Mind games: Celtic Park, 8 March, 2000

CELTIC Park, 8 March, 2000. Going into the second-last Old Firm match of the campaign Celtic trailed Rangers by nine points, with 13 games left. Nothing but a win would be enough. Two of the protagonists that night, Neil McCann and Jackie McNamara, share their memories with Moira Gordon

MOIRA GORDON: You will know how the Old Firm guys are feeling going into this match. What can you remember about events ten years ago?

JACKIE McNAMARA: It was a must-win game for us in terms of having any chance of clawing anything back in the league. We were trailing by quite a bit and at home and there was added pressure to win it.

NIALL McCANN: Its funny, Robbie Keane was on the radio talking about the pressure being on Rangers and, obviously, he's got to try to help his side in any way he can in terms of mind games in interviews, but I don't see it that way. Like Jackie says, you look back to that game ten years ago and the pressure was all on Celtic at that stage and we both knew that. I think this Rangers team, like us back then, are going into this game so many points ahead and there's no real pressure on them. You always want to win an Old Firm match, but so long as they don't lose it then it suits them. We certainly didn't feel like the team under pressure going to Parkhead that night. We had such a big gap and it's a great thing going to the ground of your biggest rivals knowing that you don't really need to win.

MG: Celtic players are adamant they haven't given up on the title yet. What was the feeling going into that match a decade ago?

JMcN: You always believe until it's mathematically impossible. We have been on the other side of it as well and we were a lot of points clear of Rangers, with Martin O'Neill, the year after and you don't take your foot off the gas or give them any glimmer of hope. It will be interesting to see how Rangers start because in the last game at Celtic Park they were very negative in their formation but still managed to get a 1-1 draw out of it and they don't even need to win this one. So you wonder if Walter Smith will go with both Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd up front or if he will go with one up front.

NMcC: That's a fair point. Back then we went to Celtic Park and Dick Advocaat moved things around and played me through the middle. Walter's formations can seem a bit negative, but how many times has he gone to Parkhead and set his team up in a negative formation but still come away with the points? It must be a nightmare on those days to be associated with Celtic because just like the last one, Celtic often have loads of possession but Rangers get a goal and came away with at least a point.

MG: That game at Parkhead followed a similar pattern, didn't it?

JMcN: We actually played well that night. I remember it was raining heavily and we were under pressure to get the points, but we battered them for a long periods in the match. Big (Mark] Viduka alone should have had at least a couple. In fact, I remember, because Neil was playing through the middle, I was up against (Arthur] Numan and (Giovanni] Van Bronckhorst and quite early in the game I came away from a challenge with Van Bronckhorst with the ball and played a ball into the box, but big Viduka wasn't there. He was posted missing.

NMcC: That team we had, we felt that even if you were under pressure there were guys you could rely on. I know that before my time there people talk about Andy Goram and how he denied Celtic, but Stefan Klos was of that mould as well. If you found yourself under the cosh, he was a massive player and could make a great save, or Lorenzo Amoruso or Craig Moore would make a last-ditch block. We still had players who could create something out of nothing at the other end. So it wasn't just that night, it was those couple of years, we felt kind of invincible and even if things were going against us we believed we had players who could change things in our favour.

MG: Even after you were brought down for a penalty with seven minutes to go and Jorg Albertz missed the opportunity to break the deadlock?

NMcC: Maybe at that point there was a wee thought that maybe this wasn't our night! I was wanting to take it, but he's bigger than me and he was holding his badge, getting ready to kiss it, like he always did when he scored. But he missed a few that year. He usually just stroked it away, but that night he smashed it and Jonathon Gould saved with his legs. But even missing that we were still drawing and it was Celtic who needed to win more than us.

JMcN: At the time you really don't think things are going against you because you are so focused on the game, but now, looking back, I do maintain it just wasn't our year. I think with the Old Firm it seems to go in cycles. People talk about that John Barnes season as though it was a total failure, but we actually started the season fantastically and scored a lot of goals, beating Hearts 4-0 and Aberdeen 5-0 and 7-0. Then Henrik (Larsson] broke his leg and it was things like that, they all added up, and it wasn't to be our year. John Barnes took a lot of stick and things kind of fell apart in the end, but the season didn't start like that.

MG: You knew Celtic needed to win to stay in the title race and to help protect their manager from the flak. Does that all go through your mind?

JMcN: You are always aware of the pressure on the manager, but in the tunnel I'm already mentally in the game. I don't really look at the other teams when waiting to go out, but everyone is different. I was totally focused and didn't look at players to see what their reactions or their expressions were, I just wanted to get out there and get on with it.

NMcC: But you can see it in certain players' faces. Some you could see weren't ready for it. The majority, especially when it comes to an Old Firm game, have tunnel vision. But there are always one or two who you can tell are feeling a bit of pressure.

JMcN: Some get caught up in the moment and he will tell you about (Fernando] Ricksen in his first Old Firm match and he lasted less than half an hour before they took him off and then there were guys like Stephane Mahe who got sent off a few times. You can get caught up in it. But there was so much importance placed on that game.

NMcC: That's why if Celtic do have five or six boys making their Old Firm debut, it could be massive. I remember Fernando came in to speak to Barry Ferguson and myself the day before his debut. He wanted to know all about the game and I think we probably did the wrong thing telling him all about the experiences of playing at Parkhead and what the atmosphere was like. I honestly don't think he slept all night. There's no doubt that the boys read the papers and even in the dressing room there will be stories told all week, but some of them might just freeze.

MG: Ten years ago the match was at Celtic Park, will it actually help that this time it is at Ibrox?

JMcN: It could help ease the pressure because usually the away fans, regardless what happens and especially in an Old Firm match, are right behind you. At home you hear every moan and groan and they expect something special because you are at home, but the away fans, unless they see players not trying, are better at hiding their frustrations and getting right behind you.

NMcC: But that's when you see who your big, brave players are. That's not just those who go diving into tackles, it's players who demand the ball and want to take responsibility and try things, instead of going into their shell or playing within themselves and doing the safe thing. You need leaders and I'm thinking back to the team we had back then and there's (Lorenzo] Amoruso and Moore and Numan at the back and they were all leaders and in a physical game against the likes of Mark Viduka, who was a monster, you need somebody who can drag you about, talk to you and that night they handled him.

JMcN: Yeah, when the pressure is on, suddenly some players are trying to outdo each other for the title of hide and seek champion.

NMcC: I think Celtic's biggest problem come the weekend is who is going to be the on-field leader? You need that through the spine, preferably all over the pitch, but definitely at the back and we had that that night.

MG: That night, what went through your head when Rod Wallace scored in the dying minutes?

JMcN: During the game you try not to think about it, even although there wasn't much time left, but afterwards I think we are all just disappointed because we knew we had played well and it had come to nothing and that was hard to take. We knew we had done everything except get the goal. But they had a bit of quality and Advocaat had spent a bit of money on guys who could change a game. I think some heads went down after that game and eventually finishing the season 21 points behind Rangers wasn't good enough.

NMcC: I remember walking off the pitch that night and being back in the dressing room and we knew we had virtually clinched the title that night. All right, it was just March and there were still a couple of months to go and the manager wouldn't have allowed us to celebrate or get complacent, but the feeling was definitely that we had taken a massive step to winning consecutive titles. We knew that as soon as Rod scored that goal.