You Couldn't Make It Up!

by Jack Little

On 16/3/1922 the "Scotsman" reported that the SFA Council had met to agree the venues for the forthcoming Scottish Cup semi-finals. The obvious venue for Thistle v Rangers was Celtic Park. However, the Thistle representative on the Council (Wm Ward) suggested that he and the Rangers representative should leave the meeting and arrive at a mutually agreed alternative. On returning to the meeting he must have surprised the other Council members by proposing an alternative venue - Ibrox! Confusion reigned as the rule book was poured over. It was established that neutral venues were not mandatory but that it was a strict requirement that venues had to be agreed by the Council. Thus the proposal was formally voted on and the motion was carried by 8 votes to 6. A 2-0 defeat brought to an end a run of 15 consecutive Scottish Cup ties without defeat and prevented Thistle from reaching the final for a 2nd successive year. The 58,000 attendance may have made defeat more palatable but history doesn't record whether Mr Ward felt conceding a neutral venue was worth it. The decision greatly upset Morton who had expected their semi-final against Aberdeen to have been played at Ibrox. They had to travel to Dundee instead. It all worked out well for them however. They won and beat Rangers in the final.

Publishing date An original Thistle Archive publication, 07-Sep-2020.
Latest edit date Latest edit version 02-Jun-2020.

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