unbeaten. Dinamo Bucharest did likewise in 1991-92.
Q John Owen asks: "According
to the Scotsman website, Morton won 23 consecutive
games in the 1963-64 season. However, the Sunday Times and
Sunday Herald both give 22 consecutive wins. Which
is correct?"
A The Scotsman
has it right. Morton won their last two League games in 1962-63
and their first 23 in 1963-64 for a total of 25 consecutive
league victories. It's shocking - but sadly not surprising - for
newspapers to get this wrong.
|