CELTIC 1903-1908

 On 20th April 1903 Hearts played Celtic at Tynecastle in an Inter-City League game. In the Hearts team was a young centre forward named as 'Johnston' who not only scored one of the three Heart's goals but made a considerable impression with his speed and style.

'Johnston' was in fact Alec Bennett. In the train back to Glasgow he was persuaded by his friend Jimmy McMenemy, who had signed for Celtic the year before from Rutherglen Glencairn, to sign for Celtic rather than Hearts.  He duly signed for Celtic the following day, with a provisio that allowed for his release at any time for £50, a decision which was to play an important part in Alec Bennett’s subsequent career.

Alec Bennett, (who averaged one goal for every three games with Celtic) when playing as a winger  could centre the ball with accuracy after touchline trickery, but could equally play as a forward with a powerful shot.

Unfortunately most of Celtic's records were lost in a fire in the 1920's. In consequence the information given on this site as to Alec's playing career with Celtic and his scoring record has had to be assembled from newspaper reports (and a variety of other sources.) These do not always list the players in the teams or who scored goals so these records are inevitably incomplete at this stage.  Hopefully further research will help fill in the gaps.