Scott McDonald

Seemed to have a few problems with Mowbray but never actually approached him once? shitebag

 

I liked him, done a good turn for us. I'll always remember that goal at Ibrox, one of my favourite Celtic goals. Don't think he was a Tim though or not very much of one at least. I don't blame him for scoring against us that day but the way he celebrated those goals makes me think he obviously didn't support us that much.

 

Loves himself. Same as McGeady. The only impression I got from watching those interviews. Would have been brutal to have played with. Was a moany * as well.

 

Think you're bang on about both of them, can't even admit that their form was poor in certain seasons. It was more along the lines of the manager didn't like me or the formation/tactics were wrong. Hoping for a Stokes or Commons interview soon, surely be some good stories to tell.

 

He comes across as being quite conceited.

 

For as long as he could remember his burning ambition was to become a Celtic player.

Flamethrower in one hand, passport in the other, Scott McDonald just had a funny way of showing it.



First, the Helicopter Sunday goals which fired the little Aussie into Scottish football folklore while reducing Martin O’Neill’s empire to a smouldering wreck.

Weeks later McDonald took aim at Gordon Strachan and left the new Celtic boss standing on scorched earth too.


That he celebrated by gesturing in Strachan’s direction was, as a matter of fact, the crude manifestation of lingering resentment from a brief previous relationship at Southampton. But Celtic weren’t to know.

And when he then publicly attempted to force Motherwell’s arm into letting him join Rangers, McDonald appeared to be waving goodbye to his hopes of completing the last few miles of a journey that had brought him halfway around the world as a 16-year-old.



Seldom in the history of football’s sliding door moments can fate have altered one player’s path so profoundly.


“Well, it was an easy decision at the time wasn’t it?” McDonald smiles a little ruefully when asked how close he came to moving to Ibrox back in January 2008,

“I was already well liked by the Rangers supporters and I’d given up hope of signing for Celtic. So this was an opportunity to take my career to another level.”


Motherwell’s flat refusal to do business on the last day of that transfer window in January 2007 shaped the rest of his career.

He shakes his head. What came next – before the end of that same season – is still hard for him to process even now, a decade on and with his boots now hung up for good.

“I got a call saying Celtic were interested and I didn’t believe it. I was then told to wait for another call from Gordon Strachan.

“It turned into the longest 10 days of my life. I was in Hong Kong with the national team when the phone eventually did ring. I was so nervous I could hardly speak. You have to remember the guy on the other end of the line released me when I was a kid at Southampton.



So this was awkward from the start. After some small talk he says: ‘Are you going to have a problem working with me because I got rid of you?’.” McDonald pauses. He has to admit Strachan had a point.


He said: “You have to understand one thing, there had been a lot of disappointment when he let me go. A lot of hatred. To me he was a little ginger so-and-so!

“It was only when I got older I realised why he had done what he did. He knew I wasn’t ready. I had to go away and become a man. At the time I was angry.

“Later I saw him do the same thing with a lot of other players. Guys like Aiden McGeady for example. As a young boy it doesn’t even occur to you that some of the things he’s saying might actually be right.

“You are striving to get to the top and this guy is just getting in your way. As it turned out moving to Motherwell was the best thing I could have done.”

Fate has intervened in McDonald’s story once again. With Celtic still reeling from the loss of O’Neill, Strachan is now in charge and attempting to recover from a nightmarish five-goal Champions League mauling away to Artmedia Bratislava.



Shipping four more goals at Motherwell on the opening day of the campaign was not in Strachan’s script. And McDonald, of all people, helps himself to one of them.

Looking back, the 35-year-old laughs at the absurdity of it all. “I think I gave him two fingers when I scored, “ McDonald said with a hint of a cringe. “It was my way of saying, ‘Here I am, remember me? We’ll I’m going to make it anyway!’

“But our relationship totally changed when he phoned me before I stepped in the door at Celtic Park. How many managers do you think would go and rectify a decision they had made, regardless of how good that player had gone on to become?

“Essentially he didn’t say he had called it wrong. But he did say, ‘You weren’t as good then as you are now’. Maybe he twisted it to his own advantage. But that phone call told me a lot about him as a person. I couldn’t wait to work for him.”

The next two years were to become the time of McDonald’s life.


In a blistering debut season he scored 31 goals as Strachan’s side clinched the title on the last day at Tannadice. He netted glory goals against AC Milan and Man Utd in the Champions League and penned a new five-year deal the following summer.

McDonald said: “Sometimes everything just falls into place. It was a marriage made in heaven. There were no low points under Gordon, none. Not until we lost the league on the last day of the following season and he told us he was leaving.”

His long journey was about to take a defining and unexpected plot twist.

“Tony Mowbray,” he said with a roll of the eyes. “Look, there was a lot of upheaval and change. But he didn’t really man-manage the players who were there. He lost the love in the changing room very early. What we had under Gordon was a lot of protection



“Then this new guy comes in and as soon as things go wrong he starts blaming it all on the players. The trust was lost right away.”

