Twenty years ago Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic to cause one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Scottish Cup
Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of when Inverness Caledonian Thistle caused one of the biggest shocks in the history of the Scottish Cup. Reporter Leah Williamson recalls the day she reported the historic moment for the Inverness Courier.
“Remember this, it doesn’t happen every day.”
Leah Williamson was pulled to one side by respected Scotsman sports journalist Ian Archer at the press conference at Parkhead after Caley Thistle achieved what many people thought to be impossible.
February 8, 2000 saw First Division Inverness Caledonian Thistle stun Premiership Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish Cup third round at Celtic Park.
It gave birth to the famous headline “Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious” which meant Steve Paterson’s team would go down in history.
It was also a result which went down in infamy at Celtic, costing manager John Barnes his job two days after the result.
Williamson went down to cover the game 10 days after it was originally meant to be played, after it was postponed due to broken guttering at the stadium.
Little did she, or any Inverness fans know, that it would prove to be worth the wait.
“I remember the first game had been cancelled and I was asked if I wanted to cover the rearranged game,” she said.
“In the build up to the game, people were realistic about what they thought would happen.
"They thought that Celtic would win and that it would just be a good experience for Caley Thistle to play.
“Inverness were still a young club at the time and fans were enthusiastic seeing their team play against one of the biggest clubs in Scotland.
“Everyone wished them well, but nobody expected to happen what happened."
Inverness took the lead after 16 minutes when Barry Wilson scored a well taken header from a Paul Sheerin cross.
The lead lasted only 60 seconds when Marc Burchill equalised, after which Williamson looked around the press area, saying everyone believed that the result would go on to be a foregone conclusion.
“The thing I remember most about the match was sitting with the other journalists and you could see over their shoulder what they were typing," she said.
“Everyone was typing away they were expecting Celtic to come back and win.”
However, Slovakian midfielder Lubomir Moravcik uncharacteristically made a mistake by deflecting Bobby Mann's header past his own goalkeeper Jonathan Gould.
Caley Thistle were then offered a golden opportunity in the 57th minute when they won a penalty when Regi Blinker was guilty of pushing Barry Wilson in the box.
Paul Sheerin kept his cool from 12 yards to beat Gould to give Inverness a 3–1 advantage which would win them the game.
Williamson says the atmosphere in the press area changed after the penalty as they sniffed history being made in the air.
“Suddenly the game changed and Caley Thistle took the lead,” she said.
“People were just deleting stuff off their laptops and rewriting their copy.
“They were typing lines like Brave Highlanders Shock Win.
“The line everyone used was not since 1967, since Berwick Rangers knocked Rangers out of the cup had there been as big a shock.
“I remember journalists from national newspapers were asking northern colleagues questions like, “Who plays at number seven?"
“I got the feeling they hadn’t prepared themselves for Caley Thistle as they were trying to get player histories as they thought something big was about to happen.”
At full-time, despite the home crowd booing their own team, Williamson remembered how much admiration everyone had for what Caley Thistle had achieved.
“To be fair by the end of the game nobody begrudged the result.
“Everyone was focusing on Celtic suffering how big a blow it was for them going out to a minnow.
“They weren’t being disrespectful they were focusing on how big the defeat was to Celtic.”
In the fourth round, Caley Thistle drew 1-1 with Aberdeen before losing 1-0 at Pittodrie in the replay.
It wouldn’t be the first time Inverness Caledonian Thistle would knock Celtic out of the Scottish Cup.
Three years later, Dennis Wyness scored the only goal of the game as Inverness beat Celtic 1-0 at the Caledonian Stadium in the quarter final stage.
In 2015, Caley Thistle beat Celtic 3-2 in the semi final before going on to beat Falkirk 2-1 in the final.
The Scottish Cup win may be the greatest moment in Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s history. So far.
But Williamson says the famous night at Celtic Park 20 years was the moment Inverness was officially put on the Scottish footballing map.
“The famous headline captured the magic of the occasion," she said.
“It started a cup hoodoo as it wasn’t the last time they caused a huge upset against Celtic as Caley Thistle beat them at Hampden and Inverness.
“But that night made people outside of the Highlands take notice of Caley Thistle.”
