2001-08-25: Hibernian 1-4 Celtic, Premier League

The Herald (Glasgow)
August27, 2001
The Sutton master-class;English striker is no longer the frightened rabbit as he strikes terror into defences

BYLINE:Rob Robertson At Easter Road

WITH a European Champions League medal in his collection you would think it would take something extraordinary before Paul Lambert would consider stringing together the super-latives to describe a simple domestic league performance.

However, as theCelticmidfielder battled his way through well-wishers on his way out of Easter Road on Saturday, he, like many others, was talking about "the perfect 45".

"Brilliant. Great. We played superbly. Just as good as we did against Ajax in Amsterdam," enthused Lambert. He and Neil Lennon were the lynchpins in aCelticside which scored four goals in 14 first-half minutes.

As he chatted happily about the performance near the gates of Easter Road, Chris Sutton passed by on his way from the ground, a man who at last looks at peace with himself and who Lambert felt had had a magnificent game.Certainly the big Englishman can be forgiven for allowing himself a wry smile when he casts his mind over the vagaries of his recent career compared to that of his nemesis, Gianluca Vialli. Only a season and a bit ago he was a £10m Chelsea misfit, publicly criticised by Vialli for his failure to fit in at Stamford Bridge.

Despite some ridicule Martin O'Neill rescued him from reserve team hell and I remember well the low-key press conference in a small room of a hotel on the outskirts of Copenhagen onCeltic'spre-season tour of last year when the Englishman was introduced to the press.

At the time he looked apprehensive and lacking in confidence after having the stuffing knocked out of him at Chelsea but since that day the £6m signing has blossomed and, against Hibs, put in a first-half master-class of forward play which was as good as you'll ever see.

And what was Gianluca Vialli doing when all this was going on on Saturday? He was managing Watford against Wolves where his main signing of the summer, Ramon Vega, (remember him?) repaid him by scoring an own goal which won the game for the Molineux side.

Certainly the footballing worlds of Vialli and Sutton have gone in different directions over the past year or so, with the Italian facing first division mediocrity with Watford while the Englishman has the chance of Champions League glory withCeltic.

Sutton's first-half performance on Saturday was as good as any he put in during his golden era partnering Alan Shearer at Blackburn Rovers, and much of the credit has to go to O'Neill for the way he has handled the Englishman's, at times, fragile mind.

The striker seemed a sensitive soul at that first press conference where he looked like a rabbit trapped in headlights and O'Neill seemed to realise that right away. Sutton is the type of player who has to be encouraged and nurtured and theCelticcoach has saved the club a fortune in sporting psychologists by recognising that.

Notice that after most games O'Neill praises the Englishman because he knows Sutton is the type of player who, if you support him enough, will give his all. If he's not been playing well and you give him a hard time he'll stay down.

It's that slow build-up of confidence which has turned Sutton into the type of striker who showed against Hibs that when he is on song he is impossible to play against.

Not since Mark Hateley was in his prime at Rangers has someone shown how to get in front of defenders in the right way, hold players off and use their body weight to gain the slight advantage needed to create space to score goals.

The pick ofCeltic'sfour strikes may have been Lubo Moravcik's marvellous long – range effort in 15 minutes, but for lovers of forward play, Sutton's two goals were equally as good.
The first, only a minute after Moravcik's opener, saw him get on the end of a dreadful Ulrik Laursen back-pass, and shrug off the experienced Franck Sauzee before steering a low shot past Nick Colgan.

His second came when Henrik Larsson, who scored his side's fourth with a header in 29 minutes, chested the ball to Moravcik, who sent Sutton in on goal and he stroked an angled shot into the net.

It was a magnificent first-half performance byCelticand by Sutton, who showed his versatility midway through the second period by moving back to centre half to accommodate the introduction of John Hartson, who has yet to score after five appearances.

Hibs were never at the races and although their defending was dreadful and they lacked concentration at crucial moments, nobody could have legislated for Moravcik's sweet opening goal.
Clearly Laursen was a bit shellshocked after the match as his slip of the tongue meant he started talking about how Hibs had conceded 10 goals within four minutes, rather than four goals within 14 minutes.

He recovered enough to admit that his team had been taught a football lesson byCeltic, but felt they had made a better fight of it in the second half and deserved their goal through a powerful Paul Fenwick header with six minutes left.

"At half-time I thought the gaffer would have been more angry at us, although obviously some of us got a good going over all the same," said Laursen. "In the second half it was all about restoring our pride, althoughCeltictook their foot off the gas."

"Overall, it was difficult for us to play against Sutton when he is in such form. I think they will do okay in the Champions League although they won't get it as easy there as they did against us in that first half."

