Waterloo - 1999

[Uilleam 5,367]

Ewing Grahame talks to Alan Stubbs and Colin Hendry about the !999 drubbing we gave them at the piggery to win the League. 

 

Stubbs' comments are straight from the fhilth's fhantasy fhootball playbook, as you might expect, and display no perspective whatsoever. 

 

Those of Hendry are fair, balanced, honest, and in comparison to those of the former scumhut skipper, positively statesmanlike.

 

 

Late kick-off in 1999 Celtic v Rangers game was recipe for disaster

Ewing Grahame

Friday May 01 2020, 12.01am, The Times

 

Crowd trouble and unpleasant scenes at Old Firm matches are hardly a modern phenomenon. Back in 1909, the Scottish Cup was withheld after a final replay between the pair ended with fans invading the pitch, pulling up the goalposts and smashing the crossbar. That was just for starters. They also set fire to wooden crash barriers as well as every turnstile at Hampden and fought with a 300-strong police force, including some on horseback

The reason for the riot? After an initial 2-2 draw, the replay finished at 1-1 after 90 minutes and, when it became apparent that extra-time would not be played to decide the destination of the trophy, both sets of supporters, who felt they were being fleeced by the Scottish Football Association into buying tickets for a third game, took matters into their own hands.

What happened when Rangers arrived at Celtic Park on May 2, 1999, was not as destructive but it still sent shock waves through armchair fans in 26 countries. The febrile climate inside the stadium was exacerbated by the decision to permit a 6.05pm kick-off, which allowed supporters plenty of time to imbibe, not wisely but rather too well.

The game’s first foul came after 22 seconds and was followed by another inside the opening minute, setting the tone for what was to follow. Neil McCann gave Rangers, requiring three points to secure the Scottish Premier League title, the lead with a superb goal in the 12th minute but the first flashpoint came 19 minutes later when the already-booked Celtic full back Stéphane Mahé, who fouled McCann, was shown a second yellow card by referee Hugh Dallas.

 

Alan Stubbs (Celtic defender) It wasn’t a nice game to play in. Everyone realised the enormity of what was at stake and the atmosphere was toxic, the most intense I ever experienced.

 

Colin Hendry (Rangers defender) Really? I never felt that way at all. It genuinely didn’t come across at all. We were very professional and all we were concerned about was our own supporters, not Celtic’s, we just shut them out. We were focused on getting a result for our fans.

 

The loss of Mahé was bad enough but Celtic fell further behind on the stroke of half-time. Dallas was struck by a coin thrown by a Celtic supporter after he had awarded a hotly disputed free kick to the visitors and required treatment for a head wound. When the set piece was taken, he immediately awarded a penalty following a tussle between home midfielder Vidar Riseth and Tony Vidmar.

 

AS It’s important in these type of affairs that the referee doesn’t get caught up in the occasion. There’s a balance between letting the game flow and not allowing people to overstep the mark but that was a stop-start game.

Common sense dictates that, in a match of that importance, a certain leeway should prevail. You can’t have someone in charge who wants to be the centre of attention.

There was a sense that we weren’t getting our share of the breaks and that we were on the wrong side of decisions more often that not. Referees can only give what they see but, while I’d never condone fans who come on the pitch or throw missiles, I tend to side with those who were unhappy, especially when it was obvious that fouls were being awarded which weren’t fouls. Stéphane’s second yellow card was also harsh.

You need refs to be strong in those situations and not let themselves be influenced by what’s happening in the stands. You’d like to think he wasn’t affected by the coin incident but emotion has to have played a part in the penalty decision. It was a soft award and you can’t guarantee that what had happened immediately prior to that wasn’t preying on his mind.

If I’d been fouled by an opponent and the chance came to get them back straight away then I would carry the emotion from that first foul into the next challenge: that’s human nature.

 

CH It [the penalty award] was soft. In fact, it was the sort of wrestling at a set piece that would be punished nowadays but you tended to get away with back then.

 

Any slim hope Celtic had of salvaging something from the game disappeared when McCann scored an excellent solo goal 14 minutes from time.

 

CH He was flying at the time, for Rangers and for Scotland. His great pace was so effective for us after Celtic went down to ten men and he was clever enough to exploit the gaps that were left.

Neil’s finish for his second goal was really impressive in the circumstances because he had a long time to think about it but he kept his cool in the heat of the moment.

 

Dallas then ordered off the Rangers striker Rod Wallace in the 86th minute, an over-reaction by the official to the latter squaring up to Riseth, who was merely cautioned.

 

CH That was really harsh and I think he only sent Rod off to even things up because the game had been so one-sided.

 

Riseth was then dismissed for a dangerous lunge at Claudio Reyna in stoppage time.

 

AS Vidar was normally a calm player but the red mist had come down by then and he deserved to go. The thing is that I’d always regarded Hugh Dallas as being very competent up until then but I suppose everyone has a bad night.

 

CH We went back to Ibrox afterwards and toasted our win but we didn’t hang around for long. I was due to have an operation on a groin problem two days later plus my wife was expecting at the time so I would have left early anyway.

Being honest, though, it was more satisfying to have clinched the league at Parkhead than it would have been at home because that had never happened before. We went there to make a massive piece of history and to do it with 85 per cent of the crowd baying for your blood was special.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/late-kick-off-in-1999-celtic-v-rangers-game-was-recipe-for-disaster-bnm9qtjzv

Edited May 1, 2020 by Uilleam