SPLASH HIT
Twenty years on, Riseth talks about his role in helping Dalglish’s Celtic win League Cup... after risking it all going white-water rafting!
IT was the solitary splash of success in a season otherwise awash with anguish for Celtic.
Barely a month after super Caley went ballistic to end the tenure of John Barnes, the Parkhead side found themselves celebrating the acquisition of a much-needed trophy at Hampden.
For Kenny Dalglish, landing the League Cup on the sunny afternoon of March 19, 2000 gave a silver lining to his short spell as interim manager. For some of the players, today’s 20th anniversary of the 2-0 win over Aberdeen brings an opportunity to reflect on a joyful day laced with just enough strangeness to make it stick in the memory banks.
Vidar Riseth could vouch for that. Picked at right-back, the Norwegian defender surprisingly found himself in the centre-forward position to swing his left foot at a Morten Wieghorst cross.
A somewhat scuffed shot scuttled beyond Jim Leighton to provide the Parkhead side with a 15th-minute lead they never really looked like losing.
If that qualified as an unusual interlude on its own, it was nothing in comparison to the headlines generated by Riseth’s preparations for the match.
Granted time off by Dalglish, he opted against putting his feet up on the sofa or teeing up at a golf course. No, white-water rafting in the Highlands was more his style.
This eyebrow-raising expedition was captured for public consumption in the pages of a tabloid, which questioned whether Riseth should be apparently risking injury in a reckless approach to a season-saving assignment.
Dalglish, however, seemingly found the whole caper more amusing than infuriating. Standing by Riseth both in private and in public, his faith was repaid in the best possible manner.
‘They say Norwegian people are born with skis on their legs,’ explained a laughing Riseth to
Sportsmail.
‘As soon as you can walk, you start to ski. Being in the mountains, rafting and everything else, is normal in Norway.
‘We had a few days off before the final. I had a good friend with me at the time and I said to him that I wanted to go to the mountains and go rafting. He was like: “Rafting?” “Yeah, rafting.” “Okay then, let’s do it.”
‘We got up to the place to make the booking. I went to the toilet, but when I came back, I see the guy running. I think maybe he phoned up the newspaper.
‘We said we were ready to go, but he was like: “No, no, you must have your coffee, take your time.” He wanted us to wait and wait.
‘Now I guess he was waiting to make sure the journalists could find the best spot. When we came down the river, they could try and get a picture where there is a lot of water and we had to jump up with the boat.
‘It wasn’t scary or dangerous. Just something I’d done maybe 50 or 100 times before.
‘But there it was in the paper the next day. So I go to training and some of the guys are like: “What have you done? You’ve been rafting? You can’t do that before a cup final!”
‘Kenny told me to go into his office. He asked if I had done it. He listened and said it was good I had been so honest with him.
‘He told me: “Look, this is the kind of sport we don’t normally do. But you are the viking from Norway who knows these things, so you can. But the rest of the players? No!”
‘It was a great response. And he said the same when we went to do the press conference. It was all good fun, really.’
Fun wasn’t often on the agenda for Celtic that season. Rangers were spending lavishly to fund
Dick Advocaat’s ambitions and began to stretch their lead in the league as the new millennium dawned.
Appointed the previous summer, Barnes was struggling in his first managerial job. Then came the infamous Scottish Cup thirdround defeat to Inverness that sealed his fate.
Director of football Dalglish duly stepped in as caretaker when his old Liverpool team-mate was sacked.
‘Before Kenny took over, it was a really difficult time,’ recalled Riseth (right). ‘We played a system under John that came from the old days at Liverpool when they played onetouch football.
‘He bought good players, like Eyal Berkovic and others. But to play that way in Scotland is difficult because the tempo is so high.
‘It wasn’t the right system. We had lots of good players but still we lost games.
‘When Kenny took over, he came into the dressing room and said it was a sad day because John had to go. He told us he was taking charge until the club could find a new coach. From that day, the training was better and things felt much more positive.’ The League Cup offered a collective shot at some kind of salvation. Aberdeen had beaten Rangers at the quarter-final stage, but couldn’t trouble the other half of the Old Firm when it came to the decisive 90 minutes. Tommy Johnson doubled Celtic’s lead before Riseth’s fellow Norwegian, Thomas Solberg, was ordered off for a second booking to extinguish any hope of an unlikely comeback by Ebbe Skovdahl’s team. ‘That cup became so important to us,’ admitted Riseth. ‘Not only for the club and the players, but also the fans. ‘Before the final, the fans came to the training ground and were really emphasising that we had to win this game. ‘So we felt the pressure. Plus we were missing a few players who were out due to injury. Henrik Larsson being the main one.
‘It was a difficult time but we played well. It was crazy after the game, the best party I ever went to. You could see how much it meant.
‘We went back to Celtic Park to meet the fans. It was unbelievable how many had come there from Hampden.
‘After that, we went out to celebrate with our families. It was really good.’
The victory led to calls for Dalglish to take over as manager on a permanent basis. They were quietened when Celtic lost 4-0 at Ibrox seven days later, but Riseth felt the appointment was never on the cards.
‘From day one, Kenny said even if he won all the games, it wouldn’t change his decision,’ he said. ‘He wasn’t going to be the new coach. He never changed. He was clear about that.
‘The club were looking everywhere and eventually got Martin O’Neill, which was obviously a great signing.’
By the time O’Neill’s tenure was properly up and running, Riseth had been sold to 1860 Munich after expressing a desire to continue his career in either Germany or England.
Now 47, he handles sponsorship for a major Norwegian retailer as well as running his own construction company. Like everyone else, he is waiting to assess the length and impact of the coronavirus crisis.
‘It’s good to look back on my time at Celtic,’ said Riseth, capped 52 times for Norway. ‘Playing right-back and scoring in a final at Hampden is always going to be a happy memory.’