| Matches: 1997 – 1998 | League Table | League Cup |
Back From The Brink: season 1997-98
The Phony War
By the dawn of the new season in the summer of 1997, Celtic were in the midst of considerable upheaval, not untypical for those times. Three seasons on from the triumphant unseating of the reviled old board and the beginning of the Fergus McCann era, the club again stood at a crossroads.
There had been the catharsis of the club’s first trophy in six years, the homecoming to the partially-rebuilt Celtic Park after a year’s purgatory at Hampden, and then a season of flowing football and great promise under Tommy Burns, before the fractious relationship between manager and chairman buckled amidst the pressure of trying to prevent Rangers from equalling our proud record of nine successive championships and a team crumbled.
Burns was gone – ironically having turned down the job as head of youth development that he would eventually flourish in – and the stars of the previous seasons were gone or on strike. The lethal strikeforce of Van Hooijdonk, Cadete and Di Canio had been dismantled by the avarice of the players themselves, the club were managerless, staring down the barrel of Rangers setting a new record of ten titles in a row, and possibly worst of all the talismanic captain Paul McStay had been forced into premature retirement by a persistent ankle injury.
While Rangers hurled millions into a spree of expensive signings – including a slightly bizarre, short-lived penchant for Italians as a job lot of three arrived that summer – fans of Celtic looked on anxiously that summer at a seemingly interminable search for Burns’ successor, while the one remaining ‘star’ player, Paolo Di Canio conducted a protracted, and very public dispute with the club, having decided in his infinite wisdom that there was ‘a little problem with his contract’, which translated broadly as ‘I want to play in England, and earn more money’.
Fergus McCann, for all his qualities as a businessman, had evidently not enjoyed the day-to-day business of running the footballing aspects of the club if his spiky relationship with Tommy Burns had been anything to go by, and as such declared his intention to move the club to a ‘continental’ structure, with a General Manager to overseas player recruitment and management and a Head Coach to run matters on the pitch. An interesting enough development, but the controversial appointment of sports lawyer and broadcaster Jock Brown to the role was something of a bombshell for the long-suffering Celtic support, with question marks openly raised as to Brown’s suitability, not to say his sporting allegiances.
Countless names were mentioned in connection with that of the Head Coach role, and for a brief period it appeared as though a genuine coup had been achieved with the recruitment of ex-England manager Bobby Robson, then in the process of being moved upstairs at Barcelona. At the eleventh hour however, he was persuaded to remain at the Nou Camp and the seemingly endless search dragged on as the new season loomed ever closer.
The man who was to be eventually unveiled on July 3rd 1997 as the 11th occupant of the manager’s office at Celtic Park, ironically already had ‘previous’ with the club, albeit as one of the architects of one of the biggest disappointments in the history of the club, the disastrous European Cup Final defeat to Feyenoord in 1970. It’s no exaggeration to state that Wilhem ‘Wim’ Jansen arrived to a fanfare of ridicule from the Scottish press pack; an illustrious playing career yes, but by virtue of arriving off the back of an unhappy spell managing in Japan there were lurid headlines in the red-tops describing him tastelessly as ‘the second worst thing to hit Hiroshima’.
With Murdo McLeod already recruited initially as reserve team manager, and then hastily promoted to assistant head coach, the management team were at last in place. Fortunately chief scout David Hay had, in conjunction with Brown already been active in recruiting new players for the threadbare Celtic squad, while ‘negotiations’ with the erratic but talented Di Canio laboured on.
Striker Darren Jackson arrived from Hibernian, left back Stephane Mahe from Paris St Germain, Scotland midfielder Craig Burley from Chelsea, and of course Dutch winger Regi Blinker, controversially from Sheffield Wednesday; ‘traded’ for Paolo Di Canio plus cash in a deal that did little to establish the credibility of the new General Manager. A new goalkeeper arrived also – Jonathan Gould, son of ex-Wales manager Bobby, from the lofty heights of Bradford City reserves.
