BILLY McNEILL paid £300,000 for former England Under-21 keeper Ian Andrews in June 1988.
It was a decent sum of money at the time to prise the highly-rated netminder from Leicester City as the Celtic manager frantically sought a new No.1 after regular Pat Bonner had been sidelined by injury.
The Hoops were going into a new season on a high after the previous campaign’s league and Cup double in the club’s centenary year.
Bonner, suffering from a back problem, had missed the 2-1 Scottish Cup Final victory over Dundee United in May with Northern Ireland international Allen McKnight taking over the gloves. He moved to West Ham in the summer leaving McNeill with a problem.
RISE AND SHINE…Ian Andrews leaps above team-mate Mick McCarthy to hold a high ball in the eventful encounter at Ibrox on August 27 1988.
Veteran Alan Rough was brought in as cover while the Parkhead boss looked for a long-term solution.
Andrews arrived with a growing reputation across the border. Alas, he made only eight first-team appearances for Celtic before returning to England.
The 6ft-plus shotstopper kept a clean sheet in his debut, a 1-0 home win over Hearts on August 13 1988. However, things started to unravel just a fortnight later when McNeill’s men collapsed to an embarrassing 5-1 loss to Rangers at Ibrox.
Amazingly, Frank McAvennie drilled the visitors into a fifth-minute lead, but the hosts were 2-1 ahead by the interval with strikes from Ally McCoist and Ray Wilkins.
Celtic tried desperately to get back into the contest after the turaround, but Andrews had a howler when he allowed an effort from McCoist to drift over his head into the net for a third goal. Kevin Drinkell and Mark Walters added to the misery.
NOW YOU SEE ME…Ian Andrews in just one of his eight games for Celtic.
The defeat was the Hoops’ worst against their city neighbours in 28 years and the keeper shouldered most of the blame. To be fair to Midlander, his defence disintegrated in a forgettable afternoon in Govan.
He conceded 15 goals in his first-team appearances and was ditched with Rough taking over until Bonner recovered from injury.
Andrews was loaned to Leeds in early December before a permanent £200,000 switch to Southampton in February 1990.
He joined Bournemouth three years later and retired at the age of 32 in 1996. He returned to Leicester as a goalkeeping coach before taking over as physiotherapist at Team Bath in 2004.
* TOMORROW: Don’t miss the adventures of another former Celt in CQN’s EXCLUSIVE series.
