Celtic 0-0 Rangers, SPL, 15 February 2009

podium

Just beat!

A wee podium place

CS - We entered the period of decline some weeks ago. The only good thing is that the league is so poor that we are still top. I am hoping that we somehow pull ourselves out of this slumber and get a decent run of games going. The January transfer window was a good chance to inject some new life into the team but the manager obviously though it was not necessary.

I think the manager has an idea of the way he wants the team to play - the problem is that we need all 11 players we have out there playing above themselves at the same time to realise his dream. It ain't going to happen more than twice a season. The rest of the time we have to put up with well organised, uninspiring performances.

It's hard to single out any players for criticism. They are all good players who can play well on their day. Unfortunately, with only 1 great player in the side, when the rest are not on their game nothing happens out there.

Clearly we need some new faces. I think WGS has taken us as far as he can. So we have a choice. We have to be content with competing for the SPL every season or we have to invest in a new manager and give him some money to make us a better team. Clearly the former is the way the Board sees our direction.

I posted last week after queens park game saying we were shot-shy.

If proof was needed - we got it today.

Also mentioned our total lack of creativity yet WGS decides to leave our only creative player on the bench.

Mystifiedcsc

Paul67

How you managed to write all that about the game takes some doing.

Well done.

The important thing to remember guys, and its very very important, is that we're top of the league and their no! Top of the League Ma! We'll beat them at Ibrox and it will all be over, well done ma bhoys!

wee tim malloy, only one of the two statements you made was a fact, the other two were opinions, and very debatable opinions at that

q.1 if we have THE BEST TEAM, why is there no-one on this forum who knows what our 1st XI is?

4 years after WGS took over we still don't have a 1st XI. That is why apart from a period of about 2 weeks I have always been critical of WGS

Better than that, could anyone tell me what our best 18 players are, in terms of setting up for a match?

Space Cadete
Don't bother yourself about ppl like Mort. Unfortunately he falls under a certain stereotype applicable in the media to an archetypal Celtic fan and generally he plays the part to aplomb such that he'll likely be appearing in Panto season at the Pavilion.

Paul

A chess match suggests a certain amount of intelligence to the play.

WS came to strangle the life out of the game.We didnt have the savvy to create anything.As dull an OF game as I can remember.

just in from the game very disappointed

they were there for the taking and with a bit of spend in january we would
have won the game.

jvoh was awful disagreed with wgs team (of course) hartley huffed and puffed with two

pathetic shots on goal. no doubt people will come on and say he was great because he ran about

but we truly have dropped a level with this team. thought naylor played well but non activity in the

window could cost us big time. the referee gave the huns every benefit of the doubt and

wouldn't even put them back for the proper ten yards at naka's free kick

never seen such a damp squibb of a huns game.

myboysnowatim

I have two Bhoys but only one a tim...the other is flirting with the Michty Dons - plenty of time to redress this though - his first visit to Parkhead should sort it out - perhaps for the unveiling of a new Manager....!

notthebus

I think Paul was probably referring to the kind of chess I would be expected to play (=

Celtic will struggle to get people to renew season books serving up utter crap that we have been watching for months.

It is clear that Scottish football on the whole is pretty poor at the moment. However i'm not gonna wax lyrical abou it the EPL 'cos i JUST DON'T CARE about it - below the top 6 it's like any league the world over. Anyway, what i want to know is if anybody is actually working on improving the SPL, that is as a package. All these half-empty (half-full?) grounds, poor weather and the current standard of football etc. Clearly something must be done.
Today was a terrible advert - supposedly the best the SPL has to offer

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED.

IN THE LAST MONTH RANGERS HAVE HAD 2 CHANCES TO GO TOP OF THE LEAGUE.

TWICE THEY HAVE FAILED.

THEY WILL NEVER AGAIN TOP THE LEAGUE IN SEASON 2008/09.

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED.

OUR COMPETITION DOES NOPT HAVE THE STOMACH FOR THE FIGHT.

