In 2003, just 11 months previous, Celtic travelled to Rugby Park a weary but defiant team. They had just been defeated 3-2 over 120 minutes in Seville v a Porto team who weren’t all that better than them.
Celtic had to win, and win well to make it 3 in a row and prevent Rangers from getting to 50 league titles in the process. Kilmarnock tried to kick Celtic off the park that day, Celtic dominated from start to finish and won 4-0, it wasn’t enough to win the title, but to rub salt into Celtic’s wounds, Kilmarnock decided to kick the ball into the stands to waste time and prevent Celtic from attacking.
There was a bitter wound kept open in the body of Martin O’Neill’s Celtic until the 18th of April 2004 when as poetic justice would have it, Celtic returned to Kilmarnock in such fine form and so far ahead of the Rangers in the league that the only way Kilmarnock could stop Celtic from winning the league was to murder them in the dressing room.
Celtic were depleted in April of 2004 No Hartson, no Sutton and Martin O’Neill didn’t quite trust Craig Beattie. Celtic had resorted going from 4-4-2 to 3-6-1 with Petrov sitting just off Henrik Larsson up front. In what was a very poor game but ultimately enjoyable for everyone concerned at the club. Celtic went for the goal early on, they pushed against a very poor Kilmarnock side, oh wait, a good job Jim Jeffries had done on such a small budget etc etc…
Then, with just ten or so minutes to go in the first half, Celtic had their breakthrough. As he had done time and time again since Martin O’Neill took charge, Stillian Petrov made his way into the box to finish the move off. Celtic were in front and all the pain caused by a year ago was starting to go away.
The second half played itself out, McNamara saw a lovely little finish be denied from him by the offside flag. The game finished and Celtic were champions in the same spot their league title dream died just 11 months previous. It was a lot less dramatic this time round but Celtic had plundered their way to the title that season. No one had beaten Celtic up until this point they clinched the league title. Anyone who was anyone had been beaten by Celtic that season. Larsson’s last season was not to be a barren one like the one previous.
There are many reasons for this league win being significant. We laid that ghost to rest, the wound was shut. There was something just not quite right about that day in May 2003. The Jeffries calling for the ball to be booted into row z despite being 4-0 down. Gordon Marshall being the happiest man in the stadium because he wasn’t picking the ball out of his net for the fifth time that day when Thompson missed the penalty. Billy Brown’s outrageous go at Stillian Petrov in an interview when he basically called Celtic cheats, the bitter wee scrotum.
This title win was special in a whole lot of ways, mostly because it would be Henrik Larsson’s 4th and final league title as a Celtic player. Through all his service of a Celtic player the rest of his team mates had a duty to deliver him a title and they’d done that. April 18th 2004 doesn’t exactly spring back automatic memories for Celtic fans, but when you tell them we won the league at Rugby Park, they’ll smile instantly.
Oh and that Porto team we narrowly lost out to in Seville? They won the Champions League a few weeks later
