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Memories Are Made Of This: Four Great Celtic Visits To Rubgy Park

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Celtic fans will travel to Kilmarnock to cheer the team on at the weekend, after the club helped solve a sticky problem by offering the fans a £6 give-back on the price of their tickets.

This hasn’t always been a ground that our supporters have enjoyed visiting; in fact, it’s been the scene of some truly dismal days and one surreal one, in 2003, fresh from Seville, where our amazing supporters partied in the sunshine with a 4-0 win, but lost the league title on goal difference and watched as their fans celebrated like they’d won it.

That left a bad taste in the mouth, that day did.

Here, however, are four occasions in the not-too-distant past, which Celtic fans can look back on with enormous satisfaction and pride.

This is a trip down memory lane, to a ground we’ve had some very good days at.

1) The Three Amigos: Di Canio Comes On At Half Time And Changes Everything

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It was 24 August 1996, and Tommy Burns’ Celtic were a club that knew where it was trying to get to, with some real flair players being brought in to make the difference that we hoped might just overhaul Rangers and stop the march towards nine in a row.

The afternoon wasn’t going according to plan; by half time we were a goal down, due to a quite horrendous Gordon Marshall mistake, letting a long shot go through his legs, and the feeling in the stands was that this was going to be a pretty brutal afternoon. Yet the one chink of light was that we had a guy on the bench more than capable of turning the tide.

His name was Paolo Di Canio.

Early in the second half, Tommy made the substitution, and boy oh boy did it work. What followed was a masterclass in the style of football he wanted our team to play. It became known as The Three Amigos game; Di Canio, Van Hooijdonk and Cadete all playing tremendously.

Pierre didn’t manage a goal that day (Andreas Thom did, and it was classy), but he hit the post and had a stormer just same. The other two were simply fabulous, with Paolo, in particular, absolutely running the show … and all of it in the magical “bumble bee” top!

This team was capable of some magical stuff. That day was a tantalising glimpse of what might have been, and sadly never was. But for those 45 second half minutes every single Celtic supporter was made a believer in the Tommy Burns project.

2) The Last Minute Moment Of Magic From Shunsuke Nakamura

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On Sunday 22 April 2007, Celtic travelled to Kilmarnock needing a win to wrap the league title up.

There was no real concern over the destination of the flag – there were still four more games to go after this one – but the travelling supporters that day wanted to see it bagged, and with a pretty bow on the top of it.

We took the lead through Big Jan, from a Naka corner, and that ought to have set us on our way.

But it wasn’t as easy as it should have been; Colin Nish sneaked an equaliser and as the game went into the closing minutes the feeling was that the party would need to be delayed a week at least. The fans crammed into the ground were not forced to wait.

Inside the last minute, Celtic were awarded a free kick way out on the left.

The angle should have been impossible, the distance was at least intimidating. But we had a player who I’ve always said to people was the finest set piece taker in the world at that point … and so the entire watching Celtic Family knew this was a chance, in spite of the difficulty of the shot.

Nakamura did not let us down. He hit a stunning left foot shot that had just the right height to get above the defenders, and just enough bend to snake around the wall. The goalkeeper wouldn’t have caught it had he moved the second the ball left Naka’s foot, but he was still standing, stock still, when it hit the back of the net. He never had a prayer.

Two years later, after he’d left the club, the Japanese sensation told reporters that it was this goal, more even than his slammer against Manchester United at Celtic Park, that was his favourite free-kick as a Celtic player. I might disagree with him on that one, but on little else.

Those two aside, he would only score a better goal in the Hoops once … and it wasn’t even a free kick, but the 35 yard curling, bending, swerving moment of magic against Rangers.

3) The Game That Saved Lennon’s Job As Boss, And We Started One Of The Greatest Comebacks in SPL History

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On the afternoon of 15 October 2011, Celtic travelled to Kilmarnock for what had become a must-win game. There appeared to be something seriously wrong at Celtic Park, as the team were struggling very badly.

The performances hadn’t been good, the passion appeared to be gone. On 2 October, Hearts had beaten us 2-0 in the league and at that point we sat third in the table. Rangers were ten points in front of us, and looked like securing four in a row. Yes, we knew there were major problems at Ibrox, with Whyte in charge, but at that point they looked as if they could have gone into administration and still been out of sight.

The first half in that game had all the hallmarks of a career ender for the manager. We were woeful and the 3-0 deficit in no way flattered the home team. Their supporters were absolutely gleeful; dancing in the stands like they were the SPL winners.

According to friends and family who were there, that was what changed everything. Instead of welcoming the team out for the second half with cat-calls and jeers the team took the field to a rousing sing-song, and that support did something to the players; it raised them above their first half lethargy and they started to fight back.

On 71 minutes we got a free-kick outside the penalty area. Anthony Stokes stepped up, hit it and it crashed into the back of the net. That gave the fans an even bigger incentive to sing and they upped the volume and the team responded in kind. Within two minutes, he’d scored again with a sweet, sweet long range effort. On 79 minutes, Mastorovic got his head on the end of a free kick, and the ball sailed over to be met by Charlie Mulgrew.

3-3 and the Celtic fans went bananas. There were eleven minutes to go, so we should probably have won the game … and yet it was Killie who almost stole the points with a late chance falling to Heffernan, who couldn’t close the deal.

Nevertheless, the Celtic supporters had lifted the side and although we were to drop more points before the month ended (at home, to Hibs, which prompted a well-known broadcast journalist – Hugh Keevins, you don’t get off – to say the league race was over) we didn’t really look back. November saw us win every match. In December, Joe Ledley’s headed goal against Rangers completed one Hell of a comeback and we finished the New Year top.

2012 was to be momentous, but 2011 didn’t exactly end with a whimper!

4) Celtic Return To The Scene Of The Comeback To Win 6-0 And Sweep To The Title

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On 7 April 2012, Neil Lennon took his Celtic side back to the ground where he had come within 45 minutes of losing his job earlier in the season. The 3-3 draw that night had bought him more than just time; it has sparked an amazing transformation in his team that was to lead them to SPL title glory even as the club was winding down on the life of Rangers.

That day was one that every Celtic fan will savour.

It was a combined funeral for our rivals, and title winning jamboree. It had everything the support could have wanted. It had been three years since we last tasted success in the league, and we already knew we were on the cusp of a period of dominance that would last years.

All that remained was to get the party started.

It took just seven minutes, and it was that man Mulgrew who opened the scoring, heading one in from the corner kick.

It was a great beginning to what was probably the best match of his Celtic career.

Nine minutes later he went from being goal scorer to goal maker, crossing the ball from out left for Glen Loovens to head past the keeper. Then, on 34 minutes, he got his personal second when he curled a left foot shot past the keeper.

One minute into the second half, he got another assist when he crossed the ball for Gary Hooper to put it past the keeper. What a day he was having.

Ledley scored with a cute little dink over the keeper with two minutes to go, and then Hooper scored a minute later to wrap it all up for us.

This was a wonderful day, and all three stands in which the Celtic fans were gathered, partied all afternoon long.

Things don’t get much better than that.

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