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED.

Martin.

Apparently we need a manager who can play football our way!

suggestions,gentlemen please.

Open question. Why would we play Aiden today when he has never performed against Rangers. Consistently looses the ball, bottles out of tackles and never tracks back? Harsh but true.

We conceded them 10 yards in the second half either because we deliberately dropped off or we were tired.

Naka superb in the first half but guilty of a few misplaced passes in the second. Most of the misplaced passes came at our favourite lose the ball spot on the left near the half way line when forward passing options arent there. we need to change something. A centre midfielder prepared to run ahead of the ball in space for example?

The malaise we are suffering seems to come from the tempo we are forced to play at. We are not good enough passers of the ball to increase the pace nor are we quick enough to recover. Higher tempo means more mistakes. hey presto a square passing game. Any forwards hopoing for a quick incisive pass quickly lose heart and drop into runs back towards the midfield and subsequently into channels were they can't do any damage. Does all of this mean we are not good enough? Could another manager get the team to pass the ball at a higher tempo? I don't think so. Maybe be braver off the ball and showing in space is the key. more space less likely to lose the ball.

Well done Gary Caldwell another man of the match performance and you can pass the ball. If only your team mates could read the game as well as you.

pggtips2 - If we're not the best, why do we keep winning the damn thing?......

oh yeah.

While I remember. Well done Boruc, great display, solid concentration from the off.

Celtics No.1!

The League will be ours but we have to improve.

Special @ 3.01 pm

Your cloak slipped in that post when you referred to our manager as "Strachan" and FFs as "Walter". Surprised no one else spotted this. True colours indeed.

Onwards to 4 in a row.

WeeFra

I notice a few comments about Celtic being in decline.

Well, if (as has again been proffered repeatedly today) this is indeed the poorest Rangers team ever seen, then taken with all the other worst Rangers team I've ever seen comments that have been posted almost daily for the last 4 years, we should have nothing to worry about. If they are truly getting even worse week on week, year on year (ever downwards), then we can afford a bad season or two and still win the title.

To everyone making these comments I would sugges tthat you are seeing things through green tinted glasses, although why you're all on the creme de menthe I don't really know.

Celtic underperformed today for the same reason that they did in most of the CL matches this season... because reasonably decent opponents stopped Celtic from playing to their strengths. The match stats from todays game concur with my observations of the balance of play over the 90 minutes. The teams were almost perfectly matched. And having seen a few snippets of Rangers games recently, they are not actually a bad team, and at times are even quite good! But we are still top of the league.

I am sure you will all vent your fury and air your opinions on here for the next few days, weeks, and on, as you are entitled to do. But in the end the destination of the title is more likely to be decided by a result at the likes of Love Street, Fir Park or Easter Road than it is in a Celtic v Rangers head-to-head. So here's hoping we can keep another clean sheet whilst breaking the (one game long!) drought at the other end in our most important game yet this season... the next one.

'Mon the hoops!

martin42

WE HAVE HAD X GAMES SINCE DEFEATING RANGERS 1-0 AND WE HAVEN'T WON X, OR X-1 OR X-2 OR X-3 GAMES SINCE THEN.

DO WE HAVE THE STOMACH FOR IT, THE PLAYERS CERTAINLY GET THE PAYPACKETS FOR IT.

@Bradford Bhoy

"Apparently we need a manager who can play football our way! suggestions,gentlemen please."

Do you have an opinion or are you just looking to knock others?
Do you think WGS is the way forward?

wee tim malloy

did the huns have the best team in 2003?

I would say they definitely did not and I still have no idea how they won the league then and I don't know how we win it now. We have no shape, no idea in defending set pieces, no leadership during a game, fluctuating form. Unfathomable.

Martin42

Love your confidence - wish i shared it.

The way we played today should come as a surprise to nobody.

We are lacking in creativity and as WGS said recently we play the same way and everyone
knows it inside out.

