CELTIC clinched the ninth title in their history with a 2-1 victory over Hamilton Accies at Douglas Park on April 30 1909.
The achievement is seen as one of the club’s most remarkable championship successes and has gone down in club folklore with the team being forced to overcome an extraordinary obstacle course on their way to the championship.
The Hoops had won the previous four crowns and were determined to continue the sequence although they faced a daunting schedule in the countdown to silverware success.
READ ALL ABOUT IT…how the leagues were won.
Winning is a wonderful habit to adopt – especially when you are confronted with EIGHT games in TWELVE days with your ninth league championship within sight.
Couldn’t happen in the twenty-first century, of course, but that was the frenetic and improbable schedule that faced Celtic in April 1909.
The bizarre situation arose through too many Cup-ties – including replays – that meant the final month of the football season was overflowing with fixtures.
The sensible solution would have been to lengthen the campaign, but the Scottish Leaguewere not keen to grant an extension plus contracts of many players were due to expire on the final date of the league term.
The Scottish Cup had been withheld by the Scottish Football Association following the infamous riot at Hampden on April 17 when the fans of Celtic and Rangers reacted angrily to the prospect of a third game following two draws, 2-2 in the first match and 1-1 in the replay.
Celtic had fallen behind in their title defence, but, because of the burden of Cup-ties, had an abundance of games in hand. Leaders Dundee had completed their 34-game programme with 50 points. The Hoops required six points from their last four matches to retain the flag.
Image courtesy: CELTIC: 50 Flags Plus One.
The team’s sprint for glory commenced at Tynecastle on April 19 with a 2-1 win over Hearts as Jimmy McMenemy netted a double. The players were afforded the luxury of a two-day rest before dropping an unexpected point in a 1-1 home draw against struggling Hamilton Accies, who finished third bottom.
They were back in action the following day where they clicked in a 5-1 destruction of Morton at Celtic Park.
In this highly unusual climate, the club had brought in a young medical student by the name of Jack Atkinson who arrived on loan as an amateur from Hamilton Accies and made his debut 24 hours later on the left wing against the Greenock side. It almost goes without saying he scored two goals.
Two days later, a clearly exhausted set of players did not perform to anywhere near expectations and another point was surrendered in a 0-0 draw against Airdrie. So, with the Dens Park players kicking their last ball, Willie Maley’s men knew precisely what was required to enjoy championship success once again.
On the 26th of the month, Celtic took a giant stride forward with a 4-0 win over Motherwell as Quinn collected a hat-trick and McLean added one. Two days later, they went one better against Queen’s Park in 5-0 success where Quinn struck another trio and McLean claimed a double.
Twenty-four hours afterwards, Celtic had to travel to Edinburgh to play Hibs at Easter Road where the home side won 1-0 and no-one was unduly surprised at the outcome.
It was all down to one game now with Celtic playing away again for the second successive day as they took on Hamilton Accies at quaint, little Douglas Park where a crowd of 6,000 turned up to see if the champions could get the win required to clinch their fifth successive flag and their ninth overall.
The players battled exhaustion and weariness against a set of players who had nothing to lose. Davie Hamilton opened the scoring for the visitors in the first-half and Jimmy McMenemy doubled the advantage after the turnaround.
There was a brief flurry from Accies when they pulled one back late in the contest.
Fortune, though, favoured the brave on this occasion when the scoreline remained unaltered as the referee blew for full-time to signal the conclusion of one of the most sensational climaxes to a season in Scottish football.
* READ the full inside story of Celtic’s extraordinary 1908/09 championship triumph – and FIFTY other title successes – in ‘CELTIC: 50 Flags Plus One’ on sale now in CQN’s special Christmas sale. Just click below.
