It’s one of the more famous stories for all the wrong reasons. The night Celtic were beaten at home by division two side Caley Thistle was an embarrassing episode for the club in more ways than one.

Celtic were struggling in the league but nobody expected them to get put out by the Highlanders at the time. It would prove to be the end of John Barnes short lived Celtic career with the Englishman not being able to survive the defeat.

It was a season of frustration, we had lost Henrik Larsson early on to a leg break against Lyon and the team couldn’t cope in his absence.

Mark Viduka carried the responsibility of getting goals but on the night of the Caley game, everything came to a head. When Celtic went in at half time 2-0 down to the minnows – Viduka recalls the famous dressing room bust up that saw him subbed at half time.

The rumour and innuendo was that Mark refused to go back onto the field and basically helped Barnes lose his job.

Looking back on it, the Australian recalls he ‘lost it’ when one of the coaches questioned his commitment to the team. Viduka recalls being so frustrated he was scoring goals but Celtic’s defence was all over the place.

He took exception to being asked if he didn’t fancy the game at half time and flash point in the dressing room so many players get involved.

Here’s the former Celtic strikers recollection of events:

“What happened? That’s a big one actually! It’s a difficult one to explain because there was a lot going on.” Viduka told RecordSport.

“We were struggling in terms of what was happening on the pitch. At the time I was top scorer at the club and we went into that game I think we lost two goals in the first half, although I don’t actually remember it too well because I have tried to rub it out of my memory bank!

“So it was very frustrating and even before that game we were conceding a lot of goals and for a club like Celtic that shouldn’t have been happening.

“To be honest I was a little bit upset about that because we kept conceding goals. We were playing against Caley Thistle, who were a second division club and we had already conceded two goals.

“So what happened was I walked in at half time and the assistant coach sort of questioned me. He basically said ‘what’s up big fella, do you not fancy it today?’

“And something in my head just clicked because that’s the type of guy I am and I just lost it.

“I said to him ‘If I’m not good enough to play, then put someone else on.’

“That was basically what I said to him and there was a big fight and a big argument and there were other players who got involved.

“He questioned my commitment and at the time I felt, I was doing my best.

“In games before that, I would be scoring goals, but we would still be losing games and in this one game he comes in and he questioned my commitment to the team.

“People think I had a bust-up with John Barnes. But I have nothing but good things to say about John Barnes. I loved his training sessions and he was a good bloke.

“But I’ve got a bit of pride about me and when somebody questions my commitment in that type of way by suggesting that I didn’t want to play or something like that.

“So I said to John Barnes that if I wasn’t good enough to play, put somebody else on to play. And that was that.”

Asked if he had thrown his boots across the dressing room, Viduka replied:

“I don’t even remember.

“All I know is that I just lost it.”