We should be going out at home to strut our stuff with crisp passing, good crosses and shots on goal but we have to put up with no width,shots and high balls to strikers who arent interested in headering a ball.

TheSpecialOne - I'm gonna throw one into the mix....Mick McCarthy? Don't think i've heard him mentioned here, but waddya reckon...

Manager suggestions...

Alex Ferguson
Jose Mourinho
Gus Hiddink

I could go on but none of them will come to us.

So we are left with the usual suspects.
Tony Mowbray
Roy Keane
Craig Levein

None of them are better than Gordon Strachan so lets stick with Gordon please and end the debate unless anyone can come up with a sensible answer.

2 very poor teams today which resulted in a very poor game.

Very worrying the fact that none of our strikers look like scoring.

Panic CSC

I thought it a very poor game with very few chances. Mr Boruc had two great reaction saves. That's about it from a football point of view.
Obviously I would have loved a win but taking a point at C.P makes me fairly happy.
See you all in a couple of days.

pggtips2 - Regarding ourselves, i totally agree. My point is however that everyone below us are even worse - no?

notonthebus

didn't daddy love you?

please re-read my last post to you and answer the questions...

that way we can have a relationship... if not, you'll be lonely again.

tbdJ

The Special One

Aye,I do think hes the answer,has he let us down so far?

"The league will be ours....."

Aye mate but lets sack the manager! LOLLY LOL!

Pggtips2,

We have the stomach for the fight.

We have just had a terrilble 6 weeks, but even then they could not overtake us.

They chickened out at Aberdeen to go top for maybe only a few hours, but they could not win.

Again today they chucked it when they were happy not to get beat.

They could not take the fight to us.

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED,

STANS UP FOR THE CHAMPIONS,

Martin.

SOAL, aye, not much to write about.

Once Upon a Tim, correct.

Notthebus, I’m not arguing.

@WeeFratheTim

I'm a Hun now am I? My cloak?

Brilliant, typical man, typical.
I see you too are one of the people who just sift through posts looking for fights and reasons to shout people down.

It is usually the ones that have 'bhoy' or 'tim' in their name that do this, you all put thess words in your sign on names because you think it makes you more of a fan. You have to prove your 'loyalties' with making your name Celtic minded, well done, no really, well done.

Now feck off WeeFrattheTim and talk sense ya muppet!

WeeFratheTim

How many Walter's do you know in football? I know of Mark Walters and that's it, Gordon is much more common as is Smith.

It's much less confusing to call Smith, Walter than to call Smith, Smith.

THE LEFT BACK

I would take Mowbray & Levein, wouldn't touch Keane

Panic CSC

thebhoydave JAPAN

I am assuming something is being lost in translation.If english isnt your first languiage then i apologise.But I still have no idea what your question is,nor what your point is.

Please just try and form sentence with a question in it and i will be happy to answer.

For God's sake get a right good ball playing, passing centre half (please, please dont mention Caldwell-pleae) play Crosas in evey game and shell out as much as possible for a real striker. Not someone full of promise, not one 'who will come good' or has 'potential'

That's what the youth teams are for.

This is Celtic, we should have a level of player that we do not dip underneath. Ever.

That's not arrogant, it's just the way it has to be if you want to watch good football.

Celtic is not a home for mediocrity.

Criticism does not show a lack of love or passion for the team.

Cloak my arse. People like you make me..........

I have green tinted glasses too but I can still see through them to see what the issue is. Bradford Bhoy if you really think WGS is the answer you must be answering a different question.

Really, you think he plays good footie? Can you explain how the football we play is Celtic football?

@Wee Tim Malloy - Think his boat sailed a good wile ago but like where your head is at.

TheSpecialOne - Thanks for that, but i don't go looking for fights with anyone!!

