Kasper Schmeichel just two league games away from a place in the record books

The Celtic Star

·23 septembre 2024

Kasper Schmeichel just two league games away from a place in the record books

When Celtic play at St Johnstone on Saturday, the Bhoys could equal a defensive and goalkeeping record which has stood for well over a century…

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers with Kasper Schmeichel after the match against Hearts in the Scottish Premiership at Celtic Park on14 September 2024. Photo Robert Perry/Shutterstock

The most consecutive clean sheets that the Bhoys have had at the start of a league campaign is six, set in 1906-07. Currently Celtic are on five, so are on the verge of matching this. This happened during the club’s famous six-in-a-row run of league championships, which ran from 1905 to 1910.

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Celtic’s goalkeeper at this time shows a very different relationship with the men from Ibrox. The Bhoys’ custodian was Tom Sinclair – who was on loan from Rangers! Sinclair was temporary cover for the usual Celtic ‘keeper, Davie Adams. He had been injured during a Celtic-Rangers testimonial game, which was held on behalf of the Rangers’ player, Finlay Speedie.

During 1906-07, Celtic faced Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Morton, Hearts, Queen’s Park and Third Lanark, all without conceding, although the run eventually ended during a 2-1 victory over Aberdeen.

The current team won’t be able to emulate the overall record which started the 1906-07 season. Back then, Celtic failed to concede for eight successive games, including two Glasgow Cup ties, although the Celts have this season lost goals to Hibs and Falkirk in the League Cup.

When it comes to goalkeepers, various Celts have had long shutout records.

In league terms, the most notable of these is Fraser Forster. The Englishman went 13 straight leagues matches without conceding, starting on 6 December 2013 in a 5-0 win over Motherwell, and failing to pick the ball out of the net until a 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen on 25 February 2014.

When taking into account all competitions, this run saw the Celts’ best clean sheet record since World War Two. From 20 December 2013 – a 1-0 league win against Hibs – until 8 February 2014 – a 2-1 Scottish Cup loss to Aberdeen – Celtic did not lose a competitive goal. This was ten games in total, in the League and Scottish Cup.

In fact, this run of ten could have been even longer for Forster and Celtic. Unfortunately, the small matter of a 6-1 hammering from Barcelona in December 2013 limited the all-competitions record.

Charlie Shaw

Forster’s 2013-14 league achievement meant that he went past the previous Bhoys’ record holder, Charlie Shaw, who kept ten successive league clean sheets in the 1913-14 season, starting with a 0-0 draw against Motherwell on 20 December 1913 and not losing a goal until a 1-0 defeat at Falkirk on 28 February 1914.

However, Charlie Shaw and this Celtic team continue to hold their own club records.

Celtic’s longest run across all competitions without conceding is 13 games, set in this same 1913-14 season. As part of that 10-game league run, Shaw and his defence also kept out the opposition in three Scottish Cup games.

The Bhoys that season had one run of 23 matches with only one ball passing through the Celtic goalposts. The man who scored that goal – Jimmy Scott of Raith Rovers – sadly died during World War One, during the 1916 Battle of the Somme.

1989: Pat Bonner (centre) of Celtic celebrates with his team mates after the Scottish Cup Final match against Rangers at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland. Celtic won the match 1-0. Photo: Allsport UK /Allsport

Charlie Shaw also previously held one other goalkeeping shutout record, but this was lost some time ago. Shaw played for the Bhoys 446 times, failing to concede on 237 occasions. However this is surpassed by Pat Bonner, who managed 245 clean sheets in his 642 Celtic games, stretching from the 1970s to the 1990s.

And another Celt with a unique shutout record is Bernard McCreadie (pictured above in the keeper’s jersey on the middle of the middle row).The Dumbarton-born ‘keeper was at the club from 1955 until 1957. He played only one competitive first team game for the Bhoys, a 1-0 win over Aberdeen in April 1957. This makes him surely Celtic’s only goalkeeper to have played and never conceded a competitive goal.

If the Bhoys leave McDiarmid Park with a clean sheet, then the current team – and ‘keeper Kasper Schmeichel – will be added to the club history books, and could feasibly even break this league record against Ross County.

But the most important thing in both those matches is the three points. C’mon the Hoops!

Follow Matthew on Twitter @hailhailhistory

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Matthew’s debut Celtic book titled ‘The Bould Bhoys – Glory to their name’ was published by Celtic Star Books last year and is available to order HERE. This brilliant book is also available on Amazon Kindle for just £3.49 and includes all photo sections that appear in the hardback edition.