Helicopter Sunday 15 years on: Motherwell's Willie Kinniburgh says ref Hugh Dallas 100 per cent right not to send him off for challenge on Celtic's Craig Bellamy

With the stakes monumentally high for a Hoops side needing to win in front of 12,944 fans at Fir Park on the final day of the SPL season to pip bitter rivals Rangers to the title, Dallas went against the Setanta TV pundits at 0-0 by not sending off the ’Well stopper 17 minutes into a game which the hosts then trailed after Chris Sutton’s 29th minute strike but snatched 2-1 thanks to two late, late goals by Scott McDonald.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, East Kilbride native Kinniburgh, now a 35-year-old policeman, has a different view of his controversial challenge on the Welsh striker which went unpunished and helped Super ’Well – managed by Terry Butcher – destroy the championship hopes of Celtic – bossed by Martin O’Neill.

“It was actually Bellamy who pulled me,” Kinniburgh told the Times and Speaker.

“And I fell on top of him.

“I remember watching it back and the commentators were saying that I should have been sent off.

“But I remember Hugh Dallas after it came by and said: ‘No chance, not a foul’.

“The fact that it was such a big game for Celtic, I think that incident put Bellamy off because he never stopped talking about it the whole 90 minutes.

“He was like: ‘You should have been sent off, you should have been sent off.

“And he wasn’t really concentrating on the game to be honest, he was just moaning at me.

“One hundred per cent, Dallas made the right decision. Never in a million years was it a red card. If I’d been sent off for that I would have been gutted.”

The family of aforementioned Motherwell matchwinner McDonald – a diminutive Australian forward who is Celtic daft – come from East Kilbride and were therefore friendly with the Kinniburgh family.

Nothing could have prepared them for the extraordinary events of May 22, 2005, which saw Skippy break his favourites’ hearts but likely helped earned him a move to Parkhead two years later and saw him net 51 times in 88 games before joining Middlesbrough in 2010.

Willie said: “Scott was living in East Kilbride when he came over to Scotland and became good friends.

“Scott and his family were all Celtic daft.

“It proves the point that when you pull on the jersey, no matter who people think you support, you play 100 per cent for the jersey.

“Scott was absolutely devastated after the Helicopter Sunday game right enough but during it he was delighted.

“Those two goals probably got him his move to Celtic.

“He was an absolutely smashing player.”

Although Motherwell went on to dramatically beat Celtic, the Steelmen had endured a lot of pressure in addition to the Sutton goal but they were indebted to hero custodian Gordon Marshall who pulled off a string of saves.

“Big Marsh had a great game,” Kinniburgh said.

“He had two or three great saves. It was like the Alamo.

“Then it got to 80 minutes and (Celtic player) Stiliyan Petrov played a ball out to Didier Agathe. He went to control it on the dugout side and it went under his foot.

“And Petrov absolutely slaughtered him during the game. From that moment we could tell the Celtic players (still leading 1-0) were really, really nervous.

“It could and should have been out of sight by then.

“And then just that last 10 minutes big Tel made a sub. He brought Jim Hamilton off and put on Gerry Britton.

“We used to have a good laugh, me and big Gerry.

“Gerry’s running on and he’s shouting back to me: ‘Feed the bear, just feed the bear’!

“The other players are having a giggle and I’m just shouting back at Gerry: ‘Aye, no bother’!

“And Gerry always says, when Scott runs through for the second goal and Gerry’s standing right in the middle of the 18-yard box just waiting for a tap in, he winds everyone up by saying if McDonald had squared it to him the ball was going into orbit!

“Knowing the big man that would have gone right in the top corner because he loves scoring goals.”

The grateful beneficiaries of Celtic’s late collapse at Fir Park were Alex McLeish’s Rangers, who won 1-0 at Hibernian that afternoon thanks to a Nacho Novo goal which meant they pipped the Hoops by just one point.

The result also had added significance for Motherwell manager Terry Butcher, an ex-Rangers player.

Willie said: “Big Tel, a nicer man you will not meet. He’s an absolute gentleman.

“Obviously he’s an ex-Rangers captain. It meant a lot to him I think managerially as well.

“Just the fact that you don’t want someone coming to win the league at your ground.

“You want to be decent. We’d got a doing at Ibrox the week earlier (4-1) and that really did hurt him.

“It didn’t matter that he was ex-Rangers, he wanted to go and win every game.

“You would need to get someone to clarify this – my memory’s vague – but I’m sure he spoke to Alex McLeish on the phone after in the changing room.

“That was Alex obviously thanking him and thanking all of us for beating Celtic.”

Despite being a boyhood Rangers fan – one of three from Motherwell’s back four that day said to have similar allegiances – who helped his favourites land the title in sensational circumstances, Kinniburgh said getting the result for Motherwell was his first concern.

He added: “Big Marsh was a Jambo, me and two of the other defenders were Rangers aligned and all the rest of the team were Celtic supporters. I was a Rangers fan growing up, my grandad and my dad used to take me to Ibrox when I was in primary school.

“My brother Steven was on the books of Rangers under Walter Smith and Ally McCoist.

“I had a season ticket right up until I became a professional footballer.

“As soon as that happened I concentrated on Motherwell. I would take my son to Motherwell games, the club means that much because of how good they treated me and how much I enjoyed my time there (Kinniburgh made 58 appearances for the Steelmen between 2001 and 2008).

“But I took a lot of satisfaction out of contributing to Rangers winning the league for all my friends and family.

“My dad Frank couldn’t even come to the game, he was a bag of nerves.

“He just thought that Celtic were going to lift the title at Fir Park so watched it on Setanta.”

What makes Motherwell’s victory all that more notable is when you consider that they were ravaged by injuries and suspensions.

Kinniburgh said: “I didn’t play every week and I think there were maybe three or four in the team that started that day that weren’t regulars.

“So I take great pride in beating Celtic that day. You’ll never see the likes of that Celtic team again.

“The team they’ve got just now is great and they’re winning trebles, this, that and the next thing.

“But they’re no patch on the team that Martin O’Neill had in terms of personnel.

“That match will live with me forever.

“Just the fact that for one we beat Celtic with players like that in their team.

“And to do it in the manner that we did in the last game of the season was just incredible.

“After the game we’re all in the changing room having a laugh and Celtic are sitting next door absolutely gutted.

“And then there’s a chap on the door and it was John Clark (Celtic backroom staff) with a big tray of champagne that they had obviously pre-ordered for their party and celebrations.

“He gave us it in. To do that I thought was really thoughtful.”

Motherwell: Corrigan, Craigan, Kinniburgh, Fagan, Foran, Kerr, Fitzpatrick (Clarkson 88), Paterson, Scott McDonald, Hamilton (Britton 85).

Celtic: Douglas, Agathe, Balde, Varga, McNamara, Petrov, Lennon, Sutton, Thompson, Hartson (Beattie 75), Bellamy.

Referee: Hugh Dallas

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