McDonald’s relationship with Mowbray was one of the first casualties.

So when Strachan called again six months later, offering eye-watering numbers at Middlesbrough as well as a potential pathway into the Premier League, McDonald made a decision he’s been grappling with since.

He said: “Did I leave too soon? Yes, 100 per cent. But the money was too good to turn down. Simple as that. Celtic wanted the money, myself and Tony weren’t getting on and it felt like I was suddenly on the outside. So I did what I thought was the best for all parties.”



What he couldn’t have factored in was the prospect of Strachan ripping up his own contract just nine months later. Or of Mowbray walking through the door as his replacement.

McDonald has his heads in his hands now. He says: “How’s your luck eh? Of all the people. Look, it was a low.

“But it was a different situation for the two of us now. I was on that contract so now I was the one in the position of power. It was like, ‘OK, now you have to deal with me’.

“Actually, it was easier for us to get along when we were not in the fire at Celtic any more. There weren’t the same pressure points on our relationship anymore and we got on better for that.


He realised I was a better player than he thought I was and I realised he was a better manager than I had given him credit for.”

Sometimes fate has a wicked sense of humour.

 

Scott McDonald has revealed how he’s still the target of abuse from Celtic supporters - 13 years after Helicopter Sunday.

Today, in an exclusive interview with Record Sport, the Australian announces he has officially hung up his boots after a playing career spanning 20 years which included two and a half prolific seasons playing for his boyhood heroes at Parkhead.



But the 35-year-old suspects despite his best efforts in the hoops his name will always be synonymous with the two late goals which ripped the title out of Martin O’Neill’s grasp at Fir Park in 2005 - and handed it to Rangers.

And he has told how he became embroiled in a spat with one unforgiving fan as recently as last month when he took his six-year-old son to watch Brendan Rodgers’ side in action for the first time.



McDonald said: “I was so excited as it was Callum’s first ever Celtic game. It was the 1-0 win over Hamilton when Dedryck Boyata scored the winner. It was such a proud moment for me as a father, passing on the tradition by taking my boy to Celtic Park for the first time. It brought a lot of memories rushing back.

“But some guy came up to me and started having a go. ‘I’ve got a long memory,’ that kind of thing,


“I was quick to remind him ‘You’ve also got a short one,’.


Look, it’s the minority. But it only takes one to ruin the moment.

“It hurts me when Celtic fans dig me out for it. No question. I don’t like it and I don’t take kindly to it. I have been known to have a nibble back now and again when they do.



“For a lot of people it would be fine to be remembered for something like Helicopter Sunday. I mean, it was a huge moment in the recent history of Scottish football.

“But, for me, it’s all a bit of a contradiction. A mixture of emotions. To this day I can’t work out if this was the a high point in my career or one of the lowest. And I’ve had to carry that around with me ever since.

“I grew up a Celtic supporter. I was lucky enough to end up playing for the club.

“But every time a Celtic fan brings up what happened that day it feels like a kick in the teeth because it hurt so many people. It’s a weird one.

“Look, it put me on the map didn’t it? There’s no question it escalated me to a different status. After that day I knew everyone was watching me. Suddenly, my performances took centre stage and that’s why I ended up getting my dream move.



“If Helicopter Sunday doesn’t happen then maybe Celtic doesn’t happen. So, even now, how am I supposed to feel about that?”

McDonald has decided to officially announce his retirement from the game after opting not to extend his playing career with a move abroad.

He scored a total of 203 goals in a career which included spells at Southampton, Motherwell, Celtic, Middlesbrough, Millwall and Dundee United.

He said: “I’ve decided it’s my time now and surprisingly I’m OK with it. I’ve made my peace with it over the summer.

“It took me a while because I wanted to hold off to see if I might be offered something that would float my boat but, as it turned out, there was nothing I really wanted to do.



Over the last few years of my career I always had one eye on going back to Australia but when that chance did come up a couple of years ago Motherwell ruined it for me.

“I suppose I’ve been trying to get back there ever since that moment but it never happened. So I tried to finish my career by helping Dundee United get back into the Premiership and I’m still disappointed that we weren’t able to do that last season.”

 

Saw his piece in the papers, shocking he's getting abused from so called fans with his young son taking him to his first game.

Absolute loved the wee guy, should never have been sold and so glad we signed him, remember saying we should sign him not long after that fateful Sunday on an old Celtic forum I was on, knew he'd score goals.

 

Great wee player for us.

 

George O'Boyle showed how a true Celtic supporter handles a situation like that.

 

Don’t.

Still get shivers even thinking about that header.

It definitely went over the bar right?? Still??

 

His celebration on scoring that day is rightly not forgiven..

 

Couldn't tell you mate. I still haven't uncovered my eyes.

 

He lived near me in Perth for a bit. Mind the Physio shopped him for taking coke on Christmas night out. He was sacked and ended up working the night shift in Asda