A Stuttering Start
Having stumbled through a hastily-organised pre-season programme, and a faintly surreal two-legged UEFA Cup qualifier against Welsh minnows Inter Cable-Tel, Celtic prepared to begin the new league season with a potentially challenging away game at Easter Road, broadcast live on satellite TV. Seated on the bench for that game was Jansen’s greatest legacy to the club – a slight, dreadlocked Swedish winger recruited via a protracted exploitation of a release clause in his contract at Feyenoord. His name of course was Henrik Larsson.
The game was a disaster for Celtic, and individually for the new signing. In an insipid performance, Celtic conceded a first half opener to the home side, only to claw back an equaliser when Malky Mackay rose to head home a corner. Hibs remained in the ascendency however, and claimed an infamous win when self-confessed Celtic fanatic and all-round cult hero Chic Charnley intercepted an errant pass from Larsson to smash home the winner from 20 yards.
A League Cup tie away to Berwick Rangers, but played at Tynecastle saw the hoops record a routine 7-0 victory, with debut goals for Larsson, Blinker and Jackson but it did little to paper over the cracks of an uncertain start to the campaign, with a 2-1 defeat in the UEFA Cup to Tirol Innsbruck the following midweek. That uncertain start then created genuine concerns of crisis as the first home game of the season, expected to be a comfortable win over Dunfermline saw the visitors snatch an unlikely 2-1 win, leaving the hoops pointless from the first two games, and saw ill-concealed glee from sections of the Scottish media.
The following seven days brought back-to-back trips to Perth to face newly-promoted St Johnstone, first in the League Cup, with what now looked to be a challenging league game to follow. Smelling an upset, the satellite TV cameras were again in attendance for the cup tie, which went into extra time locked at 0-0 before Celtic scraped through 1-0 by virtue of a penalty, nervelessly dispatched by Simon Donnelly. The fixture four days later finally saw Celtic record their first league points of the campaign, inspired by a spectacular point blank save by Jonathan Gould from George O’Boyle’s flying header before two fantastic goals from Larsson – an iconic diving header – and a fine curling shot from Jackson secured a critical 2-0 win.
Amidst a hectic fixture list, the return leg against Tirol Innsbruck arrived 3 days later and saw Celtic progress after an astonishing 6-3 victory that saw the hoops pinball between victory and defeat for 90 incredible minutes, a fixture that also saw the future UEFA Cup all-time record goalscorer record his first European strike for Celtic; albeit it was at the wrong end as his own goal briefly gave the Austrians the lead. This period also saw the playing staff depleted further, as Darren Jackson was sidelined with a medical complaint afflicting his brain – he was eventually to make a triumphant scoring return several months later.
Double-headers were clearly a recurring pattern that autumn, as Celtic then saw off Motherwell in cup and league fixtures, the first a 1-0 home win in the league cup before a dramatic 3-2 win at Fir Park, secured by two goals from Craig Burley and an acrobatic header from Donnelly. More importantly for the long term, the porous nature of the Celtic defence as evidenced that day – with record signing Alan Stubbs particularly culpable as rumours continued that he sought a return south – convinced Jansen that the defence needed to be strengthened. Danish international centre back Marc Rieper arrived accordingly from West Ham and one of the final pieces of what was to be ultimately the final jigsaw slotted into place. Despite the suggestion that he would be edged out by him, Alan Stubbs formed an eventually resilient partnership with the dominating figure of Rieper, and from that edgy win at Fir Park onwards, Celtic finally began to display a streak of form.
Autumnal progress
The next round of the UEFA Cup saw Celtic drawn in a mouth-watering tie against Liverpool, and despite being eventually eliminated on away goals after a sensational 2-2 draw at home and a frustrating goalless draw at Anfield, the performance of the still-emerging Celtic side in both games gave the support considerable hope that the team was finally moving in the right direction. Celtic were out of Europe but with heads held high, particularly after an underdog display at Anfield with an injury-crippled side so weakened that Jansen was unable to name a full complement of substitutes. In truth, Celtic lacked the strength in depth to fight a campaign on multiple fronts that season, and an extended European campaign would probably have derailed the domestic assault.
