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Season 1915-1916

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Season 1915-1916 Season 1915-1916 Albion Rovers FC. Only Division One of the Scottish Football League would continue for season 1915/16. In fact as it turned out there would be only one senior League for the remainder of the war and until the beginning of season 1921/22. A few new rules were enforced for the new season. (1) No player was to play football unless engaged in another form of work during the week. (2) No club was to pay their players in excess of £1 per week. (3) Football was only to be played on Saturdays and any local holidays. The English Football League had decided to cancel any official football indefinitely, and Cricket and Horse Racing were also badly affected, so the Scottish football authorities were coming in for some serious criticism for their decision to continue. An interesting meeting was held on 28 July, on which The Scotsman commented, "In consequence of the Second Division Committee decision to abandon Scottish League competitions, a meeting was held last night to consider the situation. Representatives were present from Clydebank, Vale of Leven, Albion Rovers, Arthurlie, Abercorn, Johnstone, Dykehead, Renton, Dumbarton Harp, Royal Albert and Wishaw Thistle. It was decided to form a league to be known as the West of Scotland League, and it was agreed that matches be played on a home-and-home principle, the clubs to retain their own drawings. Stevenston United were not represented, but it was agreed to invite them to join the new league. The entrance fee was fixed at a guinea. Mr Hutchison, Arthurlie, was appointed President; Mr Colquhoun, Clydebank, Vice President; Mr Arthurlie, Renton, Secretary; and Mr Thom, Albion Rovers, Treasurer. A sub-committee was appointed to draw up rules". The season commenced on 21 August with a full card of Division One, Western and Eastern League matches. The general feeling being that football was now more of an "amateur" game than before, due to all players having to carry out war-related work, which left little time to focus on leisurely pursuits. Most of the Division One clubs had at least a handful of players either on active service or in training. Celtic began the season with the same successful squad as the previous season, with no record of any players joining the army. It was a similar situation at Rangers, with only Dr Thomas Gilchrist and George Dickson having joined up, with it being doubtful that they would have found a regular place in the side had they been available. There was still a lot of confusion surrounding the signing of English players. Some of them had signed for Scottish clubs as 'amateurs', but it soon became clear that they were in fact professionals. The English Football League took issue with this matter with the Scottish Football League and an agreement was reached that all English players would have to be officially registered as players with their relevant clubs. William Angus was awarded the Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace in August. He was the first Scottish territorial soldier to win the Victoria Cross. He was awarded his medal for bravery on the battlefield, when he saved the life of James Martin. Angus began his football career with Carluke Rovers, before signing professional forms with Celtic in 1911. He did not play any first team games for Celtic and left in 1914 for Wishaw Thistle. As he had been a coal miner since the age of 14, he was exempt from Army duties but at the outbreak of war he joined the 8th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry. The Old Firm Glasgow Cup final on 9th October attracted 70,000 spectators to watch Celtic win 2-1. The Scotsman commented that around 25,000 of the crowd gained free entry as soldiers or sailors. Hearts had a convincing 4-0 win over Rangers at Ibrox the following Saturday, and a week later in the match v Morton the players wore black armbands as a token of respect to James Speedie, who had been killed on the front line and to Tom Gracie who died in Stobhill Hospital. Gracie’s brother John had also been recently killed in action. The famous Cricketer W G Grace died on the same day. Sir George McCrae was at Tynecastle on 4 December for recruiting purposes, Hearts lost 2-1 to Aberdeen. Half of McCrae’s Battalion were on leave, with Crossan, Briggs, Wattie and Currie all taking their place in the Hearts side. Sadly this would be the final appearances for both Harry Wattie and Duncan Currie in the Hearts side, as they both lost their lives on 1 July 1916 at the battle of the Somme. The Royal Scots footballers suffered tremendously at the battle of the Somme, with no fewer than six players losing their lives on the first day of the offensive. Celtic set a new goalscoring record in season 1915/16, breaking Falkirk’s previous record of 104. They broke the record in style on 15 April, when they played two games in one day. A 6-0 day time win over Raith Rovers at 3.15pm was followed by a 3-1 win at Motherwell at 6.30pm. After Hearts defeated Celtic 2-0 at Tynecastle on 13 November 1915, Celtic went on an outstanding 62 match unbeaten run of league matches. Defeat did not come until 21 April 1916 when Kilmarnock won 2-0 at Celtic Park. Due to fixture congestion the SFA and SFL gave temporary permission to play midweek matches in April, provided that the kick off time was after Raith Rovers FC 6.30pm. The SFL eventually decided to leave it to the discretion of the clubs in question to decide if they would fulfil all their fixtures. The only match not played was the Morton v Hearts match. The first season of the newly created Western and Eastern Leagues were won by Vale of Leven and Armadale respectively. The Scottish Junior Cup Final was played at Firhill Park, with an estimated 25,000 crowd present. Petershill won 2-0 against Parkhead with goals coming from Croal and Somerville. Parkhead: McTavish; Carson, Orr; Neil, Cowan, Johnstone, Cringan, Bell, Ferguson, Mulholland, Kennedy. Petershill: Nisbet; Young, Patrick; Henderson, Sim, Cadden; Stalker, Croal, Somerville, McKim, Rutherford. Ref: T Robertson. Jimmy "Sniper" McColl was the Scottish League’s top goalscorer in season 1915/16, with 34 goals in 32 games, an average of over a goal a game. McColl had a long football career, starting out with St Anthony's and joining Celtic in 1913. He had seven seasons at Parkhead (165 appearances/117 goals in league). He then had short spells at Stoke and Partick Thistle before Hibernian got another good ten seasons out of him. A season at Leith Athletic in 1931/32 saw him retire at the tender age of 40. At the annual meeting of the Scottish Football League in June, it was announced that profits were down by £410 on the previous year. An interesting court case took place in Melbourne, Australia where former Scottish International Alexander "Sandy" Young was on trial for shooting dead his brother, John, over a debt of £425. Young was given three years' imprisonment and was to be detained at the Government’s pleasure thereafter. Two interesting "representative" matches were played at the season's end. On 13 May a side representing "England" played a team representing "Scotland" at Goodison Park. The thrilling encounter ended in a 4-3 victory for England. Gate receipts of £500 were taken and all proceeds went to the Liverpool Roll of Honour Fund. The following Saturday champions Celtic took on a "Rest of the League" side at Hampden Park. A Jock Simpson goal was enough to win the match for the rest of the league side in front of a 30,000 crowd. As well as fighting a war with Germany, the UK government had problems on the home front too. Between 24 April and 29 April 1916, there was an uprising in the South of Ireland, known as the Easter Rising. Trouble flared in Dublin as several government buildings were seized by Irish Freedom Fighters. This would eventually lead to an agreement between the UK and Ireland to recognize Ireland as an independent nation, with the North of Ireland remaining British. .
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