| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- McCann attacked the SFA for its failure to act against sectarianism in the game, after it had failed to do anything over the Gascoigne incident in the last Old Firm game. McCann called a Press conference where he was flanked by Cardinal Thomas Winning and the Rt Rev Sandy McDonald, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to air his views on bigotry in the Scottish game and to point out the the SFA was far from pro-active.
- The Daily Record led with a story that Middlesbrough were to buy Tommy Johnson for £2.3million.
- Tosh McKinlay went on loan to Stoke City for three months (he would be recalled due to first team injuries after a month). He was sent off in his first game for Stoke.
- Rumours were starting to leak out that all was not well with the back room team with Jansen and Jock Brown said to be not on speaking terms or even to be in the same room together. Jansen was unhappy with the sacking of Hay and the appointments without consultation of Eric Black and Kenny McDowall. Another of the outcomes of this was that it was clear that someone was leaking information to the Press. The situation started to get out of hand with Brown attacking David Hay, Jansen saying that he missed the Chief Scout’s presence and McCann being forced to issue a statement on the internal relations within the club.
Review
Things might be fractious behind the scenes but it was still the same on it . Every game needed a win. The Bhoys played well against Aberdeen, despite losing an early goal, and were well worth this win which put them level on points with Rangers but behind on goal difference.
Teams
Celtic:
Gould ; Annoni, Rieper , Stubbs , Mahe, McNamara , Burley , Lambert, Wieghorst ; Larsson (Donnelly, 66), Brattbakk (Jackson, 61).
Non Used Sub: Hannah .
Scorers: Wieghorst (21), Larsson (35), Jackson (82)
Aberdeen:
Leighton; Smith, Whyte, Inglis, Kiriakov; Rowson, B O'Neil, M O'Neill (Windass, 72), Glass; Jess, Newell (Anderson, 78).
Non Used Sub: Dodds
Scorer: Rowson (8)
Bookings: O'Neil ,O'Neill ,Rowson (Aberdeen)
Referee: S Dougal (Burnside).
Attendance: 46,606
Articles
- Match Report
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Aberdeen | |
| Bookings | 3 | 0 |
| Fouls | 20 | 21 |
| Shots on Target | 13 | 3 |
| Corners | 5 | 7 |
| Offside | 2 | 1 |
Celtic's level best spices up title race
The Scotsman 03/02/1998
Celtic3 Wieghorst (21), Larsson (35), Jackson (82)
Aberdeen1 Rowson (8 )
THERE was no hint of internal disarray at Parkhead last night, as Celtic's only in-fighting took place in the full public glare and brought the three points that gave them a share of the Premier Division leadership.
It was all too much for Aberdeen, whose light flickered promisingly only for the opening ten minutes, during which time they even managed to take the lead through David Rowson. It was extinguished with a controlled ruthlessness by a home side who simply took a little longer than expected to summon the devil in themselves.
When they did, Morten Wieghorst, Henrik Larsson and Darren Jackson, who came on as a substitute, ensured that the Pittodrie side would have a diabolical time.
Celtic coach, Wim Jansen, put it all in perspective. "The league starts again from tonight," he said. "Our players knew how important it was to win this one. When you're in our position, there is no missing the significance of each game."
After seeing his side beaten, Aberdeen manager, Alex Miller, confirmed that one of his most talented players, Stephen Glass, was likely to leave the club.
Glass will go to Newcastle this week for signing talks with Kenny Dalglish. The midfielder is expected to sign a pre-contract agreement and join Newcastle when his deal with Aberdeen expires at the end of the season. "I'm convinced now that we'll lose him," said Miller.
For all their apparent lethargy during the opening minutes, Celtic's players seemed only to have to reach the vicinity of Jim Leighton to have the frame of his goal vibrating from a thudding ball. They managed it twice in as many attacks before Wieghorst finally slid the ball between the posts for the equaliser. Before then, however, there had been unmissable concern in the stands as Mike Newell scooped over the bar from close range – this in the very first minute – and Jonathan Gould spilled a shot from Eoin Jess which would have given Newell another opportunity if Marc Rieper had not stepped briskly in to clear.
It was before Rowson scored that Celtic first battered the woodwork. Jackie McNamara's corner kick from the right was met cleanly by Alan Stubbs and the defender's powerful header thudded back off the bar.
A few minutes later, McNamara drove the ball with his right foot from 25 yards away to the right of Leighton and watched it come off the inside of the post and bounce out.
Between these remarkable moments, Rowson scored. The ball reached the young midfielder after a corner kick on the left and his left-foot shot, from 25 yards, seemed to be comfortably covered by Gould, but the ball took a severe deflection off Stubbs and eluded the goalkeeper high to his left.
Soon after, Newell, diving to head Glass's whipped cross from the left, forced Gould into a frantic save.
Wieghorst equalised by doing the right thing when Paul Lambert played in McNamara's cross from the right. He rifled the ball low and true to the right of Leighton from 15 yards.
The goal that brought Celtic the lead could almost have been considered overdue. It was a simple affair, Stubbs' free kick headed on by Rieper to Larsson, who nodded past Leighton.
The memory of that nervous start to the first half must have propelled Celtic into the second, for they were contrastingly tigerish from the moment the referee, Stewart Dougal, restarted the match.
McNamara passed up one of their best opportunities. He shaped to head the ball into the corner of his choosing from the far side of the six-yard box, but contrived to send it back across goal and wide of the post. The events that followed exposed Leighton again as a heroic veteran, as he summoned 20 years' experience to keep out Craig Burley and Harald Brattbakk.
By the time Jackson scored, Celtic had not allowed Aberdeen much room in which to contrive their own menace. His goal was a fine piece of opportunism, as he whipped the ball high into the net from six yards.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen post match
“For the first 15 or 20 minutes Aberdeen were the more aggressive side and even after they scored their goal they had a few chances.
“But following that we closed them down and restricted their space as well as scoring two good goals to take the lead.
“In the end we deserved our win although you could say we did leave it a bit late to finally clinch the game.
“Obviously I would prefer to be in that position a little earlier in the game.”
“The league starts from today.”
Alex Miller, Aberdeen manager:
"In the first half I thought Jess was magnificent but the back four stayed too far back in the second half and he didn't get the chance to feed the front players. It was disappointing to lose two goals from set pieces.
"From my viewpoint, it looked as if the second goal was offside. I believe the title race could now go all the way to the wire. Hearts have done an excellent job to stay up there and are in the hunt on merit. I think they will have to beat Celtic and Rangers at home at least to make it. If Celtic beat Hearts on Sunday it would be a great boost for them, too."