Wee Tim

sadly a predictable and lacklustre display....brown , yet again was mediocre against rangers and as a result the midfield was unimpressive

mcmanus , despite having very little to do, managed to be terrible....nearly scored an own goal, and never once...not once found a celtic player from a contested clearing header or tackle...he also constantly put his teammates under pressure...he must be dropped , he is a major contributor to our poor form

jvoh, did virtually nothing and mcdonald wasn't as effective as usual

just as well robson was injured or crosas might not even have got a place on the bench

a poor display with the only pass marks going to artur, naka, hinkel, naylor and caldwell

the manager picked the wrong team and played into rangers hands....

i have been as supportive of the manager as he deserves...3 league wins on the trot is a good record, but his team is squeezing the interest out of me game by game

we are nowhere close to getting value for money from our team just now, and the problem starts at the top...the chief exec has failed us in the last 2 transfer windows, and the manager is struggling just now

both have earned their reputations, but both are , in my eyes , not performing as they should this year

time for both of them to raise their games

The Special One

Awwww am sorry pal! I forgot you know better,get rid of Strachan straight away n stop these posters with "Bhoy" or "Tim" in their usernames because their usually daft troublemakers.

More power to "Special" posters.

@WeeTime.

Didn't mean you looking for fights!

Hail Hail buddy and may your grass always be green!

I'm happy about this decline. I must be in line for a game soon.

Bhoyfromcults,

We moved to this area and when my boy started showing an interest he was told he could support anyone but THEM, even the Dandy's (Im convinced they hate the Huns more than we do) I think he was scared to follow anyone but Celtic after he sees the way I react.

At the age of 40 odd`s that is the worst Glasgow derby i have ever had the misfortune to watch, and the sad fact is it doesnt look as if we will be watching any better in the games to come.

The huns came not to get beat an on the day we weren't good enough to break them down.

With what was at stake affected the game ah no it shouldnt but believe it did.

We still have players who are simply not good enough an others like Scott Brown who is an enigma.

Scott Brown frustrates with the sloppiness of his play.

Cant understand Vennegour getting a years extension,he looks like a player on his way out an is not the type to come off the bench to make a difference why keep him?.

Happy for Arthur.

Ref gave a classic am on ma way to the top display,get out of jail non existant free kicks, failure to book, bookings that were not, an woe betide a late winner for Celtic al only add 2 mins.

Ther was a 5 min spell in the first half when Willo came inside an his pass n move style looked promising,there is not enough of this type of interplay between Celtic's midfield.

Heard that Aidens midweek game had taken a lot out of him an thats the reason he started on the bench.

We're still top an a believe the huns away record will again be ther downfall.

Ah think its time for a change in manager in the summer even after we win the league,hope he decides to go out on a high.

THE LEFT BACK.....

I've always been an admirer of Dave Jones of Cardiff. He's performing near-miracles at that club with next to no money and also has EPL experience with relative success too.

Staying with Wales, Martinez of Swansea is one to watch out for. He's built a decent side that is good to watch on a bit of a budget. Both would be preferable to Roy Keane......

If Walters tactics were to get the 'Special Tims n Bhoys' fighting - it's worked....calm down fellas!!

Yawn

next Saturday rongeurs at home to kilmarnock an easy 3 points there.
Sunday we are away to Motherwell, I will switch on the telly with 5 minutes to go as I wouldnt want to miss our 'shot on target'

Wheres the fast flowing football Gordon?

Scolari's available!

@barcabhoy

Easy mate, no criticism allowed on here especially since Bradford got the podium! Agree 100% with your analysis.

Positives to try and cheer everyone up!:

Boruc played well and looked up for it

Naylor had his best game in a long time

Naka looked brilliant before tiring

We are top of the league

We have plenty of league winner experience, rangers have very little

We are 3 in a row champions

TheSpecialOne

Probably rather be a "muppet" than a HUN. Don't think I mentioned the word "hun" in my response to your post. You and your likes are the reason I seldom post on here. At least ED has the decency to post in his true colours. Now you F*** off.

WeeFra

JD1,

I was not surprised at the way we played today.

We have been playing that way for a few years now, so why should today's performance surprise me, or anyone else for that matter.

