| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
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Trivia
- The Aston Villa interest in Alan Stubbs had firmed up into a bid somewhere of £4.5million. Jo Venglos said, "It's up to the other club officials what happens. We must speak with Alan again to find a solution but we know he has a family problem.” On the first of the month Liverpool also emerged as an interested party in taking him back down south. The club eventually rejected the offer leading Stubbs to say that he felt let down by the club with whom he thought he had a verbal agreement to let him go if a club nearer Liverpool came in for him. This led to Matt McGlone writing an article about him for Celtic View which in turn led to most of the players cutting relations with McGlone and his CV column.
- In the light of Stubbs possible move south Celtic made inquiries into the availability of Gary Breen, Coventry's £2.4million Republic of Ireland defender.
- Injured Enrico Annoni had been poised to join Southampton on loan. With uncertainty about the future of Alan Stubbs this loan move was stopped
- Larsson said that he would wait until the end of the season to discuss a new contract with Celtic.
- On the 2nd of the month the long-awaited committee of arbitration found the SFA had acted negligently in Jorge Cadete's transfer from Sporting Lisbon to Celtic in 1996. The SFA said it would give undisclosed compensation to Celtic. The result was a vindication for Fergus McCann who had waged a three-year battle over the delay to Cadete's transfer. SFA chief executive Jim Farry came under intense pressure to resign but said he intended to stay. The SFA suspended him on full pay while it carried out it’s own internal investigation. It turned out that the SFA had received Cadete's international clearance from the Portuguese FA a month earlier than the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers and he should have been cleared to play. On the 6th March the executive committee of the SFA dismissed Farry, who still believed he had done nothing wrong.
- Dermot Desmond agreed to underwrite Fergus McCann’s forthcoming sale of his 50% of Celtic shares. This placed Desmond in prime position to assume the mantle of principal share-holder in the club without exceeding the 25% of share capital which would have made a declaration to the Stock Exchange necessary. It was also reported that Desmond had been in talks with Kenny Dalglish about a possibility of his return to the club in a supervisory role.
- Stubbs came back in to the side. McNamara was rested.
Review
A wet night in Greenock saw Mahe collide with an advertising hording to retire injured, 2 goals from Viduka – one with his arse, a deflection of a Larsson shot, Mjallby receive 2 yellow cards and some pretty vicious tackling from Morton.
Teams
Morton: Maxwell, Aitken, Archdeacon, D. Anderson, J. Anderson, Fenwick, Twaddle (Wright 88), Curren, Matheson,Thomas, McPherson.
Subs Not Used: Slaven, Blaikie.
Booked: Thomas, Curren, D. Anderson, Twaddle (Morton)
Celtic: Gould, Boyd , Mahe (McKinlay 5), Stubbs , Larsson, Burley , Viduka (Brattbakk 88), Lambert, Blinker, Riseth, Mjallby.
Subs Not Used: Kerr.
Goals: Viduka 9, Larsson 58, Viduka 83.
Booked: Riseth, Mjallby (Celtic)
Sent Off: Mjallby (85) (Celtic).
Ref: K Clark (Paisley).
Attendance: 14,000
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Morton | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 4 | 2 |
| Red Cards | 0 | 1 |
| Fouls | 19 | 20 |
| Shots on Target | 5 | 8 |
| Corners | 5 | 9 |
| Offside | 2 | 4 |
Two-goal Viduka ready to make his mark with Celtic
Fortune refuses to smile on plucky Morton as Parkhead men keep up their cup run
The Herald 09/03/1999
Morton ……… 0
Celtic ……….. 3
THE name of Mark Viduka was on the lips of every Celtic fan in the 12,000 crowd at Greenock last night . . . for the best of reasons. The Australian striker scored one quite fantastic goal and one bizarre effort to complete a fair night's work in his first starting appearance for Celtic. The man whose transfer saga has occupied news pages so often in the past few months is now in his proper place, on the back page.
