For the first time in 20 years, Martin O’Neill will lead out a Celtic side at Parkhead this week.
The Celtic legend has been appointed by the club on a caretaker basis after the news that Brendan Rodgers had resigned.
He will be joined by Shaun Maloney, who came through the ranks under O’Neill’s watch at Celtic, and has had previous experience of working with the Hoops’ B team.
His first game in charge will be against Falkirk on Wednesday night, where the Irishman is expected to get a huge welcome home, and he will be hoping for a similar fate to the one he had all the way back in 2000.
Martin O’Neill’s Celtic side beat Dundee United 2-1 on the opening day
After finishing 21 points behind Rangers in the previous season, Celtic were under pressure to turn that around and began their campaign with a trip to Tannadice to face Dundee United.
It took four minutes for the Hoops to take the lead as Henrik Larsson bagged the opening goal of the O’Neill era.
Dundee United then pulled themselves level shortly after the break when David McCracken was able to score with a simple header.
It seemed that both teams would be heading for a point until record signing Chris Sutton stepped up on his debut to score the winner in the 90th minute and hand O’Neill a winning start to life in Glasgow.
Celtic went on to win a domestic Treble
That opening day victory was the catalyst for Celtic to enjoy a wonderful season that culminated in them taking a clean sweep of domestic trophies.
The 2000/01 campaign was also the season of the famous 6-2 victory against Rangers, where Larsson scored an audacious chip. It would go on to be one of his 53 goals scored across that season.
Celtic were also able to secure their first win at Ibrox in six-and-a-half years with a convincing 3-0 win against Rangers in April 2001.
Let’s hope for another repeat.
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