Celtic’s First Ever League Cup Triumph

Given earlier results this season, fans not care to mark this particular anniversary. But 70 years ago today, Celtic first celebrated winning the League Cup in a replay against Partick Thistle…

Celtic’s first ever League Cup win. Match Programme, image via The Celtic Wiki

In the decades since, it has gone on to be a competition with a peculiar place in the Celtic story. At times there has been spells of prolonged achievement but other periods have seen a sustained lack of success. The Scottish League Cup’s origin goes back to the days of World War Two.

During the conflict, national football competitions were replaced by regional events. One such tournament was the Southern League, with a Southern League Cup also being played. When the war ended, national football soon returned. Until this point, there had been two Scotland-wide competitions – the League and Scottish Cup. Now a third was available with a new League Cup.

Celtic v Partick Thistle, League Cup Final 1956. Image The Celtic Wiki

It was not a tournament that brought early success for the Celts. Quite the opposite in fact. Celtic in the 1940s were a shadow of the club they would become and actually came close to relegation in 1948.

For the first few years of the League Cup, Celtic struggled to even get out of the group stages, never mind advance to the latter stages of the contest. However, by the 1950s, some improvements began to be evident.

Season 1956-57 marked the tenth anniversary of the competition’s founding. Celtic – led by manager Jimmy McGrory – hoped to finally have a positive impact and perhaps bring the trophy to Celtic Park.

Back in the 1950s, League Cup group stage matches acted as the season opener. This season, Celtic were drawn in Group Two, alongside Aberdeen, East Fife and Rangers.

Given the League Cup success enjoyed by the Ibrox and Fife sides – between them, they had claimed half of the ten victories to date – the Bhoys’ hopes appeared grim.

Instead, Celtic enjoyed a very successful group stage. They emerged at the top of their section, unbeaten after six games. In fact, there were five wins to cheer for the Celtic support, with only a 0-0 at Ibrox stopping a 100% victory record.

Bobby Evans becomes the first Celtic captain to lift the Scottish League Cup on his day in 1956. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Still, this mattered not as the Bhoys marched on to the quarter-finals. This tie paired Celtic with another Fife team, Dunfermline Athletic. It proved to be a very strange pair of games.

At Celtic Park, the Celts trounced their guests by six goals to nil, thanks to strikes from Bobby Collins, Neilly Mochan and Billy McPhail, as well as an own-goal.

Bobby Collins in action during Celtic’s first ever League Cup Final victory against Partick Thistle in October 1956. Photo The Celtic Wiki

When the Celts travelled to East End Park three days afterwards for the second leg, the match seemed to be over. This explains why the Pars were able to enjoy a surprise 3-0 victory, albeit that it was not enough to change the overall result. Thus, Celtic marched on.

For the first time since 1951 – which ended in a 3-0 loss to Rangers – the Celts were in the semi-finals. This time their opponents were near neighbours, Clyde. In a Hampden fixture, Billy McPhail – who previously turned out for the Bully Wee – scored twice to knock out his old teammates and send the Celts to their first League Cup Final.

The other semi-final proved to be more complicated. As Celtic were beating Clyde, Partick Thistle and Dundee played out a 0-0 draw, which necessitated a second match. This proved to be an historic occasion. The two sides went to Ibrox for a midweek replay and this was the first major game in Scotland played under floodlights.

In an engrossing fixture, Partick Thistle emerged as winners thanks to the odd goal in five. This took the Jags to their second League Cup Final, whereas the Celts would be making their debut at this stage of the contest.

The final was held at Hampden and fixed for 27 October 1956. 59,000 attended the match, expecting to be well entertained. This was no surprise given that so far in Celtic’s nine League Cup fixtures, the Bhoys had scored 18 times.

These hopes proved to be misplaced. One match report the following day described the game as “one of the most disappointing Scottish League Cup Finals for some time.” This followed a goalless encounter, even after extra-time was played too.

Celtic had enjoyed most of the possession. Thistle struggled owing to injuries with some last-minute picks proving to be the wrong gamble. But despite the Bhoys dominating, their attack was ineffective, with Willie Fernie in particular being criticised. Given later events, he perhaps had his own reasons for this.

Celtic’s first ever League Cup win, image via The Celtic Wiki

The two teams would have to do it again, so four days later, they returned to Glasgow’s southside. This time, a much smaller crowd of 31,000 were in attendance, partly due to it being a week night but also reflecting some disappointment with the first tie.

