With all the negativity going on in the past week instead of commenting on " What we should or Shouldn't sing". I'm going to cheer myself up (and hopefully some of you) by telling you all about the first Celtic V Rangers game I ever attended. It was Saturday 21st November 1998 and get this it was a 3pm kick off.
So let me set the stage, Wim Jansen had left and we had Jock Brown as our General Manager. Still shudder at that decision. After what seemed like an eternity we finally got our new manager. Rumours were abound, Hiddink, Houillier, Tommy Burns to come back. None of these of course it was Dr. Jozef Venglos. Only the true purists of the game had ever heard of him. Okay I thought, never heard of Jansen either so lets give him a chance. It was also at this point I recieved my first ever season ticket. Lisbon lions Stand Area 413 row v seat 41, still there to this day. So I was dying for the season to begin, trouble was it didn't start till October. Dr. Jo wasn't allowed to buy anyone till the middle of October and that was Vidar Riseth. Conveniently our season got going when Jock Brown " Resigned". We were an unhappy support at that point already thirteen points behind the Orcs. Uninspiring signings, Riseth, Tony Warner (on loan) and a 33 yr old Slovakian no one had heard of. A day before the game we signed a centre half from Sweden, who I vaguely remembered playing against England and thinking he looked hard as fuck.
Not much has changed in media build up to these games even back then the papers where full of how many Celtic were going to lose by. Rangers were too good for us, Van Bronkhorst, Albertz, Guivarch and the golden child of Scottish football Barry Ferguson. On our way to the game I'll admit I wasn't too optimistic for our chances. It was pitch black at 3 o'clock it looked more like a night game and I was freezing my bollocks off to boot.
The line ups were then announced, two names immediately sprung out to me. Mjallby in at centre half, " Christ he's massive and looks like Dolph Lundgren". Exact quote from my 16 yer old self. And Moravcik up front with Larsson. "I would've gone with Burchill myself" yep another quote from me. So here we were almost kick off, atmosphere was incredible first a chorus of You'll Never Walk Alone the The Huddle the place exploded. As is still the case the first ten minutes were frantic but something was different we weren't getting bullied in the middle as was always the case in old firm games. Albertz always used just walk through the middle of our teams. Not today, a full 5 mins into his Celtic debut Johan Mjallby became my hero. Albertz picked the ball up on the left and before he could look up Big Dolph had put him into the stand with most powerful shoulder charge I've ever seen. Not long after that after an embarassing Rod Wallace dive Alan Stubbs picked out Donnelly on the left who played the ball inside. Larsson took out Hendry with an incredible dummy and Moravcik smashed the ball with his left into the bottom corner. What happened next was the loudest noise I had heard in my life, I lost the plot jumping on anyone near me, hugging folk I had barely spoke to since the season started. From then till half time it was the Lubo show, cut backs, nutmegs the whole shabang. We've got ourselves a player here, so good was his tricks and turns that he out foxed Scott Wilson so many times that it lead him to sythe him down from the back. Straight Red Card.
Early in the second half we worked the ball out on the right to Tom Boyd who put in a great cross. In the middle Lubo hovered like something from the Matrix and bulleted a header past Niemi. 2-0 against the Huns and they're down to ten this can't get any better. Hold that thought it can. Excuse any inaccuracies with times because it was a bit of a blur. Henrik made it 3-0 after a great through ball from Donnelly. If you watch replays of it Hendry actually pushes Larsson onto his stronger foot, now that's how to defend kids.
At 3-0 I thought its safe enough to go for a piss, standing at a urinal with 10 other guys singing and shouting should be weird but it wasn't that day. As we emerged from said toilet we stopped dead as we heard the tannoy announcing "The scorer No. 8 Van Bronkhorst". We all look at each other, paused, shrugged our shoulders and carried on singing. It was that kind of day nothing was spoiling the party.
Henrik scored again from a Phil O'Donell ( God Bless You) cross, then the piss taking really started. "Always look on the bright side of life", " Walk with me Oh my lord", "we Can See You Sneaking Out" to name a few. However the next chant is still my all time favourite " I'd Rather Be A Doctor Than A Dick" whoever thought that one up you are a genius. Late in the game Mark Burchill came on and made it 5-1. 5-1......5-1 in my first Old Firm Game. There isn't going to be a game like that for a long time I thought. Little did I know I would only have to wait till August 2000.
Hope you enjoyed that, I enjoy reliving it.
Hail Hail.
