the highs and lows of the noughties

Andy Murdoch takes a nostalgic ramble down Amnesia Lane to recall some of the memorable moments of the last decade.

 

Games of the decade

1-3 v ICT
February 2000
Eh? Are you sure? Well, it doesn’t really matter what way you add it up – this game was absolutely crucial to the way the club developed.

Say, for example, we had won this game and found a way to actually lift the cup. If you add that to the League Cup - which we won - then John Barnes would have had at least another season, Advocaat would have been able to easily dominate and it would have been more of the 90s.

We have a lot to thank this result for, but as for the defeat in 2003...

2-0 v Dundee Utd
May 2000
the season had been a disaster of epic proportions, Dalglish was on the way out, Rangers looked some way over the horizon . On the upside Lambert was back from injury and this game saw the return of Larsson after the horror leg break in Lyon.

But this is the game remembered for all the kids that made the starting lineup. Only 4 recognised first team players started the game, the rest were kids. Celtic won 2-0 and it was an entertaining game. Henrik was back, but more importantly, everyone who was there left the stadium feeling optimistic about the future of the club.

Dalglish may not have done much right that season but at least he went out on a high note.

6-2 v Rangers
August 2000
The game of decade without a shadow of a doubt.

There are some games so enshrined in the collective psyche that they can be comfortably referred to only by the score: we may have recovered from a two goal deficit at Ibrox in 1983 to score four un-opposed goals in the second half, but let’s face it, 4-2 refers to the night in 1979 when 10 men won the league; we might have beaten Rangers 5-1 in November 1998 with Lubo taking centre stage, but mention of that scoreline for me means only defensive calamity in the shape of Aitken and McCarthy with the hapless Ian Andrews quivering like a large blancmange behind them at Ibrox in the summer of 1988 (the result that seriously dented the mystique of the centenary team).

And so to 6-2 - a result, in my opinion, unique in history of certainly Scottish football, because this was the first time the entire footballing map of a country was comprehensively redrawn in a mere 90 minutes.

There have been other revolutions in Scottish football: Stein’s arrival in ’65 changed everything at Celtic, players who hadn’t won a major honour in many years of trying found that within 24 months of Big Jock walking in they suddenly had a wall full of them; Jock Wallace taking advantage of Celtic’s decline in the mid 70’s to win two trebles; the emergence of the north east teams in the late 70’s and early 80’s and of course the arrival of Souness took Rangers from fifth in 1986 to first in ‘87.

But these changes took place over a minimum of a season. The first year Souness was in charge at Ibrox, for example, should, perhaps, not be remembered so much for their winning the league as for Celtic throwing it away (9 points clear in January, the equivalent of 13 points in today’s money – how did we lose it?).

6-2 was completely different. It produced an instant effect. Suddenly and without a great deal of warning we were the dominant team in Scotland. Rangers were immediately looked upon as vulnerable, their fear factor has evaporated and they began to lose games that only weeks before would have been banker wins, the most calamitous surely being the 3-0 home defeat to Killie that saw Amoruso stripped of the captaincy.

How did this happen?

Well the key factor in all of this was obviously Martin O’Neill. His arrival in the summer of 2000 was a welcome piece of good news for the Celtic support. Not only had we hired a proven manager from the English Premier League (provoking more than a couple of snide columns in the English press), we had hired a guy who promised to be around for more than one season (we hadn’t had the same manager through a close season since Tommy Burns in 1996!).

On the other side of the city we had the Dutch manager Dick Advocaat, a man who had collected 5 trophies in two seasons and had just won the league by a thumping 21 points and collected the Scottish Cup amidst a sea of Orange (in tribute to his nationality of course).

The Record ran a feature at the start of the 2000-1 season telling us all that Rangers could field three different teams, one for the league, one for the domestic cups, and one for Europe, that was how strong their squad was (others might have said that was a horribly bloated squad, indicative of a manager who didn’t know his best eleven and a serious drain of the club finances, but what would they know?).

During the summer both clubs used the money from Sky Television to enter the transfer market. Rangers bought - to gasps of amazement from the press - two Dutch international defenders, Fernando Ricksen and Bert Konterman. They also dropped some money to acquire Danish winger Peter Lovenkrands. These were sure thing purchases, guaranteed success stories.