The Scotsman
August27, 2001, Monday
CELTICPASS ALL TESTS WITH FLYING COLOURS

BYLINE:Glenn Gibbons At Easter Road

Hibernian1 Fenwick (85)Celtic4 Moravcik (16), Sutton (17, 20), Larsson (31)

MERIT and progress are measured by a series of tests of increasing difficulty. The two most recent whichCeltichave faced in the past few days may not exactly have been passed magna *** laudae, but certainly with enough distinction to give Martin O'Neill cause for pride and satisfaction.

The Parkhead manager emerges from each of these trials clearly glowing with the sense of discovery, as if his players keep coming up with proofs he had hoped and suspected were there, but which had still to be confirmed by laboratory experiment.O'Neill had been cautiously optimistic – certainly nowhere near quixotic – about his team's ability to reach the group stage of the Champions League, but, until Ajax were eliminated, his rationale was pure theory.

The manner of ultimate success against the Dutch – losing 1-0 at home last Wednesday after the extraordinary 3-1 triumph in Amsterdam – and the scoreless draw at Livingston which preceded it presentedCelticwith their second serious examination.

This was to travel to Easter Road to confront a Hibs side buoyed by a 2-2 draw at Ibrox and with widespread doubts about their own ability to overcome potential mental and physical jadedness at the end of a rigorous week.

The talk before the game dwelled mainly on the league champions' apparent vulnerability. In the event, they proved to be about as vulnerable as a tank put under attack by water-pistol.

WhileCelticwere unarguably given some assistance by a shockingly inept home defence during the first-half blitz which brought the certainty of victory by a substantial margin, it was Alex McLeish, theHibernianmanager, who emphasised the Parkhead side's quality.

McLeish, with some justification, was insisting that his team had not performed as poorly as the result suggested.

"The first goal was inspirational," he said, in allusion to Lubomir Moravcik's breathtaking left-foot drive from 25 yards which snaked its way into Nick Colgan's top left-hand corner. "But what happened next was a calamity. Slack defending cost us the second, it was a goal out of nowhere and it was avoidable.

"To be two down toCelticis to have a mountain to climb," said McLeish, "but I think we're not a bad side and I wouldn't be at all worried about the outcome of the season in general.
"I don't look simply at today's scoreline and draw conclusions from it.

"I think it has to be remembered thatCelticare a quality side and, if you make mistakes as we did, they have the capability to take advantage of that."

It was Hibs' misfortune that they should make their first serious mistake a mere 11 seconds after Moravcik's strike, a lapse that provided Chris Sutton with the first of his two goals – the second would arrive only four minutes later – and ended whatever hope the home side may have retained of salvage.

Ulrik Laursen's lob back towards his goalkeeper was always dropping short, but Franck Sauzee should have been favourite to complete the tidying-up, as he was ahead of Sutton as the ball dropped. Instead, the big Englishman simply burst past the French veteran and volleyed the ball low past Colgan from close range.

Sutton repeated the trick when Moravcik chipped the ball into the area, this time getting past Laursen before steering the ball right-footed away to the right of Colgan and just inside the post.
Henrik Larsson completedCeltic'stotal with a powerful header off Moravcik's corner kick, the ball hitting Grant Brebner, who was "protecting" the goal -line, before entering the net.

It was not surprising that O'Neill should describe that first half as "just about the best I've seen from them in my time here." Considering some of the other achievements in the past year – the 6-2 and 3-0 thrashings of Rangers atCelticPark and Ibrox and the away performance against Ajax among them – the superlative may have been mildly excessive. But it seemed to confirm the manager's belief that the pre-match circumstances made the result all the more meritorious.

O'Neill, like the majority of the club's followers, appears now to believe that his squad have the character to negotiate even the most formidable of obstacles.

There have been others before now, notably the week last season when they lost 5-1 at Ibrox and drew 0-0 at Easter Road, recovering so well that they motored into a championship-winning lead soon after.

If Sutton, Moravcik, Larsson, Didier Agathe, the ever-reliable Paul Lambert and Neil Lennon and Robert Douglas – the goalkeeper was forced into a series of excellent saves by a resurgent Hibs in the second half – were the most eye -catching performers, O'Neill would draw equal satisfaction from the contributions made by those fringe players who came in, such as Olivier Tebily, Tom Boyd and substitutes John Hartson and Steve Guppy. Hibs would take some encouragement from their second-half act, even if, as McLeish said, "Celticmay have come off the gas a little."

The Ecuadorian international Ulises de la Cruz, who replaced Mathias Jack at the interval, was very quick and dangerous, and young Tam McManus continues to appeal as a likely prospect in attack.

There is every reason to believe that the Easter Road side are capable of a season at least as rewarding as last time, even if the gap between themselves andCelticappears not to have been reduced.

However, on the evidence of this match, that may be said of just about every other club in the league.