Scott McDonald has broken his silence on the stick he took from ex-Celtic players after scoring the goals that cost the Parkhead club the title on Helicopter Sunday.
The little Australian made a helicopter change direction with two swings of his boot one mad Sunday in May almost 18 years ago and has never been allowed to forget it. All McDonald did was twice put the ball in Celtic’s net in the last three minutes of the final league game of the 2004/05 season to give Motherwell a 2-1 win and deny the team he’d supported all his life the title.
The helicopter carrying the trophy to Fir Park swung away to deliver it to Rangers at Easter Road and McDonald has never been forgiven by some. He accepts that from fans; comfortable in the knowledge that all rationale goes out the window where football is concerned. But what he can’t take willingly is the stick he received from Celtic players who were on the pitch that day and criticised him for scoring and celebrating those goals.
In the latest Off The Record podcast , McDonald rounded on players such as Alan Thompson – who branded him “an absolute disgrace” – and Jackie McNamara, who wrote in their autobiographies of their unhappiness at his actions.
John Hartson, meanwhile, said: ‘Scott McDonald, calls himself a Celtic fan, runs away smoking a cigar. Absolutely killed us. If I’m a Celtic fan I’m running the other way. I don’t want the ball’.
But the seething 39-year-old said: “Look, we weren’t on a lot of money. I was on probably £300 or £350 a week. But at times we were on £500 a win. And then, because we made the top six, the club agreed to give us double bonuses for any wins that we had in those last five games. It was unbelievable, amazing money.
“So we had a lot to play for in that last game. For us, the reality is that pays for your holiday or what you’re going to do in the summer. Then people want to talk crap about you and say, ‘You did this and you shouldn’t have done that’.
“Hey mate, I’m actually trying to make a career for myself. You’re the one that’s on 20, 30 bags a week. Don’t complain to me about me doing my job when you’re not doing yours, all right?
“I got to the point where I was pissed off with those chats and people talking crap and how they want to talk about my actions in that game. Worry about your own actions and what you didn’t do!
“Because essentially that’s why you didn’t win the game - not because of Scott McDonald. There were chances there for them to create their own history and they didn’t do so.
“Everyone knows who’s talked about it and what they’ve said so I don’t need to talk about them by name. They want to talk about my name a lot but I don’t need to do the same. For me, I did my job. I was a Motherwell player.
“Did I celebrate? Yeah I did. Did I know what I was doing? Hell no. I still don’t know what I did to this day. I was in shock. I was in awe at my first goal because it was probably one of my best goals I’ve ever scored in terms of how it came to me and my reaction to hit it over my head. It was a wonderful goal. You could have put two keepers in there and I don’t think they’d have saved it. It was just that instinctive. That was the reason why I did celebrate.
“The second one was just, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s happened again!’. From that point, you’re walking back to the halfway line and you’re s******* yourself because you’ve just realised then, exactly what’s happened.
“But up to that point you don’t - you’ve just scored goals. You’ve scored goals against a big club, you celebrate. You don’t think anything of it at that time.
“People talk about, ‘but you’re a Celtic fan’. Name one player who doesn’t try against any team when they are a professional footballer. Not many. And if they do then they don’t deserve to have played the game, by the way.
“You are there to do a job and play for your club and the boys that you are with. I didn’t owe Celtic’s players anything. It’s all part of the game. But don’t cry about what I did. Worry about what you didn’t do. That’s always my gripe when I hear people talking about that situation.”
Two seasons later, McDonald - who’d seen Motherwell reject a £400,000 from Rangers six months earlier - signed for Celtic and discovered first hand that some people just couldn’t let it go, even if one Celtic legend welcomed him with open arms.
He added: “We were five days into pre-season in Switzerland when Tommy Burns pulled me. I’ll never forget Mr Celtic saying to me, ‘You’re here for a reason. We believe in you and you’re good enough to be here. Don’t worry about outside noise or what you’ve done previously. It’s not a problem for me, son, and it shouldn’t be a problem for anybody else’.
“For me, that was more than Gordon (Strachan) or anyone else could have said. If Mr Celtic’s alright with you, you’re good. But about 10 days in, you get your two season books. I went into the ticket office to get them and the lady who served me just started abusing me. Really abusing me!
“I was like, ‘you know I play for Celtic, right?’ She just kept going on about the Motherwell thing. The boss came in, everyone came in and they’re asking if I’m all right. I’m absolutely fine - but who was that??’ Some Celtic fans will be thinking, ‘too right, you deserved that’ but it was like water off a duck’s back by that point. I couldn’t give a sh**.
“It actually motivated me more. It did me a favour, having people who doubted me at Celtic. It was better than people doubting me from the outside. I’ve always tried to prove the doubters wrong. I was a young Australian boy who had no right to play professional football if you look at the law of averages. My skillset was good, but not amazing. My mentality got me to where I needed to get to.”
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