The banner in the Celtic end of Ibrox as the teams emerged was prescient. ‘Welcome to the Craig Bellamy Show,’ it read.
By the end of the final Old Firm clash of 2004-05, the Welsh forward had justified his star billing with an outrageous goal in a 2-1 win which left Martin O’Neill’s side five points clear with just four games to play. It felt like the credits were starting to roll in the title race.
Normally a bastion of hope, even Rangers’ unashamedly partisan official website seemed resigned to the inevitable.
‘Rangers must overturn a near insurmountable five-point deficit if they are to become SPL champions after losing the final Old Firm match of the season,’ it read.
‘Only a near collapse by Celtic in the last four games will see the Ibrox side finish the season as champions.’
In golfing parlance, O’Neill’s side were seven shots up at the turn. Many an engraver had got to work with an outcome less certain.
The story of what became known as Helicopter Sunday involved faith and unlikely heroes. It was the most dramatic finale to a top-flight season in Scottish football this century.
A narrative has emerged in the subsequent 20 years that complacency on Celtic’s part also played a role. This is resoundingly rejected.
The same applies to the suggestion that O’Neill’s eye was off the ball due to his wife’s illness. It was three days after the title loss that he announced he was stepping aside.
While the side was inevitably weakened by Henrik Larsson’s departure to Barcelona the previous summer, it still boasted Chris Sutton, 30-goal John Hartson, and, from January, a supreme talent in his fellow Welshman Bellamy.
Celtic had started the defence of their title on formidable form, winning 12 and drawing one of the opening 14 games. It was to Rangers’ credit that they were not already out of sight.
Alex McLeish’s side spilled early points to Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United and lost the first derby at Parkhead. Yet, they hung in there.
And having beaten Celtic 2-0 at Ibrox in November, they won at Parkhead by the same scoreline in February to hit the front.
But a draw with Inverness and a loss to Dundee United allowed Celtic to edge back in front.
O’Neill’s men were two points clear as they alighted at Ibrox on April 24. A win and the title was apparently theirs.
The first twist in the tale came a week later. Under Tony Mowbray, a youthful Hibs team - boasting Scott Brown, Derek Riordan and Garry O’Connor - went to Parkhead and won 3-1.
The following day, McLeish’s side left Pittodrie with the same score. It was threatening to get interesting.
A week on back in Glasgow, Rangers first saw off Hearts by the odd goal in three to go top of the table by a point. Celtic reclaimed their position 24 hours later by beating Aberdeen 2-0.
McLeish’s men again enjoyed the advantage of playing first on the penultimate weekend and asked another question of Celtic by winning 4-1 against Motherwell. O’Neill’s men got out of Tynecastle with a 2-1 victory and their destiny in their own hands.
While both sides would finish with away matches, Celtic’s assignment looked more straightforward. Motherwell had scraped into the top six, were injury ravaged and had only pride to play for. Hibs, who Rangers faced, had European football on their minds.
McLeish later recalled: ‘I said to the squad: “The one thing you cannot do is not win this game. If for some reason Celtic drop points, and you don’t do your jobs and win the game, you will regret it for the rest of your lives. You will wake up in the middle of the night with cold sweats”.’
It was a message which had to be reinforced as the half-time whistle sounded in Leith.
Having failed to break the deadlock in their game, Rangers returned to their dressing room to learn that Celtic were leading through a Chris Sutton goal. As things stood, Celtic were winning the title by four points.
‘The players came in with hunched shoulders when they heard the Celtic score and I knew I had to pick the guys up again,’ McLeish added. ‘I had a word in Barry Ferguson’s ear and said: “You can’t be sitting there with your face tripping you. You’ve got to be rallying these guys”.
‘hen we had big Marvin Andrews telling everyone in the dressing room “keep believing” and gradually the atmosphere changed a bit. I got everyone together and said: “Here’s the scenario. If we score a goal and Motherwell score a goal, you’re champions”.
After 14 minutes of the second half, a deflected Nacho Novo strike ensured Rangers were keeping their half of the bargain.
Word filtered through to South Lanarkshire. Celtic fashioned more than enough chances to settle the issue but anxiety was now at play.
Motherwell almost snatched an equaliser when Stephen Craigan’s header was blocked on the goal-line by Didier Agathe.