Celtic bought Joos Valgaeren, a Belgian centre half and - to hoots of derision from the press - Chris Sutton from Chelsea. Back in the first team squad was a player who most of us would have been delighted to see shuffled off before the season started – Bobby Petta, a complete failure as a left winger the year before. Hell this guy had been kept out of the Feyenoord team by Reggie Blinker. How bad is that?

But safe to say no one this decade had a more productive 90 minutes against Rangers than Bobby Petta did that day. He can legitimately claim an assist for five out of the six goals we scored: he won the corners for one and two, provided a cutting pass for Lubo to set up the third, took the free kick for the fifth and played Mahe down line to cross for the sixth. Add to that the fact that his original direct opponent was subbed after only 20 minutes and you have an almost the perfect performance.

The first 11 minutes of this game are the stuff of legend, yet but for the hand of fate it could have been 2-2 after 8 minutes. Sutton scored with his first kick and from the restart Rangers won a free kick from which Billy Dodds missed a simple header. Celtic went straight back up the park and scored from a corner.

From that restart Rangers won a corner and we had to clear it off the line. From there we went back to their box and scored a third which produced a cheer that has had no equal, the TV cameras were shaking, the celebration as wild as any before or since, including the night Jorge Cadete blew Radio 5 off the air.

Rangers settled a bit (especially when Ricksen was removed after a torrid time against Petta) and eventually they were awarded a goal when Gould saved a header from Reyna which the officials felt merited a goal. That said they did have a perfectly good goal wrongly disallowed just before half time. Things appeared to be turning against us when Lambert was taken from the pitch injured for the second time in a year against Rangers. His replacement was Mjallby who hadn’t really featured under O’Neill (some papers had started want away rumours about him).

Strange to think but at half time the huns were in pretty high spirits - they genuinely thought they were on the verge on witnessing one of the great derby victories. They were right of course, but it wasn’t the incredible come back they had in mind.

The second half was nowhere near as close as the first. We had them from almost the first minute. Only 6 minutes in Larsson went on his dream sequence run to make it 4-1.

Rangers were awarded and scored a penalty, but that had been a rare breakaway. The game was being played in their half.

Larsson headed in number 5 a few minutes later and the fans relaxed a bit again. With 10 minutes left the nerves eased almost completely when Barry Ferguson was sent off for a second, completely stupid, bookable offence. The beast was slain and we about to dance on the corpse. Petta, the calayst for the early push, gathered the ball on the halfway line and made a perfect angle to pass to Mahe. He fired the ball across goal and Sutton, the man who started the scoring, slid in to get number 6.

In the Sky gantry Davie Provan marvelling at Sutton made the following memorable statement: “He can’t have much left gas in his tank!” We know what you mean Davie.

A shot of the crowd after the 5th goal went in showed the people in main stand simply applauding as opposed to going wild, the reason for that was simple; all their adrenalin had long gone, the excitement of what they were seeing had burned it all off.

In the tunnel after the game O’Neill looked in to the camera and told the world that Rangers were a great team whilst we still had some way to go. Some people might actually have believed him.

2-1 v Dundee
December 2000
The night we dared believe that we had the balls to win the league.

After a glorious start we had our jets cooled a bit by a 5-1 defeat at Ibrox and a draw at Easter Road. O’Neill decided that we needed a midfield gatekeeper, so enter stage left Neil Lennon for £6m and cue a tidal wave of ‘Lennon and Lambert won’t be able to play alongside each other’ articles in the rags.

His debut was at Dens Park. Celtic were 1-0 up after 10 minutes and seemed to be cruising, but Dundee fought harder than most of the teams we faced that season and soon equalised (their record against us that year was the best in the league; we never beat them by more than a goal and they beat us 2-0 at the tail end).

With only seconds to go and the score still 1-1 the nerves were jangling like an epileptic Santa. We won a corner, surely the last action of the game the commentator told us. Petrov swung it in, the keeper missed it and it bobbled in front of goal before Didier Agathe stooped to head his first goal for us and prove to Celtic fans everywhere that we had the stomach to fight for a result (meanwhile of course we can only imagine the squadron of pint glasses that sailed through the air at bars such as the District and Loudon when that goal went in).

