| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
_
Trivia
- Ray Montgomerie played for Kilmarnock from 1988 to 1998. He became Match Day Manager at Rugby Park in 2002 – a position which he still occupies.
- Ian Durrant and Alan Mahood were new signings this season by Kilmarnock and they would soon be joined by Ally McCoist.
- Liam Miller signed a three year deal with the club. Having just finished his first season for the Youths he was out of contract and was being lured by offers in Belgium and Holland as well as south of the border. He chose to sign a new deal with the club because of the friendships that he had made in the past year.
- Tom O’Neill joined the backroom staff. He was to work with the U16 pro Youth Leaguers. But would also be involved throughout the squad from first team down and was initially involved with McDowall, McGrain and Black in getting the first team squad to full fitness.
- Following the 2 games in Holland the team returned to carry on pre-season back in Glasgow. On 16/7/09, to the shock of all Celtic fans, it appeared that Gerard Houllier would not be taking over as Head Coach, when he announced his decision to join Liverpool. It is almost certain that Houllier had been approached and offered the job and his rejection left the club in a real bind. David Pleat was alleged to be in Glasgow for talks.
- On the 17/7/98 the club appointed Dr Jo Venglos as Head Coach. The 62 year old ex-head of the Czech national team had been working as technical manager with Slovan Bratislava and a member of FIFA’s Technical Committee. He was given a three year contract. Jock Brown refused to say when the club first made contact with the Slovakian. He described Dr Venglos as "fitting the brief as well as anyone in the world". The first problem was satisfying the authorities so that Dr Jo would be granted a work permit.
- Paul Lambert (leave), Mark Rieper (leave), Alan Stubbs (rested), Jackie McNamara (leave), Harald Brattbakk (rested), David Hannah (hamstring) and Phil O'Donnell (calf strain) were missing – and early in the game Morten Wieghorst had to be stretchered off with a knee injury which would require surgery.
Review
Best remembered for the non-stop jeering of Jock Brown interspersed with songs for Ian Durrant
Teams
Kilmarnock: Marshall; MacPherson, Kerr, Montgomerie, McGowne (Burke, 83), Henry (Mahood, 57), Nevin (Lauchlan, 53), Mitchell, Wright, Durrant, Roberts.
Non Used Subs: Bagan, Meldrum
Scorer: Wright (19)
Celtic: Gould (Kerr, 46), Boyd, Mahe, Annoni (Healy, 46), MacKay, McKinlay, Larsson , Burley (McBride, 84), Donnelly, Jackson (Burchill, 46) Wieghorst (Blinker, 17).
Non Used Subs: Elliot, Smith
Scorers: Larsson (35), Donnelly (40)
Referee – J McCluskey (Stewarton)
Attendance: 6860
Articles
- Match Report
Brown gets the full Monty
Scotland on Sunday 19/07/1998
Kilmarnock 1 Celtic 2
THE contrast could hardly have been more conspicuous. Kilmarnock fans rolled up to Rugby Park to pay their respects to a perennial club servant, while the green and white legions used the opportunity to welcome Dr Venglos to the cauldron that is Celtic Football Club.
The Slovakian head coach, or "consultant" as we must temporarily refer to him, would doubtless have been inspired by the lustiness of the travelling contingent's bellowing, but it is hoped that his English is not yet sufficiently adept for him to comprehend some of the sentiments.
We shall return to this Celtic business in a moment, but let us not forget what the purpose was. Ray Montgomerie, clearly a footballer of exceptional loyalty and durability, was being honoured for a 10-year shift at Kilmarnock. In these times of short-term solutions and revolving-door transfer practices, you feel that such enduring creatures will soon suffer the fate of the dodo.
Still, the 37-year-old stalwart, who signed a 12-month extension to his contract last week, would surely not have been too aggrieved at the ferment engulfing Celtic Park. Until Friday's announcement about Venglos' appointment, ticket sales for his big day had been sluggish. Suddenly, Celtic's support were galvanised, and a respectable number shuffled in.
