JOHNNY HUBBARD was a prolific goalscorer during his long spell at Ibrox from 1949-1959, with the majority of his goals coming from the penalty spot.

He was nicknamed the 'Penalty King' after scoring 65 goals from 68 attempts, 22 consecutively...

BLUE BOY (Baillieston) - All of the recent speculation about a possible cup meeting of the Old Firm got me thinking about previous games between the two. I have tried to remember the last Rangers player to score a league hat-trick against Celtic, but cannot think who it was. Can you remind me?

Not surprised you do not remember, as it was a long time ago. The man to achieve the feat was the South African left-winger Johnny Hubbard.

The Ibrox encounter took place on New Year's Day, 1955, and resulted in a 4-1 victory for Rangers.

Billy Simpson (9mins) and Willie Fernie (32mins) provided a 1-1 half-time scoreline and a second-half hat-trick from Hubbard (72, 80 and 89mins, penalty) gave Rangers a convincing win.

The teams lined up as follows:

Rangers: Niven, Little, Cox, Pryde, Young, Rae, McCulloch, Prentice, Simpson, Grierson, Hubbard.

Celtic: Bell, Haughney, Meechan, Evans, Stein, Peacock, Boden, Tully, Walsh, Fernie, Collins.

W DOCHERTY (Airdrie) - On a recent visit to the museum, I saw a small silver trophy, which is described as the first trophy Celtic ever won. It is the Glasgow North-Eastern Cup and the date on the label is 1889, the year after Celtic was formed. I had always thought that Celtic were founded in 1887 - can you explain?

There is often confusion about this date. The club was officially constituted at a meeting on November 6, 1887, with the aim of raising funds for the poor of Glasgow's East End.

Their first actual match did not, however, take place until the following year - a 5-2 friendly victory over Rangers.

For this reason, 1888 is normally recognised as the starting date for the club and features on logos and jersey badges. Celtic's first trophy success was, indeed, the Glasgow North Eastern Cup, which they won in 1889 with a 6-1 victory over Cowlairs.

GEORGE (Wishaw) - I read somewhere that in last season's FA Cup final Wigan had three "Macs" in their team - McCarthy, McArthur and McManaman. The last time this happened was in 1932, when Newcastle United defeated Arsenal in the final. Newcastle had McInroy, MacKenzie and McMenemy in their team. Were any of these players Scottish?

Goalie Albert McInroy was born in Walton Le Dale, Lancashire. However, half-back Roderick McKenzie was born in Inverness and inside-forward Harry McMenemy was Glasgow-born.