3-1 v Ajax
August 2001
The game we re-announced ourselves on the European stage.

2-0 up after 25 minutes Ajax didn’t know what had hit them. They managed to grab a goal before half-time and had a number of decent chances after the break, but found Rab Douglas in no mood to let any more in.

Sutton sealed the game with a stunning header from an Agathe cross.

The return leg saw us far more nervous and Ajax a lot more bullish. They won 1-0 but we went through to the Champions League for the first time.

After the return loss to Ajax we wouldn’t lose another home European game for more than four years.

1-0 v Boavista
there were other games in the UEFA Cup run that clearly have more kudos attached to them, but this was the ‘bottle’ game, the one the media were counting on for failure.

Everyone knew we were a better team than Boavista, who were arguably the poorest team we had drawn since the first round of the tournament, but a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park (complete with penalty miss from Henrik) had given them an advantage and set the nerves going.

Celtic were always in control but unable to create any real openings, but with only 10 minutes left a chance fell to Larsson who buried it to give us the advantage. At the final whistle the on pitc

h scenes were incredible and are still enough to bring a tear to the even the most jaded and cynical eye.

5-0 v Motherwell
October 2005
The night we saw, for the first time, what WGS wanted from Celtic. Our previous two games against Motherwell had seen us throw away the league in May and throw away a two goal lead before relying on a last minute goal to rescue a point in August.

A Petrov hattrick and Naka’s first goal for us (eerily similar to his goal against Manchester United) gave everyone the belief that the league was coming back.
1-0 v Man United
November 2006
Tied with the 2004 Barca UEFA cup game for European game of the decade. This wins because it’s always nice to put one over on the EPL and because this game saw the Hoops concede another Champions League phantom penalty (see Juve, Lyon etc).

The last 11 minutes of this game almost defy description, Naka scores the free kick of the decade, Saha misses a pinch of a chance before the ref awards a penalty for hee-haw which Artur saves. 11 minutes of almost continual bedlam in the seats which was replicated on the pitch at the final whistle.

Incredibly, in the aftermath of victory WGS hadn’t even realised that we had qualified for the last 16.

2-1 v Rangers
April 2008
There are lots of reasons to love this game: the fact that we hadn’t beaten Rangers since September 2006, that we hadn’t even scored against them in over a year, that Naka scored one of the all time classic derby goals and that despite missing a penalty we got winner well in to injury time after Rangers had spent a fair portion of the second half wasting time in the hope of escaping with a potentially league winning point.

All those reasons are great, but I like the fact that after the game had finished they couldn’t even shake hands and leave the pitch with any vestige of their legendary dignity. Instead, they lost and a fight ensued. That told us, our team and their fans that they thought the game was up, their bottle had failed.

Five more victories, including another win over them secured the league.

Goals of the
Decade

Larsson v Rangers (1st) 6-2 August 2000

McNamarra v Motherwell 3-3 Novemeber 2000

Larsson v Rangers 3-0 (50th) April 2001

Sutton v Juve (2nd) 4-3 October 2001

Hartson v Liverpool 2-0 March 2003

Sutton v Rangers 1-0 May 2004

Maloney v Rangers 2-0 November 2005

Naka v Manchester United 1-0 November 2006

Pressley v ICT 2-1 February 2007

McDonald v Aberdeen 5-1 February 2008

Calamaties of the decade

Penalties
v Valencia
November 2001
In Spain Rab Douglas had the game of his life. He was the difference between 1-0 and 6-0, but back at Celtic Park we had Valencia (runners up in the last two European Cup finals) rattled.

Having levelled the tie Larsson proceeded to miss a couple of chances that, by his standards, were simple tap ins. Penalties arrived and it briefly looked like we would finally win a shoot out, Rab again the hero as his save gave us a 2-1 lead with a penalty in hand. Next up Larsson. He missed, again Douglas saved, and it was next up Petrov. He missed.

