John Barnes has given his side of the infamous half-time showdown between Mark Viduka and Eric Black on the night Celtic lost to Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup.
Celtic were trailing 2-1 to the First Division side with the fans anxious about the way that the match was going on the back of losing 3-2 to Hearts the previous weekend after being 2-0 in front.
Barnes gives his views in a podcast with a Celtic State of Mind in which he reveals that before going on a pre-season trip to Norway he phoned his wife to tell her to forget about moving to Scotland because he didn’t think he’d last long at Celtic.
Everything seemed to be weighted against Barnes being a success, on the night of the Caley Thistle match his only ally, Kenny Dalglish was in La Manga enjoying some winter sunshine on the golf course.
Listen to “John Barnes with A Celtic State of Mind” on Spreaker.
Recalling the events of his last match in charge, 74 minutes in
At half-time Mark was accused, he was accused, in a team talk at half-time when things aren’t going well Eric Black said to Mark ‘Mark you’re not even trying’. That’s all he said, ‘Mark you’re not even trying’
Mark jumped up ‘Are you calling me a cheat, are you calling me a cheat, no one speaks to me like that’. Went for him, called him out, took his kit of.
I said ‘Mark what are you doing?’ He said ‘I’m not playing. I said ‘You’re not going to go out and play’ he said ‘No I’m not playing’. I said ‘OK, Wrighty get on’.
With Viduka absent Celtic lost the match 3-1, Mark Burchill scoring Celtic’s goal from a 17th minute penalty to equalise the opener from Barry Wilson.
Barnes was dismissed the following day with Kenny Dalglish taking charge on a caretaker basis. In their next match, a 3-0 win away to Dundee Viduka scored alongwith Johan Mjallby and Colin Healy.
