| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
_
Trivia
- Following the revelations on his association with known Ulster terrorist groups Goram was dropped and did not play for Motherwell in this Sunday evening game.
- The chipwrappers did their very best to drum up anti-Larsson feeling saying that he should apologise to MacPherson for his tackle against the Kilmarnock defender which left him needing 11 stitches in a gashed shin in the previous mid-week game against Kilmarnock.
- The latest club to show interest in taking Alan Stubbs south of the border was Aston Villa. Celtic denied that there had been an approach but Stubbs said that his wife had failed to settle in Scotland and if he moved south of the border he stood a better chance of being picked for England.
- Bernie Mandic, Viduka’s agent, gave an interview to the Press whilst making his deposition to FIFA over the transfer saga. Amongst the revelations of the mad agent were that:-
- · Celtic attempted to get Viduka to sign a paper stating that he was mentally unwell and that he was therefore unfit for the transfer
- · That Celtic refused to give him a medical until he signed a four page document of rider clauses
- · Viduka had been ready to sue Celtic for breach of contract.
- · Celtic were trying to get Viduka to back them in their version of events to FIFA
- · Viduka did not have a problem with Croatia Zagreb
- The whole thing smacked more of Mandic grinding an axe with Fergus McCann who he clearly did not see eye-to-eye with, McCann having called him ‘mad’ and asked IMG to remove him as an agent.
- The Sunday Herald claimed that Jim Kerr’s consortium had been in secret talks with Dermot Desmond
- Tony Warner, the on-loan goalkeeper from Liverpool returned to Liverpool where he became third choice keeper behind David James and Brad Friedel
- Boyd had recovered from his chest infection and started the game. Burley came on when Lubo was injured; Jackson was dropped from the squad and gave strength to the rumours that he would be leaving sooner rather than later.
Review
A seven-goal night in the rain marred by injury to Moravcik who would be out for nearly all of the rest of the season coming back for the last game and the Cup Final.
Teams
Motherwell: Woods, Doesburg, McGowan, Teale, Craigen (Nevin 30), May (Ross 70), Brannan, Spencer, Valakari, Coyle (Adams 63), McCulloch.
Subs Not Used: Bannister, Ramsey.
Goals: Brannan 26.
Celtic: Gould, Boyd , Riseth, Mjallby, Mahe (McKinlay 78), McNamara, Lambert, Moravcik (Burley 71), Blinker, Larsson, Brattbakk (Burchill 83).
Subs Not Used: Kerr, Healy.
Goals: Larsson 22 pen, Moravcik 30, Larsson 65, Burley 74, Burchill 85, Larsson 86, 87.
Booked: Brannan (Motherwell) Mjallby, Boyd. McNamara (Celtic)
Sent Off: Spencer (14) (Motherwell).
Ref: K Clark (Paisley).
Att: 11,963
Articles
- Match Report
Motherwell made to pay for Spencer's indiscipline as champions go goal crazy at Goram-free Fir Park;Four-goal Larsson is again the Celtic hero
The Herald 22/02/1999
Motherwell . 1
Celtic ………. 7
HE has scored three hat tricks in four games but this time he threw in a bonus to make it a four-goal spectacular. Yes, it was Henrik the Hero again.
He has now scored 25 goals in 16 games. For a front player who is reckoned not to be an out-and-out scorer, the Swede is doing not too badly.
At a Goram-free Fir Park (maybe Andy wasn't a bad judge after all) Larsson and his team-mates were greatly assisted in this rout by the fact that the home side had to try to stem the tide with only 10 men for 76 of the 90 minutes.
John Spencer, playing only his second game since he signed a permanent deal, was sent off for aiming an elbow at Jackie
McNamara after 14 minutes.
Motherwell hung on gallantly for a long spell and, in fact, came back after Larsson opened the scoring with a penalty in 21 minutes. Ged Brannan levelled the situation with a superb free kick but it was to be all downhill afterwards.
Lubo Moravcik, who made it 2-1 with an equally brilliant free kick at half-time, was carried off late in the game with a muscle injury, but his replacement, Craig Burley, immediately scored to mark his return after a three-month absence. That goal followed Larsson's second but substitute Mark Burchill added another before Larsson completed the demolition job with another brace.
That takes Celtic back to within 10 points of the leaders, Rangers. It is a huge, surely unbridgeable gap, but, with Henrik around, who knows?
Spencer's sending-off came after he had already been involved in a set-to with Vidar Riseth. He and the Norwegian were warned by the referee, and so he was treading on very thin ice when he lost his temper after he was fouled by McNamara.
