1996-01-20: Kilmarnock 0-0 Celtic, Premier Division

BYLINE:Jonathan Northcroft
CELTIChad the jackpot already claimed and cashed in in their minds but went and spoiled the coupon. A fourth away, againstKilmarnock, possibly the easiest of their recent series on paper, and league leadership – the richest of dividends – was theirs.
Instead they enter the final third of the season in the same impotent pickle as they have experienced for most of the other two – snapping behind at their rivals' heels but still unable to overhaul them.
This was a day when someone at last didCeltica favour and yet they did themselves none. It was a fevered hyperactive performance in which Tommy Burns saw his team abandon established methods for the madness of the chase. Paul McStay and John Collins failed to hold the ball and build, while in attacking positions Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Andy Walker scrambled, skewed and scraped. Crucially, they didn't score.

How Van Hooijdonk mourned the absence of Andreas Thom.A week ago at Aberdeen Thom speared the gameCeltic'sway. Yesterday, substitute Morten Wieghorst, another continental thoroughbred, lentCelticperception and acute passing during his half-hour but it was too abrupt for his influence to be decisive. Tommy Burns, who will watch Dutch striker Denis de Nooijer play in Holland this afternoon, is keen to bring another European toCelticPark to augment his team.
"We started the week eight points behind and we are now one point behind," said the literal Burns afterwards, trying to remain positive. On a biting day, the manager chose to give TV interviews on the pitch in his shirt sleeves after the game.
Perhaps his men needed to see what hardiness looks like.
"Come on, the tuppenny Killie," a home eccentric had laughed throughout the match.
The rest of the Rugby Park faithful who departed with glee also enjoyed frustratingCeltic'smillionaires but their team were much more than dour spoilers.
John Henry, flitting between midfield and the strikers, was ever sharp and creative. Some of Dragoje Lekovic's saves made destruction seem an art.
Such is the focus of this championship grapple that, for the involved, the senses are clamped on only two fixtures each week.
The sides had barely skirmished yesterday before clamour swelled from theCelticranks on two sides of the stadium.
Rangers, a radio said, had gone one down. News of Scotland's opening try in Dublin, which cracked on the same transistors a minute later, raised barely a peep.
Maybe it was glee or just the dilapidated nature of the opening play but it took their supporters a quarter of an hour to notice thatCelticwere playing rather badly. Steve Maskrey crossed, Gordon Marshall flapped and the rebound rolled just behind Henry. When Paul McStay collected and advanced, anxiety thickened the cries from the stand which drove him forward. Nothing came off throughout the entire first half forCeltic. WithKilmarnock'smidfield bunched in the centre, John Collins strayed inside to bother McStay and Phil O'Donnell skulked in isolation.
Kilmarnock, on the other hand, gave nothing away except inCeltic'sbox. With the angles inviting, Tom Black slipped while attempting a shot and O'Donnell at last found leg room to drive forward on the counter with Black's team-mates committed. The midfielder bore deep into theKilmarnockhalf and passed forward to Simon Donnelly. Lekovic hacked a clearance away from in front of Donnelly's nose, but when Van Hooijdonk returned the ball to the box from halfway, Walker made a bashful waft at it.
Walker had succumbed to old nerves but Marshall at least appeared resolute. Gus MacPherson took a short free-kick which Paul Wright bent into the box.
Maskrey, in the clear, stubbed it goalwards from five yards out but Marshall stayed upright and blocked it with his knee.
In the second half,Celtic'sheadspins continued in the opposition area. O'Donnell lifted a cutback from the left which Walker failed to steer past Lekovic. And then Wieghorst, within 30 seconds of replacing O'Donnell, one-twoed with Van Hooijdonk and popped up a cross with which the Dutchman could not connect.
The crowd screamed once more to letCelticknow of a second Hearts goal but, with Van Hooijdonk looking irresolute, Danish and not Dutch courage appeared most likely to rekindleCeltic'sresolve. Wieghorst, upright and erect in bearing, displayed a similarly military precision in his touch and movement. He galloped forward again and fed Van Hooijdonk who swept a centre into the box.
Walker, always doomed, missed it.
Kilmarnockcontinued to beaver upfield sufficiently to troubleCelticand Paul Wright lobbed Marshall but landed it on top of the net. At the other end, Van Hooijdonk swerved a free-kick just a foot wide of the post.
These incidents droveCelticmanic. Van Hooijdonk and Tosh McKinlay both embarrassed themselves with wild volleys and the referee ended the game not a second past the 90 minutes.There had been enough stoppages to let it continue but the whisper was right: leave the action and agony of the pursuit for another day.