Celtic's Turning Points of 2008

So that's another year over, and a new one just begun. Time for a look back at my Top 5 most important turning points of 2008. In no particular order:

The Hartley-Robson Combo

With the end of the season fast approaching, Celtic seemed to be heading for an ignominious end to the campaign. The darkest moment came on the 5th April, and a 1-0 defeat at home to Motherwell, which seemingly left the Celts well and truly out of contention. It left Celtic six points behind Rangers with seven matches remaining, with the Ibrox side having two games in hand.

The seeds of redemption though, had already been sown in the 36th minute of a turgid 3-0 win away to Gretna on the 23rd Match. The booking picked up by Scott Brown for a late challenge in that match meant a suspension for the £4.4m midfielder who, understandably given the tragic personal circumstances he endured last season, had not quite lived up to expectations in his debut campaign.

With Massimo Donati off form (to put it mildly), Gordon Strachan, almost by default, paired Paul Hartley and Barry Robson in midfield for the visit to Motherwell on 13th April.

In a barnstorming performance, Celtic ripped the Steelmen apart, surging to a 4-1 win, with the aggression, tenacity and skill of Hartley and Robson instrumental. It was a pairing which was to drag Celtic, kicking and screaming, to the title.

Two derby matches in the month of April summed up what the Hartley-Robson axis brought to Celtic. In the opening minutes of the match on 16th April, Robson clattered into Christian Dailly, leaving the Rangers player sprawled on the turf. Rangers visibly wilted.

Midway through the first half of the return match on 27th April, things again did not look good for Celtic. Having overturned an early Scott McDonald goal to lead 2-1, Rangers had taken a grip on the game, with Barry Ferguson beginning to dictate things. Until that is, Hartley took drastic action right in front of the referee. Hartley took the yellow card, and Ferguson disappeared for the remainder of the match which, to be fair, he often does against the Champions.

The Hartley-Robson combo was a vital component of Celtic's third Championship in a row.

The Death of Tommy Burns

The death of Tommy Burns in May was, for Celtic, a minor inconvenience in comparison to the tragedy it was for his family.

That takes nothing away from the depth of feeling Celtic players, management and supporters had for the Legend that was Tommy Burns. As Head of Youth Development at the club since 1999, Tommy Burns was a father figure to many of the first-team squad at the club - Stephen McManus and Aiden McGeady for example had both known Tommy at least since their mid-teens.

Coming days before the final match of the season, the reaction of the players to the loss of their immensely popular first-team coach could have gone either way. It would either spur them on to the title, or it could have ruined their focus completely.

As it happened, the team responded by redoubling their efforts and one of the most iconic moments of the entire campaign is surely Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, mobbed by ecstatic team-mates, with his right arm aloft, pointing to the Heavens, leaving no-one in any doubt as to who he had scored that Championship winning goal for.

No-one in the Paradise CSC would have been cheering that goal longer or louder than Tommy Burns, Celtic Legend.

"Walter's" Rant

After drawing 0-0 with Hibs in late April, Rangers manager Walter Smith (or "Walter" as he is known to the Scottish sporting press) summed up the feelings of his club over "extensiongate".

With the SPL already having agreed to an extension to the season should Rangers reach the UEFA Cup Final, the loss of two vital points at Easter Road brought to the surface fears within the Rangers camp that the title may yet be thrown away.

Smith said:

"Peter Lawwell appears to be the person who is the head and chairman of the sporting integrity committee for the SPL.

"Peter would be better coming out and saying he wants Rangers to play four games in a week because it suits his team and helps their quest to retain the championship.

"If it was the other way about I would be hoping Celtic had to play four games in a week so he should be honest about it instead of trying to hide behind what he is calling 'sporting integrity'.

"At the end of the day that's the way it is and in sport it's all about winning.

"He's doing what he feels is right for his club by saying the season shouldn't be extended but he's doing it for his own reasons.

"He's not doing it for sporting integrity or for the league and he's as well being honest about it.

"The thing that bothers me most is that the SPL have this season acceded to every request Celtic have made and especially the placement of the two games we have at the moment.

"I don't mind playing four games in a week. Celtic are using that situation to their advantage but that's what it's all about. You've got to win.

"We have to overcome that if we are to win the championship so that's what we have to do.

