Chris Sutton Silences A Rangers Support Prematurely Celebrating A Point At Celtic Park With A Goal That Sealed The Grand Slam.
When I wrote my article on the Ten Honest Mistakes I had a few on the list which I wasn’t able to use; one of them came on Sunday 8 May 2004, when Hugh Dallas chopped off a perfectly legitimate Stan Varga goal in the early moments of a match Rangers couldn’t afford to lose. The prize for them was little more than avoiding humiliation; we had played, and beaten them, four times that season and this was the Grand Slam game.
Thompson’s free kick was netted by Varga, but Dallas claimed to have spotted a Henrik Larsson “infringement” on Frank De Boer. He was just about the only person inside Celtic Park who had. That would have got us off to the most beautiful start imaginable and that day might well have turned into a rout. As nice as that would have been, I’m not unhappy with how things turned out.
Celtic were all over Rangers that day, simply all over them.
It was one of those days when they came with no faith in their ability to beat us at all, and basically played for a draw to salvage a little dignity. Their fans were so pleased to have staved off embarrassment they started celebrating a backs-to-the-wall performance where they’d barely crossed the halfway line with about ten minutes to go.
Talk about settling for what they could get!
Celtic fans could have settled for that too. We had murdered them 0-0 and everyone knew it, but our players were never going to be content with that.
Big Chris in particular liked nothing more than sticking it to them – on the day he signed he famously talked about how important it was for Celtic players to “put Rangers in their place” – and in the final minute he got his chance.
A long ball from Marshall found Sutton himself; he was in the middle of the pitch, and he directed the ball to the King of Kings … and then he ran.
The anticipation was wonderful. The partnership between those two was as good as we’ve ever seen in the Hoops. Larsson brought the ball down, turned, fed it through and Sutton was on it. He breezed past De Boer, planting him firmly on his backside, and although he was still outside the box he lobbed it high over Klos.
The Rangers fans, who a moment before had been celebrating mediocrity like a cup final win, fell silent and began to leave in droves. The Troops in the Hoops went wild. We had done it; history has come to know it as the Green and Whitewash.
