| Match Pictures | Matches: 1996 – 1997 | 1996-1997 Pictures |
Trivia
- The latest player to be linked to Celtic was Chelsea outcast David Rocastle
- McStay (ankle), McKinlay (?), Stubbs (ankle), O’Donnell (hamstring) and Thom were out with injuries. Peter Grant was suspended.
- The bonus dispute between the club and the players nagged on despite efforts to clear the air, Tommy Burns apologizing to the fans and Fergus telling the players to get real. The players withdrew their assistance to the media.
- Mark Burchill playing for Celtic U16 elite, played and scored for Scotland U16’s in a 2-1 win against Denmark
- The match was one of the Celtic ‘Green Nose Day’ games.
Review
An excellent game with great goals from the foreign bhoys, however the crowd were pretty unhappy before Cadete scored as the team were showing their usual profligate nature in front of goal.
Teams
Celtic:
Marshall, Boyd, MacKay, McNamara, Hughes, Wieghorst (McLaughlin), Di Canio (Anthony), O’Neil, Van Hooijdonk, Donnelly, Cadete
Non-Used Sub: Gray.
Goals: Cadete (32), Di Canio (35), Di Canio (41), Van Hooijdonk (72), Van Hooijdonk (89)
Dunfermiline:
Westwater, Miller, Fleming (Millar), Den Bieman, Tod, Clark, French (Bingham), Robertson, Smith, Britton, Petrie
Non-Used Sub: Lemanjic
Goal: Britton (65)
Referee: Clyde
Attendance: 50,032
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Articles
Scotland on Sunday 22/09/1996
Celtic 5 Dunfermline Ath. 1
THE colour of your money is the only thing that counts in football now, as Tommy Burns was rudely reminded in midweek. Accusations that the Parkhead fans were being short-changed by their foreign mercenaries were rendered meaningless as Celtic returned to the shade that matters most, the gold standard.
The green folding stuff has been at the centre of a fierce debate since the squalid row of bonus payments became public just hours before the Coca-Cola Cup defeat by Hearts.
Green nose day could have turned into red face day for Celtic.
However, five sublime goals from Paolo di Canio and Pierre van Hooijdonk, who pitched in with two apiece, and Jorge Cadete which banished such fears for Burns seems like fair exchange, though the Celtic manager is still furious at the whole grubby business.
Only after Cadete opened the scoring in the 32nd minute did they get into the spirit.
Their point had been made – and noted by Burns. He reflected later: "The supporters let the players know their feelings and they knew it was going to be hard to win the crowd back again. What happened was disgraceful and it affected us but the matter is now over. We can't take the fans for granted. It took us long enough to win them back."
Burns must now hope that the pounding of Dunfermline can be translated on to the Euro market on Tuesday against the strong Germans when Celtic seek to recover a UEFA Cup debt in Hamburg.
The idea that players, some of whom earn more than 10,000 a week, need further incentive is nonsense. Gerry Britton, who earned buttons in his days as a Parkhead reserve, almost showed his wealthy adversaries the way to go after just eight minutes.
The journeymen managed to make Celtic defenders John Hughes and Malky Mackay look pedestrian in the early stages. Celtic's fragility was not helped by their continued black hole in the middle of the park.
Burns' headaches in that area were increased even more after the suspension of Peter Grant, who was sent off against Hearts, and Brian O'Neil was drafted in to his former role to fill in after spending the last few seasons in the centre of defence.
However, all the nervousness melted away when Cadete delivered the first of five punishing blows to Bert Paton's industrious side.
Jackie McNamara carved his former club wide open with a superb 50-yard pass down the right touchline, his Portuguese team-mate timed his run to perfection to beat the offside trap, his first touch killed the ball and took it past Ian Westwater, who had needlessly come out of his area, and the goalkeeper could only watch as Cadete sped away to shoot into the empty net.
Two further goals before the interval from di Canio all but settled the contest.
The Italian, wearing snazzy white boots which were made for Come Dancing, floated past Dunfermline's offside trap again before making a complete mug of Westwater and rifling in his shot to make it 2-0 in the 35th minute. Six minutes later the former AC Milan player scored again, after Cadete's attempted overhead kick fortuitously landed at his feet.
Celtic thought they could even indulge themselves in the luxury of missing a penalty when, in the 50th minute, Cadete was brought down by John Clark, but Van Hooijdonk ensured there was no further punishment by missing the target with his spot kick.
Britton then opened up Celtic to a painful period of self-doubt when he scored with a header at the back post after 65 minutes.
Astonishingly, Dunfermline could have been level within a matter of minutes had Robertson and Smith not squandered chances. However, Van Hooijdonk managed to settle Celtic nerves with two goals in the later stages, which proves that despite his recent aberrations from the penalty spot, he still possesses some of the merciless approach that brought him 32 goals last season.
In the 72nd minute he made it 4-1 casually rolling the ball past Westwater from around the same 12 yard mark he had failed so glaringly from earlier, after a superb pass from Di Canio.
Then, in the final minute, the Dutchman took one of his trademark free-kicks from 25 yards which curled over the wall and lifted the Parkhead crowd on to its feet.
As Celtic's players now know, the only commodity which counts with the punters is goals