‘The groaning of many a Ranger . . . ‘
Of all the places that Celtic supporters have travelled in support of the Bhoys home and abroad, there is one away ground where the welcome is never warm – but the taste of victory is seldom sweeter! For the duration of the club’s history the relatively short trip across Glasgow to Ibrox Park has often been akin to venturing into a lion’s den.
Little has been written about Celtic’s first ever visit to Ibrox. The first encounter between the clubs, the friendly of 28th May 1888 at the first Celtic Park which was Celtic’s debut in football, famously resulted in a comprehensive 5-2 victory for the new club, with Neilly McCallum scoring the first-ever Celtic goal. In the aftermath of that surprise win, Rangers supporters at large and certainly historians since have sought to play down the significance of the margin of victory by suggesting that a large number of reserve players (known as ‘Swifts’) turned out in blue jerseys that day. If true, it would be expected that there would be a very different outcome on the 27th October 1888 when the clubs met for their first ever competitive fixture – and at full strength – in the third round of the Glasgow Cup, the first time Celtic played at Ibrox.
The modern day Ibrox Park is the third ground that Rangers have had on or near the current site. The club had difficulty finding home and putting down roots. Founded by youths playing football on Glasgow Green, the first enclosed ground used by Rangers was off Great Western Road in the city’s West End before they then moved to Kinning Park in 1876. When that lease expired in early 1887, Rangers opted for a bigger space nearby in the Ibrox district.
The first Ibrox Park opened in August 1887. It backed onto Copland Road and extended over the corner of what is now the Govan and Copland Road stands. It was built by the engineering firm of Fred Braby & Co. who carried an illustration of the ground in a newspaper advert it had opened.
As was common at the time, the first Ibrox Park consisted of a corner pavilion containing the changing rooms, uncovered wooden stands and terracing built around the track that encircled the pitch. It was open to the elements and this would often prove a factor in matches held there. The proximity of Ibrox Park to the city centre is illustrated clearly in this painting from 1897 (the park is in the bottom left corner).
Ibrox Park opened on 20th August 1887 with a friendly tie against the leading English team of the time, Preston North End. It did not turn out to be an auspicious occasion as Preston were leading by eight goals to one when Rangers fans invaded the pitch forcing the referee to abandon the game – a favoured tactic of the Rangers support down the years when their team is being humiliated.
A crowd of just over 4,000 turned out to see Glasgow’s new Irish combination run out on to Ibrox Park for the first time, double the attendance at the clubs’ meeting in May. Celtic had had a good summer, making it to the final of the Exhibition Cup only to lose in controversial circumstances, and had safely negotiated the first three rounds of the Scottish Cup (and would go on to reach the final). There was no league competition at the time. While Rangers were one of Scotland’s oldest clubs and enjoyed a large support they had had a nomadic existence around the city and hadn’t enjoyed great success. They had never won the Scottish Cup unlike Vale of Leven, Dumbarton, Renton, Hibernian and the mighty Queen’s Park (eight times winners at that stage).
There had been a lot of interest in this first competitive game between the clubs from across the city. The Scottish Umpire reported that ‘Since they were drawn in the Glasgow ties, the meeting of such cracks – if I can be pardoned for calling the Rangers cracks – they were once so – caused not a little excitement in the respective camps.’ The Celts, first out the pavilion; were ‘clad in pretty white costumes, and an agile set of fellows they did look.’ The Celtic line-up was Willie Dunning; Paddy Gallagher; Mick McKeown; James McLaren; James Kelly; Willie Maley; Neil McCallum; Mick Dunbar; Willie Groves; Johnny Coleman and Tom Maley.
The weather conditions were not welcoming as the match report in the Glasgow Herald explained: ‘The exposed position of the field laid it open to a strong, gusty south-westerly wind, which, in the course of the game, played havoc with the calculations of the most careful and enterprising players on both sides.’
Celtic were playing into the wind in the first half and Rangers took early advantage of this, their forays in the first few minutes meant that ‘dismay reigned in the camp of the Celtic’ who survived a shot off the crossbar. The Herald noted that the Celts had an ‘evident determination to win’ and had the best of the play as the game settled down although ‘accurate shooting was impossible’ on account of the weather.
Rangers had selected two youngsters, Wilson and Whyte, up front who had won the Junior cup the year before with Fairfield and it was Wilson who, dodging the Celtic backs, broke the deadlock in the 20th minute ‘amidst deafening roars.’ This was a setback for the Bhoys given their strong play so far. The Celtic fans in the crowd wondered how they would respond. Straight from kick-off Celtic launched a counter-attack on the Rangers defence. According to the Herald, ‘Immediately thereafter the cheering was, if anything, intensified when Groves equalised.’ ‘Darlin’ Willie, as the 20-year-old signing from Hibernian was popularly known, was showing his gift for goals that would ultimately lead to him becoming the first £100 footballer in Britain (a significant amount in those days!)