I am not saying that we are a great team, or that we strut our stuff or that we are creative and wonderful to watch.

I am saying, WE WILL YET AGAIN WIN THE LEAGUE FOR THE 4TH TIME IN A ROW.

Do we need a chance in direction? do we need a new manager?

Do we need new players? do we need a different outlook?

Well the answer to all those questions may well be YES,

BUT ONLY IF IT MEANS WE WIN THE LEAGUE NEXT YEARS TO MAKE IT 5 IN A ROW, AND THE FOLLOWING YEAR TO GO 6 IN A ROW.

A new manager and new players mean nothing unless they are winners, and if you don't believe me, just ask Edward and his friends.

They are losers, we are winners,

STAND UP FOR THA CHAMPIONS,

Martin.

notatthebusstop

racist undertones?

do you know that it's possible to live in a country not having been born there? crazy eh1?

on the last post I asked you some questions about todays game.

No answers from you forthcoming.

You seem happier to just froth at the mouth... good luck with that & goodbye.

Paul67 - feel bad about this (like a grass) but how do you feel about longtime posters assuming that new posters are from the other side? (see comments on last blog)

I don't want to feel like I am not welcome because I am new.

A Tim scores for the Blues.

3 to 1 Everton

A Lee

OK I am going to post this only once.

Whatever happens at the end of the season (and I still believe we will just edge it and get 4 in a row), our manager has to go. I have been neither pro- nor anti- Gordon Strachan for the last 3 and a half years, but we are now seeing the harvest from the seeds he has sown.

Today, not for the first time, he appeared to have selected the midfield from a lucky dip, so we started the game with 2 wee guys that can't tackle, a guy who can't run and a guy who can't pass.

The best 'footballing' midfielder at the club, and the player who is key to any sort of passing game we may have had in mind started on the bench. And would have stayed there as well but for an injury to Scott Brown.

Against the worst Rangers team that I can recall in my lifetime, we were second best for long periods of the game. Our first shot on target (a fairly weak effort from Nakamura) came in the 89th minute. If you don't create chances and you don't hit the ball in the direction of the goal, you don't score goals. It's really very simple.

I could just about accept this if the SPL was a level playing field. But it isn't. At a conservative estimate we spend £10m a year more than Rangers on wages. Could any of you see today where that money has gone? I couldn't.

I am convinced that Gordon's obsession with analysis and statistics has paralysed the team. It's clear they've been told never ever ever to shoot from outside the box if they can play a short pass instead. This means we frequently create openings on the edge of the box then give away possession with a hospital pass to a marked player.

That's plan A.

Plan B is just to give the ball to Gary Caldwell at the back and let him launch it in the hope it may fall to a Celtic player at some point in or around the penalty area. Football it is not.

It's not just about today's performance however. It's the long term trend at the club that worries me. Player after player after player comes in, starts brightly then markedly deteriorates in front of our eyes under the tutelage of Gordon's coaching skills. Count them: Sno, Naylor, Donati, Samaras, Robson, Zurawski, the list goes on. I don't want Crosas, Mizuno et al to be next.

Given our much vaunted strategy of bringing in the cream of teenage talent from around Europe and 'making them better', we simply cannot afford to let the current manager stay in charge. He doesn't make players better!!

So, thank you Gordon for all you have done. It's been a great trip, and I'll never forget Helicopter Thursday, or the wins over AC Milan & Man Utd. Even the nights against Spartak and Shakhtar were pretty special. I hope with all my heart you leave with 4 league medals. And ideally a domestic treble. It would be a fitting send-off.

But can we please please please have a new man with some feel for the game that isn't just based on pro-zone and Opta stats. My vote is for Roberto Martinez, currently manager of Swansea. I'm sure he'd be delighted to build a team around Marc Crosas.

