Sutton Stands By His Controversial Claims

Twenty-three years on Chris Sutton is standing by his lying down claims about Dunfermline.

Back in season 2002/03 Celtic and Rangers were neck in neck in the title race.

Following their midweek UEFA Cup Final defeat in Seville Celtic had to finish the season away to Kilmarnock.

Alex McLeish’s side faced Dunfermline at home with the Pars managed by Jimmy Calderwood.

Dave Murray set up Calderwood for the Pars job in the expectation that he would then move in at Ibrox.

With Bank of Scotland chief Gavin Masterton on the board at East End Park everyone know the rewards for winning the title.

Both Glasgow sides went into the final match on 94 points, they were also level on goal difference.

The UEFA Cup finalists won 4-0 at Rugby Park despite a brutal early attack on Shaun Maloney that forced him out the match. The young forward had been brought in to freshen up the Celtic side after the side had played for two hours in the Seville heat.

At Ibrox the goals were raining in. Leading 2-1 at half-time the home side scored four goals in the second half to take the title on goal difference. By one.

SUTTON DOESN’T HOLD BACK WITH DUNFERMLINE CLAIMS

Calderwood and his loyal assistants Jimmy Nichol and Sandy Clark spent the following week enjoying the delights of Magaluf.

With suggestions flying around about Hibs lying down to Celtic on Sunday Sutton tackled that issue head on.

Only once is he aware of a team rolling over, Sutton went into detail about in in his Daily Record column:

There has been a lot of noise about the prospect of certain teams lying down in some of the remaining games of the season.

I can’t see it happening. There’s only been one team that lay down in Scottish football over the years, and no one will convince me otherwise.

I copped a six-game SFA ban for making that accusation against Dunfermline in May 2003 after their seven-goal thriller with Rangers, which ended up seeing the title go to Ibrox on goal difference.

That wasn’t a great day all round. In our game down at Kilmarnock, they were time-wasting at 4-0 down for some reason and at the end I gave referee Kenny Clarke a piece of my mind.

I think I got two red cards before I did that TV interview and had another go at Kenny after he finished his warm-down to get another two reds! Let’s just say it was the heat of the moment.

Fortunately Martin O’Neill fought my corner at the Hampden hearing – and my punishment was knocked down to five matches because of my previously outstanding character. It was still a hefty suspension for telling the truth.

The following season Celtic whitewashed McLeish’s side with five straight victories. In the final match Sutton scored an 88th minute winner with a brilliant move that ended with a delicate chip over Stefan Klos.

McLeish and almost all of his players should have been declared ineligible due to their dual contracts.

A token contract would be registered with the SFA and SPL while millions of pounds were put into offshore trusts. Avoiding Income Tax and National Insurance.

In 2017 the Supreme Court declared Murray’s scam as illegal, branding it disguised remuneration. Five years earlier Rangers played their last ever match before going into liquidation.

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