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Trivia
- The team came into this game after a 0-0 draw away to Partick Thistle in the league and a degree of head scratching as to why the team could not turn clear superiority into wins after a succession of draws.
- Mike Galloway was out on loan to Leicester, Tony Mowbray was on compassionate leave after the tragic death of his wife, Paul McStay was suspended, Simon Donnelly was nursing a hamstring injury
- Tommy Burns did his best to kill speculation that Celtic were interested in Neil McCann of Dundee. This had been a runner since day 1 of the season. Speculation was also linking Rudi Vata with a move to either AEK Athens or Reading. The club had received an enquiry from Reading but it was for a loan move.
- The club were told by the SFA that in the event of the ground rebuilding at Celtic Park not being complete and ready, Celtic would not be able to continue renting Hampden. The club had wanted to continue renting on a week-by-week basis.
- Tom Boyd and his agent were in court trying to reclaim £50,000 they alleged that he was still owed by Motherwell after his sale to Chelsea in 1991.
- The Celtic share issue had gone ahead as planned and was found to be over-subscribed and an unqualified success, the fans backing the plan fully. The share issue provided working capital of £21million with Fergus McCann and co-investors putting up £12million and the rest coming from the fans.
- Fergus McCann married Elspeth Campbell on 27/1/95 in Ayr.
Review
It took 68 minutes to break down Campbell Money in the St Mirren goal and the 2-0 win was more laboured than the score suggests.
Teams
Celtic (4-4-2):
Bonner, Boyd, Gray, O’Neil, McNally, Grant, McLaughlin, O’Donnell, Van Hooijdonk (Walker, 84), Falconer, Collins.
Non Used Subs: Marshall, McGinlay
Scorers: Falconer (68), Van Hooijdonk (72)
St Mirren (3-5-2):
Money, McLaughlin, Dawson, McWhirter, Dick, Gillies (Hewitt, 38), McIntyre, Fullarton, Elliot, Bone (Inglis, 62), Lavety
Non Used Sub: Combe
Ref: A Waddell (Edinburgh)
Attendance: 28,449
Articles
- Match Report(see below)
Pictures
Dogged Celtic bite in the end
29/01/1995
IF the Tennents Scottish Cup clings to its reputation for drama it is often because players retain the knack of conspiring against themselves. So often, the leading sides muzzle themselves and risk leaving the underdogs to sink their teeth into the match. Celtic spent most of this tie manufacturing chances and still making difficulties for themselves. It can only be tension which keeps the score tight on an occasion such as this. After the Coca-Cola Cup, it was perhaps natural that Celtic would have to suppress a whimper at the sight of First Division opposition.
Tommy Burns' players devised their own torment. There was, for instance, no reason why Willie Falconer should have failed to determine the course of the game as early as the 22nd minute. Brian McLaughlin lifted a studious cross on to his head, but the forward was self-conscious and awkward as he stiffly headed over the bar. In manner if not effectiveness, however, Celtic are gradually retrieving their reputation as an attacking team. Eventually, they were to score twice, without generating the flow of steady havoc which, oddly enough, produced no goals at Firhill last weekend. All the same, there is, for the first time this season, a bellicose look to the side. Perhaps it has something to do with the width which has been added by McLaughlin's clever scuttling on the left. To an even greater extent, there is credit due to Pierre van Hooijdonk. Any midfield will be enlivened when it knows that they can play the ball forward and not expect to see it rattled straight back at them by a player whose skills were refined in the more rarefied climes of the Dutch First Division.
Celtic, who were patchy yesterday, nonetheless remain a team under construction. The niggling flaws are still abundant. Burns has yet to find a means of inserting Van Hooijdonk into the penalty area. The £1.2mill signing from NAC Breda has turned out to be the precise opposite of everything suggested by the statistics which preceded him to Scotland. We learned that he was 6ft 5in and presumed there would be gargantuan headers. Who could have guessed that he was the type of big man who hunches his shoulders when he jumps, as if he had acquired as a lanky boy the belief that he would win the ball as a matter of course? Then there was the information that he had a scoring ratio of two goals to every three matches. Surely, we thought, he must be a penalty box loiterer. Instead, he has brought an unexpected excellence to Scotland. Van Hooijdonk is all touch and deception. At present, the striker is too assiduous for his own good, keen to impress his new employers with industry as he races out to the wings to involve himself in the game. He may need to acquire a few vices. Idleness and greed, in particular, would serve him well. In a more able team, he may feel entitled to linger in the penalty area, waiting for the opportunity to do damage.
Against St Mirren, however, Van Hooijdonk did claim one of a pair of scruffy goals. As Burns later acknowledged, it is precisely that kind of mundane scoring which Celtic have lacked. After 68 minutes, the St Mirren defence nudged the ball away from McLaughlin as he came wriggling forward. It ran to Tom Boyd and his cross to the back-post was headed in simply by Falconer. A free-kick flighted by John Collins to the same man in the same area brought the second four minutes later. This time, Falconer bundled it back across goal for Van Hooijdonk to shoot into the open goal.
On the field at least, the Cup is the only really significant work which faces Burns this season. The draw, which will bring Meadowbank Thistle or Berwick Rangers to Hampden in the fourth round, has been kindly. It gives Celtic time for improvement, even if they are still to prove they possess the resources to make use of the breathing space. Claustrophobia and panic were beginning to take a hold of them in the second half against St Mirren. The venue ensured that the Paisley side had to endure comparison with their 1987 selves. The decline since that Cup-winning day has been steep and St Mirren, after the 5-1 drubbing in Perth last weekend, came to Hampden intent, at first, on limiting the pain of this tie. There were, though, two occasions when Jimmy Bone's team could have filched a goal. Pat Bonner spilled David Elliott's free-kick after 35 minutes, but managed to deflect the ball for a corner as Barry Lavety forced a shot from the rebound. Five minutes into the second half Jim Dick stabbed out a foot and lifted John Hewitt's cross over the bar.
Mostly, though, the visitors had just stubbornness with which to counter Celtic's remorselessness. Early in the match there were opportunities for first Collins and later Boyd in which they carefully worked their way through and lined up a finish. The deliberation also gave the excellent Campbell Money in the St Mirren goal the time to make calculations of his own, and he was able to tip each shot round the post. There was to be extended survival but no lasting romance about this tie for St Mirren. Bone was left to fret over his gifted teenager, Ricky Gillies, taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle.
- Manager Interview
Tommy Burns:
“Our patience paid off and we didn’t panic. The boys kept the ball down, passed it around and we got our just rewards.
“Big Pierre scored the type of simple goal that we just haven’t netted enough of this term. We’ve been crying out for someone that can just stick tap-ins away
“Although I thought Brian O’Neil was immense at the back.
“Our supporters were patient – as they have been through the season – and I have to commend them for that.”
Brian McLaughlin (MotM):
“There was a lot of pressure on us what with the Coca-Cola Cup Finakl and our league form not being what we had hoped.
“On top of that St Mirren made it hard for us. But we got the result we deserved.
“Our style has altered as it’s a bit different playing with two big men up front. But both can bring the ball down and play with their feet.
“It’s reassuring to know of their presence whenever you’re in trouble and that has helped me.”
Tommy Burns (Post Match):
On the prospect of meeting Meadowbank Thistle or Berwick Rangers in the next round:
“We will definitely treat our opponents with respect as there are no easy games in the cup
“At the start of the season we said we wanted to get to a Final and we have achieved that already, although ultimately the final of the Coca-Cola Cup was a major disappointment.
“So after losing one cup we will just have to get ourselves another one!”