I'm now happy, maybe perversly that we didn't sign anyone during the transfer window. (Flood apart) That way we will get to see what this squad are made of without papering over the cracks with short term signings.
Don't get me wrong our signings last January were good. We wouldn't have won the league without them. However, lets see what happens when the chips are really down, lets see if someone can get a run in the team and become a leader or a goalscorer or a right good defender as a result of injury or suspension.

Football died today.

Space Cadete
If you want accepted just type 'we were great today, right team, right tactics - on to 4 in a row'

that'll work.

pggtips2

I'm glad you think I'm an archetypal Celtic fan.

From what I read on here it would appear that I am anything but typical of the majority of Celtic fans.

We are still 2 points ahead and towels are already being thrown in so early in the season because we are going through a bad patch.

Keep the faith, it could be worse. We could be 7 behind having lost at home.

Hail Hail

Mort

thebhoydave JAPAN

Im bored with you now, go pick a fight with someone else.

i expected that today,gordon cant help himself,up front we are dire because of ordinary players and a midfield that cant supply,why would that be like that, again gordon cant help himself,the way he has this team structured or drilled is apalling they cant play properly there to busy zonaling all over areas of the pitch not just at the back,instead of just taking the shackles of and let them play,the trouble that flaired with gordon and aiden was over sticking to the line,so any player that would deviate from said role runs the risk of the manager balling him, hence the reason i think we cant adopt to other teams tactics, no flexabilty, when was the last time we really looked like changing tactics to over come different systems,some times it pays to play football instead of being robotic and ground hog.

Guys - we are no worse off than we were this morning. Like the rest of you I would like to be cruising but we ain't - still believe that we will be champions come the end of May.

Dare I say it?

Yes I dare, we will win the treble.

All we need to do is get the finger oot and ktf with Crosas - he improves Brown just by doing what he learned at Barca.

Space cadette

Stop acting like a child and enter into the debate might be a good start

I wholeheartedly agreed with Gordon Strachans comments about the 4-4-2 and if the Bhoys played well then they would win the game with the system.

I was happy to see us probe away and control the game in the first half, it was good intelligent play against an ultra defensive team.

The second half we witnessed was on the cards as just before the break Rangers tried to counter with as many bodies as possible, this was after the 40th minute it was very noticable to me. They are going back over there delighted with the 0-0 but it could have been worse for us if Artur had not been superb in the seconnd half.

There has to be a change when we are doing absolutely nothing after controlling a game and I don't mean in substitutions - people are criticising McGeady for doing nothing but he was not even allowed the chance to influence the game. Call it 4-5-1 I'd call it 4-3-3 myself but I can't believe we've allowed ourselves to be out-psyched today on a few different levels.

We are still top but we really need to put a run of wins together, which we certainly can do, playing football our way and not worrying about anyone else.

@weefra

"Probably rather be a "muppet" than a HUN"? I would 100% rather be a muppet than a Hun.

Now stop with your nonsense kid, the reason you don't post is that you have nothing of worth or intelligence to say other than call the fist person that says WGS is mince a Hun and a traitor. People like you always cost us our club in the past.

I'm finished with you now, speak to BradfordBhoy offline if you want to bask in your awesomeness and better than me 'tim-ness'

What's the debate like on FollowFollow?

Almost everyone on here is shouting for the Celtic manager, board and players to be lined up against a wall and executed after a draw with our only competitors.

I expect they're delirious over on The Dark Side after getting what they set out for... no goals scored, no goals conceded, no skilful football played, no skilful football allowed (of their opponents), no friends won, nobody impressed with the quality of the game, but no further adrift in the title race.

Well done Rangers.

Ok,Im packing it in,we need a new manager,the guys terrible but he better win the league for us!

Davy JonesCSC

Stuffy game, strikers from both sides underused and when called-on, ineffectual.
The wattenaccio was in full effect but we seemed especially shot- shy so perhaps TFOD's negative defensive tactics were unnecessary.

Artur was my man of the match, he kept us in it. So much for the huns undermining the big chap - what a shower of total "keith" (sp?).