His two goals, as well as one from Henrik Larsson, gave Celtic a comfortable enough passage into the semi-finals of the Tennents Scottish Cup in what was probably the last big game of its kind at Cappielow but, with a little bit of better fortune, Greenock Morton could have made this tie very close indeed.
They were up against it from the ninth minute when Viduka scored but, just when they looked odds on to equalise, they lost an unlucky second goal scored by Larsson after a bad error by Paul Fenwick.
There was still plenty of fight in the Greenock team and they had a legitimate enough looking goal chalked off for offside but when Viduka was given credit for the third goal – Larsson's shot cannoned off him into the net – they had to concede defeat.
In the end, it is Celtic who go forward to meet Ayr United or Dundee United and they do so knowing they have unearthed a player, Viduka, who could be very special when he gains full match fitness. The only blots on a successful night for Celtic was the ordering-off near the end of Johan Mjallby, after two yellow cards, and a booking for Vidar Riseth, which means both will miss the semi-final.
Viduka, naturally, was pretty pleased with his first goals for the club, especially the opener. Even so, he reckons he has scored some even better goals in his time.
"I can remember hitting a couple of back-heelers that were spectacular but, still, it was terrific to score that first one because we needed an early goal. I told my sister and girlfriend to tape it in case I scored. They'll be in trouble if they haven't.
"It's an honour to play with a world class player like Henrik Larsson, but I know I'll have to work very hard to get a regular place in this team."
Dr Jo Venglos was particularly pleased with the way his team matched the spirit shown by the first division side. "It was a night for individuals battling and I thought our players did that well. But congratulations to Morton, they made it very difficult for us."
Billy Stark recalled that last season Harald Brattbakk scored his first goal for Celtic in their cup win over the Greenock side.
''I felt some foreboding when I saw Viduka's name on the team-sheet. Still, I thought our team never gave up and with a little break here or there could have scored. But I said to the players before the game: 'It's not what the result is tonight but what we take out of the game for the rest of the season that matters'."
Celtic folk still talk about the first goal scored for the club by Jorg Cadete, who has been in the news for other reasons this week, and the Portuguese man's starter was indeed special.
However, Viduka, managed to top Jorg's effort with his first strike for Celtic. He tamed a free kick from Stubbs with his back to goal, manoeuvred between two defenders and hit the ball with the outside of his foot high into the net.
That came when Celtic had been enduring the grilling Morton had so obviously planned in the early stages.
The Greenock men might have scored inside 30 seconds when John Anderson sent the skilful Kevin Twaddle down the right.
The winger's superb low cross was inviting to be knocked over the line but Jonathon Gould dived to touch it to safety.
Celtic lost Stephane Mahe after three minutes with a hamstring pull but, fortunately, they had an ideal replacement in Tosh McKinlay.
Mjallby provided a bizarre interlude when he lost a contact lens in a head clash but was seeing well enough to head the ball against the bar from a Blinker corner. Soon after the Swede went off to have the lens replaced.
Riseth was booked after he and Morton's Kevin Thomas indulged in a bit of a maul and it was no surprise later to see Thomas being shown yellow after he responded with a foul on Mjallby.
Craig Burley almost scored a second with a fierce drive that went just outside the post but Viduka hit a terrific strike which came off the inside of the far post and rebounded into the arms of a surprised Ally Maxwell.
For a long period afterwards Morton regained their confidence and Twaddle was able to open up the Parkhead defence too often for Celtic's comfort.
Morton were going hell-bent for the equaliser when they suffered a rough blow in losing goal No.2.
Fenwick made a hash of an attempted flick-back to Maxwell, and the ever-alert Larsson nipped in to chip the ball over the
helpless keeper.
With six minutes left Celtic scored their third, which was given to Viduka, although he knew little about it as Larsson's shot, which may even have been going wide, hit him as well as a Morton defender's heel en route to the net.