| Match Pictures | Matches: 1996 – 1997 | 1996-1997 Pictures | |
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Trivia
- The game was the first after a long break for Internationals.The pressure on the club the players and the manager at this time was intense. Rumours were running wild through the Press and the Club were forced into making outright denials on some of the things stated.
- Hackles were still there from the 1994 Coca Cola Cup Final defeat by Raith.
- Tommy Johnson made his debut coming on as a second half substitute for Donnelly.
- Paul McStay's last first team game for Celtic. McStay was also in contract negotiations, being out of contract at the end of the season. McCann was, as ever, playing hard ball offering a basic wage plus a pay-per-game deal.
- Tommy Burns was also out of contract at the end of the season and rumours were rife in the Press that he would be offered another position at the club. Despite all denials this was what transpired.
- The whole contracts issue was again about to blow sky high. Van Hooijdonk had been transferred over it and Cadete and Di Canio were about to input their quota into los tres amigos situation.
Quick Review
The dip in form meant that nothing could or would be taken for granted. Raith were in a relegation battle and, given Celtic's poor run of results, were certainly up for the game.
MacKay and Grant were suspended and Brian O'Neil out on loan to Nottingham Forest.
McStay suffered a groin strain after 10 minutes and was subbed. This would prove to be McStay's last first team game for Celtic before retiring just before the end of the season.
The team looked laboured and lacked any cohesion. A late goal looked to have taken the points only for Raith to equalise at the very death.
Tommy Burns post-match comments were an eye-opener and showed not only the pressure he was under but also the self-delusion.
The draw effectively handed the League to Rangers.
Teams
Raith Rovers (4-4-2): Thomson; Kirkwood, Craig, Mitchell, Makela; Lennon, Rougier, Taylor, Harvey; Dargo (Kirk 72mins), Duffield.
Celtic (4-4-2): Kerr; McNamara, Boyd, Stubbs, McKinlay; O'Donnell, di Canio, McStay (Hannah 10), McLaughlin; Donnelly (Johnson 46), Cadete.
Scorers: Di Canio (89) 0-1; Craig (90) 1-1.
Yellow cards: Rougier (Raith Rovers), McNamara (Celtic).
Referee: R Tait (E Kilbride).
Attendance: 7912.
Articles
- Match Report
Celtic bear a heavy cross
Scotland on Sunday 06/04/1997 Ron McKay
Raith Rovers 1 Celtic 1
CELTIC seemed not so much in need of a game plan – their play, granted, was confused and bitty – as group therapy. This was a side seemingly incapable of mustering commitment to an admittedly faltering and externally battered cause. They did not so much say a resigned farewell to any remaining title ambition as yawn wearily at it.
A late goal had seemed enough against a Raith side which had defended in depth for most of the match like a Tory election campaign. But at the last breath big David Craig ran across the sight of Stewart Kerr to glance with his head a beautifully chipped free kick past the goalkeeper. It was clearly a manoeuvre from the training ground. But even this was greeted by no more than a series of glum shrugs rather than fiery glances from the erstwhile title contenders.
The Rovers manager Iain Munro rightly pointed out that it would have been a travesty if his team had ended up with nothing from the game. They began tentatively but grew in confidence as Celtic showed no sign of developing.
Tommy Burns agreed. He looked like a man facing the gibbet as he may well be. "I don't think we deserved to win the game," he said quietly. "We would have stolen it."
Asked about the evident lack of spirit in the side, he said: "It's up to you to judge," clearly indicating by his demeanour that there is now an affliction of the soul in the club.
Raith were correct to stress the defensive, they had three players out suspended and six injured including Vetle Andersen, but presumably not as a result of his alleged fracas in Jackie O's nightclub the night before. Misfortunes, you might think, Raith Rovers do not need to actively seek.
There seems to be an odd sense of reality at Stark's Park. The stadium bridging the past and the present – rickety old stands alongside the new – but nothing as surreal surely as a full-page nightclub pose in the match programme of the local female Conservative election candidate. Perhaps misfortune is a contagion in Kirkcaldy.
