THE first Old Firm game of the season is scheduled to take place at Ibrox on September 23. The first competitive meeting between the sides took place as far back as 1888…

TOMMY (Govan) – When did the Old Firm first meet in the Scottish Cup, and what was the score?

The first competitive meeting between Rangers and Celtic came on August 11, 1888, with Rangers winning 9-1 in a league match.

The first Scottish Cup meeting between the sides came in the first round of the 1890-91 competition.

Celtic turned the tables on Rangers winning 1-0 in front of 16,000 at Celtic Park.

Willie Groves scored the only goal of the game.

JAMES FITZPATRICK (via email) – In 1967-68 season Celtic played their infamous World Club Championship match against Racing Club of Argentina. However, did they not also play a challenge match against Penarol of Uruguay?

They did indeed. On September 5, 1967, they defeated Penarol 2-1 at Celtic Park. Willie Wallace scored both goals for Celtic. Spencer scored for Penarol.

JACK M (Moodiesburn) – I had a few mates round to watch the Scotland v England qualifier recently. One of my mates said that Bobby Charlton scored his first goal for England at Hampden and it was on his international debut. Is that true and can you tell me more about the game?

Your friend is correct. It was an unforgettable day for the 20-year-old Charlton. The match took place at Hampden on April 19, 1958, with England winning 4-0.

He was making his England debut only two months after surviving the Munich air disaster which killed several of his team-mates and a number of journalists, and he also scored England’s third goal on his debut with “a knee high blow that almost burst the net” in the 67th minute.

This was followed by a remarkable show of sportsmanship by the Scottish goalkeeper, Tommy Younger, who ran to the halfway line before the restart to shake his hand and congratulate the young Englishman on his first goal in his first international and told him “there will be many more, laddie”.

And Younger was right. Sir Bobby went on to score five times against Scotland in 12 ‘Auld Enemy’ internationals, and, in his international career from 1958 to 1970, he gained 106 caps for England scoring 49 goals.

He became England’s all-time leading goal scorer for 45 years. His tally only being passed by Wayne Rooney in 2015.

Sir Bobby fondly remembers that special day in 1958 and “the kindness of a tough and proud opponent”.

The teams that day were:

Scotland: Younger, Parker, Haddock, McColl, Evans, Docherty, Herd, Murray, Mudie, Forrest, Ewing.

England: Hopkinson, Howe Langley, Clayton, Wright, Slater, Douglas, Charlton, Kevan, Haynes, Finney.

Scorers: Douglas (20) Kevan (33, 75) Charlton 67.

Crowd: 127,874.