JOHN BARNES later called it a disaster waiting to happen. At the time it felt like the end of the world for Celtic when it just so happened to be the start of the club’s rebirth.

IF you are big on anniversaries then this a good year to be a Celtic supporter. It’s 50 years since 1967 and all that. Go back six decades in October and you’ll find the 7-1 League Cup win over Rangers.

In May it will be 30 years since Billy McNeill returned to the club ahead of what was to be a historic centenary double winning season. Then in 1997, Wim Jansen was appointed manager, signed Henrik Larsson and a campaign began, successfully, to prevent ten in a row.

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The 17th anniversary of anything isn’t usually worthy of note, even if the special date came yesterday. Except given who the visitors are to Parkhead this weekend and the competition in which Celtic will meet Inverness Caledonian Thistle, it’s worth celebrating what turned out to be a marvellous tragedy, to borrow a favourite phrase of Berti Auld.

Yes, it’s the night Barnes’s Celtic were deservedly beaten by the Highlanders, then a little over five years old and outside of the top tier, who came down to Glasgow, won the tie 3-1 ,and nothing from that night on would ever be the same again for both clubs.

If time travel were possible, it would be fascinating to return to February 8, 2000 and bring one of the many Celtic supporters who protested outside the main stand that night and show them the state of their club now. That evening changed everything.

The greatest result in Celtic history came in Lisbon. Where the rest of the most important days fit in a top ten would be a rather jolly way to while away a few hours down the pub. I would have no hesitation putting the defeat to Inverness way above some of the more notable victories.

We shall get to why in a moment.

When that game took place, my job was to report solely on Celtic for the Evening Times. With all the timing of a Peter Grant tackle, I missed Wim Jansen stopping ten and left the job a few months after Martin O’Neill had come to town.

In-between came Dr Jozef Venglos, a thoroughly decent man who signed Lubo Moravcik so could be forgiven almost anything. But he was too old and Rangers were spending lot of money, a tact which rather came back to haunt them.

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Then came Kenny Dalglish who decided that half a dozen games taking Newcastle reserves was good enough for his pal Barnes to sit in the same office as Jock Stein once inhabited.

Strange days.

In the defence of Barnes, he had little luck, both Henrik Larsson and Paul Lambert were seriously injured with Larsson out for most of the season, and as he admitted years later he wasn’t ready for the job but felt he “couldn’t say no to Kenny.”

That whole night, even by Celtic’s standards at the time, was jaw-dropping. Inverness scored first Barry Wilson which stunned Celtic Park; however, normal service, or so everyone thought when Mark Burchill ran up the park soon afterwards. But this was not a Celtic side known for their heart.

Olivier Tebily, Vidar Riseth, Regi Blinker, Eyal Berkovic and Mark Viduka all had talent to wildly varying degrees but they were not the type anyone would turn to on a football field when things went wrong.

And they did soon enough. An own goal by Moravcik of all people put Inverness in the lead again, which led to a huge argument in the dressing room at half-time.

Eric Black, the assistant to Venglos and Barnes, lost the plot at Viduka, a fine player but a fragile man, looking for a reaction. He got one. The Australian took of his jersey and refused to go back out in the second-half.

Jonathan Gould rounded on Berkovic, not a hugely popular character, threats were made and Moravcik uttered the immortal phrase “this is not a football club, it’s a circus.”

“I remember saying that;” the bold Lubo told me recently. “It was a crazy night. We actually had a lot of chances but they got three and scored. We knew it was bad and there were a lot of fans waiting for us in the car park.

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“Everything went wrong. I felt sorry for John who I got on well with. I think he knew that he wasn’t going to survive that night. He struggled to keep control. There was a lot of arguing. We were never going to win. The team wasn’t together.”

A Paul Sheerin penalty before the hour made it 3-1 and there was not a single Celtic supporter inside the ground who believe their team was capable of a comeback. Not with Ian Wright on the field, singed as a replacement – oh, yes – for Larsson. The striker was a fine player in his day but could hardly run by then.

The next day at the Evening Times was a busy one. We learned Barnes and Black had been sacked. Terry McDermott, known as the party convenor or something, resigned, as did Dalglish who was told in no uncertain way that this was his mess and so he was staying to fix it.

It was hard to keep. Three different front pages hit the streets, all about the state of Celtic.

I recall with some clarity bursting into laughter when that third goal went in. That’s what Celtic had become. A joke.

But there’s a thing.

The original match on the Saturday had been cancelled because high winds had damaged a panel in one of the stands. If that hadn’t happened and the home side had won, the Celtic 2000-present day could have been incredibly different.

The club went on to win the League Cup that season anyway and they might have won the Scottish Cup as well, as unlikely as that sounds now. The board couldn’t really have sacked Barnes and that would have meant many things.

No O’Neill. No Larsson staying (that’s for certain). No Dermot Desmond becoming more involved. No Celtic actually being a European force again. No Seville. No Treble. No beating Barcelona. No Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, John Hartson. No Tommy Burns returning.

Celtic actually owe Saturday’s opponents a thank-you for that famous night even if the Highlanders have twice since knocked them out of the Scottish Cup.

“The good thing which came from that was Martin,” said Moracin. “He transformed everyone. I might not have stayed and won a Treble and then another League, plus the chance to play in the Champions League would have gone by me.

“Maybe you are right and losing to Inverness was a good thing. It didn’t feel it at the time.”