OLD FIRM SHOWDOWN
Stark knows only too well what being a loser is like in the Old Firm
All the latest ahead of today’s titanic title tussle
THE tears flowed at Hampden, Rangers players rendered bereft by the cruelty of it all. Ryan Jack, James Tavernier and Connor Goldson were among those visibly drained and devastated by dominating Celtic yet tasting bitter defeat.
An ex-Celtic player and assistant manager was able to empathise as he watched.
Billy Stark had been that man.
Emotions, he confesses, got the better of him after returning from serious injury to make the 1990 Scottish Cup Final only to suffer extra time and a 9-8 penalty-kicks defeat to Aberdeen.
That unmasked despair was far from the only knowing note taken by Stark when reflecting on the recent Betfred Cup Final.
There were echoes of the pained pursuit of Rangers undertaken by the Celtic team steered by he and Tommy Burns in the mid-1990s.
The club’s medical staff were overrun not by wear-and-tear injuries as those frenetic title-race seasons raged on but by complaints from staff and players that they had constantly banged their heads against a brick wall.
Celtic’s smash-and-grab win three weeks ago was redolent of a few robberies staged by Walter Smith’s resilient Rangers in Old Firm action as they ranged in on Nine in a Row.
The serial winners always found a way to sicken Celtic when it mattered, irrespective of how well the chasers performed.
Stark warns, therefore, as time ticks down on remaining chances to derail the Celtic juggernaut, that Rangers cannot afford to start a collection of sob stories.
Today, Celtic Park would be the perfect platform for Steven Gerrard’s progressive side to nip that notion in the bud and seal the signature Old Firm win that just never fell for Burns and Stark.
Celtic got one under Wim Jansen in January 1998, a 2-0 New Year derby victory on the way to stopping 10 in a Row.
All too late for Burns, then, who had been sacked eight months earlier by Fergus McCann after a Scottish Cup semifinal defeat to Falkirk with Rangers on the brink of crown No9.
‘When the other team are winners, used to it and have momentum, it just seems there’s always something going against you,’ recalled Stark.
‘For ourselves, it could have been an Andy Goram save, a big offside decision, a missed chance.
‘We saw a bit of that in the Betfred Cup Final. Whether we see it over a longer period for Rangers, that remains to be seen.
‘To play as well as Rangers did at Hampden, you’d quite rightly feel they should have won. But they didn’t. ‘You can’t underplay that psychological aspect because I think you have to overcome that.’ Rangers scored two impressive Old Firm league wins last season. So did Celtic in 1994/95 in an otherwise disheartening season of playing home games at Hampden and finishing fourth.
So a 2-0 success at Ibrox in September and 3-0 win in a May dead rubber were irrelevant in title terms in the first season for Burns.
‘Rangers rested a few players for the last game, so we didn’t get carried away with that,’ recalled Stark.
‘Many circumstances made it very difficult that year, there was a lot of change. But the momentum had started. The rest of the league campaign was the problem for us.’
What a contrast the following season. Inspired by the striker find of Pierre van Hooijdonk, Celtic lost just once — 2-0 to Rangers in September — in 36 top-flight games.
Yet they were knocked out of both cup competitions by their rivals and finished runners-up in the league.
Rangers’ head-to-head grip over their rivals became a stranglehold — tightened by a pair of gloves owned by the man they called ‘The Goalie’.
It was Barry Ferguson who gave a nod to one of the prevailing themes from the era in his newspaper column the day after Christopher Jullien’s goal snared Celtic the first trophy of the season and their 10th consecutive one.
The ex-Ibrox skipper claimed Fraser Forster had broken his heart — a phrase plucked from the late Celtic manager Burns.
With soul-baring honesty and no shortage of humour, Burns famously found it within his exasperated state following the scoreless New Year of 1996 derby to declare: ‘Andy Goram broke my heart’ would be etched on his tombstone.
Phenomenal saves from Phil
O’Donnell and Van Hooijdonk were just part of Goram’s repertoire that night. Yet they weren’t rated best of the season by the man himself.
That honour went to the miracle point-blank stop from a Van Hooijdonk volley in a 3-3 thriller at Ibrox two months previously.
‘Goram wasn’t tall but was so powerful, had great reflexes and incredible reading of the situations required of him,’ recalled Stark.
‘That save against Van Hooijdonk is talked about but one I will never forget is from O’Donnell into the Rangers end in the 0-0 at New Year — because we were right behind it in the dugout.
‘How Goram managed to get down and touch it round the post was phenomenal. We barely did anything wrong. And Tam, a huge personality and emotional guy, summed it up. I wouldn’t have thought to say that.
