Celtic v English Clubs in the 19th Century

1888-89
1888 was Celtic’s foundation year- they played their first match in May. They reached the final of the Scottish Cup in the 1888-89 season.
31.12.88	Celtic	7	1	Mitchell St George's
03.01.89	Celtic	6	2	Corinthians
16.02.89	Corinthians	3	1	Celtic
23.03.89	Newcastle West End	3	4	Celtic
19.04.89	Bolton Wanderers	2	0	Celtic
20.04.89	Burnley	1	3	Celtic
23.05.89	Celtic	5	1	Bolton Wanderers
25.05.89	Celtic	2	1	Preston North End
1889-90
During this season Celtic lost to Queen’s Park in the first round of the Cup.
21.09.89	Sunderland	0	1	Celtic
28.09. 89	Celtic	3	2	Sunderland
03.10.89	Celtic	1	0	Blackburn Rovers
12.10.89	Celtic	0	2	Everton
21.12.89	Sunderland	1	2	Celtic
01.01.90	Celtic	3	2	Everton
22.02.90	St George’s	5	2	Celtic
04.04.90	Bolton Wanderers	4	0	Celtic
05.04.90	Everton	3	1	Celtic
07.04.90	Blackburn Rovers	1	1	Celtic
12.04.90	Celtic	1	1	Notts County
10.05.90	Celtic	2	2	Bolton Wanderers
17.05.90	Celtic	4	2	Wolverhampton Wanderers
22.05.90	Celtic	1	0	Preston North End
1890-91
The inaugural season of league football in Scotland saw Celtic finish behind Dumbarton and Rangers. They reached the last 8 in the Cup.
02.10.90	Celtic	2	2	Sunderland
27.03.91	Bolton Wanderers	2	2	Celtic
28.03.91	Ardwick	2	7	Celtic
30.03.91	Blackburn Rovers	0	2	Celtic
31.03.91	Wednesday	1	3	Celtic
13.04.91	Celtic	5	5	Blackburn Rovers
18.04.91	Celtic	2	0	Bolton Wanderers
21.04.91	Celtic	4	0	Preston North End
1891-92
Celtic finished runners-up in the League and won the Scottish Cup.
01.10.91	Celtic	3	2	Blackburn Rovers
04.04.92	Celtic	4	1	Nottingham Forest
1892-93
Celtic were League champions and lost in the Cup Final.
01.09.92	Sheffield United	1	0	Celtic
02.09.92	Middlesbrough	0	2	Celtic
03.09.92	Newcastle East End	0	1	Celtic
05.09.92	Sunderland	1	0	Celtic
06.10.92	Celtic	0	3	Sunderland
07.11.92	Stoke	0	5	Celtic
26.12.92	Ardwick	0	5	Celtic
31.12.92	Ardwick	0	1	Celtic
03.01.93	Celtic	1	1	Notts County
01.04.93	Celtic	3	0	London Caledonian
15.04.93	Celtic	2	2	Blackburn Rovers
18.04.93	Celtic	1	2	Everton
23.04.93	Celtic	2	0	Everton
1893-94
Celtic were League champions and were beaten by Rangers in the Cup Final.
28.09.93	Celtic	3	2	Sunderland
21.10.93	Celtic	3	1	Preston North End
02.01.94	Celtic	0	4	Everton
31.03.94	Celtic	1	3	Sunderland
07.04.94	Celtic	2	1	London Caledonians
09.04.94	Celtic	2	3	Aston Villa
10.04.94	Celtic	2	3	Bury
11.04.94	Blackburn Rovers	0	0	Celtic
21.04.94	Celtic	2	1	Aston Villa
28.04.94	Celtic	4	1	Everton
1894-95
Reached the last 8 of the Cup, runners up in the League.
27.09.94	Celtic	2	3	Sunderland
01.12.94	Manchester City	0	0	Celtic
26.12.94	Celtic	0	3	Everton
31.12.94	Celtic	0	2	Burnley
02.01.95	Celtic	4	1	Everton
15.04.95	Celtic	1	3	Blackburn Rovers
1895-96
Knocked out in the 1st round of the Cup, Celtic were League champions.
02.09.95	Manchester City	3	0	Celtic
03.09.95	Liverpool	2	0	Celtic
04.09.95	Newcastle United	3	0	Celtic
21.09.95	Preston North End	3	2	Celtic
26.09.95	Celtic	1	1	Sunderland
30.09.95	Celtic	2	3	Sunderland
14.10.95	Sheffield United	0	1	Celtic
25.12.95	Bury	2	2	Celtic
26.12.95	Everton	3	2	Celtic
08.02.96	Celtic	4	1	Bolton Wanderers
13.04.96	Celtic	3	2	Sunderland *
	Some sources have a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United on this date- which is an error.
20.04.96	Celtic	3	2	Aston Villa
22.04.96	Celtic	2	1	Everton
27.04.96	Celtic	1	0	Derby County
28.04.96	Celtic	2	1	Burnley
1896-97
Knocked out in the 1st round of the Cup again, Celtic finished 4th in the League.
28.09.96	Celtic	2	3	Sunderland
25.12.96	Celtic	1	6	Everton
06.02.97	Celtic	2	4	Sunderland
13.02.97	Corinthians	4	0	Celtic
15.02.97	Woolwich Arsenal	4	5	Celtic
1897-98
Celtic were League champions but went out of the Cup in the 2nd round.
26.12.97	Celtic	1	0	Sunderland
12.03.98	Sheffield United	1	0	Celtic
28.03.98	Celtic	1	3	Blackburn Rovers
16.04.98	Celtic	1	1	Sheffield United
1898-99
Celtic won the Scottish Cup and finished 3rd in the League.
10.04.99	Celtic	0	2	Wigan County
15.04.99	Celtic	2	0	Liverpool
1899-1900
Celtic won the Scottish Cup for the 3rd time and were runners up in the League.
23.12.99	Celtic	2	3	Blackburn Rovers
1900
Celtic were runners up in both League and Cup.
03.09.00	Aston Villa	2	1	Celtic
20.10.00	Celtic	2	0	Everton
21.12.00	Aston Villa	3	1	Celtic
25.12.00	Celtic	1	2	Blackburn Rovers