The former Everton man seemed to aim an elbow at the Celtic player but, unfortunately for him, did so right in front of referee Kenny Clark and had little chance of staying on the field. The free kick was given to Motherwell and McNamara was booked, which made it all the more galling for the home side.
The fare had been furious enough up to that point, the fourteenth minute, but it became positively frantic afterwards. That was a pity because while it had been hectic there was some good play in among the ferocity, but after the Spencer incident it was every man for himself for a while.
Larsson had tried one shot that had gone across the face of goal and Lee McCulloch had missed the kind of chance that will haunt him in his dreams this week. A long ball from Shaun Teale into the Celtic penalty box was mis-timed by Johan Mjallby and left McCulloch facing Jonathan Gould. The keeper came out and managed to block the striker's effort but it should have been a goal.
After the ordering-off came another astonishing incident which might have seen McCulloch also take the lonely walk to the dressing room. First, Brannan was fortunate not to be booked after a foul on Tom Boyd, but while the ref held up play to allow the free kick to be taken, the players carried on with the game and McCulloch lunged into the back of Moravcik. Clark showed remarkable leniency to ignore the incident.
We did get back to the ball game eventually and Moravcik sent in a superb drive from 25 yards that Steve Woods did well to hold low down.
Celtic began to get the upper hand but the Motherwell deter-mination was still easy to detect in the expressions of the home 10.
They protested vehemently when Celtic were awarded the penalty that sent them in front, after Michel Doesburg and Stephen Craigan combined to trip up Stephane Mahe as he moved into the danger area, but there did not seem much case for dispute.
Larsson made his usual excellent job, hitting the spot-kick low out of Woods' reach, and Celtic seemed to be on their way.
However, the local lot merely gritted their teeth even more and when Boyd fouled McCulloch five minutes later, Brannan bent a beautiful free kick past the despairing arms of Gould to level the score.
That lifted the hopes of the Motherwell fans but they were dumped again inside three minutes, when Moravcik matched the effort of Brannan after the Motherwell man fouled Larsson. The Slovak steered a brilliant free kick off the inside of a post and over the line.
Motherwell put on Pat Nevin for Craigan immediately after the goal and referee Clark was roundly booed as he went in for the half-time break. If he needed it, so did the rest of us.
Motherwell, who came out for the second half every bit as committed as before, made light of the man short for a while and certainly had no thoughts of
opting for a counter attack policy. There was still plenty of cut and thrust, or perhaps bang and wallop is a better description, with Boyd the next man whose name went into the book after he fouled McCulloch.
However, after one good run and shot by Harald Brattbakk, Celtic did get the goal that left the home side with too much to do. Inevitably, it was that man Larsson who did the damage, but the move began when Riseth took the ball of Nevin and sent Brattbakk off on the left.
His ball inside went to the Swede, who controlled it well despite having a posse of defenders round him and finished it off with his normal efficiency.
It should have been four soon after when the roles were reversed and Larsson gave the Norwegian the easiest of chances about six yards from goal, but Brattbakk somehow managed to boot the ball high over the bar.
When Moravcik had to be carried off, his replacement, Burley, received a great welcome and an even bigger cheer when he scored the fourth.
Brattbakk then missed another chance and was replaced by Burchill, who promptly scored No.5.
There was still more. Larsson had his final denouement to play when he scored two more in the dying minutes to satisfy the chants of "We Want Seven."
- Manager Interview
“You can only be happy when you have about 14 goal scoring opportunities and manage to put half of them away.
“Sometimes in the past we have been level during games and unable to take our chances in front of goal.
“The most important thing is to create as many chances as you can and then the goals will normally follow on.”
“Decision like that (Spencer’s dismissal) are always down to the referee and this one was certainly OK – the foul wasn’t very nice.
“Even after losing a player they still played well. But it was our creativeness and ability to hold our shape which won the match.
“We are pleased that we managed to dictate the pace of the game but still disappointed that we lost Lubo Moravcik.
“Hopefully he won’t be absent any longer than a week or two, and, on the plus side, I’m very pleased that Craig Burley is back.
“His match fitness will obviously improve with every game he manages to take part in because he is a top experienced player.”
Pictures
Stats
| Motherwell | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 1 | 3 |
| Red Cards | 1 | 0 |
| Fouls | 21 | 13 |
| Shots on Target | 3 | 14 |
| Corners | 1 | 3 |
| Offside | 3 | 3 |