You do not attend these testimonials anticipating riveting spectacle. Football without utter commitment is a bit like non-alcoholic beer, but this match was not without its engaging moments, and the players did their best to invest the afternoon with a pretence of competitiveness.
Montgomerie showed his experience, or lack of pace, perhaps, by halting a purposeful Darren Jackson sprint with an illegal lunge. On another afternoon, the Kilmarnock defender might have been dismissed by the referee, but such a decision would surely have been out of place. Even Jackson, not renowned for his reticence, deferred to the occasion by merely smiling.
When Montgomerie again deliberately clattered into Jackson before half-time, you got the impression that the Kilmarnock man believed he was beyond reproach.
The home side rattled Jonathan Gould's crossbar twice within a minute, and squandered an even more favourable opportunity when Ally Mitchell prodded the ball wide. But the breakthrough was imminent.
While the stricken Morten Wieghorst was being wheeled around the touchline, and in the midst of an anti-Jock Brown tirade from the Celtic support – Brown gets the blame for most things, but an injury to a player? – Paul Wright stabbed a low shot past Gould. It was typical finishing by the striker, and Kilmarnock justified their lead.
Whatever this match delivered in the way of entertainment, it was always likely to be overshadowed by Celtic's off-field angst. Most supporters to whom I spoke before the game were willing to give Venglos time to succeed in the job, but a vociferous minority were beyond convincing. One truth did emerge from this brief sounding out of opinion: in the minds of many, Jock Brown's future at the club is inextricably dependent on what his new head coach delivers on the park. Time, you surmise, will not be their ally.
Poor Brown must have praised the gods for the presence of Ian Durrant in Kilmarnock's starting line-up. If there is one figure capable of deflecting the Celtic fans' derision away from their general manager, it is the former Rangers luminary. Decorum dictates that I do not transcribe the minutiae of the vitriol that rained down on Durrant, but if these Celtic wags are to be believed, the midfielder should be locked up for indulging in grave acts and heresy.
Where once he might have responded to such taunting with like-minded oafishness, Durrant laughed it off. I think it is called maturity.
But even Durrant's guile -and he was one of the game's more intelligent providers -could not prevent Celtic from wresting control of the match. It took them fully 30 minutes to find any sort of rhythm, and to punish some abysmal Kilmarnock defending.
Three Celtic chances were spurned in as many minutes before Henrik Larsson, with a low skelp from outside the box, and Simon Donnelly from close in sent them in 2-1 ahead. And so it remained.
Alex Burke, yet another peroxide dandy, had a zipping effort from distance parried by the goalkeeper after the resumption, and Larsson was desperately lax with his shot with only an exposed Gordon Marshall to negotiate.
Just when you it seemed the second half would go completely without incident, Regi Blinker and Gus MacPherson indulged in a bout of shoving. Montgomerie, wise old head that he is, told them to grow up, and the situation was defused.
Both clubs have more pressing matters to contend with this week as European competition beckons. Games like this are seldom a reliable pointer to what lies ahead, but the teams' performances hardly inspire you to bet on either of them usurping Europe's established pecking order. Still, Montgomerie got his cheque, the fans got some fresh air…and Jock Brown got absolute pelters.
- Manager Interview
Eric Black post match:
"I'm optimistic that most of the absentees will be fit for Wednesday, but we will have to wait until Morten has a scan on his injury to see how serious it is."
"Now that a new head coach has come in, it has given the place another lift. To be fair, the players have been great all through this. They have got on with what they had to do.
"The new coach had a word with the players before the match and he came into the dressing room at half-time. Now, he will sit down with the players on Monday and analyse what went on, the positive and the negative points. We are looking forward to that.
"It took us about 20 minutes to get into the game, but after that I felt we played reasonably well. This was just the type of game we needed before going into the European Cup."
Pictures
Stats
| Kilmarnock | Celtic | |
| Fouls | 6 | 6 |
| Shots on Target | 4 | 3 |
| Corners | 2 | 5 |
| Offside | 0 | 1 |