Goalkeeper Jim Calder speaks about the night Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup in 2000 - But for him, playing Rangers was a bigger moment for him
GOALKEEPER Jim Calder says he would have been happy if Inverness Caledonian Thistle left Celtic Park with just a 3-0 defeat in their Scottish Cup clash 25 years ago.
But having a starring role in the 3-1 win which knocked Celtic out to record arguably the biggest upset in the competition’s history is one of the proudest moments of his career.
Inverness, who were playing the Scottish First Division at the time, took the lead through Barry Wilson, before Mark Burchill equalised for Celtic.
Lubomir Moravcik’s own goal gave Inverness a 2-1 lead at half time before Paul Sheerin’s penalty made it 3-1 10 minutes into the second half.
Calder pulled off a number of saves to see out their 3-1 victory and book their place in the fourth round where they would force Aberdeen to a replay before losing 1-0 at Pittodrie.
At Celtic Park, Calder’s biggest memory of the game was how time seemed to slow down with no end in sight as they looked to hear the final whistle.
Before the match, all he wanted to do as a goalkeeper was keep the scoreline respectable. He never thought beforehand that they were standing on the verge of history being made.
He said: “It never crossed my mind we would win the game until I heard the final whistle.
“That clock went so slow, I would think that 10 minutes had gone and only a minute had passed. Because of the screen, I found myself watching the clock which is something that I never did.
“I remember Charlie Christie saying to me during the game that the worst we could do is lose two goals and get a replay up the road.
“I had a few good saves during the game and they had their chances. I probably expected to be busier, but I was busy enough. It was probably one of my busier games saves wise. I can’t remember too much about it, but looking at the game I was surprised with the amount of saves I made.
“It wasn’t as if we were attacking them all the time, but we had chances as well, it wasn’t a one-sided game.
“The journalist Chick Young said there was one team playing football and it is wasn’t the Premiership team. I would say that is the biggest compliment we received. I would have been happy coming off the park with a 3-0 defeat.
“The last thing that I wanted as a goalkeeper was losing six or seven goals. If someone said to me that we would leave Celtic with a 3-0 defeat, I would have bitten your hand off.”
In what was the biggest game in the club’s history at that time, the occasion was put on hold when the original date for the match on Saturday, January 29 was postponed due to structural problems caused by weather.
Calder says despite the postponement, he wasn’t feeling 100 per cent going into the original date of the clash and it allowed him to get fully fit for when they did face each other 10 days later.
He said: “The game was postponed as there was something wrong in the end where the Caley Thistle fans were going to be standing. It was vibrating and making a lot of noise. We were all there at 2pm standing in the tunnel and were on at the park. There was word that the game might be in doubt before being called off. I remember I had a sore back that day and in a way the game being called off was a blessing in disguise. But I was never going to miss that day.
We had to play Airdrie on the Saturday beforehand which we won 4-1, and then we had the game at Celtic on Tuesday.
“I didn’t want to make any mistakes during the Airdrie game and give the manager a dilemma whether to put Les Fridge in goals instead.”
“After the Celtic match, I actually remember the game against St Mirren more where we lost 2-0 at Paisley.
“I am not sure some of the boys had been home by the time Saturday came around. To be fair, St Mirren gave us a standing ovation when we came out. We were good enough to beat Celtic but we couldn’t beat St Mirren.”
Inverness defeated a star studded line-up which included the likes of Eyal Berkovic, Lubomir Moravcik and Mark Viduka, with some Celtic players reportedly earning more in a week than they did in a year.
However, after the match, Calder says they were the ones who were treated like superstars and they grabbed the attention of the press at home and abroad.
He said: “We heard some of the players at Celtic were getting paid £40,000 a week. I was basically on sweeties, I was only part time as I was working as a builder alongside my football career.
“I worked on the Monday and the game was on the Tuesday, and I had the rest of the week off. We were inundated with press and television coming to the house.
“We had relatives in South Africa who said their national news had reported the result. It was a result which sent shockwaves around the world.
“The next day we were getting phone calls from Sky, BBC, Grampian and journalists coming to the house. It was the first time I saw my wife hoovering and dusting at the same time. That is still a standing joke in the house to this day.”
Calder says despite being the best result of his career, beating Celtic wasn’t the highlight of his career. Being a Rangers fan, taking them on in the Scottish Cup quarter final at Tannadice in a 3-0 defeat in 1996 was his favourite match.
He said: Beating Celtic was probably the best of the result of my career. But for me it wasn’t the biggest game that I have played in.
“Being a Rangers fan, playing them in the Scottish Cup quarter final at Tannadice was a bigger game for me. Playing the likes of Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup and Ally McCoist was the highlight of my career.”