Key to opponent’s status:

Division One

Division Two

Minor Leagues

Non League 

Overall:

P	W	D	L	F	A
92	44	13	35	175	159

Home:

P	W	D	L	F	A
57	30	8	19	124	100

Away:

P	W	D	L	F	A
35	14	5	16	51	59

v First Division opposition:

P	W	D	L	F	A
67	28	12	27	119	117

v Corinth:

P	W	D	L	F	A
3	1	0	2	7	9

Celtic's first meeting with an English side was a benefit match for East End Poor Children's Dinner against the Birmingham club Mitchell St George's.

Celtic had only been in existence for 7 months when they attracted a crowd of 20,000 for a match against Corinthian FC that raised  £400  for charity. 

Lithuania

The Lithuanian team that was defeated 3-2 by Latvia at Kaunas on 21st August 1926.

Leagues

Nottingham Evening Post 24.09.89

In the same way in which the FA Cup spawned many imitators, the foundation of the Football League gave rise to the establishment of any number of similar organizations. 

As the above cutting shows, these developments didn't take long to trickle down to 'grass roots' level. 

Wednesday v Middlesbrough

A lovely old programme from 1902.
Hogg played in place of Blacketh.
Featured in the Wednesday line up were 2 beautifully named players, Ambrose Langley and Herod Ruddlesdin.
Wednesday won 2-0, Davis and Wilson the scorers.
Attendance at Owlerton was 20,000.

The Sixty Minute International Match

Played at The Oval, 18.01.79.
England 2 Wales 1

England		Wales
Rupert Anderson	Old Etonians	George Glascodine	Wrexham
Lindsay Bury	Cambridge University	Llewelyn Kenrick	Oswestry
Claud Wilson	Oxford University	G.G Higham	Oswestry
Norman Bailey	Clapham Rovers	William Williams	Druids
W.E Clegg	Sheffield Albion	Thomas Owen	Oswestry
Edward Parry	Old Carthusians	William Henry Davies	Oswestry
Heathcote Sorby	Thursday Wanderers	William Shone	Oswestry
Arthur Cursham	Notts County	Dennis Heywood	Druids
Henry Wace	Wanderers	John Price	Wrexham
Herbert Whitfield	Old Etonians	Digby Owen	Oswestry
Billy Mosforth	Sheffield Albion	William Roberts	Llangollen

After playing Scotland 3 times (3 defeats and 15 unanswered goals), Wales were offered a match against England at The Oval in January 1879.
The weather was appalling but Wales , after so much anticipation, were particularly keen for the game to go ahead, There were no more than 300 spectators present (maybe as few as 85).
A thick layer of snow covered the ground and it was agreed to play a truncated match of 30 minutes each way.

