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Rangers win title but football is the loser; History made in a bitter battle
The Herald 03/05/1999
Ken Gallacher
Celtic ………..0
Rangers ……3
History was made and ghosts were laid as far as Rangers were concerned at Celtic Park last night, when the Ibrox team won the championship on the ground of their oldest and most bitter rivals for the first time in more than a hundred years of their football feud.
As well as clinching the Scottish Premier League title, Rangers were able to gain revenge for the 5-1 defeat they suffered at the same venue earlier in the season. That crushing defeat hurt the Ibrox men deeply and scarred their support. Last night, the players and the fans were able to celebrate the title and, also, regain the self-respect they lost back in November.
For Celtic defeat has rarely been so bitter. The night was scarred not only by defeat, not only by the Rangers' title win, but also by misbehaviour on and off the field.
Stephan Mahe and Vidar Riseth were both send off – as was Rangers' Rod Wallace – but the Frenchman's response to the decision by referee Hugh Dallas was to refuse to leave the field initially and then to go in tears, appearing to swing a punch towards a policeman at the tunnel as he disappeared from view. That surely helped light the touch paper for what followed.
On three separate occasions Celtic fans ran on to the field before being stopped by stewards and the match official was hit by a missile and suffered a head wound which required attention before he could continue.
It was a night that the Parkhead club will want to forget, a night when their problems began before kick-off when so many of their recognised first-team players were already out through suspension; Tom Boyd, and through injury; Craig Burley, Jackie McNamara, Tosh McKinlay, Regi Blinker, and Johan Mjallby.
In the end, Rangers, who had far fewer team problems, won comfortably, with Neil McCann getting two of their goals and Jorg Albertz scoring the other from the penalty spot.
For most of the game the new champions dominated, and they were undoubtedly helped by the Mahe ordering-off which had Celtic reduced to 10 men after 32 minutes, just as they had themselves been handicapped in the first Old Firm meeting of the season. The madness of Mahe, with his team already a goal down, was costly and the Frenchman will surely be dealt with by the Parkhead club for his excesses.
The opening goal had arrived in just 12 minutes, and it came, predictably, down the Celtic right flank, where Scott Marshall had been handed his debut and where the troubled young man could not cope with either the occasion or the opposition.
On that first occasion, he found little help from Riseth who was also patrolling that sector of the field. Albertz released Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who in turn pushed the ball forward to Rod Wallace, who was in the clear. The Englishman crossed and there was McCann among the remnants of the Celtic defence pushing through to score with a shot from close range.
There were other attacks from Rangers, other moments of worry for the makeshift Celtic defence before Mahe – who had earlier been booked for dissent – went forward to test Stefan Klos with a low shot which the German keeper held.
Following that, Celtic had what was to be their best scoring opportunity of the game when Morten Wieghorst moved on to a pass from Mark Viduka in the Rangers' penalty box and then, as Klos came off his line, curled his angled shot beyond the far post. There were few chances allowed after that one.
After the Mahe contretemps, when Neil McCann was cautioned for a foul on the Frenchman and the Celtic man was dismissed for yet further dissent, even though he had been awarded a foul, Alan Stubbs had a header scrambled away by Klos and soon Celtic went another goal behind.
A corner was awarded on the right, referee Dallas was felled by a missile, and then after he had received treatment and recovered, the kick was taken, swung into goal, and Riseth challenged clumsily.
Vidmar went down and the official awarded a penalty. Albertz somehow remained calm in the maelstrom around him and struck the ball perfectly into a corner of the net as Kerr moved in the wrong direction in his attempt to save.
Down to 10 men, Celtic were always going to live dangerously in the second half and in 53 minutes Kerr struck a clearance against McCann as the winger challenged him.
He caught the rebound outside the box and gave away a free-kick. Fortunately for the keeper he recovered and pushed a shot from Lorenzo Amoruso over the crossbar after Albertz had rolled the free kick to the Italian.
McCann then raced clear of Marshall and saw his finishing shot strike Kerr's feet to rebound to safety before eventually, with 15 minutes left McCann,
barracked throughout the game, added the coup de grace.
With the Celtic defence stretched Jonatan Johansson, who had replaced Gabriel Amato, pushed the ball through. McCann was clear of the unfortunate
Marshall yet again and he bore down on Kerr. Then, as the Celtic goalkeeper came out, he rounded him, evaded his tackle and struck the ball into the empty goal.
It was all over then, but for two more late bouts of nastiness to add to the roll of shame.
Wallace reacted to a late tackle by Riseth and raised his hands and struck out at the Norwegian. The referee red carded the Englishman and booked the
Norwegian. That was in the eighty-fifth minute and Riseth did not last longer than another four minutes, when he scythed down American internationalist Claudio Reyna. Before he could see the second yellow card and then the red card being raised, he had galloped from the field already knowing his fate.
When the game ended the Rangers players went to their celebrating wedge of fans and ill-advisedly went into a mock huddle and while the support waited, there was obviously never going to be any lap of honour.
In all there were three players ordered off – Mahe and Riseth of Celtic and Wallace of Rangers – and another eight players yellow carded, Kerr, Wieghorst, Annoni, Stubbs, and Healy of Celtic, and Vidmar, Amato, and McCann of Rangers.
Now we await a Scottish Cup final supposed to grace a Hampden opening, but with memories of this mayhem still fresh in the memory. It is not a pleasant prospect.