Domestically, a place in the final of the League Cup was secured – back when the final was played before Christmas – and a measure of payback obtained for the earlier home defeat at the expense of Dunfermline in the process. League form had also begun to show signs of momentum as six consecutive league wins were accumulated and the young Swede began to find his scoring touch in an under-rated partnership with Donnelly.
Despite the improvement in form, Jansen felt the centre of midfield remained under-staffed and pointedly that the club was lacking the position he himself had excelled in for Feyenoord and Holland; the holding midfielder. Someone to anchor the midfield to free Craig Burley to push forward in support of the forwards, a position essential to the system Jansen wanted Celtic to play. Celtic’s success was to be the beneficiary of Mrs Lambert’s homesickness.
Paul Lambert was the boy from Linwood who had lifted the Scottish Cup at 17 with St Mirren, enjoyed a successful if relatively unspectacular spell at Motherwell before running his contract down to take advantage of the new Bosman ruling and try his luck overseas. A trial with Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund paid off in spectacular fashion as he became a central figure in their Champions League win over Juventus – man marking Zinedine Zidane in the process – and transformed himself from a journeyman to holding midfielder specialist. Despite being hugely popular with the passionate Dortmund support, Lambert had instructed his agent to secure him a move home as his young family had failed to settle in Germany, which was to materialise in the form of a £1.9m transfer to Celtic, despite Fergus McCann’s searching questions as to why he hadn’t been scouted when available for free.
Lambert arrived in time to take a position on the bench at Ibrox for the first Old Firm game of the season, unseasonally late on November 8th – the first scheduled fixture at the end of August had been postponed in the wake of the death of Princess Diana. The game was to highlight how crucially Lambert was needed to reinforce a still-brittle Celtic side.
A strong Rangers side overwhelmed Jansen’s side – the hapless Regi Blinker was recorded as having only touched the ball a handful of times in the entire game – and it was a minor miracle that the margin of victory was only 1-0, as Richard Gough recorded the game’s only goal and controversially celebrated by raising ten fingers in the air as he celebrated in front of the Celtic support.
The re-arranged return fixture at Celtic Park was scheduled for just eleven days later, and Celtic followed up the Ibrox reverse with a shock 0-2 loss at home to Motherwell as Lambert made his home debut against his old side. Again Blinker was held culpable, this time receiving an early red card for an elbow on a Motherwell defender.
Coming off the back of consecutive defeats without a goal scored, fears were again raised that the promise of the autumn would recede into failure as Rangers arrived for the re-scheduled home game, televised on STV on a Monday evening.The game was goalless at half time and Celtic looked to have been handed a rare stroke of fortune at the hands of a match official when Paul Gascgoine thrust a flailing elbow into the face of Morten Wieghorst when challenging for the ball. Referee John Rowbotham, doubtlessly haunted by his failure to punish similar indiscretions by Gascgoine the season previous during an ill-tempered Rangers-Aberdeen game took immediate action and a red card was flashed under the floodlights. Despite the man advantage, it was Rangers who took the lead through their Italian striker Marco Negri. In his debut season he was, at that time single-handedly destroying every goalscoring record in the league and drilled a left foot shot past Gould at his near post to deflate the expectant home crowd.
Again it seemed as though the game and the season were slipping away as three consecutive defeats, including home and away losses to Rangers would surely be the nail in the coffin of Celtic’s season, as the away support loudly proclaimed that they were on course for ten in a row. However, a critical psychological victory, and a precious point were plundered deep, deep into stoppage time as Celtic won a corner and Alan Stubbs climbed unmarked at the back post to direct a downward header firmly past a static Andy Goram. The Celtic support were so stunned into momentary disbelief that TV microphones actually captured the triumphant ‘yes!’ of the player before the stands erupted in celebration. It wasn’t appreciated at the time, but it was to be a key turning point in the season.
The League Cup campaign came to a triumphant conclusion at the end of November, at Ibrox of all places as a decent Dundee United side were easily overturned 3-0 through goals by Rieper, Larsson and Burley. From the modern perspective it’s difficult to appreciate the importance of the League Cup victory, and the impetus it gave to the remainder of the season. The rapidly-bonding squad lifted a trophy together, and the on-pitch celebrations to the strains of ‘Roll With It’ by Oasis showed that they had gained that crucial winning feeling and were hungry to experience it again.
