On This Day in 2002, Martin O’Neill’s Celtic travelled to Ibrox to face Rangers. With ten points between the sides, the hosts knew that they would need to win to have any chance of catching the reigning Scottish Champions.
Celtic scored with their first attack after Henrik Larsson scuffed his shot only to find John Hartson. The big Welshman nudged the ball into the net and wheeled away in celebration before the realisation that the flag was up. Replays showed that Numan was playing Hartson onside.
Celtic kept pushing and got the opener after Larsson played Stan Petrov in, who scored beyond Stefan Klos. Celtic made a number of chances but Rangers scored through a second half strike from Numan, which left Douglas helpless.
Celtic were the better team and passed up a number of opportunities to score a second. However, they were left to rue the decision by Hugh Dallas and his officials to disallow that goal from Hartson, which might have changed the outcome of the game. There were also a number of challenges that went unpunished against Barry Ferguson before and after he eventually was shown a yellow.
Celtic: Douglas, Mjallby, Balde, Crainey, Agathe, Lambert, Lennon, Petrov, Guppy, Larsson, Hartson.
Subs: Gould, Boyd, Moravcik, Smith, McNamara.
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