| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- There was a missing weekend when the game against Dundee Utd scheduled for 17/1/98 was called off due to snow.
- Andreas Thom returned to Germany on 14/1/98 to Hertha Berlin for £275,000. He joined his new team mates in the Algarve for their mid-season break.
- Gordon Marshall was sold to Kilmarnock on 19/1/98 for £150,000. Long term but out-of-favour goalkeeper for Killie, Dragoje Lekovic decided to exercise a clause in his contract and left for Sporting Gijon for £100,000.
- Andy McCondichie’s loan to Hamilton was extended.
- Wolves were alleged to be ready to launch a bid for Tosh McKinlay. Everton, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle were also said to be seeking Alan Stubbs.
- Tom Boyd , due to start a 3 match league suspension was free to play, Annoni had returned from Italy, David Hannah dropped out of the squad for this game.
Review
Jansen had taken no chances and had used the cancelled Dundee Utd game the weekend before to go and watch Morton. Billy Stark and Frank Connor returned to Celtic Park for the first time since Stark’s resignation at the end of the previous season. In the end it turned out to be a comfortable win in which the team if anything over-elaborated. It was also Brattbakk’s first goal for the club. And Henrik Larsson missed a penalty.
Teams
Celtic:
Gould ; Boyd , Mahe, (Annoni, 89), McNamara , Rieper , Stubbs , Larsson , Burley , Brattbakk (Jackson,74 ), Lambert, Blinker (Wieghorst ,67)
Scorers: Brattbakk (6), Jackson (83)
Morton:
Hillcoat, Collins, Archdeacon, Aitken (Juttla ,69 ), Anderson, Reid, Blair, Mahood (McGraw ,84 ), Duffield, Hawke, Blaikie (McPherson ,77)
Bookings: Mahe (Celtic) Anderson ,Blaikie ,Blair ,Hawke (Morton)
Referee: A Freeland (Aberdeen)
Attendance: 40,014
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Morton | |
| Bookings | 1 | 2 |
| Fouls | 11 | 14 |
| Shots on Target | 19 | 2 |
| Corners | 13 | 3 |
| Offside | 2 | 2 |
Celtic trifle with Morton's cup affection
Scotland on Sunday 25/01/1998
Celtic 2 Greenock Morton 0
IN England they still talk quaintly about the "romance" of the cup. Up here the tournament has long since taken on a more mercenary aspect. Come the third round the minnows kit themselves out in their most alluring gear and hang around the streets outside the SFA winking salaciously in the hope of hooking themselves a big fish.
If they're lucky, in due course they get thumped by some Premier Division giants, but can console themselves with the gate receipts left discreetly on their dressing-room table later.
Morton's role here then was to lie back and think of the estimated 180,000 they'd be taking home from this 40,000 attendance, after Wim Jansen's men had had their wicked way with them. Celtic for their part at least had the sensitivity to play You Sexy Thing over the tannoy before the game.
The match itself was a surprisingly dull affair, Celtic's torpor exacerbated by an early goal, Morton never really finding the confidence, speed or incisiveness to inflict any damage of their own.
Throughout, the Morton supporters gleefully yelled "What a ****** home support" at every opportunity. The relatively muted atmosphere in Celtic Park perhaps reflected a sense that the outcome was predictable.
Still these occasions are a useful opportunity for virgin strikers to lose their goal scoring cherry, and Harald Brattbakk duly obliged after six minutes. The up-to-now profligate Norwegian latched on to an inch-perfect through pass from Alan Stubbs and coolly slid the ball low to John Hillcoat's left into the corner
Celtic then began to stroll, knocking the ball around with a casualness that verged on the patronising. A Craig Burley header was cleared off the line by Alan Blaikie, Jackie McNamara saw his stinging shot bundled round the post by Hillcoat, but mostly Celtic settled back, assuming a second would come their way in the natural course of events.
Instead Morton enjoyed a flurry of adventurous exploits upfield. Or at least Peter Duffield, Morton's No9 stranded too often alone in the Celtic half, did. A speculative shot was palmed away by Jonathan Gould at full-stretch, and, on 27 minutes Duffield really should have equalised, his flick from Warren Hawke's cross touched away for a corner by the Celtic goalkeeper.
Morton were earning all the traditional platitudes bestowed on underdogs: they battled away, their heads never went down, they played above their lowly status. Duffield certainly, along with the hard-working midfielder Stephen Aitken ensured Morton were in no danger of being humiliated.
They took encouragement from Celtic's inability to increase their lead in a dangerous spell just before half-time, when Burley failed to put away a loose ball in the six-yard box, and a Paul Lambert shot flashed narrowly wide.
Celtic stirred themselves after an hour and began to exert a firmer grip on the game. Even then they didn't exactly delve deep into the tactical textbooks, contenting themselves with lobbing crosses into the Morton box and waiting for the lucky break.
The other underdog clich_ is that the goalkeeper plays out of his skin. Certainly John Hillcoat seemed determined to defy Celtic, saving a Henrik Larsson volley and tipping a Burley shot on to the bar.
Burley was one of the few Celtic players using much imagination, and he created the inevitable second on 83 minutes, his pass finding Larsson in the area who in turn set up an easy chance for substitute Darren Jackson.
Any pretence of suspense now well and truly dead, Celtic should have wrapped things up with two minutes to go when John Anderson pulled down Jackson in the box. Jackson had missed the last Celtic penalty, so Larsson was offered the chance and blasted it against the bar.
Afterwards Billy Stark wasn't entirely disconsolate: "The most heartening thing for me is that after losing the early goal we didn't panic. We had two good chances but you have to give credit to Gould for the saves."
So Morton could sail back down the Clyde, their pockets stuffed with gate receipt cash without having to hate themselves too much the morning after.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen post match
"We took too many touches. That wasn't necessary and it slowed down our own game. In this type of match you need quick passing and that happened for our second goal later on.
"We scored early on and then made a lot of chances. It could have been six or seven, but we made it difficult for ourselves."
“I don’t think we were suffering though from a lack of matches over the last two weeks but at times it seemed as if Morton had two goalies.
“Jonathon Gould made two very important saves for us which showed his quality and concentration level reqiuired in this sort of game.
“And I was very pleased for Harald scoring his first Celtic goal as that was very important for him.”
Jonathon Gould:
"I'm conscious of my shut-outs and I do set myself targets and look at records and things like that," he said.
"Have I set myself any shut-out targets for this season? Yes, as many as it takes to win the league. But I have a long way to go to beat Charlie Shaw's record."
Billy Stark, Morton Manager:
"I'm never happy to accept defeat, but I'm delighted with the way we equipped ourselves.
"We didn't buckle and we didn't have a failure.
"If we had come here and lost heavily, we would have had to start from scratch again, but they showed by the way they organised themselves and their team spirit that they have the qualities to climb the table. I'll be looking for that kind of commitment until the end of the season.
"This was a huge occasion for my players. They had to come through all the build-up for a game against a team who had won the Coca Cola Cup and who are challenging for the premier division championship and a team full of international players.
"Before the game I had to point out to them the realities of the situation, but I didn't give them any of that stuff like 'if you can only hold them out for 20 minutes or so.' When you do that and then lose an early goal you tend to panic. Our lads didn't panic and I think they all did a pretty good job."