In a tic

Regular readers of our Matchday Magazine will know all the facts and figures behind each new week at Cliftonville Football Club, while our Twitter followers are regaled with daily delves into the archives – and today provides another notable anniversary.

For it was on September 13, 1954, that Celtic visited Belfast as part of the Reds’ 75th Anniversary celebrations.

The visitors, who had won the League title and Scottish Cup the previous season, were held to a 2-2 draw by a Cliftonville team supplemented by four players borrowed from Bohemians – including goalkeeper Sean Connolly, whose son John would go on to make 261 appearances for the Club between 2004 and 2012.

That, however, was not the first time the Reds and the Hoops had locked horns, with their maiden showdown having come some 57 years earlier on April 19, 1897, when Celtic recorded a 2-0 victory in a ‘Grand Easter Football Match’ that was also Cliftonville’s final outing before undertaking a tour of England that included meetings with both Liverpool and Manchester City.

A further 30 years would pass until the Glasgow giants’ next visit to Solitude and a friendly that went down in folklore for a multitude of reasons both good and bad.

Goals from John Colquhoun, Frank McGarvey and a Jim Melrose double helped the Bhoys to a 4-0 success which has, unfortunately, been framed throughout history by less-than-complimentary headlines.

A quarter of a century on from that infamous night, the Hoops’ next trip to Solitude certainly proved worth the wait for home fans, who celebrated as a brace of Chris Scannell efforts and a Ciaran Caldwell header earned a 3-0 triumph in the Club’s 130th Anniversary fixture.

The summer of 2012 saw a Celtic Development XI recover from a Liam Boyce opener to lead through strikes from Tony Watt and Callum McGregor, only for Joe Gormley to pounce with an injury-time strike for 2-2, while 12 months later, a significantly stronger Glaswegian representation returned for the maiden competitive battle between the sides and, after emerging 3-0 winners thanks to goals from Mikael Lustig, Georgios Samaras and James Forrest, they would go on to secure a 5-0 aggregate success when Efe Ambrose and Samaras found the net during a memorable return leg at Parkhead.

Liam Boyce battles with Callum McGregor in 2012

Champions League engagement in 2013

Joe Gormley goes close in Glasgow

Honouring a legend in 2016

Behind closed doors at Lennoxtown

In 2016, meanwhile, a huge crowd descended upon Solitude for George McMullan’s Testimonial on a night that saw Fiacre Kelleher, Calvin Miller and substitute Mark Hill on target for a young Hoops outfit, while the Clubs’ most recent engagement came in a behind-closed-doors fixture at Lennoxtown in 2018, when Ryan Curran and Conor McDonald found the net for Cliftonville in 2-2 draw.

Meetings Through History
April 19, 1897: Cliftonville 0-2 Celtic
September 13, 1954: Cliftonville 2-2 Celtic
August 14, 1984: Cliftonville 0-4 Celtic
October 13, 2009: Cliftonville 3-0 Celtic
July 28, 2012: Cliftonville 2-2 Celtic
July 17, 2013: Cliftonville 0-3 Celtic
July 23, 2013: Celtic 2-0 Cliftonville
April 11, 2016: Cliftonville 0-3 Celtic
July 7, 2018: Celtic 2-2 Cliftonville