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Games That Never Were


HibeeJibee

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Today's awarding of Kilmarnock 0-3 Motherwell, St Mirren 0-3 Hamilton, and St Mirren 0-3 Motherwell for health protocol breaches are rare examples in Scottish first class football of "games that never were" and join Dundee 3-0 Forfar, Falkirk 3-0 Kilmarnock, and Hamilton 3-0 Albion Rovers from League Cup group this season.

Here are a few others that sprang to mind: motley set of misdemeanours.


Rangers v Celtic (Scottish Cup Final 2nd Replay 1908-09)... not played due to widespread rioting after 1st replay and cup withheld.

Morton v Hearts (SFL 1915-16)
... postponed by snowstorm on March 27th, but not rescheduled due to the war emergency. Apparently the only Scottish League game neither to be played or awarded.

Berwick Rangers v Celtic (Scottish Cup R1 1935-36) ... Celtic paid Berwick to scratch.

St Johnstone v Queen's Park (B Division Cup R1 1949-50)... Queen's Park scratched.

Forfar v Kilmarnock (B Division Cup Final 1949-50)
... Final not played due to fixture congestion and cup withheld.

Dundee v Hibs (League Cup Groupstage 1950-51) ... abandoned for flooding on August 26th while 0-2. Neither replayed or awarded - result had no bearing on placings.

Edited by HibeeJibee
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Celtic v Reims and Reims v Celtic (Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup 1961-62)... not played as Celtic and Reims could not agree dates.

[Having qualified from the groupstage Hearts withdrew from Summer Cup 1963-64 to tour North America. Hibs and Dunfermline held a play-off at Tynecastle for Hearts place in SFs].

Newcastle Utd v Ayr Utd (Anglo-Scottish Cup R2 2nd leg 1976-77)... Newcastle were expelled for fielding weak XI in losing 1st leg 3-0

(SPL/SFL1 Relegation/Promotion Round-Robin 1999-00)... not played as Falkirk did not meet stadium criteria

Ayr Utd v Airdrieonians (SFL1 2001-02)... abandoned due to rioting on April 27th while 1-0 and awarded under that score.

Bohemians v East Fife (Challenge Cup QF 2018-19)... frozen off on February 2nd. Bohemians scratched.


There will probably be more. Anyone?

Edited by HibeeJibee
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Not really never was but the way things worked out.....

Liverpool vs Arsenal  23rd April 1989  Postponed Due To The Hllsbourgh

no suitable date could be found, so it was played 6 days after the FA Cup Final

Arsenal needed to win by 2 goal, Liverpool hadn't lose by that margin at home for 3 years, Arsenal hadn't won at Anfield for 15

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited by Gus Setsniffer
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8 hours ago, GordonS said:

 

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Not our finest hour. I typed that wrong incidentally it was Celtic v Berwick. Tie was frozen off on January 25th.

Celtic didn't want to retry following Saturday as it would mean cancelling their league game at Hearts (they were 5pts behind Aberdeen with 2 games in hand). Berwick didn't want to retry Wednesday afternoon as some players could be unavailable due to work plus more bad weather might disrupt the railway. We could insist on Saturday though.

So they paid us £120 plus friendly later in the season. Last time a side ever bought someone out the cup.

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4 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Not our finest hour. I typed that wrong incidentally it was Celtic v Berwick. Tie was frozen off on January 25th.

Celtic didn't want to retry following Saturday as it would mean cancelling their league game at Hearts (they were 5pts behind Aberdeen with 2 games in hand). Berwick didn't want to retry Wednesday afternoon as some players could be unavailable due to work plus more bad weather might disrupt the railway. We could insist on Saturday though.

So they paid us £120 plus friendly later in the season. Last time a side ever bought someone out the cup.

John Nelms at Dundee was paying attention 🤭

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43 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Not our finest hour. I typed that wrong incidentally it was Celtic v Berwick. Tie was frozen off on January 25th.

Celtic didn't want to retry following Saturday as it would mean cancelling their league game at Hearts (they were 5pts behind Aberdeen with 2 games in hand). Berwick didn't want to retry Wednesday afternoon as some players could be unavailable due to work plus more bad weather might disrupt the railway. We could insist on Saturday though.

So they paid us £120 plus friendly later in the season. Last time a side ever bought someone out the cup.

All I can say is that I'm glad Scottish football is run on a far more ethical and sporting basis now.

Oh.

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Worth saying... I'm not listing matches abandoned due to weather, or darkness, then replayed. There were also about 10 instances before the war where the score in such abandonments was allowed to stand instead of being replayed (in the case of darkness - sometimes as the visitors had arrived late).


Here are some more I confess to never having heard of. Some of them are pretty hilarious 😄:

Dumbarton v Vale of Leven (SFL 1891-92)... abandoned on December 12th at 8-0 and awarded under that score. Vale of Leven were already down to 10 men, when several more walked off in digust.

