| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- The tension was mounting and the newspapers did their best to turn the screw on everybody. Stories came out how Celtic players had been banned from attending a hypnotherapy session.
- Darren Jackson and Alan Stubbs said all the pressure was on Rangers whilst the press and the bookies put Rangers in the favourites position to go on and claim ten-in-a-row.
- Brattbakk was manoeuvred by the press into alleging that it would not be a failure to end second (at least that was what the papers “said” he had said). This situation was noted by the Celtic players who to a man stood behind Brattbakk realising he had been done over by the Press. They all refused to speak to the Fourth Estate after the game.
- Brattbakk and McKinlay dropped out of the squad for this game. Jackie McNamara had recovered from his ankle injury, and Wieghorst from his calf strain and Blinker was included in the squad.
- The win put Celtic three points clear and the huns lost 1-0 at Aberdeen the following day.
Review
Teams
Celtic:
Gould , Boyd , Annoni, Donnelly, Rieper , Stubbs , Larsson , Burley , Jackson (McNamara ,81 ), Lambert, O'Donnell
Subs not used: Wieghorst , Blinker
Scorers: Burley (25, 43), Donnelly (49, 62)
Motherwell:
Woods, Christie, McMillan, Denham, Martin, Falconer, Valakari, Lindqvist, Coyne (May ,69 ), Shivute, Coyle (McCulloch ,60)
Subs not used: Lundgren
Scorer: McMillan (12)
Bookings: Martin (Motherwell)
Referee: D Smith ( Troon )
Attendance: 49541
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Motherwell | |
| Bookings | 0 | 1 |
| Fouls | 10 | 13 |
| Shots on Target | 10 | 4 |
| Corners | 7 | 4 |
| Offside | 5 | 6 |
Dynamic Burley thrusts Celtic into pole position
Scotland on Sunday 19/04/1998
Celtic 4 Motherwell 1
CELTIC helped soothe their painful opening weeks of April with this healthy cache of goals. You couldn't say they've repaired the damage done to their championship cause but they certainly killed some anxiety. It was fitful at first, and slightly jittery in bouts, but they slowly grew in accomplishment, in particular through Craig Burley, whose presence was obvious.
Motherwell, with some temerity, stole a lead off Steve McMillan's boot after just 13 minutes, but thereafter it was hard to recall them spending more than fleeting moments in Celtic's half. That goal, though, was enough to send some shivers around Parkhead, whose sense of recent fatalism can obviously be re-ignited with the slightest scare. Glasgow football crowds are hilarious in such experiences as yesterday: bawling their bile at first, only to end up crowing.
"We lost playing against a quality midfield today," the Motherwell manager, Harri Kampman, said afterwards in homage to Burley and Paul Lambert. "They passed better, worked harder and certainly moved more quickly." It was the clamping effect of this part of Celtic that simply immobilised their visitors.
You wondered again what might have been lacking from this Wim Jansen season had Burley not fallen out with Ruud Gullit and suddenly been available to Celtic last summer. With his bellowing lungs and firm tackles, he is not dissimilar to Phil O'Donnell, except that, blessedly, he has remained fit, and shown a healthy appetite for scoring. The two he grabbed here were cracked home with lovely perfection.
When Burley wasn't indulging in these, he carved open chances for Simon Donnelly. This eternally promising striker, who for four years now still hasn't been sure of his place at Celtic, and still can't be today, knocked in their other goals with uncomplicated ease. It wasn't the precise execution of these yesterday that spoke persuasively of Donnelly's case, so much as the evident threat he can pose as a quick-heeled and elusive central striker. One day, a coach or manager at Celtic will bolt upright in the dead of night at the thought.
Jansen did without Harald Brattbakk yesterday, dropped totally from his 14, a player whose slightly dithery ball skills are not endearing him to many. Brattbakk, you might say, has a continental nose for goal, but a decidedly Scottish technique, which when the latter flares up, tends to undermine everything. "It was my decision to drop him, and I don't need to explain it," a rather tetchy Jansen said.
Motherwell poked themselves in front, and Celtic didn't require any nerves such as this. Nor did Parkhead, to judge from the more muted noise around the stadium. This distinctly different home side, without Jackie McNamara and Morten Wieghorst in their starting line-up, sometimes groped to find each other as they chipped away at Motherwell. Celtic, though, had any apprehension hoofed away by Burley.
This was an evident relief to the crowd, who throughout this match had to witness a few cockeyed efforts. Donnelly, plying down the right, found himself right through on Stevie Woods before slamming the ball straight at him. Darren Jackson did likewise, allowing the goalkeeper to smother.
Woods was surely unused to such hero status. Even when the goals began to rain down on Motherwell, you still had an image of this goalkeeper clutching and clawing at quite a lot. Some nicely handled corners and a couple of blocked efforts, even in the midst of that uncertain air he tends to give off, nicely completed the impression. With this goalkeeper, of course, Old Firm supporters are always awaiting a blunder to ease things along.
The two Burley goals, the second of them moments before half-time, were the perfect tonic for a jarring Celtic. The first of these he simply lashed home following O'Donnell's cut-back but the second, coming off Henrik Larsson's chest down from Alan Stubbs's pass, was even finer in execution. From the edge of the box, Burley ripped his shot past Woods.
Celtic have gained increasingly more from these nicely-drilled passes of Stubbs. After his disastrous opening season we've now seen more of the astute footballer who came from Bolton, an English club which hesitated little about using him in midfield. He has a nice touch and a quick eye for plotting counter-attacks, which is why Larsson, and on this day, Jackson, were always spearing off on runs whenever he had possession. Together with Burley, Stubbs was another cornerstone of Celtic's play yesterday.
Donnelly, in the second half, had the easiest of opportunities to complete the rout. His first, in the 49th minute, was tapped home after Burley's cross, and Jackson's header down, before Burley again put him through with a chipped pass 13 minutes later.
This time, again in his favoured central position, Donnelly bore down on Woods and beat him. A goalkeeper who plays decently while letting in four has a right to complain to someone.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen Post match
“I think scoring four goals was important for the confidence of the team when they face the next three games.
"During this week we were sure they had their confidence back after the defeat by Rangers. They knew that we could still win the league and it was up to them to go for it in every game."
"I have to make my decisions on who to leave out every week and I did that.
"There may be a change next week, you never know, but I had 19 fit players to chose from today and had to leave out a number of players.
"The team that played last week against Rangers did not win the game, but they showed that they CAN win and score goals.
"Harald is a professional. He understands the situation."
"I am not a betting man, I only believe in the reality, not the dream. But even after the Rangers defeat we were still confident. We showed our confidence against Motherwell. It is more important that the players are confident of winning the league – than me.
"We know that all the coming games are vital, but we can't forecast how they will go. We just take it from Saturday to Saturday."