When Hibs first played a competitive game on a Friday as St Johnstone clash is moved

In 2022 we are used to football matches being scheduled for all times of day or night on any given day of the week, usually to satisfy TV companies.
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But playing fixtures on days other than Saturdays is no new phenomenon. The records are hazy in terms of actual dates and matches, as friendly encounters often weren’t recorded to the same extent as competitive fixtures, but Hibs certainly played a noteworthy friendly on a snowy Monday night in November 1878.

A Hibs XI defeated an Edinburgh Select team 3-0 at Powderhall Grounds in an early flood-lit game in front of a ‘few hundred people’ with ‘lights provided by three of Siemen’s dynamo-electric machines, under the management of Mr E. Paterson, London’.

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The Scotsman’s report goes onto explain that about an hour of play was completed before the machines started giving up the ghost.

"A few hundred people assembled, more to witness the light than the match. A light equal to 6000 standard candles was placed at the west end of the Grounds, and two equal to 1200 each at the east end. The engine attached to one of the latter was unequal to the occasion, but play was conducted with good advantage for about an hour under the somewhat fitful beams of the other two.”

Hibs played on a number of non-traditional games in their early years; contesting Thursday friendlies with Dumbarton at Mayfield in October 1879, Glasgow Pilgrims and Kilmarnock Athletic at Hibernian Park in 1880, while Monday and Tuesday games were played against Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Olympic during a brief tour of Lancashire in April 1881.

First Friday meetings

The 1885/86 season was the first time Hibs played on a Friday, on two separate occasions. The first was a New Year’s Day friendly against Third Lanark, kicking off at 1pm and resulting in a 4-1 win for the Hibees, and another friendly against Bolton on Friday April 23 with the English team running out 6-2 victors as Friday games became, if not normal, certainly more frequent than they had been.

The Hibs title-winning team of 1902/03The Hibs title-winning team of 1902/03
The Hibs title-winning team of 1902/03
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Christmas Day of 1896 brought a Friday friendly between Burnley and Hibs, with ‘both teams showing pretty football’ in front of a crowd of around 4,000 that saw the hosts win 2-1.

Hibs and Hearts often faced each other on Fridays, such as the Rosebery Charity Cup final on Friday May 31 1901, which Hibs won 4-0, or the East of Scotland League clash played the day before the start of the 1902/03 league campaign, with Hearts running out 2-1 winners.

First competitive Friday game

Hibs’ first competitive league match to be played on a Friday was a trip to Celtic on Friday January 2 1903, with a 2.30pm kick-off. A crowd of 14,000 saw the Edinburgh side rack up a 4-0 victory – which remains the Easter Road side’s highest-ever league score at Parkhead – en route to their crowning as league champions.

An Evening News advert for the matchAn Evening News advert for the match
An Evening News advert for the match

Paddy Callaghan opened the scoring with Billy McCartney, Davy Reid and Jimmy Buchan also on target in the first half to give Hibs a commanding lead at the interval with no further scores.

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Both teams had been in action the previous day, Celtic playing out a 3-3 draw with Rangers at Ibrox and Hibs going down 1-0 to Hearts in an East of Scotland League match at Easter Road courtesy of a goal scored by John ‘Sailor’ Hunter – who was ‘in a suspiciously offside position’, according to The Scotsman’s match report.

‘A very fine exhibition’

The Edinburgh Evening News of Monday January 5 carried extensive coverage of the title-winning game.

“If anyone needed convincing that the Hibernians were fitting champions of the Scottish League for this season he had conviction forced upon him on Friday,” the main article began.

"On the previous day, the Celtic and Rangers, who are running neck and neck for the second position, showed brilliant play in a drawn match; on Friday the Hibernians overwhelmed the Celtic. It may be that the Celtic took too much out of themselves on the Thursday but the Celtic players have not been so hard worked of late, and the Hibernians have been, and had the boot been on the other foot no surprise would have been felt.

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“The Hibernians gave a very fine exhibition in the first half, and soon put the issue out of reasonable doubt.

"Time was when the Celts would have rallied before their discomfiture became a rout, but the present players at not great hands at an uphill game, and once they had begun to score the Hibernians were winners all the way.

"The Hibernians played a sound game in all departments, and there was little between the attack and the defence in point of merit.”

It was Celtic’s heaviest defeat in a league game since September 1898 when Rangers beat them by the same scoreline.

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The EEN’s Glasgow correspondent added in his musings: “The Hibernians’ visit to Celtic Park on Friday will long be remembered by all those who had the privilege of witnessing the game. From start to finish the Easter Road lads gave a brilliant exhibition of football, and at no time of the game was the issue in doubt.

"McCartney, Johnny Divers, and Harry Rennie were exceptionally good. The first-mentioned, by many individual efforts, fair upset the defence of the Parkhead team and the second goal was the result of a magnificent effort on his part.

"Divers, for judicious placing and drawing out of the defence, was not excelled on the field. The goalkeeping of Rennie was most provoking to the Celts. The internationalist gave a really grand display.

"So well did Buchan play at half that the services of unfortunate Bernard Breslin were not missed.

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"All over it was one of the best displays given in Glasgow this season, and the large attendance of spectators had good reason to say they had seen one of the best expositions of football this season.”

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