Unreality and misfortune carried over into the game. Paul McStay pulled up after ten minutes apparently suffering from a thigh strain and Celtic were emphatically denied two evident penalties. But from the visitors' general performance it is difficult not to conclude that there is an epidemic of depression in the dressing room.
Their first half performance was dispirited and shadowy. They dominated without ever really exerting sustained pressure and the moves seemed to be by rote rather than from any sense of innovation or commitment.
Raith had decided that the way to play was to attempt to stifle what Celtic might create by funnelling back behind the ball and hoping either to hold out or to home in on slackness in the opposition defence. They had four men at the back but when Celtic came forward, which was for most of the game, Davie Kirkwood dropped into a deep and wide role on the right to bottle the flank from Paolo di Canio and Brian McLaughlin.
Di Canio, at least in the early stages, was perky and pleased to be back. He welcomed the crowd theatrically when he ran on to the park and within the first five minutes produced a fine conjuring trick, a sleight of foot along the byeline which left Janne Makela in an untidy fankle. When he extricated himself from it he clearly pulled down the Italian well inside the box but the referee, either because of the little man's reputation for prematurely grounding himself, or because it was too early in the day to make definitive decisions, did not call it.
Minutes later Di Canio, this time coming in from the other wing and shedding bamboozled defenders as he went, took himself just inside the box and banged in a right-footer which hit the side netting. Raith by now with nine men behind the ball looked disoriented and almost agrophobic moved out of their own box but had two chances, both headers, before the turnaround.
David Hannah had come on for McStay and in a grafting but insipid performance played a part in the Celtic goal two minutes from time. He lumped the ball forward from just inside the Raith half to Tommy Johnson racing through the inside left channel. Johnson, who had come on for Simon Donnelly at the start of the second half, smashed the ball across the field where Di Canio, by then it seemed totally subdued, wriggled into space. He cushioned the ball rather than struck it into the roof of the net from close in.
Celtic had by then seen the second clear penalty turned down when Craig barged Cadete over in the box from behind. If spirit was absent from Celtic, moral fibre was missing from referee Bobby Tait.
Celtic's defence was flapping throughout the second half. Steve Kirk, a substitute, had been set clear with an incisive ball and an open run on goal but, hearing the clatter of studs, fluffed the shot. Rougier, coming in from the right, then almost split the post with a rasping drive.
The two goals provided a belated flourish to a dismal game but the final result as far as Celtic are concerned will surely come off the field.
- Manager Interview
Following the 1-1 draw at Starks Park Tommy Burns said:
"I think people are wondering about the possibility of a shock at Ibrox and will be sitting back hoping they get it.
"Since we lost to Rangers in the League there has been nothing much for anyone at this club to smile about and this Saturday the onus is on us to make the supporters happy again.
"We must beat Falkirk, keep our season alive and put ourselves in a position to lift silverware
"The importance of a cup win should not be underestimated, and perhaps it has been amid the hysterical press that has been directed towards us.
"Claiming the Scottish Cup would mean that the season ws successful and that we had competed right to the very last game – two objectives we set ourselves at the start of every term.
"In the last 18 months the football that we have played has given everyone who feels for this club a great deal of hope.
"We've let ourselves down in the last month and lost a few games but that should not wipe out the progress made previously.
"We have been consistent but not quite managed to do the job in the big games – especially against Rangers.
"The derby defeat three weeks ago affected us badly. However had Rangers been on the losing side they would have suffered just as severe a fall-out.
"We still have a ghost of a chance of winning the title with four games left to play – and as long as that is the case we will concede nothing."
He added:
"We are paid to put a winning team on the park and this week our only concern will be in making sure we take a major step towards winning our second trophy in three years.
"It is hard not to get angry over the dross that has been written in certain papers and by certain individuals who have set out to be deliberately disruptive.
"But I am not prepared to let that happen because I have a football team to run and the welfare of players and supporters to consider.
"My future is not the issue. What is important is that Celtic Football Club goes forward."
Pictures
Stats
| Raith Rovers | Celtic | |
| Fouls | 9 | 13 |
| Corners | 2 | 12 |
| Shots on Target | 4 | 2 |
| Offside | 4 | 4 |