"The most galling aspect is that they have given Celtic everything they asked for and Peter is still complaining at the end of it. And he knows it is physically impossible to play the games in the time we've got."

This, for me, was the moment Rangers lost the league. Smith sent out the message to his own players that they needed a second extension to win the league. In his players' minds, Smith planted the seeds of doubt that they were not good enough to close out the league in the remaining time.

It was Smith's "Keegan" moment. He had lost it big time and everyone knew it, but dared not say so.

JVoH's Late, Late show

If ever there was a moment when Rangers could have won the league last season, it was in the closing minutes of the match at Celtic Park on 16th April.

Ten-man Rangers were holding Celtic to a 1-1 draw as the game entered its 94th minute. Seconds earlier, the Rangers supporters could be heard airing their traditional victory anthem—God Save the Queen (and no, not the Sex Pistols version). Members of the Rangers backroom staff were seen to gleefully exchange high-fives and time was running out for Celtic's Championship hopes.

In one final attack, Gary Caldwell curled a cross to the back post, where Scott McDonald managed to head it back across the six yard box.

Had Carlos Cuellar not received a red card for stopping Shunsuke Nakamura's goal-bound shot with his hand, who knows what might have happened next? No matter, Cuellar was not there, and as Rangers' substitute goalkeeper Neil Alexander desperately tried to cut out McDonald's knock-on, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink soared into the air and nodded his first goal against Rangers to spark bedlam inside Celtic Park, as 50,000 Celtic fans realised it really was Game On!

Smash and Grab

After Rangers' 4-2 win at Celtic Park in August, alarm bells were ringing amongst the Celtic support. While Gordon Strachan is statistically the most successful Celtic manager since the incomparable Jock Stein, doubts remained for many Celtic fans, not always for the best of reasons.

The main doubt in the minds of many fans was about Strachan's ability (or maybe lack thereof) to best Walter Smith in encounters against Rangers.

At that point, since Smith's return Celtic had played Rangers seven times, winning two and losing five. True, the first two, in the early part of 2007 were pretty meaningless affairs, with Celtic having built up an impregnable lead by that point.

The next match had been spoiled by the imaginative refereeing of the now discredited Mike McCurry, who booked NINE Celtic players in a pretty insipid performance, where most Celtic fans would have greatly appreciated ANY challenge from a Celtic player which actually merited a yellow card. Indeed, the only serious injury sustained in the match was to Celtic captain Stephen McManus, who was taken off with concussion, after a reckless (to put it kindly) "challenge" by Daniel Cousin, for which the Rangers player escaped censure from the eccentric McCurry.

The following match at Ibrox in March so Celtic again capitulate weakly and the two epic wins in April were followed by that freakish match in August, where even Kenny Miller managed to get his name on the scoresheet, almost unbelievably, twice.

So it was with more than a little trepidation that the Celtic faithful approached the encounter with Rangers on 27th December. A poor record at Ibrox, together with the absences of Shaun Maloney, Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady - the creative heart of the team and all players who have at least once masterminded Rangers' downfall in this fixture - hardly inspired confidence.

The first half would do little to dispel Celtic nerves, with Rangers enjoying the territorial advantage, and the Celtic defence on occasion looking less than comfortable.

Into the second half, and the moment Celtic feared arrived, with Kris Boyd - the man who specialises in swording the also-rans of the SPL - through on goal with just Artur Boruc to beat. Depending on your outlook, either the pressure of scoring in a big game was too much for Boyd, or the Holy Goalie made a vitally important stop. Whichever it was, minutes later Scott McDonald showed Boyd how a top-class striker takes his chances.

The moment McDonald spun away from Kirk Broadfoot and unleashed his stunning volley into the roof of the Rangers net, this game was won. For the next 30 minutes, Celtic comfortably saw the game out, with Rangers unable to mount an attack worthy of the name.

It is too early to say right now how significant a turning point this one might prove to be. There is a lot of football stil to be played, and the vagaries of fortune could still turn the title either way. But it still proved a few important things:

Yes, Gordon Strachan can outwit "Walter" tactically.

Yes, Celtic can flourish without the mercurial McGeady.

Yes, Celtic can go to Ibrox and win.

Celtic are in the position now where they can only throw the title away. After the freakish events of 31st August, 2008, which Celtic fan could ask for anything more?