24 years ago today saw the start of a revolution…as Chris Sutton commented earlier, it was an ‘Enjoyable day’…
Enjoyable day☘️ https://t.co/w6R0qK2OkZ
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) August 27, 2024
24 years ago today saw one of the finest Celtic victories this century. It was of course the 6-2 ‘Demolition Derby’ at Celtic Park and it signalled the start of a Celtic revolution under the leadership of Martin O’Neill.
Celtic had started well under the guidance of the Irishman, but this was the acid test. Taking on Dick Advocaat’s big spending Rangers who were the current Champions, and as Martin described them “the benchmark”.
Perhaps that was just a bit of kidology by Martin, but the Ibrox side were the champions and we had only won one title in the previous 12 years, so we were out to prove our credentials and were certainly the underdogs.
Martin had spent big himself as he started his rebuilding process and brought in the likes of Chris Sutton and Joos Valgareen for a cool £10 million, so some pressure was on us to produce the goods, especially at home.
We also had the likes of Henrik Larsson, the fast improving Stan Petrov, quality players like Paul Lambert and Jackie McNamara, so we were hardly devoid of talent, we just needed the right man to steer the ship, and all hopes were pinned on Martin to guide us to our destination.
Martin had us running like a well drilled machine. Under his early guidance we had beaten Dundee United, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Hearts leaving us with a one hundred percent record as we headed into the Old Firm Derby.
This was a massive game for Celtic. As Davie Provan said just before kick off “psychologically this is a big one” and he was right. Win this and we send out a message that we mean business, and we are indeed the real deal.
Any win would do. A 1-0 scrappy victory, anything, as long as we won all three points. What happened next no-one could have predicted.
6-2 Celtic was of course the final score thanks to a brace apiece by Chris Sutton and Henrik Larsson, with Stan Petrov and Paul Lambert grabbing a goal apiece. Not only did we win, but we won in style as we absolutely battered our rivals, we humiliated them and proved we were indeed the real deal.
This spectacular win signalled the start of a revolution under Martin O’Neill and was a major catalyst to our first domestic treble in 31 years. A treble which proved to be just the start of a very special era under the Irishman.
Celtic’s dominance of Scottish football in this century started that day and it was also the beginning of the end for our reckless spending opponents.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