(Dont Buy the Commics, Dont Listen to The Comedians)

We had the chance to settle the game with wee McD's heider, (I find that my large napper is still making involuntary thusts forward every so often as I subconsciously nod the winner home, much to the concern of my missus.)

2 points clear 13 games to go, and one of them at Mordor. we need to find our shooting boots and Aiden needs to find some good Celtic form.

What are the fixtures looking like from here on in?

Pull Together Celtic!

bankiebhoy1

Today was an absolute joke.

It looked like we tried to outRangers Rangers.

The ball must have been black and blue as we hammered aimless long ball after another.

The onus is surely on us to play to win,you only win if you create chances.

To those who will say we are still ahead, 3 in a row, last 16 in CL etc, look at how bad Rangers are. We rae not much better.

Smith came today for a draw and got it.We could have almost finished them off todaywith a win.

Nakamura -san
That is the best, most incisive, accurate post IMHO to explain what has happened to our team.There is nothing I could add, except to say that sadly we face a few months more of examples to back up your argument, and many more nail biting endurance exercises purporting to be fast flowing football

frustratedcsc

The Special One,

Dont be alarmed about being called a hun because you are a new poster, its become standard CQN procedure when any new poster posts something negative about Celtic. You've got to be thick skinned on here and just ignore them.

I have a genuine question for you, has there ever in the history of football been a football club who has sacked their manger when he has won 3 consecutive league titles and is sitting 2 points clear at the top of the league? No? Then why should we?

its not just todays result its the performances in those games,we have been dire in a lot of the matches that we have won also,gordon believes in systems and doesent seem to deviate from this against teams that play very defensive when it is clearly not working,he is stubborn to a very big fault,imo

Let's just hope that our manager will have a wee bit of confidence in our football players and give them their head. We have enough ability to pass the others off the park; but we don't.

I thought that Scott MacDonald's control today let him down badly (never mind, his passing) and as a consequence, we didn't hold up the ball for any length of time. Mind you, he wasn't aided by the big punts up to him (while the ref punished every jump made by JVOH: as Terry O'Neill has already mentioned, that ref is out to climb the greasy pole, no matter what some here think of him).

Just back from that poor excuse for a football match.
It would be nice to lay all the blame at the Cardigan's door for his negative tactics, but we were just as culpable.
Couldn't string 3 or 4 passes together....ridiculous!

Some great tackling in the first half, but what's the point when you just hand possession straight back to the opposition?!
Couldn't believe that the substitutions had the opposite effect to what was required.

Only positives were Willo's debut and the wholly inaccurate reports of THG's demise.

Their fans were an absolute disgrace and we should not just let them get away with it....again. Do they actually know any Rangers songs?

TTTT

Once Upon a Tim

Walter (= won 7iar and 'resigned' after not winning 8iar

@Once Upon a Tim

I hear you and it makes me sick. I have posted before and have been on this site since, well a long time.

We make history Once Upon a Tim, not follow it and I am not saying WGS should be sacked tomorrrow, never would I suggest that, but this season has to be his last. Are you too telling me that WGS is the way forward?

If so I am truly amazed, shocked and must know a lot less about footie than I thought.

Not the Bus - acting like a child is the retort of the mentally challenged - children have valid opinions too!

Questioning our tactics is not childish but the right of anyone who loves our club.

Once Upon a Tim

In addition, there hasn't been such a financial gap bw the 2 since those times, so these are the standards WGS needs to be measured by.

The OF are different to the RotW. No other country has two teams dominating to such an extent, apart from Romania during the Communist era but that is about it so things that are applicable to us and those sarf of the river do not apply elsewhere.

"By theweeman on February 15, 2009 4:05 PM

At the age of 40 odd`s that is the worst Glasgow derby i have ever had the misfortune to watch, and the sad fact is it doesnt look as if we will be watching any better in the games to come."

Err... the first old firm game of the season in my opinion was "worse", do you prefer getting horsed to a draw? Or were you lucky enough not to see it?

