1995-8-26. Raith Rovers 0-1 Celtic. Premier Division.

BYLINE:Celtic's1-0 Victory OverRaith RoversWas Far From Convincing, Writes Hugh Keevins

JIMMY NICHOLL, theRaithRoversmanager, has a vision of how he would like the current Premier Division championship to end. If his team do not win the title, and we must assume the competition will not take such a fanciful turn, Nicholl would prefer to see Rangers retain the trophy.The declaration had everything to do with the abiding allegiances that transcend other considerations for ex-Old Firm players. Nicholl's bias towards Ibrox comes with a qualification, however.

He nurtures the hope that Rangers will be taken beyond what has become their now habitual acceptance of the championship in March and be forced to scrap until the final minute of the last game on the concluding day of the season.On the evidence of Stark's Park at the weekend, two things are evident.RaithRoverswill not confound logic and win the title andCelticwill need to show a vast improvement if they are to justify their status as most people's idea of the likeliest challengers to Rangers.
For the first time since the introduction of substitutes, aCelticmanager named three outfield players and left Pat Bonner, the understudy goalkeeper, in the role of onlooker.
It is something that Nicholl will do in future as part of an obvious commitment to playing the game in as entertaining a fashion as possible.
Exactly why two such attack- conscious sides should have produced an instantly forgettable match is unclear.
Thursday's re-match, in the Coca-Cola Cup tie atCelticPark, starts off with the advantage that it can only be better than this one.
Even the goal which gaveCelticthree points was an oddity for something which had overtones of Jurgen Klinsmann.
The German arrived at Tottenham Hotspur a year ago with a reputation for unashamedly seeking to gain an unfair advantage by diving inside, or near to the penalty area if an opponent was in the remotest vicinity.
Andreas Thom,Celtic'sclose-season signing from Bayer Leverkusen, was accused of coming under that Germanic influence when gaining the free kick from whichCelticscored in Kirkcaldy.
RaithRovers'Davie Kirkwood claimed afterwards that Thom had conned the referee. "I stood my ground and he ran into me," the defender said.
Thom's version of events was, naturally, to the contrary.
"The guy stood in front of me and there was nowhere I could go," said the German.
Nicholl would have been more worried overCelticbeing allowed two unchallenged headers from Rudi Vata and Pierre Van Hooijdonk inside the penalty area before the Dutchman scored.
Last season, before Van Hooijdonk and Thom were signed,Celticwould have drawn this game. Tommy Burns, theCelticmanager, clings to the belief that the side now at his disposal will get goals no matter how indifferently they are playing.
RaithRoverswill put that theory to the test in the midweek Cup tie.
The Fife side are the holders of the trophy and feel no sense of inferiority because they have to defend it inCeltic'sreconstructed and highly-charged ground.
Steve Crawford, who was forced to come off injured at the weekend, will be fit in time to play and expects his own presence to be significant. "I felt sharp to begin with and I knew I was causing problems forCeltic'sdefence in the 20 minutes I was on the field.
"I know I can do the same over 90 minutes."

BYLINE:Mike Wilson at Stark's Park

IT was like one of these films on television interrupted by the News at Ten, but instead of resuming at 10.40pm, part two of this story doesn't take place until Thursday, leaving four days to fret over the half-developed plots with insights still to come.
With the teams to meet later again this week on League Cup business, there was certainly little between them yesterday, with Raith as capable of achieving victory and certainly worthy of a share of the spoils. In the scheme of things, Premier Division survival means more to Raith than a glorious Cup run, and the way this game slipped from their grasp could haunt them for some time.
Admittedly, by the end, there was an obvious gulf in the qualities of the sides, but it requires the cushion of a goal to turnCelticfrom plodders to plunderers. It was the same against Ayr United. Up until van Hooijdonk's 78th minute header yesterday,Celticcould easily have fallen foul of the troublesome Raith pair of Rougier and Cameron.

