FAR BE IT for your humble scribe to rain on anyone’s parade, but may I interrupt your Friday routine just for a moment to ask a question?
Can you recall what you were doing a quarter of a century ago?
If you wish to be pedantic, exactly a quarter of a century and a day ago?
Yes, I know, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast, but I most certainly have vivid reminisces of a sporting occasion which occurred in the east end of Glasgow on the grim, bitterly cold, dark and foreboding evening of February 8 2000.
Still struggling for a recollection? I’ll give you a clue. Does the headline ‘SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS’ ring any alarm bells?
Yup, that was the formation of words that blitzed out of the back page of The Scottish Sun the following morning just to emphasise that Celtic supporters had not somehow united in the exact same nightmare and, in fact, the Highlanders, who were not in the top flight at the time, had travelled to Glasgow to dismiss the Hoops from the national competition.
UNFORGETTABLE…The Scottish Sun’s headline on Celtic’s darkest day.
It’s etched in history now that David gubbed Goliath 3-1 on his own turf to send shock waves through Celtic Football Club.
Grown men were seen weeping uncontrollably into their beer – I wasn’t far behind, truth be told – after the result had been confirmed.
It was a seismic moment in the history of a proud football club, a catastrophic reverse that will never be airbrushed from the past, a sad and pathetic chapter that underlined what can happen if you take your eye off the ball.
Seems a lifetime ago, doesn’t it, dear reader?
Once I had regained a semblance of composure the following day, I put in a telephone call to a chap by the name of Steve Wolstencroft, who was sports editor at The Scottish Sun at the time.
As a former sports desk chief at the Sunday Mail, I had made Steve’s acquaintance on a few occasions. I liked him; he was a good professional.
I upset him the first time I met him by calling him a Geordie, his Newcastle accent was unmistakable, but he chided me slightly and corrected me. He was a proud Wearsider and Sunderland were his team.
BYE, BYE BARNES…the manager is about to lose his job in the fall-out of the calamitious Cup exit.
On the evening Celtic’s reputation was put through the shredder, he was not being snide with his back page thunderer. He was in charge of a popular tabloid newspaper where snappy headlines are imperative.
That particular banner line got the job done. More’s the pity.
I congratulated Steve for his back page – yes, the words did stick in my throat, but credit where it is due – and he told me how the eye-catching formation of words originated.
As events unfolded at Parkhead that bleak winter’s evening, Steve recalled a back page belter from another journal in the sixties that made a reference to a hat-trick from Liverpool winger Ian Callaghan against Queens Park Rangers.
It read something along the lines of: ‘SUPER CALLY SCORES A HAT-TRICK, QPR ATROCIOUS‘.
Steve mentioned the old headline and an astute sports sub-editor, a bloke called Paul Hickson, I believe, immediately came up with ‘SUPER CALEY…’ (you know the painful rest).
A bold headline came to life in an instant and will perennially serve as a reminder how complacency can wreck progress.
Of course, the ramifications at Celtic were just as expeditious and brutal.
PARADISE LOST…joyous Caley Thistle players indulge in their version of the Highland Fling on their way to a sensational Scottish Cup triumph over Celtic at Parkhead.
John Barnes, after a mere eight months in charge of the team, was sacked and years later Kenny Dalglish’s former Liverpool team-mate confessed: “It was just an accident waiting to happen.”
You might have warned us, John, and we could have got the Valium on speed dial.
I thought the timing may be appropriate to rekindle this horrible memory.
Celtic, of course, are massive favourites to beat second-tier Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup at Parkhead tomorrow evening.
God forbid, history couldn’t repeat itself, could it?
It’s only now, a quarter of a century later, I have managed to recover from the Caley Thistle setback.
ALEX GORDON
*TOMORROW: Don’t miss Part One of the EXCLUSIVE series ‘The Result that Changed the Course of Celtic History’ – only in your champion CQN.
