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Title: In A league Of Their own 2003 -2004
Release Date:2004
Review By: Kevtic June 5th 2010
Review
The final part in the trilogy of O'Neill league victories and could be argued the greatest of all his league wins. Coming on the back of losing the UEFA Cup final in Seville and watching the huns pick up all the silverware it would have been easy for a team to feel sorry for itself but not this Celtic team. It was another season that took your breathe away as the team strode on to a domestic double, knock Barcelona out of Europe and hand the huns their dinner on no less than 5 occasions. There was also the small issue of this being the King of Kings last season in the hoops and like other seasons he just scored goals for fun. This was Celtic in full flight and it was another incredible journey.
The DVD itself is narrated by Neil Lennon who introduces each month with a quick summary of what happened. The competitive season starts in July with a Champions League Qualifying match against Kaunas. The footage of this is preceded by action from Celtic's pre-season tour of Sweden including a game against Helsingborg and a 4-0 humping from Man Utd in the US. The league campaign starts on Aug 9th and it doesn't go according to plan with a goalless draw at East End Park but it is to be the last points we drop for a record breaking and incredible 25 game winning run in the league. Qualification for the Champions League group stages is secured after a 5-0 aggregate defeat of MTK Budapest who were our opponents after seeing off Kaunas.
Celtic had the first 4 of their 25 league wins in the bag before the travelled to Munich for the first CL tie. On the night Celtic deserved much more than the 2-1 defeat they flew home with. An Alan Thompson header had put Celtic in front and although the DVD is just the goals on the night Bayern had plenty possession and struggled to break Celtic down until 2 defensive lapses gifted them the points. The 2nd goal, as if you needed reminding, was a hopeful free kick into the box that evaded everyone including Magnus Hedman who reacted too late to stop the ball hitting the net. Although defeated there was much in the Celtic display to give them encouragement.
They took this into the next CL game against Lyon. I had totally forgotten Thompson missed a pen in the 1st half of this game but it was the 2nd half display and in particular the performance of one Liam Miller, a player dogged by injury but had been showing up well domestically and was given his chance to show what he could do on a European stage. He didn't let anyone down in this game and a spectacular 24 pass move ended with him heading Celtic into the lead. For some odd reason this DVD only shows the end of the move, an odd omission as it was one of the goals of the season. The 3 pts were wrapped up when Larsson gave himself all the time in the world to pick out Sutton with a pinpoint cross.
The following game saw Celtic travel to Ibrox for the first meeting of the season. A scrappy game was decided by a scrappy goal from Hartson a minute into the 2nd half and Celtic had 7 league wins in a row. This was followed by win no 8 a 5-0 thrashing of Hearts. Always a pleasure to hand out a spanking to them. Our visit to Belgium wasn't so happy though when Celtic failed to overcome a 10 man Anderlecht. When you are down though you can always rely on Henke to cheer you up and the following Saturday he got his 15th Celtic hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Aberdeen. Celtic managed to sandwich two 5-0 league victories around the 3-1 home victory in the return game against Anderlecht. Another top notch Miller performance. Unfortunately they couldn't do the same to Bayern when they came calling and a 0-0 draw meant Celtic needed to draw in Lyon in the final group game. After twice fighting back to reach 2-2 with 5 mins to go big Bobo was judged to have handled in the box, a decision that still looks harsh even when you see it again after all these years. We all know what happened next but Celtic had the consolation of dropping into the UEFA Cup, more of which later.
In the league Celtic were still racking up the wins and before the bells brought in 2004 17 wins were on the board and Celtic had scored 5 or more goals on 7 occasions since the start of the season. The first domestic defeat of the season was at the hands of Hibs in the CIS Cup which considering it was December 18th was a pretty solid record. Oddly no footage of this game or the previous rounds defeat of Partick are on the DVD.
2004 Started with as comprehensive a defeat of the hun as you're ever likely to see. Celtic were totally dominant in 3-0 skelping that started with the Petrov header that hit both post before crossing the line. Varga made the pts safe before a sublime Thompson free kick near the end sealed an emphatic victory and virtually wrapped up the title there and then. This was also the game of Thompson's famous knock knock gesture to Ricksen. The following week Celtic started off their Scottish Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over Ross County (we can beat them when we try) and watch out for Hartson's shove just before the opener. League victory no 20 is secured at Pittodrie in a 3-1 win and also Henke's 20th of the season the 3rd comes from a close range efort from Stephen pearson who had signed from Motherwell in January. Kilmarnock at home in the next game was looking like a difficult one until Agathe made the breakthough on 55 mins and the floodgates opened and a 5-1 victory was achieved. Arguably the best goal of the game came from Kilmarnock's Skoda whose delicate chip left Douglas in no man's land.
