| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
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Trivia
- Phil O’Donnell rejected Celtic’s latest offering of a new contract and it looked like he would leave the club at the end of the season
- The consortium bidding to take control of Fergus McCann’s majority shareholding announced that they were ready to make a fresh bid.
- It looked like Rieper would need toe surgery following his successful ankle surgery. McNamara might also need further surgery on his knee problem following discomfort experienced during the winter lay-off games.
- The Viduka saga continued with meetings between the player, his agent and club officials. On the one hand the club appeared to want him to arrive setting two conditions – a new full medical and dropping his claim for over £1million from the transfer fee – and at the same time allegedly touting him to West Ham. Viduka’s agent Bernie Mandic was proving to be less than helpful. On the day that Viduka turned up at Celtic to actually train on the 22nd January, his agent Bernie Mandic said that Viduka was prepared to sue Celtic in order to be reinstated as a Celtic player.
- The complaint that had been made to the SFA over Jim Farry’s handling of the transfer of Jorge Cadete to the club was about to blow up. Although McCann’s initial complaint had been rejected by the SFA, he had continued and was determined to resolve the matter either by arbitration or by taking them to court.
- Whatever happened, Viduka made it to Glasgow and watched the game from an executive box leaving ten minutes before the end.
Review
A helpful own-goal followed by a Phil O’Donnell goal saw the bhoys through to the next round
Teams
Celtic: Gould, Boyd , Stubbs , Mjallby (Hannah 89), Mahe, Riseth, Moravcik (Blinker 78), Lambert, O'Donnell, Donnelly (Burchill 69), Larsson.
Goals: Larsson 3, Stewart 49 og, O'Donnell 51.
Airdrie: Martin, Stewart, Sandison, Jack, Johnston, McCann, Black, Wilson, Smith (McGrillen 61), Cooper, Evans (Moore 59).
Subs Not Used: MacKay.
Goals: Cooper 23
Bookings: Riseth, Moravcik (Celtic) Black, Wilson, Evans, Cooper. (Airdrie)
Ref: K Clark (Paisley).
Att: 43,642
Articles
- Match Report
O'Donnell's leading role as Celtic tame shock troops
Scotland on Sunday 24/01/1999
By Andrew Smith at CELTIC PARK
Celtic3 Airdrie1
THERE was an element of role-playing from Celtic and Airdrie yesterday, but neither could fully get into character and were left to fulfil the parts expected of them.
The home side did enough to leave you never truly feeling that their Lanarkshire opponents were capable of upsetting them in the manner they had in the League Cup last September and in the way which has made them the team most likely to shock a bigger name. But this is not to recommend a Celtic performance that was patchy and forced.
Airdrie, for their part, did briefly give the home supporters in the 43,642 crowd some food for thought after Steve Cooper headed home to equalise a Henrik Larsson tap-in that had come only 180 seconds into the tie.
However, two goals inside three minutes shortly after the restart by Jozef Venglos' side resulted in the encounter meandering to its predictable conclusion. This is never a phrase you could utilise in respect of the Marko Viduka situation.
The Australian was at Celtic Park for the first time while the team he now appears ready to be a fully-fledged member of were in action. He had flown up from London on Friday evening and arrived at the stadium six minutes after kick-off, presumably to avoid creating yet one more media circus.
Viduka was not in evidence in the directors' box during the Cup encounter, which perhaps was just as well. For, with hulking frame and club-bouncer noggin, he might have been mistaken for an Airdrie reserve. That said, maybe the player would have welcomed being thought of as anything other than an errant Celt after a month when he has peered out at us from newspapers more often than anyone since Princess Diana.
He supposedly told radio reporters that he was happy to be here but unsure when he would be ready to play. No change there, then.
Viduka is expected to face the press to explain himself tomorrow, but before that Venglos admitted he would have to be a chastened figure in front of his team-mates.
"We didn't speak today, as the game was the most important," the Celtic head coach, Venglos, said. "He will meet with his team-mates to offer an explanation, though, as the dressing-room atmosphere is very important in this game."
Considering Celtic, in the course of their ill-fated break in Marbella, had more match practice than any other SPL side during the three-week winter shutdown, there was little reason to suspect they would be sluggish. And they certainly opened at full pelt and were rewarded as quickly as the second minute.
The marauding figure of Phil O'Donnell intercepted a misplaced Marvyn Wilson pass and cut a swathe through the centre of the Airdrie defence before squaring for Larsson to roll the ball over the line from close range. That Airdrie did not automatically capitulate was no great surprise, as the hard-working First Division team displayed their customary uncompromising approach that is too often confused with an unfair one.
Jonathan Gould had already felt the sting of a Gareth Evans snap-shot when a corner from Kenny Black in the 22nd minute had him looking at his defenders in bemused fashion. There was plenty of them in the box when Cooper rose from the throng to make contact and send a header that had all the thrust of a glider high into the net.
Celtic did not require to regroup so much as wait for the opportunity to capitalise on uncertain play from their visitors and they did so with interest in the 49th minute when a Vidar Riseth centre came off Airdrie defender Sandy Stewart whose placement of a header was unintentionally inch perfect as far as beating goalkeeper John Martin was concerned.
Two minutes later, the game was up for Alex MacDonald's men, with O'Donnell prodding the ball through a ruck of players after Riseth had run headlong into Airdrie penalty box traffic and a Simon Donnelly hat-shot had bounced around a sea of legs.
For O'Donnell, who is currently in the midst of contract talks, his fifth goal of an abridged season was probably no sweeter than the fact that he once more was an influential and incisive figure in Celtic's attacking forays. And it's no small achievement for a player whose four years with the club have been injury ravaged that yesterday he was playing in his 14th consecutive game.
In complete contrast, the first appearance of Regi Blinker in almost four months was all that managed to stir the crowd in the closing period. In the past, the sightings of the lesser-dreadlocked former Feyenoord Celt have not always been welcomed.
However, after replacing the tiring Lubo Moravcik in the 77th minute the tie had become sufficiently knockabout that each and every one of Blinker's touches were roundly applauded. By this time, we were being treated to a going-through-the-motions picture.
- Manager Interview
Dr Jo Venglos, post match
"We had to work very hard for the victory – Airdrie made it difficult, but that's the way cup ties are played.
"When they equalised, our performance dipped for about ten minutes, but we played well in the second half, moving very quickly from defence to attack. I was very pleased with the quality of the football and I'm sure our supporters were pleased."
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Airdrie | |
| Bookings | 2 | 4 |
| Fouls | 13 | 15 |
| Shots on Target | 6 | 2 |
| Corners | 10 | 4 |
| Offside | 2 | 2 |