A tale of two strikers
The month of December was to prove critically important for two very different reasons for two very different strikers, which was to ultimately have a critical outcome on the destination of the championship. Firstly Norwegian international striker Harald Brattbakk arrived from Rosenborg boasting impeccable scoring credentials, in his final game scoring a Champions League winner against Real Madrid. He was to prove an unusual and enigmatic character, gifted with blistering pace but finishing skills which swung from the sublime to the ridiculous from minute to minute, which, combined with the off-field appearance and persona of a trainee accountant meant he was far from the stereotypical view of a modern footballer.
Across the city, Rangers summer recruit Marco Negri had spent the first half of the season plundering goals at a rate that suggested his life depended on it – hat-tricks galore, even a five goal single-handed demolition of Dundee United, all ‘celebrated’ with a moody wave to the stand and barely the ghost of a smile. Nonetheless, as his clinical strike at Celtic Park had shown, he was a finisher of considerable ability and looked set to smash every scoring record available. That is until he had a game of squash with his fellow Italian team mate Sergio Porrini (ironically late of the Juventus team beaten by Lambert’s Dortmund). Legend has it that Negri obtained an eye injury from an errant squash ball and his season, and eventually his Rangers career disintegrated. Having amassed an incredible 33 goals by Christmas, he scored only once more in the second half of the season before falling out of favour and vanishing into the netherworld of Rangers’ reserves for the remainder of his contract.
With hindsight it seems a critical swing but at the time it went unappreciated; Celtic secured the services of the man who would ultimately clinch the title while Rangers lost their leading goalscorer who, as it was to become apparent, had been compensating for the shortcomings of an ageing Rangers side.
The other main surprise of the 97-98 season was the emergence of Hearts as an increasingly credible challenger under Jim Jeffries; a defence built on Davie Weir and a young Paul Ritchie, a midfield prompted by an Indian Summer-Steve ‘Baggio’ Fulton and Colin Cameron and an attack fronted by Stephane Adam and pre-Rangers Neil McCann. By the turn of the year they remained firmly in contention and if anything were beginning to look more consistent than the struggling Glasgow giants. Their visit to Parkhead in mid-December was a taut contest every bit as keenly contested as an Old Firm game, and in another critical result, saw Celtic secure the three points through a late goal by Craig Burley, which was to be another touchstone result in a crucial season.
A hapless Hibs side were routed 5-0 over the festive period before a team minus the injured Larsson made their third trip to McDiarmid Park of the season, returning empty handed for the first time after a 0-1 reverse; hardly the ideal preparation for the New Year Old Firm fixture, with the media declaring for weeks that recent history proved that the winner of the New Year Old Firm game would go on to win the title, fanning the flames of an already incendiary season.
The game was to be arguably the highlight of the season in many regards, as a near-decade long hoodoo was at long last put to rest, and Jansen’s side recorded their only victory over Rangers. The Dutchman also recorded something of a personal tactical masterstroke, as his deployment of the hitherto popular-but-erratic cult figure of Enrico Annoni as a man marker against Brian Laudrup saw the Dane nullified and Rangers neutered as an attacking force.
Nonetheless, the first half was goalless as Goram, as seemed to be invincible, producing a string of fine saves to deny Celtic and Brattbakk in particular. For a time it seemed as though he would again rescue a point for the visitors in the face of a superior attacking force, but that was until the deadlock was finally broken when Craig Burley received a pass on the edge of the box, turned his defender and, as he did so crucially so often that season, finished with aplomb to give Celtic the lead. Rangers threw on Gascgoine as a sub to rescue the game, and with Lambert assigned to man-mark him it was a rare dereliction of duty by Lambert that was to secure the three points in spectacular fashion. Lambert himself later admitted that by rights he should have been nowhere near the edge of the Rangers penalty area when the ball was played back to him; his tactical slip was the farthest thing from his mind as he hammered his first goal for the club high past the dive of the despairing Goram, to spark scenes of euphoric celebration in the stands and secure a famous 2-0 win. It was the first time that long and nervous season that many fans genuinely began to believe, rather than simply hope, that the Rangers juggernaut could be halted. (Match page link)
As was the course with that season, triumph tended to be followed if not by disaster then certainly by disappointment as a trip to a quagmire Fir Park saw old Bhoy Willie Falconer head the home side into an unlikely lead, before Lambert – if anything bettered his Rangers goal – scored with an astonishing 30-yard screamer. Two points were squandered though, when substitute Darren Jackson hit a late penalty wide.