Renton v Dundee Wanderers (SFL II 1894-95)... Renton refused to play afternoon midweek game on August 29th. Points awarded to Dundee Wanderers.

Partick Thistle v Airdrieonians (SFL 1895-96)... abandoned due to rioting on November 16th while 0-6 and awarded under that score. Home fans invaded the pitch then attacked referee.

Abercorn v Port Glasgow Athletic (SFL II 1898-99)...abandoned due to rioting on October 22nd while 2-5 and awarded under that score. Home fans invaded the pitch after a penalty was twice retaken and 2 players sent-off.

Celtic v Dundee (SFL 1919-20)... abandoned due to rioting on April 26th while 1-1 and awarded under that score. Which seems pretty harsh on Dundee 😐.

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Beith v Solway Star (SFL III 1923-24)... abandoned on January 19th at 4-0 and awarded under that score. Due to bad weather Solway began with 9 men, and when 3 fled into the pavilion shortly before HT it was stopped for insufficient numbers.

Dykehead v Brechin City (SFL III 1924-25)... postponed for on April 18th, but not rescheduled. Points awarded to Brechin City. Maybe the hosts were thought negligent for the game being off, although Bathgate was also off that day so it could just have been bad weather.

Armadale v Leith Athletic (SFL II 1929-30)... abandoned due to rioting on August 24th at 2-2 and awarded under that score. Which seems pretty harsh on Leith 😐.

Kilmarnock v Dundee (Anglo-Scottish Cup R1 2nd leg 1979-80)... abandoned during extratime. Was this for rioting, floodlight failure or bad weather? Not replayed - Dundee awarded tie on justification they had scored more away goals over course of both matches (this must be only time away goals have been used in Scottish domestic football?).

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13 hours ago, tamthebam said:

When RAF Kinloss and RAF Lossiemouth played in the North Juniors I think one or both scratched from the Junior Cup on a couple of occasions- something to do with the availability of Air Force personnel.

Not first class games but you're correct. Infact my recollection includes an occasion when an oft-postponed tie ran into Christmas holidays, couldn't raise a team, but was refused a delay.

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Here are instances from Scottish Cup since WWI where clubs scratched for "innocent" reasons (generally: on verge of folding):

1919-20 ... Huntingtower scratched to Albion Rovers
1927-28 ... Dykehead scratched to Hibs
1928-29 ... Dunkeld & Birnam scratched to Clackmannan
1954-55 ... Leith Athletic scratched to Selkirk

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There's something in the back of my mind, HJ, about an inglorious episode in the history of Edinburgh City FC. 

We played a Thursday evening game away at Dalbeattie at the end of a season in the East of Scotland League. I think it was basically a u20s team plus a couple of available senior players. One of the Senior players was the talented but combustible Jean Ferreira, an Italian Brazilian. Into the 2nd half Ferreira disagrees a refereeing decision and assaults the official. I'm sure the match was abandoned and anyway the polis were called and Ferreira gets a night in the cells and an appearance at Dumfries Sheriff Court as well as a lengthy ban from the SFA. Dalbeattie were awarded the game which City did not contest. 

Fortunately these days City are a professional outfit with no loonies... 

Ironic thing was Ferreira had been a qualified referee..!

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9 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Not first class games but you're correct. Infact my recollection includes an occasion when an oft-postponed tie ran into Christmas holidays, couldn't raise a team, but was refused a delay.

Correct it was against Kilbirnie and was to be played on Christmas Eve.

RAF boys understandably couldn't get down and were thrown out cup.

To be fair to Kilbirnie from what I remember they were willing to delay the tie to the New Year.

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League Cup, 1st round 1979-80, The Shire v Albion Rovers. 1-1 first leg at Firs Park, 0-0 second leg at Clifftonhill after 90 mins. Ref goes straight to penalties which Shire won 9-8. However, the ref had been given incorrect advice when he phoned the Scottish League (I know, who could believe it?) to check if extra time should be played, being told no when it should have been yes. Second leg replayed a week later, Rovers won 4-1, and Shire missed out on a 2nd round clash with Partick Thistle.

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On 04/12/2020 at 15:47, HibeeJibee said:


Kilmarnock v Dundee (Anglo-Scottish Cup R1 2nd leg 1979-80)... abandoned during extratime. Was this for rioting, floodlight failure or bad weather? Not replayed - Dundee awarded tie on justification they had scored more away goals over course of both matches (this must be only time away goals have been used in Scottish domestic football?).

Two press reports  I've  seen actually make no mention of the tie being abandoned. The SFHA page I made on the competition was taken from an old SFH issue which had listed the results and I'm sure an old AFS Report also previously gave all the results as well so I'll take a look. 

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