The festive period was decisive in Celtic's ever-diminishing challenge for the league. In the space of a week three vital fixtures had to be negotiated; away to Aberdeen and home to both Rangers and Hearts. Six points would see the club back up, five was acceptable, anything less would surely see the end of another league challenge.

At Aberdeen Celtic found themselves two goals behind after 15 minutes. Thanks to a combination of poor finishing by the home team and some good fortune the margin was still the same but the omens were looking grim. Yet again Brady managed to lift the team; they proceeded to dominate the second half and 10 minutes in won a corner. The ball swung in but no one could get a head on it. Thinking his chance had gone, even though the ball was still loose in the box, Mowbray turned to run back to the halfway line. As he reached the edge of the Aberdeen box the ball landed at his left foot. In one swift turn he cracked it straight in to the roof of the net. The game was once more in the balance. With Aberdeen defending desperately, O'Neil made progress down the right hand side. His cross was met perfectly by Cascarino and we were level. Pandemonium in the Beach End.

Celtic pressed for a third, but Aberdeen regrouped and the game finished level. In spite of the poor first half hopes were high that if the team could perform as well as they had in the second half at Pittodrie they could beat Rangers. However, once again Lady Luck was not on Celtic's side. In fact she was wearing a blue McEwan's Lager top, sporting knuckle dusters, and was accompanied by an ill-tempered Rotweiller as far as Celtic were concerned.

The first half of the Ne'erday game at Parkhead was certainly not short on incident. Celtic weren't playing with the verve they had shown against Aberdeen and were struggling to hold Rangers. In fact the home team could have been a man down and facing a penalty if the ref had spotted McNally's hand ball on the line to prevent McCoist scoring. But with only five minutes to go until half time it looked as though the teams might go in level. Then the roof fell in.

God alone knows what Peter Grant was trying in the middle of the park. He had time when he first gathered the ball, but he dithered and stuttered before trying to turn away from his man, merely succeeding in running straight into another and gifting Rangers possession The ball was moved up the right, crossed to McCoist and Rangers were in front.

The second half started far more promisingly. McStay had been the one Celt who had given his opponents trouble. He seemed to shift up a gear as the ball got closer to the Rangers goal. A corner was won and Mowbray threw himself to the near post to head the equaliser. The tide turned. The Maestro began to force Rangers further and further back. And then the re-roofed roof fell in again.

McStay received a kick to the face (no free kick, no booking - it was only the Celtic captain who had been kicked in the face) and had to leave the field to get the cut seen to. Temporarily up against 10 men, and not faced with their biggest threat Rangers reestablished control. They didn't score during the 10 minutes McStay was off (the ref refused to let him back on after about 5 minutes, feeling that the repair job wasn't good enough), but soon after he came back Rangers were awarded a soft penalty. Marshall and McCoist both went for the ball, McCoist appeared to step on a land mine and Rangers had a spot kick which Hateley scored. To round off a thoroughly lousy day, in the last minute Brown scored with a speculative drive from outside the box. Welcome to 1992.