The league campaign waged on as a three-way contest between the Old Firm and Jeffries’ enterprising Hearts side, with a trip to Tynecastle scheduled for early February. It was a controversial fixture scarred by repeated unsuccessful penalty claims, a dubiously disallowed goal and with Celtic leading through a Jackie McNamara strike, Hearts eventually securing an unlikely point deep, deep into stoppage time, which was all the more frustrating with Rangers having drawn 1-1 at home with Dunfermline the day beforehand. The referee at Tynecastle was a certain Bobby Tait, in his final season, who would go on to play a further significant role in the twisting title race.
The Ides of March as the nerves begin to fray
Another psychological barrier appeared to be crossed in March when a gritty 1-0 success at Pittodrie was secured, largely on the basis of an outstanding display by Gould. Aberdeen turned in an uncharacteristically strong showing, bombarding the Celtic goal, only to be frustrated by the journeyman goalkeeper in the form of his life, before a critical win was achieved when Burley converted a penalty. That good work seemed to be undone with the visit of Hearts a week later returning a frustrating 0-0 draw. Controversially again under the stewardship of Mr Tait, a game featuring multiple substitutions and several lengthy stoppages was halted goalless after less than a minute of injury time.
As ‘the business end’ of the season approached, the pressure was mounting around Celtic Park as rumours persisted of a personality clash between Jansen and Jock Brown and every sequence of promising results appeared to be followed by a stumble. Thankfully the misfiring, ageing Rangers side, shorn of Negri’s goal output post-Christmas, and then of Gascgoine’s temperamental genius when he was sold to Middlesbrough were unable to maintain the consistency of old, which was enough to ensure that Celtic’s mistakes were not too harshly punished, especially as Hearts eventually began to run out of steam as spring time approached and their thin squad began to buckle.
Progress in the Scottish Cup coincided with the final Old Firm game of the season to produce the second Old Firm double header of the season; firstly the Cup semi-final played at Parkhead as an ostensibly ‘neutral’ venue, to be followed a week later by the league encounter at Ibrox. Seven days to potentially shape the outcome of the season, the championship and the small matter of ten in a row.
Both games were disastrous from a Celtic perspective; a strong start in the cup tie faded, McCoist was allowed to head in his final Old Firm goal (equalling Bobby Lennox’s record in the progress unfortunately) before Jorg Albertz was permitted to score an outrageous individual goal, running at a retreating defence not dissimilar to the late equaliser lost to Liverpool’s Steve McManaman in that epic UEFA Cup tie the previous September. A late consolation by Burley was to no avail. The league game followed a similarly depressing pattern – Jonas Thern volleyed Rangers in front before Albertz was allowed to repeat his solo goal virtually step for step. It looked as though the campaign that had carried such promise now stood on the brink of collapse as the media pronounced a critical turning point in the league race. Things looked bleak.
At least a win had been secured midweek at Rugby Park – 2-1 via a Larsson header and a late winner by Simon Donnelly but the advantage lay with Rangers now. Celtic had a home fixture against struggling Motherwell the following Saturday with Rangers to visit Pittodrie the following day for the TV game.
Despite the recent jitters, a handsome 4-1 win was racked up thanks to doubles from Burley and Donnelly, though the press preferred to focus on the dropping of Brattbakk, who had been unable to find the consistency he enjoyed at Rosenborg. Incredibly though, the pendulum appeared to swing back Celtic’s way when a Stephen Glass header gave the Dons a 1-0 win against Rangers and the previous damage inflicted appeared to be undone.
