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Trivia
- The team had a long list of injuries for this game. McStay, O’Donnell, Stubbs, Di Canio, Gray and Anthony were all injured and there were fitness doubts over Jackie McNamara, Morten Wieghorst, Brian O’Neil and Andreas Thom.
- McCann was upping the ante in his claim for compensation from Monaco for the transfer of John Collins. The SFA and Jim Farry were not interested in supporting Celtic in pursuit of the claim which was based on the fact that Monaco were not part of the European Community but a separate state.
- Ray McStay, younger brother of Paul and a previous Celtic Reserve player, was released by Hamilton Academicals and went on a month’s long trial with Hereford Town.
- This match saw the first team debut of 17 year-old John Paul McBride as an 88th minute substitute for Morten Wieghorst.
Review
An easy win which started slowly but in the end was comfortable, capped by a wonderful double by Thom with a great pic of his celebration.
Teams
Celtic:
Marshall, Boyd, McKinlay, McNamara, Hughes, Grant, McLaughlin, Wieghorst (J P McBribe, 88), Van Hooijdonk, Thom (Donnelly, 63), Cadete Unused Sub: O’Neil
Goals:
Celtic: Van Hooijdonk, 16; Thom, 25; Thom, 50; Donnelly, 87
Raith Rovers:
S Y Thomson, Kirkwood (Twaddle, 54), Bonar, Browne, Dennis, Craig, S Thomson (Duffield, 54), McInally, Rougier (Harvey, 68), Lennon, Millar
Goals:
Raith Rovers: Duffield, 67
Referee: Roy
Attendance: 47,200:
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
- Match Report
Celtic devour a little fodder Scotland on Sunday 18/08/1996
Celtic 4 Raith Rovers 1
AS a confidence-booster for Celtic’s UEFA Cup tie against the Slovakian side Kosice on Tuesday, this worked a treat. However, anyone searching for clues as to how the Glasgow side are shaping up as championship contenders would do better to look elsewhere.
Celtic were efficient and at times inspired, but yesterday’s opponents were so lacking in ambition that anything other than a comfortable home win would surely have set alarm bells ringing.
And now, pre-season fears that clubs such as Rovers and Dunfermline will merely be incessant cannon-fodder for the Old Firm appear to be justified.
The visitors came to Parkhead thinking only of survival, but they looked shell-shocked long before the end. Once Celtic had taken the lead, Rovers had the look of a rabbit trapped in a car’s headlamps, unable to escape its fate.
While watching this procession, it was impossible to escape the notion that there will be many more afternoons like this at Parkhead and Ibrox in the next nine months.
Injuries to key players had given Celtic’s starting XI an unfamiliar look. McStay, O’Donnell, Stubbs and Di Canio were all posted missing while O’Neil could only make the bench.
Their absence didn’t prevent 47,200 turning up to watch the patchwork home side take on Rovers, a vast improvement on the 14,410 who witnessed the meeting of the two sides at the same ground in the bad old days of March 1994.
Unfortunately, the early exchanges gave little indication of what was to come. They were tentative to say the least, the only light relief coming from Boyd when he clattered a corner flag as he attempted to deliver a cross. We had to wait 17 minutes for the first shot at goal to arrive and, when it came, it gave Celtic the lead.
An exquisite chipped pass from Thom released Cadete in the inside left position, and Van Hooijdonk was able to steer his cross behind Thomson from 12 yards.
Until that point the big Dutchman had looked sluggish, uninterested even, but already he’s proved how vital his contribution will be to Celtic’s bid for honours.
McInally was cautioned for protesting too much – the Raith assistant manager believed Cadete was in an offside position when he received the ball – but the Rovers players could have had no complaints about the second goal.
Wieghorst supplied Thom and the visiting defenders paid the penalty for standing off the German striker when he exploded a right-foot shot high past Thomson from the edge of the penalty area.
After that, Celtic seemed capable of scoring at will.
With Rovers’ game plan in tatters, the remainder of the match became a futile exercise in damage limitation.
Cadete should have added a third in the 29th minute but, from point-blank range, he contrived to loft Van Hooijdonk’s knockdown over the bar.
The home side also looked to have a reasonable penalty claim four minutes from the interval when Cadete went down following a robust challenge from Dennis, but the claim was dismissed by referee Roy.
A quickly taken free-kick from McLaughlin allowed Wieghorst a clear run on goal from the right wing but the midfielder, still looking for his first competitive goal for Celtic, saw his attempted lob saved with ease by Thomson.
Bizarrely, Celtic restarted with just 10 men, Thom rejoining the fray a good 30 seconds after the rest of his colleagues. However, normal service was resumed in the 51st minute when Celtic scored again.
Cadete was fouled by Kirkwood, McKinlay flighted a perfect free-kick to the far post and Thom stole in to drive home his second.
Thomson scrambled to touch a looping header from Wieghorst over the bar as Celtic threatened to run riot. An angled drive from Cadete came back off the inside of the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.
Then a blunder from Grant left Rougier with only Marshall to beat in the 62nd minute but the striker stepped on the ball and the chance, Rovers first, was gone.
Cadete immediately repeated the trick at the other end, which had the unmarked Van Hooijdonk screaming with frustration.
It took a fluke of quite monstrous proportions to give the visitors a goal their persistence, if not their performance, deserved. Substitute Duffield took a fresh-air swipe at a Rougier cross but the ball cannoned off his standing leg and behind the startled Marshall.