Hugh Dallas, an Honest Mistake and our Title Party at Ibrox – on This Day in 2002

CELTIC on this day in 2002 had the ball in the net in the early stages but it was ruled out INCORRECTLY for offside by guess who – just another Honest Mistake. It wouldn’t be the last John Hartson goal to be disallowed wrongly against this mob.

The Bhoys weren’t to be denied and on 23 minutes Larsson set Petrov free and he slid the ball under the advancing Klos to open the scoring. And Henrik almost doubled the lead with a superb back-heeled effort from a corner.

On the hour mark Numan managed to grab an equaliser and it was a fairly decent effort which gave Robert Douglas.

 

John Hartson should have restored the Celtic lead shortly afterwards when Mjallby set up the big Welshman but Klos managed to block his shot.

Afterwards the talk was about Celtic dropping two points and the poor performance of the referee….Hugh Dallas. Remember him?

The papers the next day were full of the talk about the Honest Mistake denying Celtic the win but in truth the point suited Celtic just fine on the way to the title. Celtic left Ibrox happy enough with their ten point lead still intact but it was a shocking decision from Dallas and his assistant Jim McBride.

McBride of course had form. Have a good look at the pic at the top of this newspaper.

Three more wins were all that was needed after this game and the title would be wrapped up a few weeks later against Livingston.

Here are the highlights…

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

Comments are closed.