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Trivia
- Jock Talk was dropped from Celtic View and replaced by a column from Fergus McCann. Fergus came out and said that Jock Brown had his and the Board’s full support and backed Brown’s statements on the appointment of the new Head Coach. The fans hoped this was the ‘kiss of death’-like “full support”.
- Two young Italians, Marco Cortani and Alessandro Sanna arrived on trial.
- Stephane Mahe was out with a muscle strain, Larsson had a thigh strain, Rieper was still out with back spasms that forced him to come off early in the St Pats game, Wieghorst was waiting for a cartilage op, O’Donnell was still posted missing with a calf strain, Hannah was still recovering from a hammie and Tommy Johnson was on the long-term injury list.
- Dr Jo said that through the season he intended to regularly watch the U19’s and U21’s and that everyone would get a chance. He also said that everyone would be ‘assessed’ through the season.
- Three fans were escorted from the ground for unfurling a ‘Jock Brown must Go’ banner in the North Stand. Justifying their eviction in Celtic View, Jock Brown said that one of them was thrown out after complaints about 'aggressive behaviour' and the other two were found to be 'carrying alcohol upon their persons in glass receptacles' – which of course, was not allowed at Celtic Park, or anywhere else in Scotland – unless you were prepared to pay corporate rates.
Review
A better performance than the St. Pats game but Spurs were just starting their pre-season training and failed to bring Ian Walker, Sol Campbell, Darren Anderton or Les Ferdinand. All-in-all a pretty insipid affair.
Teams
Celtic (3-4-3): Gould , Annoni (Elliot, 73), Stubbs (MacKay, 46), Boyd , McNamara , Burley , Lambert, Blinker (McKinlay, 68), Brattbakk (Burchill, 80), Jackson, Donnelly.
Non Used Subs: Kerr, McBride, Healy.
Scorer: Blinker (43), Jackson (62)
Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): Baardsen, Carr, Vega, Scales (Edinburgh, 53), Tramezzani, Fox (Gower, 63), Saib, Clemence, Ginola, Allen (Calderwood, 75), Armstrong (Dominguez, 57).
Non Used Subs: Marriot, Berti
Scorer: Armstrong (11)
Referee – J McCluskey
Attendance: 53,872
Articles
- Match Report
Ginola's bad hair day at Parkhead
Scotland on Sunday 26/07/1998
Celtic 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
IT was a vaguely pleasing if purposeless affair, like one of the interludes which used to be shown on TV before they invented adverts; repetitive tasks routinely accomplished without significant outcome.
It might not have seemed like that to Jozef Venglos whose first victory, however meaningless, this was. He'll have learned little, however, apart perhaps from increased recognition of his players.
After a little mild contumely, David Ginola shook the summer-highlighted hair out of his face on 11 minutes and struck a 60-yard right-footer deep into the heart of the Celtic defence. Or where it should have been.
Tommy Boyd, sensing too late what was coming, had made a mad rush forward in misjudgment so that Chris Armstrong had only to trap the bouncing ball on his chest, amble forward in space and knock it under Jonathan Gould. Ginola was the most noticeable man on the park, not for the newly-washed locks, but the chorus of boos which greeted his every touch. This was for having had the temerity to turn down Celtic in distant days when the Jungle had just been demolished, in favour of Newcastle.
The memory and malice of a Celtic fan would put an enraged bull elephant to shame.
Jungle, of the asphalt west coast variety, was drooled over by Regi Blinker in a programme interview, where he confessed that the murdered rapper Tupac Shakur is the person he would most like to have spent some time with. Some kind of curious wish fulfilment, perhaps, as Regi in real life wouldn't tangle with a turkey on the trot. He did, however, pull the trigger a couple of minutes before half-time, an excellent first-time left-footer to culminate a bumbling move.
The ball had been swung across the park, and was knocked in to Harald Brattbakk who failed to trap it, thereby creating the perfect dummy for Regi.
Spurs, in a garish, all-purple, Cadbury-coloured strip, had until then shown no sign of melting, although the temperature of the game had rarely gone above tepid (Alan Stubbs had nevertheless managed to roundly chastise his 20-year-old opponent Rory Allen). Celtic ambled only slightly more coherently than their opponents and the first 45 minutes was otherwise notable only for a stunning sitter of a miss from Darren Jackson who managed to spoon a low cross into the body of Espen Baardsen, dressed like a fluorescent deckchair. Spurs were clearly intent on a realistic trial for their season to come, putting most of their chocolate soldiers behind the ball and allowing Celtic to cruise around leisurely in front of them. Craig Burley fired a rasper wide, Vega, a resolute last man, slid in a crucial saving tackle on Jackie McNamara as he shaped to finish until, after a multi-passing move, Celtic went ahead with a goal of sublime efficiency.
Jackson, who wears his shirt like Jim Baxter and often plays like Ena, found the ball rolling to his feet just outside the box. He didn't even bother taking a touch, merely bent a parabolic drive far wide of the hapless goalkeeper.
It took until then, with more than an hour gone, for The Fields of Athenry to start up but, in character of the general mood of the occasion, it petered out after just one verse.
Celtic continued to run the game without inducing raggedness in their opponents; players came and went in substitution without any discernible impact on the course of events, Jackson had another bender, this time from the left foot, which dipped over the bar, and the pace of the game past from the sedentary to the somnolent.
Celtic, clearly, were unprepared to risk any great clashing with a crucial European tie coming up.
It's difficult to recall a desperate lunge or jarring tackle; fouls such as they were involved clumsiness rather than malign intent. Celtic outplayed Spurs, however, and will be happy that they did so without incurring either a bruise or miscast bead of sweat. Brattbakk, that mysterious enigma wrapped inside a riddle, looks sharp where it doesn't matter but contrived to, memorably, sclaff a clear-cut opportunity.
He must be an extraordinarily resilient character if his confidence by now is not like a colander.
What to take out of this apart from that first victory under Dr Jo? The miserly Paul Lambert, inevitably, gave the ball away not at all and hardly put a pass astray all game, even managing an insolent back-heeler or two; Simon Donnelly, sporting a purposeful new haircut worked tirelessly but, typically, without result; Burley had acres of space without inducing a killing pass, and Boyd, bar his untimely charge from defence, looked customarily solid. Spurs, sans Ferdinand, Berti and crew, looked pleased they weren't playing St Pat's.
- Manager Interview
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Tottenham | |
| Fouls | 7 | 8 |
| Shots on Target | 7 | 2 |
| Corners | 4 | 2 |
| Offside | 1 | 0 |