In addition, the match was overshadowed by dramatic global events. The Hungarian Revolution had just begun, seeing the might of the Soviet Union being challenged. And the Suez Crisis involved British military action in Egypt, which led to global outrage and condemnation.

Photos taken at the Belfast Celtic XI v Celtic match played at Celtic Park, Belfast on 17 May 1952. Four months later, to the day, Jackie passed away, aged just 22.

Above: Jackie Millsopp (right) looks on as John Bonnar clears for Celtic with Willie Fernie and Jock Stein in close attendance and captain for the day Charlie Tully in the background, hands on hips.

Below: Jackie is seated second from right before the game.

Photo via Celtic in the Fifties by Matt Corr.

Even in Glasgow, the Celtic team had their own distractions. In-between both matches, Celtic forward Willie Fernie married Audrey Douglas, who was Jimmy McGrory’s secretary at Celtic. This maybe explained Fernie’s previous poor performance!

Still, these matters were not immediately on the minds of Celtic or Partick Thistle fans. Back at Hampden – playing on Halloween 1956 – each hoped to see their favourites claim Scotland’s League Cup for the first time.

Celtic made one notable change to their team: Neil Mochan came into the side, with Jimmy Walsh dropping out. Charlie Tully switched wings to accommodate the reshuffle, with notable results. Thistle also adjusted some of their line-up.

Both sides seemed determined to not have a repeat of the previous no-score draw. From the start, they pressed for an opener, but by half-time, this was yet to arrive. Fans may have worried it would be another night without goals, but this all changed early in the second half.

Billy McPhail, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Four minutes after the interval, Celtic finally got the breakthrough. A short pass back from the Thistle defence was seized upon by Billy McPhail, who hooked the ball over Ledgerwood to make it 1–0.

The goal lifted Celtic and deflated Thistle. And just two minutes later, Celtic struck again. Charlie Tully, always capable of producing moments of brilliance, wrong footed the Thistle defence.

He sent the ball to Mochan who squared the ball to McPhail, who finished for his second goal of the afternoon. With this advantage, the match seemed to be over, but Thistle knew that one goal could yet turn this around.

Twelve minutes later, these hopes were dashed. Bobby Evans found Bobby Collins, who drove forward and beat Ledgerwood with a low, precise shot. A three-goal advantage truly reflected the Bhoys’ dominance and proved to be the final score.

Bobby Evans, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

At the close of the game, Celtic captain Bobby Evans received the League Cup on behalf of his teammates. It would soon find its new home in the Celtic Park trophy room.

The following day’s newspaper headlines summed up the match. One noted that Thistle were “without a sting” whereas the Bhoys celebrated their “First success in Competition” said another. Numerous players were praised but most journalists singled out Charlie Tully for his contribution to the Celts’ success.

Now that the Celts had finally claimed the League Cup, they showed no signs of letting it go. And their next final would go down in club folklore as arguably the most famous scoreline of them all.

The following season, Celtic again reached the final, but this time their opponents were Rangers, who were favourites to claim victory. Instead, on a sunny day at Hampden, it was the Celts who triumphed thanks to a British record 7-1 scoreline.

However that would prove to be Celtic’s last hurrah for some time, not just in the League Cup but all national contests. It took eight years – and the arrival of Jock Stein – before Celtic again claimed any national prize. The 1965 League Cup victory was the first of five in a row for the men in green. But then Celtic played in eight successive finals, losing seven of these. In fact, from 1975 to 1997, Celtic only once won the trophy, including a final defeat from lower league Raith Rovers.

On the other hand, the twenty-first century has – in the main – been a very different experience. In the first quarter of the century, Celtic won 11 League Cups, including four-in-a-row as part of an unprecedented quadruple treble.

Of Scotland’s three main domestic competitions, the League Cup is sometimes in a bit of a Cinderella position, being seen as the least important. However, it has still provided Celtic with numerous momentous moments, not least in 1957 and as part of a Treble seasons.

And, for the Bhoys, this all started on one October day back in 1956.

Green, White and Silverware by Matthew Marr. Click on image to order

If you want to learn more about Celtic history, you can buy a new book: Green, white and silverware by Matthew Marr.

This tells the story of Celtic’s less well-known trophy wins and is available now on Amazon as hardback, paperback and Kindle. You can order your copy here. Green, white and silverware is also available from all Celtic stores and also via the club’s online store.

Green white and silverware by Matthew Marr

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