| Match Pictures | Matches: 1996 – 1997 | 1996-1997 Pictures |
Trivia
- Paul McStay was awarded an MBE for his services to football in the New Year’s Honours List.
- The golden boots Paulo Di Canio wore in the previous game against Dunfermiline had just fetched £58,000 in Radio Clyde’s ‘Cash for Kids’ auction. They were bought by Rangers fan and Scottish businessman Tom Hunter
Review
That offside decision……… Match will be infamous for a pathetic and blatant error (sic!) by the linesman (who is actually a Rangers supporter). Cadete was judged offside when he clearly wasn't, and his goal was chopped off! We'd have been at 2-2 and made a big difference in this match and outwith. A scandal in the circumstances. Some offside decisions are difficult, this one wasn't!!!
Teams
Rangers:
Goram, Petric, McLaren, Bjorklund, Cleland, Moore (Bo Andersen, 75), Ferguson, Gascoigne (Miller, 65), Robertson, McCoist (Van Vossen), Albertz
Scorers: Albertz, 9; Bo Andersen, 83, 89
Bookings: McLaren ,Moore (Rangers)
Celtic: Kerr; McNamara, Boyd, O'Neil, Stubbs (Thom ,82 ), O'Donnell, Di Canio, McStay, Donnelly (Van Hooijdonk,52 ), Hannah, Cadete
Subs not used: Wieghorst
Scorers: Di Canio (66)
Bookings: Di Canio ,Stubbs (Celtic)
Referee: J McCluskey (Stewarton)
Attendance: 50,019
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Rangers | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 2 | 2 |
| Fouls | 11 | 13 |
| Shots on Target | 5 | 8 |
| Corners | 7 | 11 |
| Offside | 2 | 10 |
| 6 | Jackie McNamara burst forward and played the ball to Jorge Cadete, but the striker's hooked shot went wid |
| 9 | 1-0 After Jackie Mcnamara fouled David Robertson 30 yards from goal, Rangers took the lead when a free kicjk from Albertz skimmed the edge of the wall and went out of the reach of Stewart Kerr |
| 10 | Blatant body check on Paolo di Canio by Alan McLaren 22 yards out resulted in a yellow card for the defender but the Italian's free kick came off the chest of Andy Goram before being cleared |
| 26 | Di Canio and Cadete joined forces to work the ball through to McNamara, but his shot was deflected |
| 27 | A mazy run by Di Canio took him past four defenders on the left but his shot went wide of target |
| 30 | There was uproar after an offsude decision when Goram hit Di Canio with the ball as Paul McStay, Ally McCoist and Paul Gascoigne all got involved in the fracas |
| 31 | Stewart Kerr saved a Gordan Petric header at the back post from an Albertz corner |
| 35 | Alan Stubbs tried a long range effort from 40 yards but again the ball went astray |
| 55 | Di CAnio lost the ball to Ian Ferguson, but McStay rectified the situation and took the ball inside before firing a shot from outside the area |
| 58 | After some scrappy play from both sides, Di Canio crossed the ball to substitute Van Hooijdonk but his netbound header was saved by Goram at the expense of a corner |
| 65 | Tom Boyd crossed and this time Goram saved a Di Canio header and Cadete could not make contact with the rebound which was knocked away for another corner |
| 66 | 1-1 Celtic came right back ointo the game when Di Canio slotted away the equaliser after nice build up work in a one-two by Boyd and Cadete before a shot was blocked and Van Hooijdonk flicked the ball on to Cadete who touched it on to the Italian |
| 75 | Van Hooijdonk attempted an overhead kick which was punched away by Goram after successive corners for Celtic |
| 83 | 2-1 Rangers take the lead again afetr a lapse in concentration between Jackie McNamara and Brian O'Neil caught playing head tennis on the edge of the area. Albertz pushed McNamara off the ball and passed to Erik Bo Andersen who scored from inside the box |
| 86 | Celtic were seemingly back in the frame when Cadete controlled a McNamara cross and thrashed the ball home. OFFSIDE!!!!! said linesman Gordon McBride. |
| 89 | 3-1 The home side went further ahead when Albertz and Bo Andersen worked a one-two for the Dane to score |
| 90 | Van Hooijdonk fired in a 35 yarder which Goram had to dive and make a one handed save to keep out |
- Manager Interview
Tommy Burns:
“Football can be a very cruel game. The boys put in a tremendous fight and as far as the goals go, there is nothing you can do to allow for individual mistakes.
“Those sort of things have happened in football for more than a 100 years , but you just have to live with it.
“It was more difficult to take because Rangers had so few chances against us.
“The good thing is that the boys applied themselves after going behind so early.
“They showed intelligence and endeavour and my disappointment is for them – especially after putting so much into the game – and I don’t feel that the score line reflected the run of play.
“I thought we were going to go on and win the game – in the second half we were getting better and better.
“But I don’t think Jorge’s strike was offside.”
“Alan Stubbs had to come off with a pulled hamstring but nonetheless we had a lot of good play.
“David Hannah did well in his first Old Firm match and it was great to see both Paul McStay and Phil O’Donnell back in there.
“Di Canio, Van Hooijdonk and CAdete did very well, but Andy Goram was Andy Goram, though it wasn’t him who beat us this time.
“We still have 18 games to go and we will try to win every one of them – as was the case before this match even if we had won.
“We are certainly up for that and we will NOT be throwing in the towel!”
Walter Smith:
“The first half was pretty even but in the second half Celtic had much more pressure.
“They looked the team more likely to score and go on and win even.
“I had a feeling they would cause us much more problems in the second 45 and that was the case.”