Hartson squandered three opportunities to stretch Celtic’s lead with home keeper Gordon Marshall also keeping Bellamy at bay.
An equaliser for Hibs would have been greeted with euphoria 40 miles west, but it was never going to be forthcoming.
Although Aberdeen were beating Hearts 2-0 at Pittodrie, Hibs would have to concede another three times to be overtaken by the Dons on goal difference.
In a scene reminiscent of West Germany’s infamous one-goal win over Austria in the 1982 World Cup, both sides were content to keep the score as it was.
‘I remember chatting to Ferguson and Michael Ball during the game,’ recalled Dean Shiels, who played that day for Hibs.
‘We had time to talk on the pitch because there was no action happening. We were just sitting off the game and the Rangers back four were just passing the ball across the pitch. We were in no rush to chase the ball. We were happy to lose 1-0.’
Kenny Clark, the referee in Leith, recalls the closing stages of the match as the most bizarre he even took charge of.
‘It was like boxers backing off from one another,’ he said. ‘Hibs retreated into their own half and Rangers were just being allowed to keep the ball. It was an extraordinary situation.
‘Barry Ferguson had asked how long to go. I said, “Four minutes” and he said, “Just blow, this is boring”. A minute later, the whole mood changed completely and all of a sudden there was an urgency about Rangers, who thought, “Let’s not do anything stupid here”.’
News of Scott McDonald’s 88th-minute goal for Motherwell immediately reverberated around Easter Road. From wanting it all to end, Rangers were now leading the title race by five goals.
Only two things could deny McLeish’s side now. A Celtic winner or a Hibs’ equaliser.
‘The only fear I had was Soto Kyrgiakos and Marvin Andrews keeping the ball between them at the back,’ McLeish recalled.
‘We’re not talking Barcelona defenders here, they were two big warriors. But they didn’t make any slip-ups. They were clever and careful enough to see the game out.’
Such was the din inside Easter Road that many present weren’t aware that McDonald had struck for a second time in the 90th minute to seal a Motherwell win.
The ball was at the feet of lifelong Rangers fan Alex Rae when Clark blew the final whistle.
‘I sent the missus to New York on the Thursday because I thought, “If we lose this title, I’m going to be an absolute nightmare”,’ the midfielder recalled,.
‘I remember Barry Ferguson jumping on my back and saying, “We’ve won this”. There were players dancing around like I was actually overwhelmed. It was something that I’d never envisaged.’
A professional to his bootstraps, McDonald looked like the happiest man inside Fir Park when he scored the goals which condemned his boyhood heroes to second place. Moments later, though, the enormity of what he’d done hit him.
‘I was in shock after the game,’ the Australian recalled. ‘I thought I was going to get lynched. I remember sitting there in tears.
‘All I can remember is Phil O’Donnell coming up to me, ripping the towel off my head and saying, “Stuff them, it’s about us, it’s about you doing well for you”. Coming from a guy like that, who had played for Celtic, that was huge.
‘It’s kind of crazy. My grandfather was in the Celtic supporters’ club in Melbourne in the early hours of the morning. It’s safe to say he had to get bodyguards to get out of there in the end. And my father-in-law didn’t look at me for about a week.’
McDonald’s subsequent exploits in a Celtic jersey ensured his intervention that day would be forgiven if never forgotten.
To this day, the visiting players contend that their attitude was not what cost them.
‘We were purely focused on what we had to do, and that was win the game. Quite simply, we blew it,’ Sutton reflected.
‘I had put the team ahead, but it was like any game, you need a second goal. We had chances, in fairness, but I have to give begrudging credit to Motherwell.
‘The dressing room afterwards was an eerie place. There are no words to describe it really and nobody could have said anything that would have made the situation better.
‘We won the cup the following week, which was some solace, but the league was the one we wanted.’
The curtain would come down on the O’Neill era after that narrow win at Hampden over Dundee United.
Notably, Gordon Strachan would regain the title in his first season with a point fewer than Celtic managed the previous year.
McLeish would endure a wretched final season at Ibrox, finishing third behind Hearts as his former Aberdeen team-mate won the championship at the first time of asking.
But he took his leave knowing that no Rangers manager in history had presided over such a dramatic triumph. It’s hard to imagine any ever will.