The optimism lasted for just a week when both Celtic and Rangers were to face off against the two Edinburgh sides; relegation-haunted Hibs who had never again reached the heights of their opening day triumph against Celtic visiting the East End while Rangers had the seemingly more challenging visit to Tynecastle ahead. Despite Hibs lowly league position, they secured a battling 0-0 draw exploiting the lack of firepower from the home side, while Rangers extinguished the stuttering challenge from Hearts with a comfortable 3-0 away win.
There were just two games left and the following round of fixtures included Rangers final home league game of the season, against Kilmarnock on the Saturday, while Celtic would travel to Dunfermline. The title was down to brinksmanship now with minimal margin for error but two sides seemingly incapable of delivering the knock-out punch to eliminate their competitor. The referee for Rangers final home game of the season was appointed, as a mark of respect in his final season, to none other than Mr Bobby Tait.
Celtic fans across the country sat glued to radios as the Rangers game ground onwards, goalless and the prospect of two dropped points that would level the teams. Incredibly, Mr Tait found an inordinate amount of added time and the game ran on into time added on to added time, while fingernails were chewed ravenously in Celtic households everywhere, awaiting the seemingly inevitable injury time goal for Rangers. It was not to be however, and the added time backfired spectacularly as Killie’s Ally Mitchell scored an injury-time winner for the Rugby Park side.
Celtic fans rejoiced, heading to East End Park on the following Sunday for what would surely, finally be a championship party.
The TV cameras were in attendance, East End Park was bathed in glorious sunshine and everything seemed set for the clinching of a first title in a decade. Celtic even got off to the perfect start as Simon Donnelly raced through to thump Celtic into an early lead, but like a golfer with a bad case of ‘the yips’ however, Celtic grew increasingly nervous as the second half wore on. Dunfermline sensed an opportunity, and thousands of hearts sank as Dunfermline’s on-loan striker Craig Falconbridge, looped a header over Jonathan Gould to secure a shattering 1-1 draw, and yet again the opportunity seemed to have been spurned.
Across the line
And so it came down to the final day, May 9th 1998. Celtic were to face the St Johnstone side that had been the springboard to the early season revival but Saints had gone on to enjoy a successful season, beating both Celtic and Rangers at home and eventually securing third place and a position in the UEFA Cup. Rangers were to travel to Tayside to face Dundee United who had enjoyed a relatively poor season finishing in the bottom half of the table.Incredibly, both games were played at 3pm on the Saturday afternoon with no live television coverage (domestically at least), an unthinkable prospect in the modern era, and symptomatic of the amateurism that still shackled the Scottish game.
The day began brightly, with Parkhead bathed in bright if weak sunshine as throngs of nervous fans arrived for the match that would make history for better or for worse. Many a jacket pocket bulged with a transistor radio, anxious for news from Tannadice. Events were, thanks to Bobby Tait and Ally Mitchell, within Celtic’s own destiny; a win of any sorts and the championship was Parkhead-bound. Anything less and would require a further miracle if the unthinkable was to be avoided.
Celtic started brightly, carried by the waves of optimism from the crowd, buoyed by the prospect of securing a comfortable lead, safe in the knowledge that news would travel to Dundee, and for a time it appeared as though that may be the case. Larsson, whose form, along with that of the majority of his team mates had shaded in the second half of the season picked up the ball ten yards inside the St Johnstone half and began running at the defence from the inside left channel. For perhaps the only time in his long and distinguished Celtic career, Larsson cut inside to shoot from outside of the box, and despatched a right foot curling shot swept across the despairing dive of Alan Main and landed spectacularly inside the side netting of the far side of the goal.
The elation was to be short-lived however; news came through that Rangers had taken the lead at Tannadice, and in the manner that had recently afflicted Celtic, the side began to retreat into their shell. Territory was surrendered, possession squandered and slowly St Johnstone began to edge back into the match, ominously as the previously sunny skies turned overcast and the jubilation of the early lead shrank into nervous irritation as the crowd sensed that once again the opportunity might slip through their fingers.
