On the evening of February 8, , Paul Hickson, sub-editor at The Sun , came up with arguably the greatest headline in Scottish football history — maybe even in football history. Caley were up. It had looked like a straightforward evening. We expected Celtic to win, but it soon became obvious something big was happening. Celtic losing to a team nobody had heard of — or could even spell — that was the story. Six years later, in the spring of , I spent six weeks in Dunedin, the city on the south island of New Zealand, doing an elective project as a medical student.
One was the coach for the University of Otago, a resident of the southern hemisphere for a couple of decades. To my horror, the night I went to train with them was the night they were doing a bleep test and despite fancying myself as a keeper, I was expected to give it a shot. It was a complete disaster, and ultimately I swallowed my pride and just helped carry the equipment.
But when Coach discovered I was from Inverness, his eyes lit up. Six years on, 11, miles away according to Google Maps , people had still heard the story. The aftermath was brutal. Scot Symon, the manager, survived for another ten months, partly because Rangers simply did not sack managers. Symon was only the third in 68 years.
Their manager? Jock Wallace. By the s, the boot was very much on the other foot. While their rivals racked up the league trophies, Celtic could at least find some solace in their Scottish Cup record. The latter part of the decade finally brought success back to Parkhead. Rangers entered the season aiming for that tenth consecutive title, but a Celtic side under the leadership of Wim Jansen and with a Swede named Henrik Larsson playing up front stopped the rot, winning the league by two points.
But even that great joy was fleeting; Jansen left the club just 48 hours after the end of the season, his relationship with general manager Jock Brown irreparable. In hindsight though, Celtic were probably a lot closer to Rangers on the pitch than that result suggested. However, drastic change was called for by the fans and those in charge of the club, and drastic change came.
