O’Neill reflects on Old Firm debut that changed everything
AT THE risk of inviting accusations of over- simplification, Celtic’s 6- 2 win over Rangers at Celtic Park 20 years ago today was the power shift between the rivals in microcosm.
Dick Advocaat’s imperious Rangers side, fresh on the back of a double winning season and a league title won by a whopping 21- point margin, never truly recovered from that whirlwind afternoon in the East End that confirmed Celtic as a different beast under the tutelage of Martin O’Neill.
The Irishman was only months into his tenure and had yet to bring in many of the players who would become integral to his Celtic era. There was no Neil Lennon, no Alan Thompson, no Didier Agathe, no Bobo Balde, no John Hartson for his first introduction to the Old Firm derby.
Instead, the spine of the 6- 2 team were those who had been beleaguered and humiliated after a catalogue of insipid results that had come on the back of a truly woeful decade. Chris Sutton and Joos Valgaeren were the only two new arrivals yet the difference in attitude was exposed in a startling opening 15 minutes.
By that point, goals from Sutton, Stiliyan Petrov and Paul Lambert had almost lifted the roof off Celtic Park, with O’Neill recalling just how surreal his first experience of the derby was.
“It is a cliche but people tell you that you don’t know what you are walking into in this particular fixture and I have to say that I couldn’t have scripted a better start,” he said. “It was breathtaking stuff.
“Chris Sutton was a player I felt always had the potential to be important for us but that day you really saw it. He went on to be a sensational signing and a really excellent partner for Henrik Larsson but he got us off to a flier and it just went from there. It was a remarkable afternoon.
“So many of these players who had lost so much confidence were just revitalised. You had Stan Petrov and Bobby Petta just flying and that result, that game, just fed into the feeling that this was a new time.
“You cannot possibly overplay what that result did for them.”
Larsson’s audacious chip over Stefan Klos remains the iconic moment of that afternoon – but the game itself was massive in embedding a sense of belief and confidence within a side who had lost all sense of identity, according to O’Neill.
Prior to O’Neill’s arrival, Celtic had won three titles in 18 years. The Irishman delivered the club’s first treble for 32 years in his inaugural season and went on to win three titles, three Scottish Cups and a League Cup.
There might have been more silverware: the 2003 title was lost by a single goal, the 2005 title conceded on the final day by one point to goals scored in the final five minutes. But that win over rivals Rangers was “seismic” in setting the foundations for what followed. Having been humiliated 4- 0 by Rangers in the previous meeting between the teams at Ibrox in March 2000 – seven of the starting XI that day also started in the 6- 2 game – the win was a portent of what was to come.
“Psychologically it was massive for us,” said O’Neill.
“This was a team of players who had lost the previous league title by 21 points. We had brought in a few players – Chris had come in, Joos too – but at that point the spine of the team was still from the precious campaign. The likes of Neil [ Lennon] and Alan [ Thompson] and Didier [ Agathe] all arrived later that season. For those players to go out and win the way they did just gave everyone the most enormous lift. It did
feel like a turning point. It gave the club, it gave the players and it gave the supporters a real sense that this wasn’t just a good start to the season. It was a real springboard moment.
“And you have to remember, too, just how strong that Rangers team was under Dick Advocaat. They had been the dominant force in the country and there were a team full of experienced international players.”
When the tables were turned in November as Advocaat’s side exacted a form of revenge on home soil, O’Neill acknowledged that he feared for the impact it might have left on a team still in the embryonic stages of development. That 5- 1 defeat to Rangers was followed by a scoreless midweek draw at Easter Road and was the first real week of adversity for O’Neill’s team.
“That was when you sensed the fragility of what we were doing,” said O’Neill. “A lot of the players had been through the very difficult times at Celtic and had watched Rangers win everything.
“If I remember correctly we then followed that up with a 0- 0 draw at Easter Road. I always remember in the aftermath of that game against Hibs saying that I thought it could prove to be an important point in the course of the season and, of course, there was a fair bit of scoffing at that.
“We then did not lose another domestic game that season until the league had been won. It wasn’t too shabby at all.”
Nor what followed.