NOVEMBER 1949

Stirling Albion consolidated their early position in the top half of Scottish League A Division with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Celtic, the Observer of November 1949 reported.

Albion’s then home ground, Annfield, which had first opened four years earlier, was bulging at the seams as a crowd of 25,000 packed the stadium to see the home team edge it with a goal 10 minutes from time.

The win left Albion sixth in the 16-team division, a point behind both Rangers and Celtic and two points behind pace-setters Hibs.

It was a game of ‘supercharged tension’ according to the Observer and Celtic at first coped better with the ‘big game’ atmosphere but a resolute Albion defence and two smartly taken goals from Jack Jones whipped the points away from the Glasgow side.

Albion had inside forward Tommy Martin to thank for getting them over their shaky start.

And it was his firmly hit drive – parried by Celtic goalkeeper Miller – which was prodded home by Jones.

Celtic, through Mcphail and Tully, hit back and stretched Albion but it was bad marking in the home side defence – and keeper Gerhard’s failure to deal with a cross from Mcauley – which allowed Mcphail to head the equaliser.

Ten minutes before the interval, Celtic thought they had taken the lead when Haughney netted. The referee awarded the goal but was prevailed upon by a number of Albion players to reconsider his decision.

‘Rennet, the Celtic winger, was clearly offside when Tully put Haughney through to net ,’ said the Observer.

Belatedly, after consulting with his linesman, the referee disallowed the goal.

Both sets of forwards appeared to lose their touch as they struggled with the heavy pitch during the second half.

And that made Albion’s late winner all the more dramatic. Jan Szpula beat Celtic’s Boden for speed and swept across a ball which Jones flicked expertly beyond Miller. Albion keeper Gerhard pulled off a number of fine saves to deny Celtic an equaliser and pull off a famous victory for Albion.

Teams – Albion: Gerhard, Muir, Mckeown, Bain, Whiteford, Wilson, Dick, Keith, Jones, Martin and Szpula.

Celtic: Miller, Boden, Milne, Evans, Mcgrory,

Mcauley, Collins, Mcphail, Haughney, Tully, and Rennet.

The 25,000 crowd was around 3000 fewer that the population of Stirling at that time and not far off the record Annfield attendance which was 26,400 in 1958–59 for a Scottish Cup tie against Celtic.

Albion’s fortunes were to take a tumble as the 1949-50 campaign continued and they finished the season bottom of the league and relegated with Queen of the South. Rangers took the title.