23rd April – Five Memorable Celtic Moments on This Day | OneFootball

Five memorable Celtic moments, with a nod to the late Celtic Historian and Celtic Star legend David Potter, on this day starting in 1904…

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ONE – SATURDAY 23rd APRIL 1904 – Celtic 6–1 Kilmarnock at Celtic Park, and the talk of Glasgow is entirely about one man. Jimmy Quinn has helped himself to five of the six goals, a week after his hat-trick against Rangers in the Scottish Cup final had already made him a legend. Jimmy McMenemy chips in with the other, almost as a footnote to the Quinn masterclass. Manager Willie Maley is absent – he’s in London watching his brother Tom win the FA Cup with Manchester City – and you suspect even he heard about little else on the journey home.

TWO – SATURDAY 23rd APRIL 1966 – Celtic 1–0 Rangers at Ibrox, and the Scottish League title is coming to Paradise. Jock Stein, in his first full season at the helm, has engineered something extraordinary, and this win at the home of the enemy seals the championship in the most satisfying fashion imaginable. It is the springboard for everything that follows – the Lisbon Lions, the European Cup, the nine-in-a-row – and it begins here, on this afternoon at Ibrox, with a single goal and an eruption of green and white in the away end.

THREE – MONDAY 23rd APRIL 1979 – Partick Thistle 0–1 Celtic at Firhill, a result that keeps the title charge on track during one of the most dramatic run-ins in the club’s history. Few remember this particular win now, but it matters enormously at the time. The famous title drama of that era often hinged on results just like this – quiet, away-from-home, grind-it-out victories that kept the prize within reach before the legendary ten-men decider against Rangers the following month.

FOUR – SATURDAY 23rd APRIL 1988 – Celtic 3–0 Dundee at Celtic Park, and the centenary season ends in exactly the manner it deserves. Chris Morris opens the scoring, Andy Walker adds the second, and then Paul McStay – the captain, the heartbeat, the embodiment of everything Celtic stood for in that era – completes the rout and the title is won. The crowd inside Celtic Park knows they have witnessed something historic: a league championship in the club’s one hundredth year. The footage resurfaces every April without fail, and it never gets old.

FIVE – SUNDAY 23rd APRIL 2000 – Celtic defeat Rangers 2–0 at Celtic Park in what is a statement win during Martin O’Neill’s transformative first season, as the Hoops continue to reassert their dominance in the city with a squad brimming with renewed belief. The kind of performance that reminds everyone exactly where the balance of power in Glasgow truly lies.

For more moments like these, have a look at our 16th April edition of Five Memorable Celtic Moments, which covers another rich day in the club’s history.

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