Somerset Park last week, Stark's Park this Thom must be thinking Scottish senior football is awash with modest stadia from a bygone era. But consummate performers know how to rise above their surroundings, whether they reverberate with a thunderous din or rattle like a pea in a tin. As extraneous noises are shut out, the only shouts are those of their colleagues.Whatever Thom's arrival has done forCeltic'sself-belief, the team sought to squeeze an extra morsel of confidence by coming together in a basketball style huddle seconds before the start.
Whether or not the intention was also to disorientate the opposition, Thomson, the Raith goalkeeper, obliged the sense of disbelief, by abandoning his line and allowing Thom a clear goal to flight a long lob. That the effort floated high and wide did not diminish his threat, and with question marks already surrounding the steadfastness of the Raith defence, it was an immediate reminder that Raith had stepped up into a division where errors rarely go unpunished.
In fairness, after that initial fright, the Raith rearguard settled to their task reasonably well, and but for occasional flashes of brilliance provided by Collins and Thom, limitedCeltic'searly incursions to shots from far out. Indeed, one from van Hooijdonk sailed so high it threatened to fly over the heads of the massedCelticsupport gathered behind Thomson's goal.
More threatening was a smart strike on the turn by Thom in the 25th minute, executed despite the close-marking of Sinclair, whose assignment for the day was clearly to snap at the heels of van Hooijdonk. Frustrated though he might have been during most of the match, the Dutchman should have done better when he skewed wildly a free header from a 50th minute Vata free kick. Just as well he atoned for this miss later on.
If Raith presented the prospect of frailty at the back,Celtic'sdefence could hardly be described as rock solid either. Troubled by the rampaging Rougier down the left, the visitors were often forced to adopt desperate measures to clear their lines. You get the impression, especially with Boyd at centre-back, that theCelticdefence would like to work at walking pace with a bit of keepy-uppy thrown in for effect.
But there were at least three occasions during the opening 45 minutes when it was simply a question of pressing the panic button and calling for reinforcements. In the 15th minute, a low Rougier cross found first Cameron and then Graham, both presented with slim opportunities but neither able to strike cleanly, as the collective might of theCelticdefence and midfield bore down on them.
Celtic'sability to conjure makeshift ramparts from nowhere should still have proved inadequate cover when Cameron produced the pass of the match four minutes from the interval. A quick turn in the heart of theCeltichalf created the opening for him to thread a pass through to the onrushing Rougier and, with a mass of green and white comfortably a yard in his trail, he should have swooped well before Marshall advanced to half-block the ball to safety. Had the ball rolled instead into the path of the predatory Crawford, the result would have been different. The problem was that Crawford had been forced by injury to leave the field over 20 minutes previously, replaced by Lennon.
If Raith had the best of the opening half,Celticwere clearly superior in the second. That was proved when van Hooijdonk powered home a header after Vata had done exceptionally well to redirect a Collins free kick lofted in from the left towards him.

BYLINE:Kevin McCarra

Hours before kick-off, theCelticsupporters' buses were rolling into Kirkcaldy. These passengers are men who usually take pride in a sense of timing that allows them, in this post-Taylor report era, to place backside on seat just as the team sets foot on the park. The first day of the season, however, is different.The eagerness to be once again enveloped by football accelerated the customary programme of events. One supporter was marched away by the police at ten past two, a point on most Saturdays at which mischief is normally stuck in the planning stage.Celticfollowers, however, tend to be agitated at the beginning of the Bell's Scottish League premier division season.

A blend of frustration and timid optimism will make a man skittish.Celtichave failed to win the title since 1988 and the first game of each new league campaign is therefore minutely examined for signs of hope. All the same, nobody who was at Stark's Park will take pleasure in recalling the visitors' gruesome 1-0 victory overRaithRovers.TheCelticmanager, of course, is paid to scrutinise even the unsightly. Tommy Burns admitted the feebleness of his team's play but was satisfied that Pierre van Hooijdonk's alert header, 11 minutes from the end, had ''turned a draw into a win''. This has become a key phrase forCeltic. Last season, the side shared the points in 18 of its 36 fixtures, dissipating any prospect of a challenge to Rangers.
Success against a brisk and slightly unfortunateRaithRovers, though, hardly proved thatCeltichave mended their ways. This club's world has mostly been lit by false dawns. Since August 1988 the record shows thatCeltichave won six, drawn one and lost a single game in their eight opening-day fixtures. None of the victories led anywhere in particular.
Perhaps the club is unduly addicted to omens. Some believed that winning the Tennents Scottish Cup last season was bound to trigger a resurgence. In fact, Burns is, more or less, left with the same group of players. They are mildly encouraged by possession of winners' medals, but still limited by their defects. Only better footballers can truly transformCeltic.
Burns has been looking for them. The summer's prestige signing, Andreas Thom, the German international, did demonstrate expertise at Stark's Park. Within 15 seconds he had infiltrated the space behind Raith's defence to take Tosh McKinlay's long pass and lob just wide. Later he reached behind himself to hook a loose ball narrowly off-target from the edge of the area.
Towards the end Thom used skill and muscle to circumvent three defenders but then hit the side-netting. His team-mates seem to approve of their new forward, praising the constant movement that makes him available to receive a pass. Regrettably, much of Thom's running tends to be in vain. Sluggish and disjointed,Celtic'sbuild-up mostly left the Pounds 2.2 million signing at a disadvantage.
Burns will attempt to purchase a remedy, even if the precise funds available to him remain uncertain as his employers brood over the phase two costs in the rebuilding ofCelticPark. At the weekend, speculation concerned the combative and crafty Bulgarian midfield player, Ilian Kiriakov, who is with Anorthosis, the Cypriot team that troubled Rangers greatly in the European Cup preliminary round.
Harassing the Ibrox side always has been the swiftest means of winning admirers atCeltic. In addition to seeking new players, however, Burns must also find a means of invigorating the present squad which already contains, after all, some Pounds 6 million of players bought by himself.
The blandness on Saturday was particularly perplexing, given thatCelticwere playing the side that defeated
them in the Coca-Cola Cup final.Celticremain dangerously lacking in ill-will, spite and other uncouth emotions essential to a successful
team.