Celtic had overcome the elements to get straight back into the game. Now they were taking the game to their Ibrox rivals: ‘The strangers pressed hardly and determinedly, showing greatly superior to their opponents in the matter of passing, and making a good show against them and the wind.’ A run from Tom Maley opened up the Rangers defence for Mick Dunbar to give Celtic a 2-1 lead in the 41st minute.
It was proving to be a hard-fought contest, the first of many down the years since. After the break, Rangers again started strongly and ‘came away with the same dash as characterised their opening display.’ The Celtic goal was in danger, the Rangers attack ‘was a hot one’ according to The Scotsman. At one point, panic reigned with ‘Dunning, McKeown and Kelly being all upset in a scrimmage’ but the Celtic goal was not breached. The storm weathered, ‘the Celtic now came away with great brilliance’ and it was the turn of the home defence to be tested.
Celtic kept coming, cheered on by the strong support around the Ibrox enclosure. It was at this point, mid-way through the second half, that the Celtic frontline began to combine perfectly, as the Scottish Umpire reported:
‘Twenty-five minutes from time the Rangers wavered, and the Celtic came away with a brilliance which has seldom, if ever, been equalled on Ibrox Park. The dodging and dribbling of the whole forward quintette was a caution, while their shooting was dead on.’
Taking a throw-in, Tom Maley got the return and split the Rangers defence apart with a pass to Johnny Coleman who went through to score and give Celtic a 3-1 lead. Things then moved very quickly. Two minutes later Tom Maley ‘again distinguished himself by heading the fourth goal amid the greatest enthusiasm of the supporters of the East End club’ according to the Herald.
Celtic were causing a major upset. Three minutes later and Mick Dunbar grabbed his second goal of the game and Celtic’s third in a devastating five-minute spell. The reporter of the Scottish Umpire noted that ‘the Celtic followers gave vent to their hitherto restrained wit’ and were glorying in the discomfort of the home supporters.
‘The rapidity of these reverses fairly took all the go out of the Rangers’ according to the The Scotsman. The Rangers captain Donald Gow ‘tickled the major portion of the crowd’ with an undignified assault on the back of Neilly McCallum. This would become recognised as a standard tactic for the Light Blues in the years that unfolded, but the Celtic side of 1888 would not be intimidated. Instead, five minutes from the end, it was the turn of the opposing captain, James Kelly, to secure a sixth goal for the Bhoys and once again assert his importance to the infant club. ‘No Kelly, No Keltic!’ had been the cry and the strenuous efforts that the Celtic committee had made to sign the Renton man would be long rewarded in this manner.
The press were in doubt about the significance of the scoreline. ‘When time was called the Rangers retired within a crushing defeat of six goals to one’ reported The Scotsman. The headline in the match report in the Scottish Umpire was ‘The Cyclone at Ibrox!’ as Celtic had swept away their hosts with a barn-storming performance. That newspaper’s match correspondent, ‘A Puffer’, went to some trouble to convey how down-hearted the Rangers’ support were at this defeat at the hands of Glasgow’s newest team:
Alas, poor Rangers! Hurrah for the Celts!!
It would take a brave soul in the modern Scottish media to submit such a triumphant match report in the event of a six-goal thrashing of The Rangers by the bould, bould Bhoys! That report does however convey the sensation of the result and Celtic’s margin of victory. Celtic had well and truly arrived. Queen’s Park would be in their sights next as the country’s principal side. Scottish football would never be the same again.
If only Rangers had stuck with the ‘reserves’ who had turned out at Celtic Park in May and only lost by a three goal margin!
These are the 11 Celts (in white shirts) that played in that first Ibrox encounter who also turned out against Vale of Leven on 22nd December 1888 – and were there photographed in the first ever Celtic team photo.
Front row: Coleman, McLaren, Kelly, McCallum and Dowds;
Middle row: Groves, Maley (T), Gallacher, Dunning (Goalkeeper with cap), Maley 
and Dunbar;
Back row: Joseph Anderson (Coach), James Quillan, Dan Malloy, John O’Hara (Secretary), John Glass (President), William McKillop, John MacDonald
The first Ibrox Park was to remain the home of Rangers until 1899. The ground had struggled to accommodate crowds in excess of 20,000. The new Celtic Park, opened in 1892, could take crowds of up to 60,000 and was a more attractive site for international fixtures. The Rangers board took out a lease on an adjacent site and built a significantly bigger ground which remained in largely the same form until reconstruction started in 1978 resulting in the creation of a new all-seater stadium.
In 2018, after a series of embarrassing Ibrox defeats equal to that of 27th October 1888, The Rangers reduced the allocation of tickets to Celtic supporters from nearly 9,000 to just 800. It appears that, well over a century on, they still take umbrage at the unrestrained wit of a triumphant Celtic support!
This article first appeared in Issue 6 of The Shamrock
Back issues of the magazine can be bought here: https://the-shamrock.net/magazine/
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