| Match Pictures | Matches: 1996 – 1997 | 1996-1997 Pictures |
Trivia
- The postponed game against Dunfermiline set for the Wednesday night prior to this game had to be called off again due to snow.
- Prior to this game Tommy Burns talked to the Press about the constant pressure he felt under as Celtic manager and how the recent run of form meant that he felt he had to deliver soon.
- The team was depleted with injuries and suspensions. With Stubbs (‘flu), McLaughlin and Van Hooijdonk (groin) missing with various complaints and O’Donnell and McStay long term injury victims (but on the road to recovery), and with Di Canio suspended, other members on the fringes of the squad were brought in. Both McNamara (hamstring) and Hay (back) were nursing injuries.
- Chris Hay scored his first senior goal.
- Of the Motherwell team, Tommy Coyne was an ex-Celt, Chris McCart would go on to run the Celtic Youth Development programme and Billy Davies would go on to manage Motherwell and continue the policy of hacking anything wearing green and white.
- Celtic were unable to take advantage of Motherwell playing the last 24 minutes with midfielder Dolan in goal after Howie was injured.
Review
Further pressure on the management team with a loss to Motherwell. This was the first loss to another team in the league, apart from Rangers, since May ’95.
Teams
Motherwell (3-4-3):
Howie (Lehtonen 66); Philliben, Martin, McCart; Dolan, McSkimming, McMillan, Davies (Ross 45); Roddie, May, Coyne.
Sub not used: Burns.
Celtic (4-4-2):
Kerr; McNamara (McBride 87), Boyd, Mackay, McKinlay; Wieghorst (Hay 45), Grant, O'Neil (Gray 71), Donnelly; Thom, Cadete.
Scorers: Davies (40) 1-0; Hay (82) 1-1; Ross (90) 2-1.
Yellow cards: Roddie (Motherwell); McKinlay (Celtic).
Referee: M McCurry (Glasgow).
Attendance: 11,589.
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Articles
Celtic's chance slips away
Scotland on Sunday 08/12/1996
Motherwell 2 – 1 Celtic
IT is too early to say Celtic lost the championship yesterday, but they have certainly made it Rangers' to mislay. Even if they were to thrash their rivals in this season's remaining Old Firm games it would no longer be enough.
Eight points now separate the two, a psychological canyon as well as an actual one. If he is to cross it, Tommy Burns must renovate both Celtic's mind and body. There are too many everyday players in his squad and they failed to make up for the missing Pierre van Hooijdonk, Paolo di Canio and Alan Stubbs in the most miserable way.
There is also a lack of mental strength about Celtic, seen perhaps in their last defeat by Rangers and, instead of solving the inadequacies Motherwell revealed, they panicked.
For once there was no triumphal Celtic finish to overcome earlier failings, rather a climax which confirmed them. Though Chris Hay equalised in the 80th minute and green shirts poured out of the trenches in the usual fashion, it was Motherwell, with Ian Ross's bundled winner, who snatched victory.
If only Alex McLeish got the same fervour from his players against the Dunfermlines and Raiths. This was a day of defiance after Scott Howie was stretchered off and no little craft. This, even with Tommy Coyne having a rare negligible afternoon.
The movement around Coyne, with Andy Roddie and Eddie May wide and wing-backs supporting, was sufficient to bypass Celtic's unremarkable midfield. At the back, as big McLeish noted, they were "immense".
How unlike Celtic. With Stubbs withdrawn because of flu before the kick-off, Burns reverted to two stoppers with the result that he always looked a man short in that area.
In front, Brian O'Neil seemed no surer of where to stand than during all those attempts to convert him into a sweeper. Morten Wieghorst, ever the scapegoat, was allowed even less time than usual – 45 minutes – before he was substituted.
Burns said: "It is hard to find good things to say," although predictably he felt that Celtic had enough chances to win the game. The one good thing was that playing football gave Celtic temporary space from all the poppycock surrounding Van Hooijdonk's new contract.
Some of the digits reported have surely been drawn from the imagination rather than fact. What is more certain, maybe, is that we will soon need calculators to keep a tally of Celtic's disciplinary points. A Saturday passed without someone being sent off, but there was an inane booking for Tosh McKinlay. By kicking the ball away when a free-kick was awarded, the wing-back put himself under the pressure of playing 80 minutes while on a booking, and this with Jamie Dolan slavering up his flank in eternal search for a 'square go'.
Dolan himself could have easily got Wieghorst sent off by pretending the Dane elbowed his face and McKinlay sent to hospital with a maniacal lunge. Astonishingly, neither incident was punished.
Punished, however, were Celtic when absenteeism at the far post gave Billy Davies space to place a fine curving header past Stewart Kerr from Roddie's cross. The truant was poor hapless Malky Mackay, who, a minute later, stood gawping at the referee, claiming offside, while May ran in and missed from close range.
Then Roddie skiffed his header instead of scoring past Kerr, having been left without a green shirt to trouble him.
These three minutes formed an incredible catalogue of malpractice from Celtic who kept sweeping upfield like the tide, leaving Motherwell forwards washed up in the box. In truth, Davies' goal was simply a culmination of a half in which neither midfield defended very well but crucially one back line – Motherwell's – did.
In that period Andreas Thom's nimble mind and feet deserved some return, but the German drifted into the margins as Celtic's afternoon wore wearily on.
Where Thom did make his mark, however, was on Howie in a challenge which left the goalkeeper with a suspected cheekbone fracture. Dolan taking over, looked almost muzzled wearing goalie's garb and was immediately hatcheted in the neck by Hay.
Celtic, with their blood boiling, swamped Motherwell and prised an equaliser. It came when 22-year-old Hay showed the assurance that senior colleagues lacked and played into an empty net after Thom challenged Dolan.
The striker had been on since half-time but the killer substitute was Motherwell's. With the game's breath all but drawn, Roddie smacked a volley on the turn against Kerr's palms and Ross scraped it in from the rebound.
- Manager Interview
Tommy Burns:
"It's difficult to find something good to say," he said of his team's performance. "I certainly don't want to take anything away from Motherwell. It was a big scalp for them, you could see that by their reaction at the end of the game.
"However, despite being without four or five players the team we put out should still be capable of beating the team Motherwell put out."
"In the second half we had the passion and desire without the craft to go along with it."