Moussa and Scotty make it a wonderful, magical Hogmanay at Ibrox – An extract from Invincible by Matt Corr
(Brendan Rodgers)…“We go into the game on Saturday with a very strong mentality, and everyone’s fit and will have the ability to play in the game. There is huge pressure on them to get the result at home. For us, it doesn’t matter what the result is on Saturday. We have had a fantastic start to the season and, irrespective of the result, we will be happy with our work. We aim to go there and play our game and be really aggressive and attack and we know, if we can do that, we’ve got an opportunity to win. Every player that’s come in has done very well and contributed to the team performance and result and Ryan was no different. I thought he was excellent – his touch, his movement. He linked the game well for us, pressed the game well. It’s food for thought for all the players. We’ve played eight games this month – won seven and drew one in the Champions League – and every player has contributed.”
Celtic’s last game in December began as the first one had, with black armbands and a minute’s silence. This time around the venue was Ibrox on Hogmanay, and the people being remembered were those 66 supporters who had tragically lost their lives on Stairway 13 at the same venue on Saturday, 2 January 1971, a day I remember so well. The tragedy occurred just moments after Rangers striker Colin Stein had equalised for the hosts, seconds after a Jimmy Johnstone header had given Celtic the lead, both sides hitting last-minute goals in a 1-1 draw.
My dad had stopped going to Ibrox some years earlier for his own reasons and, at nine, I was deemed much too young, so we were paying a Ne’erday visit to my uncle’s home in Barmulloch, when word came through of “trouble at the ground.” In those pre-mobile days, the details were a bit vague and I think the problem was initially believed to be fighting, a real concern as both my teenage brother and cousin were at the match. Both returned safely an hour or so later, however, by the end of the night, the awful reality had unfolded, my abiding memory being the images of Jock Stein and Neil Mochan tending to the injured and dying on the Ibrox pitch, the dense fog defeating the floodlights and merely adding to the surreal, nightmarish scenario.
Almost 46 years later, it was a very different stadium which greeted the 8,000-strong Celtic army who turned up in party mood. Long gone were the steep terracing around three sides of the ground, only the main stand remaining as a reminder of that grim day. I was both surprised and overjoyed to get a ticket and so made my way along Edmiston Drive to join the throng of singing Hoops.
It had been many years since I had walked this route, perhaps going back to the dying embers of Tony Mowbray’s reign. A refereeing masterclass from Dougie Dougie, with Scott Brown red-carded after Kyle Lafferty, not for the first or last time, feigned injury, whilst Madjid Bougherra, booked early on, survived any number of later assaults on Robbie Keane to remain on the field to watch Maurice Edu’s 93rd-minute winner. I had vowed that day that would be it for me and Ibrox. Long before Liquidation and Gallant Pioneers. Gardeners and “making friends on the journey.” Ibrox was a different place now, in every sense.
There were two changes from midweek in a Celtic side looking to end the year on a high. In came Moussa Dembele, his four goals in two previous games against Rangers giving him the nod over Leigh Griffiths, who took a seat on the bench. Callum McGregor returned from that ridiculous suspension for the challenge at Hamilton, with Ryan Christie a tad unfortunate to drop out the squad altogether.
The hosts started well, Stuart Armstrong’s timely challenge preventing a goal before they did take the lead in the 12th minute. It was a soft one to concede, Erik Sviatchenko beating Joe Garner to the ball before inexplicably giving it away, a pass played inside Emilio Izaguirre – making his 250th appearance in the Hoops – for James Tavernier to slide across the six-yard box to the waiting Kenny Miller, who gleefully netted his trademark goal against the club he once served. Garner had fallen awkwardly in the lead-up to the goal and failed to recover, replaced by Martyn Waghorn before the game restarted.
As the first half wore on, the class of the champions began to tell, and they were level just after the half-hour. First Scott Sinclair, pulled up incorrectly for offside as he bore down on Wes Foderingham’s goal, beat the defensive trap a second time, only to see his effort beat the keeper but rebound off the inside of his post before being scrambled for a corner. Sinclair himself took the kick, his deep cross evading everyone except the lurking Dembele, who took a touch before rifling a ferocious left-footed volley through the helpless Foderingham and into the roof of the net. Superb stuff.
Level at the interval, the big Frenchman should have had a second successive League hat-trick against the Ibrox side as the second half turned into a procession. First, he miskicked completely after Mikael Lustig’s clever pass found him unmarked on the penalty spot. Then he did superbly well to twist his frame to meet Callum McGregor’s delightfully stood-up cross, only to watch the ball bounce up and onto the crossbar, the woodwork yet again coming to Rangers rescue, with Sinclair firing the rebound into the side net. With 20 minutes remaining, the classy English winger did find the net to give Celtic the lead.
Patrick Roberts had replaced James Forrest only minutes earlier, his trickery and sublime pass finding Armstrong running behind the home defence. In a mirror-image of the opening goal of the game, the midfielder’s pass found Sinclair clear at the far post, his unerring finish making it 2-1.
Despite creating numerous chances, Celts almost paid for their inability to score a third, Miller’s shot in the 80th minute trickling past Craig Gordon before hitting the post and rolling clear. It would have been a travesty of justice had it gone in, however, such things have happened before, especially there.
The whistle sounded to end 2016 on the most positive of notes for those of us wearing the Hoops. I had deferred a journey to Wales for a New Year party with my in-laws to take in the game. It would be a pleasant drive down south later today, once I had dropped off the kids for their own celebrations.
The three points won today had seen the champions’ lead at the top extended to 19 points, still with a game in hand, a pretty-much unprecedented situation so early in the season. Celts had dropped just two points since Sinclair’s debut winner at Tynecastle and had now gone 24 domestic games unbeaten from the start of the season. The first silverware of the Rodgers era – our 100th trophy – was already in the boardroom. With the possible exception of the European campaign, it was difficult to believe just how well the season to date had gone.
The Rangers manager Mark Warburton was defiant, his post-match comments perhaps unwittingly reflecting how times had changed for those who watch their football at Ibrox, Aberdeen now threatening to overtake them in second spot and an unbeaten home record dating back to their Championship days destroyed by the runaway leaders.
Conversely, Brendan Rodgers was enjoying every moment…
“A real, great advert for Scottish football. It was a brilliant result for us. We thoroughly deserved the win. First half, we didn’t start so well, we didn’t pass the ball well enough, but we were always a threat on the counter-attack. We talked before the game about what would happen if we fell behind, about dealing with pressure and finding solutions. But the most pleasing thing is [that]we stayed very calm and once we got the goal, we played our way back into the game again. We needed to adjust one or two things at half-time but second half we were brilliant. We were a threat every time we went forward. We’re disappointed only to have had two goals. I thought Scott [Sinclair] was incredible. For any supporter to watch a player play to that level in such a high-profile game was great.”
…well perhaps with one exception, the Celtic boss picking up an injury as he celebrated the winner.
“It was stupid, wasn’t it? I just slipped when the second goal went in. I was trying to set off on a wee sprint, but I slipped and pulled my calf. It was daft, so I couldn’t walk but I’m OK.”
That would be a rare domestic slip in a stunning opening to the season.
It would now be time to rest, recover then regroup for the second half of the season.
The title was there to be won and maybe, just maybe, there was the prospect of something very special come the spring.
Happy New Year!
Matt Corr
*An extract from Invincible, available now from Celtic Star Books.
31st December 2016, Rangers 1:2 Celtic.
Dembele and Sinclair. @MDembele_10 @Scotty_Sinclair pic.twitter.com/kKavVnCCgN
— Li'l Ze (@LilZe_7) December 31, 2020
