O'Donnell Tribute Match

[wyness_is_god]

Well Fans View

As was pretty much expected most of the week, the shame of Celtic and their fans managed to turn the Phil O'Donnell tribute match at Parkhead today into their own Tommy Burns tribute day, Larrson erselick and Title Winning party amongst other things. 

Is there no shame on them! the day was supposed to be about O'Donnell!!!

Reptiles  :008:

[Charles Bannerman]

Wyness is God... were you there to make your own judgement rather than be influenced by the inevitably biased views of the minority grouping involved? I was as it happens -  and I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that it was I suspect deliberately kept away from being a "Celtic" affair to the extent that it was.

Perhaps the reactions of these Motherwell fans on their website are no more than an interesting reminder that paranoia among football fans is not the monopoly of the Old Firm.

This was a match which obviously had to go ahead at Celtic Park rather than Fir Park to ensure that the Phil O'Donnell Fund benefited from the inevitable 60,000 sell out which the match was. And quite predictably the vast majority of the fans there were Celtic fans although I was quite impressed top see large swathes of claret and gold intermixing with hordes of green and white.

Yes... INTERMIXING... it was so refreshing to see a 60,000 crowd at a Scottish football match with no segregation and amid the most pleasant of atmospheres. (As an aside, could such a good tempered and public spirited affair have taken place under similar circumstances at Ibrox? Just a question.) Indeed, both sets of fans appeared to join with equal enthusiasm in the several chants of "Let's all laugh at Rangers".

The date of the match had been fixed for weeks and it was simply a consequence of events that it should take place additionally hard on the heels of the death of Tommy Burns and Celtic winning the SPL. Inevitably when you have around 50,000 Celtic fans in the same ground just three days after winning the SPL, this will loom large on the mood. Inevitably when you have a crowdpuller like Henrik Larsson making an appearance in the hoops at Celtic Park and scoring a goal, you will get a massive reaction from these same 50,000 people.

I thought that, given the overwhelmingly large majority of Celtic fans who were there at their own ground, in the wake of a further bereavement and an SPL title, Celtic FC did quite well to keep the proceedings AWAY from being a Celtic Party. For instance there was no little leprechaun singing the Ferret Song 3 minutes before kick off, there were no Gerry and the Pacemakers at half time, Phil O'Donnell's contributions to Celtic and Motherwell received equal attention on the big screen presentations and the announcer went out of his way to emphasise Motherwell's success and their qualification for next season's UEFA Cup.

Yes, the SPL trophy did make an appearance, but only at the very end when Motherwell fans had the opportunity to leave - many of them did not. Celtic FC could hardly have done anything else in the face of such a huge number of their fans so soon after winning the title. And if the TV coverage refererred to was Celtic TV, then what do they expect on a TV channel run by and subscribed to by the supporters of one specific club.

I really think this is a (predictable) over reaction to what was a wonderfully good humoured and appropriate tribute to Phil O'Donnell.

[KingBeastie]

Is there a match review of this anywhere?

I never got a paper yesterday, would like to see teams, scorers, etc.  (I don't even know the result! - not that the result is really important tho!)

[Charles Bannerman]

Is there a match review of this anywhere?

I never got a paper yesterday, would like to see teams, scorers, etc.  (I don't even know the result! - not that the result is really important tho!)

5-1 Celtic. Weighorst got the first. Larsson grabbed a semi acrobatic second and brought the house down. Bratbakk's shooting has clearly improved since he left Celtic Park to become an airline pilot because he got both the third and fourth. 4-0 half time. Darren Jackson got number five and appropriately David Clarkson got Motherwell's goal although it was a simple walk across the line. Very enjoyable, dignified and good tempered afternoon.

[KingBeastie]

Do you know the line ups Charles?

[CaleyD]

I can understand the Motherwell fans being a bit peeved at the parading of the Trophy.  The match should have been closed off in a more fitting tribute of some kind to Phil O'Donnell.  However, I think some people are getting a wee bit carried away by the whole "hijacked" thing.

The aim of this match was to raise funds for the Family Trust.....and it did that.

The Motherwell Fans will have a chance to pay (another) tribute to him when they have the match to mark the renaming of the Main Stand at Fir Park.  If they think a fitting tribute is to spend 90 minutes crying into their Bovril then they can do it then.

[Charles Bannerman]

Do you know the line ups Charles?

Sorry KB, don't have them off the top of my head but they were constantly changing in any case with unlimited subs. Motherwell were subbing every few minutes and even Wim the Tim (great to see him back again!) was ringing the changes very frequently.

But fundamentally it was the Celtic team that won the title in 98 against the Motherwell team that won the Scottish Cup in 91, Phil O'Donnell having played for both sides.

As far as the parading of the trophy was concerned, this was very much done AFTER the game any anyone who didn't want to wait had ample opportunity to leave. It really was as low key as it could be and realistically Celtic must have had no choice but to do something, given that 50,000 Celtic fans were congregating in Celtic Park 3 days after they had made it 3 in a row with "Tommy's Title."

I think we've just run into the Churlish Wing on the Motherwell Supporters' Club here.

[tm4tj]

CELTIC LEGENDS? 5

(Weighorst 10, Larsson 24, Brattbakk 30, 36, Jackson 91)

MOTHERWELL LEGENDS? 1

(Clarkson 72)

CELTIC LEGENDS (4-4-2) Gould (Kerr 41, Marshall 62); Boyd (McNamara 62), Reiper (MacKay 36), Annoni (Reiper 51, McLaughlin 56), Johnson (McKinlay 46); McNamara (Donnelly 36, Brattbakk 75), Burley, Lambert (McKenna 67, Johnson 82)), Weighorst; Larsson (McKenna 7), Brattbakk (Jackson 36).

MOTHERWELL LEGENDS (4-4-2) Woods (Dijkstra 30); Griffin (Wishart 10, O?Neill 62, Boyd 70), McCart (Martin 3), McKinnon (Angus 84); Clarkson (Leitch 46), Angus (Dolan 38), Patterson (Philliben 15, Patterson 25), Nijholt (Balmer 56, O?Donnell 67, Ferguson 82), McFadden (O?Donnell 6, Kirk 28); Arnott (Coyne 30, Clarkson 67, Kirk 82), Ferguson (McGrillen 34, Arnott 73).

[KingBeastie]

Cheers Charles and Manni.

Wow - some blasts from the past there!!

Tommy Boyd playing for both sides!

Some of the keepers too!!  Stewart Kerr - whatever happened to him?!  They could've had Gordon Marshall in both teams too  :001:

Must've been nice to see Gold back at Parkhead - only time I've seen him playing in the flesh was some game in February 2000!!  :004: :016:

Also will always remember Marshall scrambling back like mad and failing to stop Barry's shot from near enough the halfway line when we put well out the cup!  :001:

But best of all........ Sieb Dijkstra  :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

[Linwoodictsc]

i cant believe the motherwell fans moaning about the spl trophy being paraded at celtic park just days after celtic won it, well i suppose i can, but why did they have to wait till they went on a website when they sat side by side with the celtic fans inside the stadium.

no one asked them to watch it being paraded

i tried to get a ticket for the match simply because it was for charity and i wanted my son to see the likes of larsson and the others but the match was sold out so this goes to prove that it was played at the correct ground,