FOR long enough, Helicopter Thursday looked like failing to lift off. After so much discussion about the league being settled on goal difference, was that really going to be the case after two nil-nil draws instead of the expected victories for Rangers and Celtic?
That was at least the distinct possibility that confronted us just after 8:30pm, when the matches at Pittodrie and Tannadice reached half-time without a goal to show between them. Both visiting teams had been largely on top during the first 45 minute
s of their respective matches, but Dundee United against Celtic and, to a lesser extent, Aberdeen versus Rangers had at least looked sporadically threatening.
Neither title challenger could take anything for granted, then. Not at that stage. Nor could they afford to think too much about what be happening at the other ground. With only 45 minutes of the league campaign to go, it was more than ever the case that Celtic and Rangers would be focused on playing the game in front of them rather than trying to get their heads round any complicated permutation involving events at the other ground.
With each game still in the balance there was sure to be nervousness in abundance in the visitors' dressing-rooms on Tayside and 70 miles or so further north, but, in the case of Celtic, it was surely tempered with a whisper of optimism. They were the ones four goals to the good. Time was on their side.
Rangers, on the other hand, were fast running out of it. Even if Celtic only secured a single-goal victory at Tannadice, they would need five at Pittodrie to take the title on goals scored.
Anyone who has seen Rangers in recent weeks knows how improbable such a goal haul would be over 90 minutes in any game. Five in half that time, in a fixture which has been an embittered grudge match too often over the past couple of decades, were simply inconceivable.
Of course, for as long as the two games remained without a goal to their names, the faint hope existed for Rangers that Celtic would fail to beat United, and that they could then claim the single-goal victory which would be enough to give them the title. Or even that Celtic would lose, and that Rangers could therefore claim the league trophy for the first time since 2005 simply by drawing.
But when was the last time that either Glasgow club – never mind the pair of them on the same evening – went through a match without anything eventful happening? Having won their last six matches, including the two Old Firm games at Parkhead, Celtic were determined to make it seven in a row and put the maximum pressure on their rivals.
If they needed any additional motivation to do so, they surely found it in the knowledge that a victory and the title which would go with it would be a fitting tribute to Tommy Burns. This was the first match Celtic had played since the death last week of their former player and manager, who won the title at Tannadice back in 1981.
Asked before the game how those circumstances would affect his players, Gordon Strachan said it would be hard to tell until the game kicked off. The passing of their friend and colleague had had a traumatic effect on many of the players and staff at Celtic Park, and the manager – in common with the team, wearing a black armband – was surely right to suggest that the on-field reaction of the team was difficult to predict.
In two of the four stands at Tannadice, however, the Celtic supporters were in no doubt about the appropriate tone for the evening. This was to be a celebration. So, for some time before kick-off, they began to sing the tune with which they had celebrated the midfielder in his heyday. "Tommy twists, Tommy turns, Tommy Burns," they sang.
After a minute's applause in memory of the man at both grounds, referee Stuart Dougal got the match at Tannadice under way. It seemed a reasonable supposition then that there would be a few more twists and turns in events before we knew who were to be Scottish champions for season 2007-8, and, sure enough, after those first-half stalemates at both grounds, that was how it turned out.
The majority prediction since Monday night, when Rangers beat St Mirren 3-0 to draw level on points with Celtic but still four goals behind, was that the two Glasgow teams would win by similar, narrow margins, and that Celtic would thus hold on to their title. But that all changed some 18 minutes into the second half, when Lee Miller put Aberdeen in front. As the news broke, the Celtic supporters began to celebrate, and they had all the more reason to do so nearly ten minutes later when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink headed home what turned out to be the only goal of the game.
For Rangers, the second half at Pittodrie turned out to be a miniature version of the slow shattering of their hopes which has occurred over the past few weeks. Not long after the Celtic goal, Darren Mackie put Aberdeen 2-0 up to end any chance Walter Smith's team had of pushing Celtic all the way. Then, to make matters worse, Nacho Novo was sent off and, as a consequence, will miss tomorrow's Scottish Cup final.
Back at Tannadice, Dougal blew the final whistle and the celebrations began. Strachan wore a disbelieving grin; his players donned Tommy Burns tribute T-shirts; and the helicopter bore down on the ground, the SPL trophy on board.
