ON THS DAY in 2006 league leaders Celtic travelled to Ibrox full of confidence. There were three Celts making their debuts in the Glasgow Derby, Roy Keane, Dion Dublin and Mark Wilson. This was Alex McLeish’s last match against Celtic as Rangers boss and Roy Keane’s former team-mate Wayne Rooney was spotted in among the Celtic supporters in the Free Broomloan.
The Celtic team was Boruc, Telfer, Balde, McManus, Wilson, Petrov, Keane, Lennon, Maloney, Zurawski and Hartson and on the bench Gordon Strachan had Pearson and Dublin who replaced Maloney and Hartson and the unused subs were Marshall. Thompson, Nakamura, Wallace and McGlinchey.
The referee was Mike McCurry and he would make his presence felt in the usual manner.
Zurawski opened the scoring with 12 minutes on clock before Bobo Balde appeared to double Celtic’s advantage but McCurry decided that the powerful Celtic defender had fouled Wattereus. Celtic dominated the first half but it was more even after the interval and Artur Boruc did well to save from Andrews in the latter stages of the match.
Celtic saw out the game and in doing so extended the lead over the Ibrox side to an incredible 21 points.
Afterwards a delighted Celtic manager explained his reasoning for playing Keane and Neil lennon in the centre of the park at the expense of Nakamura.
“I picked a team for the heavy going. I thought it would be a physical game and so I picked physical players,” Gordon Strachan said.
“It doesn’t surprise me (that Lennon and Keane can play together).
“We looked relaxed but that comes from having good players, and their touch makes them look that way. But I’m not going to rule Rangers out of things.”
Here’s Maciej’s goal…enjoy!
