| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- Tosh McKinlay had gone down to Stoke City to see about a possible loan deal there.
- Boyd was suspended, Mahe was carrying an ankle knock picked up against Morton, Stubbs broke a thumb in training, Blinker was dropped, Hannah and Annoni came back into the team and O’Donnell made the bench.
Review
Every game was crucial – every game had to count. At this point Celtic were 6 points adrift. Not an inspiring game but the win pushed us above Hearts into second place 3 points behind Rangers.
Teams
Dundee United:
Dykstra; Skoldmark, Pressley, Perry; Bowman, Zetterlund, Jonsson, Pedersen, Olofsson (Winters, 58); McSwegan, McLaren.
Subs: Dolan, McKinnon.
Scorer: Olofsson (23)
Bookings: Zetterlund, McSwegan (Dundee Utd)
Celtic:
Gould ; Hannah , Annoni, Rieper , Mahe, McNamara (Donnelly, 46), Burley , Lambert, Wieghorst ; Larsson , Brattbakk (Jackson, 60).
Subs: O'Donnell.
Scorers: Donnelly (77), Burley (87)
Bookings: McNamara, Hannah, Lambert (Celtic)
Referee: J. Rowbotham (Kirkcaldy).
Attendance: 14,004
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
http://celticunderground.net/a-tannadice-memory/
Pictures
Stats
| Dundee Utd | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 2 | 3 |
| Fouls | 15 | 13 |
| Shots on Target | 4 | 8 |
| Corners | ||
| Offside | 2 | 3 |
Burley keeps Celtic on track
The Scotsman 28/01/1998
Dundee United 1 Olofsson (23)
Celtic 2 Donnelly (77), Burley (87)
CELTIC'S hoodoo over Dundee United proved to be even stronger than their own erratic away form last night, allowing them to leapfrog Hearts into second place in the Premier Division and narrow the gap between themselves and Rangers to three points.
But even those unshakeable believers who followed them to Tannadice last night would not have wagered a penny on such an outcome just 15 minutes from the end of a dramatic, but largely unattractive, match.
At that stage, the home side were leading through Kjell Olofsson's 23rd-minute goal and had been so successful in their containment that even an equaliser looked improbable.
Simon Donnelly, who replaced Jackie McNamara at the start of the second half, provided it 13 minutes from the end, however, and Craig Burley followed up with another precious strike in the 87th minute.
United this season have been Celtic's comforter, their three previous meetings with the Parkhead side allowing the latter to restore their morale and self-assurance after sustaining damage in other fixtures.
Three victories by an aggregate of 9-1 included, of course, the Coca-Cola Cup final, and the two in the league prompted the thought that, if Celtic played United every week, the championship would be a breeze.
Even before Olofsson gave them the lead in this renewal of the fixture, however, the Tannadice team had shown signs that they had discovered an antidote. It seemed to be based on developing a ragged game, allowing none of the fluency with which Celtic on form can take opponents apart.
There may have been a lack of coherence but there was no dearth of incident around the goals, and Celtic, especially, came close on several occasions before and after Olofsson's goal.
The tall, powerful Swede's strike came at the end of United's sweetest move of that first 23 minutes. Erik Pedersen turned Enrico Annoni on the left and played the ball inside to Lars Zetterlund.
Olofsson was already on the run through the inside-left channel when Zetterlund played the ball first-time into his path. Olofsson, by this time clear of all challenges, allowed the ball to bounce knee-high and merely had to nudge it with the outside of his right foot past Jonathan Gould from six yards.
Celtic had some early near things which might have suggested this would not be their night, including Henrik Larsson's 30-yard lob, which Sieb Dykstra had to touch over the bar, and the same player's drive from the left, deflected across the goal and just wide.
A Burley miss followed a neat 1-2 with Larsson, but when he was clear on the right of the box, he took the wrong option, slicing the ball wide of Dykstra's left-hand post rather than passing to Larsson or Harald Brattbakk.
What followed Olofsson's goal was enough to make the visiting fans chew on their scarves. Brattbakk was first up, rounding Dykstra on the left side of the penalty area and driving a low shot back past the goalkeeper towards the net. Mark Perry, however, had tracked back in time to stop the ball on the line.
There seemed to be little chance of anybody preventing Annoni from equalising, however, when the Italian slid towards Paul Lambert's precise centre from the right and pushed the ball towards the net from six yards. Somehow, Dykstra made the stop with his torso and Pedersen cleared the danger.
At that point, the absence of two of Celtic's regular defenders, Alan Stubbs (broken thumb) and Tom Boyd (suspended), should have been an irrelevance. While they might have helped prevent Olofsson's goal, the players who were on the field should have made enough of their opportunities to have compensated.
Celtic's search for an equaliser brought Donnelly on to replace McNamara at the start of the second half, but the young forward's first notable contribution was made in defence.
Following Andy McLaren's corner kick from the right, the ball reached Siggi Jonsson on the left corner of the Celtic area and his fierce volley, net-bound, was headed over by Donnelly.
The general untidiness of the match was reflected in the number of cautions for messy challenges, which rose to five when Lambert was cautioned for a check on Robbie Winters, who had replaced Olofsson. The earlier miscreants were Zetterlund, Gary McSwegan, McNamara and David Hannah.
When Donnelly did make an entry in the forward area, it was to equalise with 13 minutes remaining. Jackson held the ball on the left before turning inside and rolling the ball into the path of Lambert.
The midfielder's low drive prompted a wonderful save from Dykstra, but the goalkeeper pushed the ball out to Celtic's right, where Donnelly met it and, from a seemingly impossibly acute angle, squeezed the right-foot shot over the line.
Just when it looked like United would share the spoils with Celtic for the first time this season, up popped Burley to give the visitors a priceless three points.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen post match
"It was a very satisfying win in the circumstances.
“Our players know we can't afford to drop points at this stage and you saw how keen they were to keep battling for them. They showed the winning mentality and that's what we need.
"This wasn't the type of game that really suits us, but if it has to be something of a battle, then you have to be able to do that, too. We had good chances to score in the first half and didn't take them and time was running out for us in the second."
"Craig's goal showed again that he knows how to get into the right place at the right moment.
"It's not something you can teach somebody, we just give him the licence to do it and he responds.
"But Jonathan Gould also made saves that kept us in it and that was important."
Tommy McLean, Dundee Utd manager:
"It's hard to take when you lose as late as we did and in the manner we did.
"But we can take encouragement from the match and what our players put into it.
"The calibre of goal we lost was disappointing, not following up at the first one after Sieb Dykstra had saved. The second was unlucky, mind you, the ball coming off Skoldmark.
"But that's how it is sometimes, no breaks. Our players worked hard throughout and deserved to take something."