This gave rise to 3 players having England careers that lasted just one hour despite not being injured or substituted. Neither of England's debutant scorers (Whitfield and Sorby) was selected again, and it is worth noting that 19 year old Rupert Anderson was a forward who went in goal when Remnant FC's Rev. W. Blackmore  failed  to turn up (on the only occasion he was selected for England).
Contrary to some speculative sources Thomas Owen of Oswestry was almost certainly not the father of the poet Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen's father was born in Nantwich (England) on 31st  May 1862.

... a less rough and dangerous game ...

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 19.10.71

John Charles Thring was instrumental in developing two sets of rules during the pre-history of football.

 The Cambridge Rules of 1848 were an attempt at a compromise / unified code based on the games played at Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and Thring's old school, Shrewsbury.

In 1862 Thring was a master at Uppingham School when he developed 'The Simplest Game' (also known as  'The Uppingham Rules').

These rules had some influence on the Football Association when they began formulating the Laws of the Game in 1863.

Of course, whilst giving us the greatest and most popular game in the world, the Football Association ultimately failed in their goal of unifying football.

Debates as to the relative merits, safety and propriety of football and Rugby feature widely in newspaper correspondence in the 19th century.

Thring's appeal here went unheeded, and the west of England became something of a Rugby stronghold. 

Alcock on Lancashire

Though the introduction of Association football into Lancashire about the same period as the establishment of the Cup, the first of an innumerable succession of trophies of a similar kind, was a mere coincidence and in no way connected, it is curious, considering the conspicuous part Lancashire clubs have played in the competition of late years, that their origin should have been coeval The paternity of the Association game in Lancashire may be claimed by Mr. J. C. Kay, an old Harrovian, who subsequently made himself a reputation in another branch of sport, as a lawn tennis player of no small ability, as well as manager of perhaps the best organized lawn tennis meeting in the kingdom" that which takes place annually on the ground of the Liverpool Cricket Club. Educated at Harrow, it was only natural that the primitive game in use in Lancashire should have been based very much on the eccentric admixture of different codes to which young Harrow had been used for generation after generation. The introduction of the Association game into Lancashire was, in fact, in a very great measure the work of an old Harrovian, as, some twenty years before, the initiation of the movement which practically led to the revival of football on a proper basis was to a considerable extent the work of a few keen athletes who had graduated at his School. To East Lancashire, in particular, belongs the credit of fostering the game in its infancy, as well as of assisting in the development which has resulted in making Lancashire one of the most powerful influences in Association football Bolton, I believe, was the first place which took at all kindly to the new sport, and, under Mr. Kay's watchful eye, the Harrow game, or perhaps as near a reproduction as could be devised to suit local requirements, for a time supplied all the wants of the lads who were undergoing their novitiate in football. Practice took place in the evenings, and, in fact, the game was of a very primitive kind, followed after the hard work of the day had been completed. It was not long, though, before an attempt was made to evolve something like system out of the rough efforts of these pioneers of Lancashire football. The first result of this organization, I have reason to believe, was the Bolton Wanderers club, which has outlived the many, and some of them excellent, changes through which football has gone during the last quarter of a century, and still remains a power in the land; in fact, one of the most influential combinations of the same kind in the north of England.

C.W Alcock  Football: The Association Game  (1906) 

Bolton Wanderers

C.W Alcock is correct in that it was John Charles Kay, along with his brother, who took the Harrow game to Lancashire, but it was first played at Turton, rather than Bolton.

Mr Alcock  overlooks the 'first wave' of Lancashire clubs (Turton, Darwen) who sowed the seeds that produced illustrious clubs such as Blackburn Rovers (f.1875).
Bolton Wanderers came into being in 1877, evolving from  Christ Church F.C (f.1874).

A.J Woolley & Co.

21 rue de la Pépinière, 75008 Paris is still home to a sports shop!