| Match Pictures | Matches: 1999 – 2000 | 1999-2000 Pictures |
Trivia
- If Ewing Grahame, Mark Guidi and Keith Jackson were to be believed, there was about to be a mass exodus from Celtic Park. Those on the Mail and Record hit list consisted of Gould, Viduka, McNamara, Rieper, Stubbs, Larsson, Brattbakk, Berkovic, Wieghorst, Johnson, Petta, Tebily, Wright, Blinker, Kerr, Healy, Moravcik – the list went on and it was easy to see the agenda produced by MGN Newspapers for the Scottish tabloid news reading public.
- As the moves to sign Rafael Scheidt progressed it appeared that Celtic were in competition with Marseille, Hertha Berlin and Fiorentina for the signature of the Brazilian defender. On the 15th December he flew into Glasgow for talks with the club. It looked like a deal at £4.8million with a 3 year contract had been done and that it was personal terms time. The deal was duly announced on the 18th December. Gremio agreed to the deal because Celtic were willing to pay up in one lump sum. However it looked like the deal rested on him winning the necessary work permit.
- Jackie McNamara, Lubo Moravcik and Colin Healy were all in talks with the club over new contracts. Also it was alleged (by the Daily Record) that a group from IMG – Viduka’s representatives – had flown in during the week to discuss his contract with Jim Hone, Celtic’s contract manager.
Review
A goal down at half time (to what looked suspiciously an offside goal for the Arabs) plus a penalty miss – things did not look good. But a second half revival saw a different team on the park and a deserved win from an extremely good second half performance to which Dundee Utd anfd Paul Sturrock had no answer.
Teams
Celtic: Gould, Stubbs, Tebily, Mjallby, McNamara, Berkovic, Lambert, Wieghorst (Petrov 36), Blinker (Petta 78), Moravcik, Viduka (Burchill 78).
Subs Not Used: Kerr, Wright .
Goals: Blinker 47, Viduka 50, Moravcik 61, Burchill 89.
Dundee Utd: Combe, Pascual, De Vos, Partridge, Worrell, Easton, Skoldmark (Byrne 86), Preget, Venetis (McConalogue 64), Thompson (Smith 60), Ferraz.
Subs Not Used: Onstad, Malpas.
Goals: Ferraz 26.
Booked: Ferraz.
Referee: Jim McCluskey (Scotland).
Attendance: 59,120
Articles
- Match Report
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Dundee Utd | |
| Bookings | 0 | 1 |
| Red Cards | 0 | 0 |
| Fouls | 7 | 13 |
| Shots on Target | 13 | 3 |
| Corners | 9 | 1 |
| Offside | 3 | 0 |
Articles
Fall and rise of Regi Blinker
Scotland on Sunday 19/12/1999
By GRAHAM SPIERS AT CELTIC PARK
Celtic4 Dundee United1
THERE was a Regi Blinker incident in this match. He played from the start, scored a crucial equaliser for Celtic, and was positively mobbed and lionised by the Celtic bench when John Barnes, Celtic’s coach, chose to replace him after 78 minutes, which gave Blinker the chance to savour the unique experience of walking off a park to thunderous applause instead of the usual jeers and wishes that he might be vaporised. In his vulnerable way, Blinker has assumed almost cuddly status in this Celtic party – they were kissing and hugging him inside that dugout for what seemed like an age.
Nor would it do, in reporting this comet-like moment, to understate just what happened in the 47th minute of this match. By habit inhibited, bereft of ideas, and not putting too fine a point on it, quite hopeless, Blinker had displayed glimpses of what it was that won him his mysterious caps for Holland before he shot Celtic’s equaliser. And he did it with sophistication, taking Lubomir Moravcik’s pass on a sprint into the box before shuttling the ball between his right and left feet and lobbing Alan Combe with ersatz style.
