| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
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Trivia
- Chelsea backed out of a deal to take Stewart Kerr to Stamford Bridge saying any deal would be on hold until the summer.
- Morten Wieghorst began re-contracting negotiations with the club.
- Southampton made a further enquiry to take Enrico Annoni to St Mary’s.
- Further tests and a scan on Phil O’Donnell’s knee injury which had kept him out for the last four games revealed a congenital problem with his kneecap. It looked like he might need surgery.
- On 13/3 The Herald announced that the new Chief Executive would be Allan MacDonald. Though the club initially denied it, the appointment was duly announced and 47 year old MacDonald would take over the reins at the end of the season. Allan MacDonald was a graduate from the University of Paisley and had worked all his time for British Aerospace. He would leave his position as managing director of British Aerospace operations in Asia and Africa. Frank O’Callaghan was also confirmed as the new Chairman and was party to bringing in MacDonald.
- Elsewhere, in the Highland League controversy flared when Huntly were told by a tribunal to pay Cove Rangers £14,000 – a record for the League, for the transfer of ex-Celtic youth winger Tommy Wilson.
- Celtic were being linked to a move for Valerenga striker John Carew. In reality the move looked extremely unlikely with the Norwegian club already having turned down a £6million offer from Perugia and the player himself stating that he wanted to play in either England or Italy the following season.
- With the appointment of MacDonald, Kenny Dalglish was being tipped for a new role at the club. Dalglish and MacDonald played golf together on a regular basis.
- With Stubbs uncertain of his future and Rieper out the club were looking at Inter Milan central defender Fabio Galante.
- In a pre-match interview Dr Josef Venglos said that he wouldn’t be surprised if he was sacked at the end of the season. He said, "I will not be surprised if I am replaced in the summer as this is the normal situation nowadays. I have been through the situation of new owners coming in to take over a club. It happened at Fenerbache but I was kept on for one more season. I am doing my best here and will continue to fulfil my duties as I am a professional man. I have identified players I want to bring here to make sure things run in the normal way now and in the future. There will not be the same situation here as when I arrived."
- For this game Stubbs was out with a recurrence of his ankle injury. Mahe was recovering from a knee injury sustained in the previous Cup game against Morton. McNamara came back in with Brattbakk dropping to the bench and Tosh McKinlay retaining his place. Youngster Liam Keogh made his first squad appearance.
Review
A crushing of Aberdeen and it looked like we might have a striking partnership with two goal apiece for Viduka and Larsson
Teams
Aberdeen: Stillie, Perry, Whyte, Smith, Jess, Newell (Pepper 66), Dow, Buchan (Notman 66), Wyness, Hart, Winters.
Subs Not Used: Leighton, Anderson, Gillies.
Goals: Winters 79.
Celtic: Gould, Boyd , McNamara, Larsson, Burley , Lambert, McKinlay, Blinker, Riseth, Mjallby, Viduka (Burchill 82).
Subs Not Used: Brattbakk, Healy, Keogh, Corr.
Goals: Viduka 26, 47, Larsson 69, 73, Burley 89.
Booked: Newell.
Sent Off: Pepper (72).
Ref: W Young (Clarkston).
Att: 16,825
Articles
- Match Report
Viduka makes immediate Premier League impact at Pittodrie as Hegarty's misery continues
Dons tortured by Larsson and his deadly accomplice
The Herald 15/03/1999
Aberdeen …… 1
Celtic…………. 5
Celtic's goal rush continued at Pittodrie last night as they powered aside the puny challenge offered by Aberdeen to rack up another notable victory as they refuse to give up hopes of retaining their title.
The new partnership up front of Henrik Larsson and Mark Viduka destroyed the Aberdeen defence, with the strength and finishing of the Australian softening up the Pittodrie men before the rapier thrusts of the Swede finished them off.
Viduka had taken a long, long time to finally kick off his Celtic career but he has taken no time at all in making an impact on the Scottish game.
This was his first Premier League start and he scored twice in 47 minutes to add to the two Scottish Cup goals he had grabbed against Greenock Morton at Cappielow six days earlier.
With due respect to the first division side last night's televised game was always going to be a more severe examination of the Australian striker even allowing for Aberdeen's dip in form. He came through the test superbly, demonstrating deft touches for a man of his bulk and displaying the instincts of a natural striker around goal.
Larsson, of course, is the form player of the season in the Premier League and it was inevitable that he would add to his goals tally last night.
Twice inside four minutes the Swede struck as a demoralised Aberdeen fell apart following the second Viduka strike.
The home side managed to summon up a goal from Robbie Winters 11 minutes from the end but the goal, while one of quality, was essentially an irrelevance in a match which Celtic had controlled from the beginning.
The Pittodrie support will complain over a penalty claim soon after Viduka's first goal when Johan Mjallby seemed to handle a ball from Mike Newell which was heading in the direction of the lurking Winters in the Celtic penalty box, but even their most committed supporter could not argue with any conviction that if the decision had been given in their favour that it would have affected this result.
Quite simply, Pittodrie is no longer a place that the Old Firm fear to visit and as the Aberdeen slump continues they find themselves unable to pull themselves clear of that bottom group of clubs who are fighting for survival.
Celtic, of course, may fail to overtake their Old Firm rivals Rangers – they remain 10 points behind with just nine games left to play – but their recent play has been exhilarating and if they do lose out then they will do so gallantly – and entertainingly.
Anyone who has watched them in recent weeks would endorse that and the 16,825 fans at Pittodrie as well as the watching television audience would surely agree after this latest victory.
There had been chances before the first goal came and all of them had fallen to Celtic. Then in the twenty-seventh minute Regi Blinker took a corner on the right. He played it short, was ordered to re-take the kick, and when he did so sent it into the box. Viduka rose to head the ball down and over the line as Andy Dow tried to block the try at the post.
The penalty incident followed and Newell was booked by referee Willie Young after protesting too vigorously at the decision.
Two minutes after the re-start the Australian struck for a second time. He began the move himself with a clever head flick from a deep position which then allowed Larsson to edge the ball on for Blinker.
He hit an angled shot which swept across goal, bounced off the base of the far post and Viduka, following up, was able to push the ball over the line. Two minutes later Jonathan Gould saved a Winters header on the line and then the Aberdeen striker saw another try slip past before
Larsson stepped in with his double.
Again the goal came from a corner, this time taken by Tosh McKinlay, and Larsson headed the ball past Derek Stillie.
Aberdeen's cause, such as it was, received no help at all from substitute Nigel Pepper, who was red carded for a nasty tackle on Blinker in 72 minutes – just six minutes after he had appeared.
A minute later, Larsson added the fourth and while Winters scored for Aberdeen in the seventy-ninth minute, the last word went to Celtic when Craig Burley added a fifth in the closing minute.
It was a crushing defeat for Aberdeen and was easily the best Premier League win ever recorded by the Parkhead side at Pittodrie. Twice before they had won 3-1, both in the early eighties, and also had a 2-0 win two years ago.
However, this was a great deal more spectacular, as the defending champions notched their thirty-fourth goal in a run of 10 straight victories.
It was all the more impressive when you looked at the Celtic bench and realised just how low their resources had been for this match because of injuries.
- Manager Interview
Pictures
Stats
| Aberdeen | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 1 | 0 |
| Red Cards | 1 | 0 |
| Fouls | 9 | 11 |
| Shots on Target | 4 | 10 |
| Corners | 4 | 6 |
| Offside | 2 | 7 |