As the interval approached, St Johnstone found space on the left and sent over an inch-perfect cross, arrowed towards the bald head of their Northern Irish international striker – and self-confessed Rangers fan – George O’Boyle. As he rose unchallenged to meet a free header, six yards out with the goal at his mercy, maybe the sudden collective inhalation of breath by 48,000 Celtic supporters somehow changed the trajectory of the ball but incredibly, the header arced over the crossbar and O’Boyle clasped his head in his hands. The Celtic support exchanged nervous glances of relief and concern, fully aware of how narrow the margin between success and failure was, and the half-time whistle came as something of a relief.
The second period continued in the same vein, as an intermittent buzz of rumour and counter-rumour swept the stands as those with radios tried to relay news of the Rangers game; it was definitely 1-0 to them – no wait was it 1-1 or 2-1 to them? Wild stories of sendings off and missed penalties abounded to add to the almost unbearable tension.
With an hour played and little sign that a second goal was coming, Jansen sent on Brattbakk for Donnelly in the hope that his pace and experience could unsettle the St Johnstone back four, a move that was to pay handsome dividends some fifteen minutes later. Boyd won possession in the right back area and burst forward in his trademark leggy stride, evading a challenge before slipping the ball forward to Jackie McNamara just inside the opposition half. McNamara – voted player of the year by his fellow professionals that year – did what he had been doing superbly all season and thundered forward. Brattbakk who, for all his foibles in front of goal was nothing if not an intelligent striker, spotted the surge from McNamara and the gaping hole that appeared between the centre backs.
The following few seconds almost seemed to happen in slow motion, as Brattbakk sprinted towards the space, while McNamara spotted him and squared a fast, flat cut-back towards him. The Norwegian adjusted his stride to run perfectly onto the pass and without breaking step, drilled the ball right-footed high past the despairing left arm of Alan Main.The explosion of relief, joy, jubilation that followed bordered on hysteria, the stands seemed to be alive with movement as bodies lept into the air, fists pumping, strangers hugging, and grown men screamed into thin air as waves of euphoria burst through the ground.
The remainder of the match was played out in a jubilant daze amidst a constant wall of sound from the three sides of the partially-completed Celtic Park. Having played their part in a competitive encounter, the St Johnstone players seemed to accept that the game was over and they sat back to allow the champions and their supporters savour the moment. The roar of joy at the final whistle almost matched that at the goals as relief and joy in massive but equal measures swept through the crowd. (Match Page)
‘The 10’ had been stopped at last and for the first time in the lifetime of many young supporters, the championship would be coming back to Celtic Park.
The moment was perfectly summed up in a soundbite by BBC Radio 5 broadcaster Roddy Forsyth; “Scarves, banners, jerseys, green and white hoops raised in triumph. It may not have been a vintage championship but believe me it will taste as sweet to these Celtic supporters as any they have ever secured because they have stopped Rangers from taking away the history book record of ten in a row. And perhaps the best tribute should be paid by simply listening for a few seconds to the Celtic fans singing their beloved anthem." as the Celtic fans belted out You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Celtic flew to Lisbon three days later to play Sporting Lisbon in a friendly, a long-standing contractual agreement arranged as part of the Jorge Cadete transfer and what should have been a post-season jolly-up for the new champions turned sour as Jansen announced immediately after the 2-1 defeat that he would be leaving the club, and after just a few short days of celebration, the media were once again able to feast on headlines of Celtic in ‘crisis’ and the search for a new manager began anew.
The victory was only able to be savoured for an impossibly short time, but the longer-term significance of the achievement would never be lost; the 10 had been averted, and the beast had at last been slain.
{Article by MikeBhoy of KDS forum}
Quotes
"The only thing they should discuss [in Scotland] is how long they're going to play the League each year before giving the Championship trophy to Rangers."
Ron Dixon (Dundee Chairman), Feb 1998, Celtic won the league 3mths later under Wim Jansen
Links
Articles
Key Matches
- League Cup: Celtic 3-0 Dundee Utd Celtic win the League Cup
- SPL: Celtic 2-0 Rangers, 2 January 1998 The victory that turned our season to the fightback for one-in-a-row
- SPL: Celtic 2-0 St Johnstone, 9 May 1998 Stopping the Huns' 10-in-a-row 1998