The Parkhead crowd, noisy but still numbed at this, didn’t quite break into hymns of “Regi! Regi!” but it was a seminal moment which triggered Celtic’s comeback. Blinker, indeed, in a left wing-back role, had displayed cultured possession and crisp passing throughout. If this man has this ability, buried somewhere deep beneath his ashes of burned out confidence, it might be worth one more try by someone at Celtic to dig it out and give it back to him.
The opposition provided by United might only have flickered for a half, but Celtic under Barnes are now in danger of mounting a coherent championship challenge. Beyond doubt now, as was hinted at the time, their turnaround two weeks ago in matches against Dundee and Hibs was precisely the cleansing required after weeks of shambolic stutter. This team now play in a sharp and prickly shape which leaves the opposition bleeding, to the extent of 14 goals in their last three games. Last-night, to aid this or otherwise, John Barnes announced Raphael Scheidt’s signing had been finalised, completing the Brazilian’s transfer for 4.8m from Gremio.
Poor United. They flattered to deceive for 20 minutes of this match – and scored -before remorseless Celtic attacking laid them out. Paul Sturrock, their manager, is becoming more lyrical by the week on these occasions. “As Alex Ferguson used to say -we’ve received a skelping and now it’s time to get on the bus and up the road,” he said.
Sturrock had to endure some shambling attempts by his players to retain possession. Once United had scored, in the 27th minute, naturally, the sheer temerity of this was guaranteed to unleash pure wrath on the part of Celtic. But it was the way United so surrendered their right to the ball in these attacks that had poor Sturrock clutching his head.
But there was still fine spirit, athleticism and spurts of technique from United which kept their fans happily carolling before disaster struck. Sturrock, of course, without Billy Dodds, has some psychological repair to do to his team, but in Jason De Vos, Magnus Skoldmark, Craig Easton and Steve Thompson, he does at least have some decent infantry around. Joaquim Ferraz, of course, is something else entirely.
Strangely two-dimensional, Ferraz was a cumbersome menace in this match until all the fates were simply wrenched from United’s hands. For one so gangling, in one instant, he certainly whipped past Olivier Tebily to thrash in a shot which slightly burned Jonathan Gould’s fingers. His goal, though, in that 27th minute, was a straight forward piece of deception, a looping header from Easton’s cross which simply sailed over Gould and under his bar.
This, though, was about it from United. From the 47th minute, Celtic afflicted them with showers of attacks and goals. Blinker, startlingly, received and converted Moravcik’s pass with deftly quick feet, and as we rubbed our eyes in disbelief, the game then poured towards the visitors’ goal. Mercifully, we had no chants of “there’s only one Regi Blinker” to suffer.
Viduka, who had missed a first-half penalty, having scrolled the ball past De Vos and been hauled down in the process, redeemed himself four minutes after Blinker’s strike with a diving header that flew past Combe after McNamara’s cross and Moravcik’s header back. Moravcik himself then capped another colourful game, running through in the 61st minute to blast Viduka’s pass into the net.
With United quite bedraggled, Mark Burchill, on for Moravcik, converted Celtic’s fourth, Combe blocking his first attempt before the striker scampered on to bash home the re-bound
- Manager Interview
John Barnes post match:
“I told them to move the ball quicker and take less touches,”
“Dundee (shorthand for United) just couldn’t cope when we passed the ball quickly.”
“I thought we were superb in the second half. It’s the best we have played in four games with that second-half performance.
“Mark worked his socks off and Lubomir was excellent. Eyal Berkovic also showed there’s no-one better in Britain at unlocking defences.”
Paul Sturrock, Dundee Utd manager:
“We were well skelped in the second half and it is best to get on the bus and up the road.
“But I feel it is a learning curve and we will sit down with the players in the next couple of days trying to take some positive out this game.
“For some reason we did not do what we did in the first half and to lose three goals in the first 20 minutes after the break was crazy. It was a torrid time for us during that period. But we stood off them and you cannot do that with players like Berkovic, Viduka and Moravcik.”