WHEN Harald Brattbakk scored the second goal against St Johnstone at Celtic Park at the start of May 1998 the place erupted with joy and relief. The tension the previous Sunday at Dunfermline when Celtic let slip a slender lead that would have won the league and stopped the ten was almost unbearable and we knew as we exited East End Park after that late equaliser from Craig Faulconbridge that it was going to the wire – St Johnstone at Celtic Park on Saturday 9 May 1998 – where we just had to win to ensure that we stopped Ten in a Row.

When Sandman was interviewed by Celtic’s American blogger Larry Cafiero on The Celtic Star the other day the Definitive Ratings guru didn’t hesitate to name this game as his highlight watching Celtic. It’s well worth a read that interview.

If you are too young to remember what that season was like then you are in for a surprise at what’s ahead between now and May, so fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a tense bumpy ride, as the pressure mounts expect set-backs for both sides – the team chasing Nine in a Row and the the one trying to stop us and win their first ever trophy.

And if you think that winning Nine will be tough, wait until we get to Ten!

Yesterday the Norwegian goalscorer was back in Glasgow to promote the Premier TV’s broadcast of the Scottish Cup tie on Saturday early evening at Firhill between Partick Thistle and Celtic.

Inevitably he got talking about that day when we stopped the Ten and he made a point that the media will love but he’s probably got wrong. Harald reckons it’s harder to win ten than it is to stop and gives his reasons why. That comes from his own experience of course as a Celtic player who stopped Rangers winning Ten in a Row. He probably reckons that the Celtic players handled the intense pressure that season better than the players playing for the old Ibrox club, which is of course no-more.

However he hasn’t considered the intense pressure on the current Rangers and the players and officials that they have to win their first ever trophy since founding father Charles Green picked up the assets from ashes in the summer of 2012 to start afresh in the old Third Division of Scottish football.

They have reached two Cup Finals – in the Scottish Cup against Hibs in 2016 and the League Cup against Celtic in December 2019 – and lost both. Against Hibs they were 2-1 up going into the last ten minutes and list 3-2 while against Celtic they played well but couldn’t get anything past Fraser Forster who even saved a penalty.

In their first final defeat their fans rioted, in the second their players sat on the pitch and cried their eyes out. The pressure as Celtic have won all ten trophies available since their journey found them reaching the Premiership in August 2016 is intense and increasing all the time.

And what has always loomed for their support over their years post liquidation, in the distance but getting ever closer, is the dreadful prospect (for them) of Celtic winning Ten in a Row.

That pressure which has mounted up since the events of 2012 is the reason Harald has got this one wrong. There is pressure on Celtic but considerably more in the Rangers and if the team with the most pressure fails – as he argues – then Celtic will reach both Nine AND TEN IN A ROW!

These day Harald is an airline pilot. He’ll know a thing or two about turbulence and what we know for sure is that we are in for a bumpy ride. But we’ll get there and it will be worth it!

Here’s what the bold Harald has been saying to the Scottish Media, as reported by Scottish Sun.

HARALD BRATTBAKK ON TEN IN A ROW

“The last two weeks before the last game of the season, I realised this was really, really big. But before that, I didn’t really take the pressure in too much. The local guys were thinking about that more than me.

“I was a foreigner and didn’t really know Celtic’s history that well. I didn’t really know how big the club was. I had to be told by everyone all the time that this was really what mattered that year.

“Is the pressure on the current team not to let the ten slip even greater than what we faced? Definitely. I think the pressure of winning ten-in-a-row is bigger than stopping it. When you have to win ten titles, you have to be good every season. If you have to stop it you only have to be good for one.

“So the pressure is on but Celtic have been winning for so long and have experience.

“All of a sudden (the) Rangers are coming and are only two points behind with an extra game. There are a lot of points to play for so it will be a really exciting run-in.

“Winning the title with Celtic was the most important thing for me. But for the rest of the green part of the city it was about stopping ten in a row.

“I’m still baffled by how big it was to stop 10 in a row. But then when you know the rivalry in Glasgow, it’s obvious Celtic stopping it is a huge part of the club’s history.

“For me to be part of that day, playing and scoring, was enormous. Everywhere I go I meet Celtic supporters – and it’s literally everywhere – that is what they mention.

“I joined in the December and was thrown straight into the title race. By May we were Champions. It all happened so quick but it still is my best footballing memory.”

The first comment below that article is worth noting because it sums up the reason why the former Celtic striker has got it wrong this time around.

“There are those who wish to pretend that Rangers Plc is not being liquidated. A private company, which derived its income from football activities, consistently expended more than it earned over a period from 1988 to 2011.

“This private company engaged so mendaciously and aggressively in tax evasion that 75% of the creditors by quantum, including HMRC, were not prepared to accept the pennies in the pound offered by Charles Green. At which point Rangers Plc could not be salvaged.

“The company law is clear and incontrovertible. Rangers Plc, renamed to obfuscate as Rangers 2012 Ltd, is being liquidated.

“Note that I did not mention ‘club’ in my prosaic facts. A club was formed in 1872. In 1899 this club changed to limit the exposure of the directors by guarantee. The club no longer existed. A personal undertaking of four friends became a professional enterprise with a unique registration number at Companies House.”

Oh how the truth hurts.

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