As the season moves into February a stunning double from Petrov helps knock Hearts out the cup in a 3-0 win. The plastic pitch at East End Park causes us no problems depsite going a goal down. The league winning record looks under threat when with less than 10mins on the clock we trail Dundee Utd but 2 goals in 2 mins secure victory number 23 and equal the previous record. The record was beaten in a 4-1 win over Thistle at Firhill also notable for the cameo appearance of one Jorge Cadette for the home side. Another UEFA Cup campaign starts with a victory over Teplice. Even god can't help Livingston in the last match of February with yet another 5 goal victory in a side that contains Marvin Andrews.
Not much happens in March apart from knocking the huns out of the Scottish Cup and consigning them to a trophyless season, putting Barcelona out the UEFA Cup and finishing the month off with a victory over the huns at Ibrox. Just an average month then. March was a busy month and games came in quick succession and a few days after losing in Teplice, Celltic and Larrson effectively finished off the huns season before facing up to the might of Barcelona at Celtic Park. A Barca side that contained Ronaldinho, Puyol, Xavi and Iniesta on the bench contrived to miss a number of great chances in the first half before a bust up in the tunnel saw both teams reduced to 10 men with Douglas being sent off for Celtic. His replacement was rookie David Marshall who, at 19, had almost no first team experience. We could have been forgiven for thinking the worst but early in the 2nd half Saviola was sent off for a kick at Thompson and the balamnce swung in Celtic's favour. 10 mins later a cross into the box was headed down into an unmarked Thompson's path and he scissor kicked it into the net an Celtic Park erupted. I jumped a few feet higher than normal as I had £10 on Thompson at 9s to get the 1st goal. Barca seemed content to leave with a one goal deficit to peg back in the Nou Camp or the Camp Nou if you like. Celtic record breaking sequence of 25 league winning games was brought to an end the following Saturday when thay could only draw 1-1 with Motherwell at Celtic Park. Given the exertions and the highs of the barca game i don't think anyone was too upset. Interestingly Larsson was on the bench for this one but came on to get the equaliser. Winning ways were soon established in the next two away games with a 2-1 win over Dundee and 4-0 hammering of Hibs.
Then it was the turn of that never to be forgotten night in Barcelona. A daunting task to face up to the might of Barca at any time but suspensions meant that we lined up with David Marshall in goal and John Kennedy in the centre of defence. From the moment Marshall clawed away the ball from Gerard's feet in the first minute you knew it was going to be a long long night. marshall's display that night went down in folklore and he would ahve beena swell hanging up his gloves after this game as he will never reach these heights again. An incredible display of goalkeeping as he kept out shot after shot. Great credit has to go the whole team as it was a brilliant team performance with Kennedy also outstanding in the centre of defence. The scenes at the end are brilliant as you see Hoops celebrate all over the ground.
On our return there was a small matter of a visit to Ibrox to deal with. Given the effort of the previous week not many Celtic fans would ahve been surprised if this was one match too far but we should ahve known better. A trademark larsson header from a trademark Thompson cross put Celtic in front before marshall carried on from where he left off in spain with a great near post stop from varga to prevent an own goal and even bveeter save to claw away a Lovenkrands header. In the 2nd half the cool head of Thompson picked up a loose ball in the box and side stepped Klos before scoring with his right. The 2nd time he'd done that at Ibrox. It should have been 3 but Varga somehow managed to hit the bar from 3 yards. A late consolation gave the huns false hope and celtic were 2 games away from being champions.
To be completed
Product Details
Production year 2004
Running Time 100 mins
DVD Region 2
Release date 16/07/2001
Number of discs 2
Catalogue No. PTDVD 1400
Barcode 5030697004000
Studio – Freemantle Home Entertainment
Special Features
Disc 2 is Henrik's farewell Fiesta
Also available as a double video on VHS.