| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
Trivia
- The Hunskelping video of the 5-1 win over Rangers commonly referred to as ‘The Humping’ was rushed out and hit the shops to be snapped up by Celtic fans everywhere.
- The Viduka deal looked to have finally been done, the fee said to be £3.00 million, and Celtic awaited Department of Employment work permit clearance before presenting him at a press conference.
- Fergus McCann met with the consortium that was attempting to gain control of the club. The meeting was purely to set an agenda and date for future meetings as Fergus’ time remaining at the club fell below 100 days. McCann still wanted to dispose of his controlling shares to the fans.
- Essentially the same team played as against Rangers in the previous game, with Brattbakk dropping out of the squad entirely. Gould was on the way back but still not ready for this game, McNamara, Rieper, Burley, Wieghorst, Johnson, Blinker and Kerr were all recovering from various ailments and Jackson was out on loan to Coventry. On the day of the game Tosh McKinlay turned down a loan move to Utrecht in Holland.
- With this win Celtic had clawed back to within four points of Rangers
- Billy Davies had taken over from Harri Kampmann as Motherwell manager in the middle of October, when Kampmann was sacked. A prolonged set of hacking and fouling under Davies had seen them not lose a game since his first match in charge.
- Henrik Larsson had just been voted “Player of the Year” back in Sweden. Another Swede of Greek descent, 17 year old winger Babis Stefanidis , was on trial at the club
Review
The first time in the season that the team won two league games back-to-back.
Teams
Celtic:
Warner, Boyd , Mahe, Stubbs (Annoni ,71 ), Larsson, O'Donnell, Donnelly, Lambert, Moravcik (Burchill ,74 ), Riseth, Mjallby.
Subs not used: Hannah, McCondichie
Scorers: Larsson (40), O’Donnell (46)
Motherwell:
Kaven, May, McMillan, McGowan (McClair ,75 ), Brannan, Valakari, Halliday (Nevin ,45 ), Coyle, Doesburg, Teale, Spencer
Subs not used Matthaei, Ramsay, Bannister,
Bookings: Brannan ,Valakari (Motherwell)
Referee: Kenny Clark (Scotland)
Attendance: 59,227
Articles
- Match Report
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Motherwell | |
| Bookings | 0 | 2 |
| Fouls | 10 | 15 |
| Shots on Target | 4 | 2 |
| Corners | 5 | 5 |
| Offside | 4 | 5 |
Venglos sees dry land as the storm subsides
Scotland on Sunday 29/11/1998
Celtic 2 Motherwell 0
IN the giddy days of yore, such feats were commonplace, but this was still deemed worthy of celebration at Parkhead – Celtic yesterday won a second successive league match. It had been ten months since a beseeching support had last heard of this, during which the club had seemed to lurch from one back-page drama to the next. Suddenly, if not quite smugness, there is a sense of calm around the place.
The good doctor, Jozef Venglos, is starting to dig out old victory speeches. For months this poor fellow has had to face the press as if they were a firing-squad, but at least he never wore a blindfold, staring his inquisitors square in the face. At last, a harsh season is turning a little benign for him. Celtic are now four points behind Rangers, who hold a game in hand, but the mere sound of that paltry lead will seem like a mercy.
Venglos once more held Mark Burchill in check, pairing Lubomir Moravcik with Henrik Larsson, a strategy he'd have been mad to abandon after Celtic's wrecking of Rangers last week. Moravcik did next to nothing but still received a gushing reception when Burchill replaced him after 72 minutes. You wonder at the rich succour and spirit Celtic will take from that 5-1 whacking – let alone the commercial worth of a video they have already rushed out.
This was an ordinary match in which the result, rather than the play, will provoke greater intrigue. After two wins, no one will afford Celtic rampant predictions about their hopes, but the fact remains, with new players arriving, and horrendous injuries clearing up, that the team could gird itself for an unlikely run of form. In hindsight, with so many fractured bones, including a whole defence posted missing, talk of Venglos being sacked or walking out now seem farcical spurts of reporting. The Slovak was smiling last night, though not just with pleasure.
Venglos will feel relief over Celtic casting aside a Motherwell team that had been improving by the week. Billy Davies began his managerial career with a terrible trouncing at St Johnstone, but he arrived at Parkhead unbeaten in five games, including commendable wins over Rangers and Hearts. Any young boss, moreover, who will confidently restrict such venerated colleagues as Pat Nevin and Brian McClair to his bench, is clearly growing in character, as Davies surely is. "I'm disappointed we lost, but to be honest I was reasonably happy with our overall performance," he said later.
The scoreline certainly poorly reflected some of the visitors' contribution to this match. With their Finns, their Dutch, an Englishman who was even playing in China before visiting Lanarkshire, as well as their token soiled Scots, the odds seemed to stack against Motherwell playing as well as they did here. Davies appears to have brought plenty wisdom to bear in spite of his youthful years, and his side was no comparison to the ragged bunch that the poor and luckless Harry Kampmann left behind.
In the business of seeking wisdom, you could guess where Davies gleaned some of it from. There was a cherished moment midway through the second half of this match when the Motherwell manager, hopping up and down with frustration in the time-honoured fashion, was handed a bottle of mineral water by none other than Willie McLean. This fiery old character – one of the three grimmest brothers in the land – has done plenty raging himself in his time. After decades of shouting and bawling (and possibly much worse), maybe McLean knows the benefit of a soothing sip.
McLean is one of those Abraham-figures that hang around the back benches of dug-outs for eternity, but Davies, the evidence increasingly shows, is surely his own man. Within days of asserting himself at Firs Park, he'd wheeled in Ged Brannan and John Spencer, and both of these players massaged Motherwell's movement yesterday. Spencer, a little man filling a sniper's redoubt behind his strikers, fired one of a couple of decent chances for his side before the match slipped away from them.
The truth is that, despite Jonatan Johansson's sterling efforts at Ibrox, the Scots remain wary of the Finnish tradition. Motherwell's poor goalkeeper, Mikko Kaven, didn't help matters here. Kaven seemed to make a botch of attempting to keep out Larsson's opener for Celtic, and when Phil O'Donnell, shortly after half-time, bore through for their second, the goalkeeper again seemed to adopt a poor position.
But Larsson's strike after 41 minutes, defensive follies or not, was typical of his stealth. A nice punt from Tom Boyd was headed forth by Moravcik, whereupon the Swede stole behind the Motherwell defence. From eight yards he slammed the ball between Kaven and his post, the goalkeeper seeming to have his hands distracted.
Motherwell did plenty pressing, and Nevin's miss after 64 minutes may have winded their pursuit, but they were forced to chase this match from the 47th minute. With typical alacrity, Celtic poured free down the visitors' right flank, and when Larsson released O'Donnell, only Kaven was left to beat. Once more the goalkeeper was stranded as the ball broke past him.
The warm reception for Moravcik wasn't the only decent applause for an old pro featured here. When McClair came on for Motherwell after 78 minutes, the applause resonated around this stadium. McClair's legs are not what they were, but Celtic's support remain buoyed at the name.
- Manager Interview
Eric Black, post match:
"All credit to Motherwell, they tried to keep the ball and pass it around and they had a better balance between defense and attack than other teams that come here.
"The performance was good last week but sometimes things can go a little flat because of the levels of expectation. I felt that we controlled it but we could have made the scoreline a little more favourable.
"Not having trained as much as the others this week, Alan took a wee tweak in his knee and we will have to take a look at that."