2003: Rangers treble and Celtic went to Seville
Are you watching The Football Years…or The Bill?
Following on from last weeks programme on 1967, the episode of The Football Years, if you believe the pre-screening blurb, could be called The Football Days (STV, Thursday 14th, 9pm)
It appears as though the show will be focussing on the final day showdown of the SPL 2002/03 season. Rangers and Celtic were level on points and the goal difference was neglible, a final day shoot-out was going to decide who were to be champions.
Going into the final day, the scene was set with both sides on 94 points, both sides had a goal difference of 68 with Rangers on top through virtue of having scored one more goal.
This and the fact they were at home to Dunfermline made Rangers favourites for the title, with Celtic travelling to Kilmarnock.
An early goal for Rangers looked to set the Blues on their way and the news at Rugby Park got worse for Celtic fans when Alan Mahood singled out Shaun Maloney and callously took him out of the game. The Killie tactics were laid out from the first whistle and Celtic were looking a little slow to start with, understandable after their efforts in Seville.
Seville. Even the name conjures up the memories of that Celtic Uefa Cup campaign.
The chants of “men against boys” as Souness was shamed at Ewood Park, John Hartson’s away goal in Vigo, the quick-fire start in Stuttgart, the domination of Anfield and a frankly hideous 180 minutes against Boavista in the semi’s.
All of that was little compared to the mass migration to Seville and Celtic’s role in one of the best games a Scottish club side has played in Europe. Twice Henrik Larsson rose above the Porto defence to head Celtic back into the match but as has often been the case, the defence let the forwards down. A 3-2 extra time defeat was no disgrace but runners-up medals and the praise of the host city and Uefa was all that Celtic brought home to them.
However, a Dunfermline equaliser at Ibrox breathed new life into Celtic and Chris Sutton headed them into a half-time lead. Fans at both stadiums had one ear tuned to a radio whilst scores of fans in homes and pubs watched both games as best they could.
The season was 38 games long but can probably be boiled down to a split-second.
Celtic broke down the left hand side and the ball was fired across goal, Larsson drifted off his marker and made connection with the ball only to see the ball cannon off the post to safety for Kilmarnock.
Before Celtic fans had sat down, news filtered through that Ronald de Boer had scored for Rangers and the championship looked to be heading the way of Ibrox.
Celtic rallied hard although an Alan Thompson penalty miss was a heart-breaking moment (one which Fernando Ricksen was keen to remind his near neighbour of, although the player did score a penalty in the match) and in injury-time, it could still have went either way.
Celtic were 4-0 up, Rangers were 5-1 up, Rangers were leading the league and there was still one more penalty award to go.
Stuart Dougall gave Rangers the chance to wrap up victory and Mikel Arteta fired home the kick to make the score 6-1 and put the title out of sight for Celtic. It had been an unbelievable day for both sets of fans, although perhaps now overshadowed by other last day dramas in the 00’s.
Rangers went on to beat Dundee 1-0 in the Scottish Cup final the following weekend, claiming a treble for the Ibrox club and marking Alex McLeish out as a top boss.
Celtic would have to wait until the following season for their revenge and a Green and Whitewash in the Glasgow derbies as well as a League and Cup double…in addition to a 25 match league winning run was some reward for the Hoops in 2004.
Then again, 2005 turned out to be another monumental occasion and one that is likely to feature in a later episode of The Football Years.
The thing that strikes you now about 2003 is that it was probably the last time both teams were firing at the peak of their powers at the same time. And even players who were deemed to be on the periphery, such as Shota Arveladze or Steve Guppy would be seen as massive players in the current line-ups of these two teams.
What was your best football moment of 2003?
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you forgot to mention rangers got thier 50 th title to make it more special
Did that not only make it 49.5 Jim?
No, of course, that was Rangers 50th title as well, there was a heck of a lot going on in that season – leading to the 5 stars and 1 star debate from the following season.
The whole kismet of they years was summed up with the fact that Rangers had 5 stars on their shirt and then proceeded to lose 5 times to Celtic in 2003/04.
Seriously though – 7 years ago and how badly has Scottish football fallen away since – just looking at the players on show there and now.
As it always the big two fighting it out at the top and a relative gap between them and the rest it maybe doesn’t hit home as much but Celtic have as their main striker someone who cant control a ball and Rangers have a back four of centre halfs one of whom can’t cook an egg properly.
yes but both teams ran up massive debts to get to that level!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s only money Danny….
and its okay, just get into loads of debt and then expect to pay back 60p in every pound to pay for it – thats the business plan isnt it?
You are right, there is a good reason why the players today are not of the level of what they were – clubs are hopefully being more sensible – whether its self-imposed sensible or having it thrust upon you…it should help to develop youngsters and self-sustainment in the long run…its just going to be a bit grim for a wee while longer.
And it is not just Celtic and Rangers to blame – in fact, proportionally, the money spent by some of the other clubs was even outrageous.
You have to look at Dundee and their spending policy at the moment. Is the money man behind them really secure…but they messed it up big-time in the 00′s and they appear to be going down the same big spending route again.
Why has this site been set-up to look like an un-baised website?
When clearly by the editors comments you can see which team he supports..
There is more than one writer involved with the site – over time, we are trying to expand our coverage and fan-base.
if you feel as though your team is under-represented, why not submit an article to the team?
We will be looking to do a bigger push for wider representation in the next few weeks but as you’ll appreciate, its still a fledgling site.