‘But that’s just Tam. So witty and humorous. To give out a line like that, he said it from the heart and was giving Goram great praise. Even By Fraser Mackie
When the other team are winners, it always just seems to go against you
in the heat of the Old Firm, he could be generous in his evaluation.
‘I don’t think that minute he thought: “I’m defeated, I’m broken”. Knowing Tam, it made him more determined.’
No more determined than Goram, however. After securing eight titles, Rangers romped to their ninth in 1996/97 with victories in all four Old Firm clashes.
Celtic were a swashbuckling unit against the rest with van Hooijdonk, Jorge Cadete and Paolo di Canio entertaining the nation. Up against Goram, Richard Gough, John Brown and company, the fun stopped.
Gough and Paul Gascoigne scored to secure the September win at Ibrox.
November’s renewal was one of the craziest, Rangers somehow clinging on to a Brian Laudrup seventh-minute lead to prevail.
Gazza was denied from the spot by Stewart Kerr, so had Goram to thank for bailing him out with a penalty stop from old foe Van Hooijdonk in the dying minutes.
By New Year, Rangers were struck by an illness crisis yet brought the awkward Erik Bo Anderson off the bench to win 3-1 after a Cadete goal was wrongly ruled out for offside.
In March, the uglier the better for Rangers at Parkhead. A horrible day, untidy Laudrup goal, Mark Hateley sent off on his comeback from QPR and Andy Dibble in from nowhere for a clean sheet.
It summed up Celtic’s plight. Stark recalled: ‘Billed as The Game Of The Century, I remember Tam saying to Paul Cooney on Radio Clyde that this was the only country in the world where the manager had to calm the media down.
‘The weather was awful and the game was a shocker. The team that were winning trophies found that wee bit, you can’t explain it.
‘Over a long period of time, that
had happened to us.
‘Every human being is different and some are more resilient than others but the capacity was there to feel sorry for ourselves.
‘I’d be lying if I said there weren’t moments through it all when we thought: What more can we do?
‘But the job of management is that you can’t let players see that.
‘If that’s right after the game in terms of what you say and how your body language is, certainly when you come in the next day you need to bounce in the door to make sure people know you’re ready to go again.
‘But it does have an effect on you. We didn’t dominate every single game but, over the piece, people would say Celtic played good football and often didn’t do a lot wrong.’
Rangers now have Fraser Forster to beat and how vital it could prove for Rangers down the stretch for
Alfredo Morelos to slay his Celtic scoring jinx this afternoon against the giant Hampden nemesis.
‘I think that psychological factor of the whole picture can be magnified in this Morelos v Forster battle — or Morelos v Celtic, really, since he signed,’ suggested Stark.
‘I’m sure he was desperate to take the penalty in the Betfred because in one go — a cold, clinical penalty — he could have put it all to bed.
‘I’m not sure him taking it was a great idea, though. Forster had made the saves against him in the game, Morelos (right) had never scored against Celtic.
‘Why put him on the spot for that huge moment? I’m sure they’d change that if they could. Going forward, that must be a factor in his head.
‘To be fair, you’ve got to give him lots of credit scoring in the next game. Ally McCoist had that about him — missed chances throughout his career but came back for so much more and scored time and again.
‘It’s a good sign for Morelos against Young Boys that he was so cool. I don’t feel he’s frozen or looks a bag of nerves when getting a chance.
‘Those were good saves from Forster and Morelos hasn’t done a hell of a lot wrong.’
Flipping the psychological issue, Stark wonders if Celtic will simply have grown in confidence from fending off such an excellent effort from Rangers.
Odsonne Edouard is back starting and scoring after being tentatively introduced off the bench on December 8 while nursing an injury.
Stark said: ‘Might Celtic get something from thinking of Rangers: Is that their best shot? There has to be a wee element of that.
‘I don’t think Rangers dominated in their two league wins at Ibrox last season as much as they did at Hampden — yet Celtic got the upper hand in the end.
‘Before the game, Rangers see Lewis Morgan playing centreforward. It’s human nature to think: You beauty, Edouard isn’t playing. ‘So when Edouard came on, you could feel a wee difference. ‘Rangers’ centre-backs probably had a wee think too. The focal point was back on to get Celtic up the park with physicality, touch and goal threat. ‘They will have to cope with him again at Celtic Park. With that in mind, this is a big hurdle for Rangers to try and come away with a win.’
In one go — a cold, clinical penalty — Morelos could have put the doubts to bed