Sudden death brought Valgaeren up. He missed but got a second chance due to the keeper moving early. We could have changed kicker but Joos stepped up again, put the ball in the same spot and the kick was saved again. We were out having had success in our own hands - twice. Nightmare.

Scottish Cup Final 2002
The day every single player in green and white had a complete nightmare, and still managed to take the lead twice and only failed due to a last minute goal.

We should have had two trebles in a row, instead we allowed the huns two trophies and let the press create a fantasy about McLeish having a hoodoo over O’Neill.

Inverness in the Scottish Cup 2003
A mere three days after we had registered a monumental 2-0 win at Anfield we demolished our own Scottish Cup campaign (and feel good factor) by putting out a skeleton team that promptly fell on its arse.

The fall out of clearly underestimating of all teams Inverness was that we handed the huns the Scottish Cup and in the process the treble.

League Cup at Ibrox 2004
The departure of Larsson and Mjallby had been heralded by the press as the sign that Rangers would re-ascend to the top. The start of the season had seemed to fly in the face of that as we strode out in front, but a tough Champions League group (Barca, Milan, Donetsk) and the fact that the new signings didn’t settle brought us back in to the pack.

Two games at Ibrox within two weeks saw the first real cracks in the O’Neill reign. We had this game in the bag, Hartson had scored, we were in complete control, but only minutes from the end Thompson played a careless pass on the edge of our box. They got the ball and scored. They scored again in extra-time and the slide was starting.

Fir Park 2005
write your own memory of this. If I think about it I’ll greet.

Artmedia
Every shot from them a goal, an empty net from 2 yards for us was shot over the bar. A mere two months after the previous calamity this was misery piled upon misery.

Andy Murdoch’s Team of the Decade

Boruc
Mjallby Balde McNamarra
Agathe Lambert(c) Lennon Petrov Thompson
Sutton Larsson

Bench: Douglas, Maloney, McGeady, Hartson, Valgaeren

Manager: anyone but John Barnes and King Kenny.

Yes this is basically the top Martin O’Neill team with Artur in goal, but realistically, who in the current line up would be able to slot in to that team and improve it?

The keeper slot was between two players basically; Boruc and Douglas. No contest.

In defence the guys who opened the decade included the likes of Stubbs and Mahe, both of whom moved on early on, O’Neill quickly brought in his own men but it was a player he inherited, Mjallby, that really marshalled the defence. Irreplaceable.

The midfield is clearly the main area of debate. No McGeady, no Maloney, no Nakamura, all winners of the Player of the Year award, but the line up I’ve picked is the classic Martin O’Neill midfield; strong, clever, has more than one key goal threat and the speed of Agathe down the flank. Awesome.

Up front 100 goal John Hartson could feel aggrieved not to make the starting lineup and with his scoring record Scott McDonald would be annoyed not to make the squad at all, but how could anyone ever consider anything other than Larrson, Sutton?

Player of the decade: Chris Sutton. Could play anywhere in the outfield spine of the team and stand out as an exceptional talent (truth be told I would have given him the keepers gloves in preference to Magnus Hedman).

His transfer in the summer of 2000 was worth every penny just for his attitude alone, for example “I’m here to put Rangers in their place.” He certainly did that and more, his goals against Ajax, Juve, Blackburnand the rest helped establish us in Europe. His performances in defence, especially in 2001-2 and 2003-4 were rock solid, but his greatest strength was as the ultimate attacking foil, the man who could provide the perfect lay off. Just ask Stilian Petrov who must have got half of his Celtic goals thanks to Sutton.

Could tackle, pass, shot, head, not bad pace wise, clever, knew all the angles and a bit nasty when he had to be. In fact probably what we would all want to be on the football pitch.

Worst 11
(Aarrrrrgggghhhhhhh, these guys actually pulled on first team shirts!)

Hedman

Henchoz, Du Wei, Rafael, Michael Gray

Virgo, Juninho, Donati, Graveson

Camara, Viduka (Mr 75%)

Cameo 11
Word Up! (Those who contributed sporadically is decade but were appreciated).

Juan Broto

Telfer, Ramon Vega, Stubbs, Stephen Creaney

Jamie Smith, Keane, Lubo, Petta

Dion Dublin, Tommy Johnson