Perspective people, perspective.

Hail Hail!

Cx

Space Cadete

I was simply making an observation that there have been a lot more new posters this week. Many of these have come on to spread rumours about Celtic players or to talk about how rubbish the team/manager is. I'm sure you will know that there are many more posts after a poor result than there is after a win. I think this is because the discontent Celtic supporters are more vocal than the content ones and they like to get stuff off their chest.

I never called any new posters a hun but I wouldn't be surprised if some were. It's only natural that some will want to come on here and try and cause trouble.

Keep posting and don't let me put you off.

Hail Hail

Mort

Its Strachans fault Skippy missed a sitter,imagine Gordon having the audacity to play a debutant who sets up our striker with a golden chance to score,a cheek that Strachan!

still,he must go but only at the end of the season.

The Special One

No I'm not telling you that, I know exactly where you are coming from, but look at it from an objective point of view, Gordon's record is impeccable, we have to stand by him until such times as he gives us a very good reason not to, and drawing with the huns at home to stay 2 point clear at the top of the league is no where near a good enough reason to change the manager.

Can I just point out that the majority of the 'rumours' were coming from regular posters.

Nuff said.

Barcabhoy - agree with almost all our comments. I would only quibble about your evaluation of Hinkel. I find him a very limited player i'm afraid. Very poor in possession with a poor ability to pass the ball at the proper pace and angle.

I wonder how Valdano, with his stick, would describe that game?

Two average teams played out a below average match.

Rangers gameplan of flooding midfield , killing our game and attempting to be opportunistic worked as did our gameplan at Ibrox in December. We were committed but lacked quality. What is though ever more apparent is our lack of goal threat from strikers whihc is a worry as we have a lack of goals in midfield.

Short term we are in poor form and we must find some soon or title is lost. Looking further ahead it will be time for a change of manager at season end irrespective of 4iar or not. Time for a change because we all need something differeent. However WGS has earned the right to decide that himself

For everyone who can't accept anyone criticising WGS - please study his signings, team selection and match tactics over this season and the ensuing results and performances. Look at the points that are being dropped on a regular basis against inferior opposition. Do you see a slip in form or an alarming trend?

Football management has always been a merrygoround, very few survive at one club for more than 3-4 years regardless of results. I think Gordon's time with us is coming to an end. He has delivered some great results and great moments but past performance does not dictate future success.

The club needs a new injection of ideas, of tactics and passion to regain the initiative and to jumpstart an engine that is spluttering and wheezing instead of purring its way through games.

This team is not good enough to get by on talent alone. It needs freshblood and fresh ideas. I think that level of change requires a new manager.

Who? On our limited budget and current business model Craig Levein is the obvious choice, he is the best manager in the SPL at the moment and clearly knows how to get the most out of limited resources. Ditto Mick McCarthy.

A stroke of controversial brilliance - how about getting PLG back in Glasgow? Oh how that would shock and awe them.

Ok, after a whisky I have tried to look for a positive.

We have been dross for weeks, I dont believe we can get any worse so its got to get better from here on in.

Heres to 4 in a row !

pggtips2

The huns would love us to change manager right now, and thats a good enough reason not to, keep the faith buddy, we're top of the league and their no!

I must say, once again the Rangers support didn't fail to disappoint with their repertoire of songs. The Famine Song, songs about Jock Stein, songs about children being abused, them being up to their knees in fenian blood, etc, etc..

I sit in the Main Stand with my son & the police told numerous folk to sit down but failed to act when the whole of the away section continued standing. I'm just wondering if there will be mentions of their behaviour in the report by the independent match analysist or whatever his title is ?

The police were specifically listening for IRA & secterian chants at the Celtic v Queens Park game, i wonder how many arrests or ejections were made at todays game ?

Hail Hail

Hail, hail

Main concern for me is the fact that McGregor wasn't troubled too much. Scoring goals wins games and that didn't happen for us today.

Rangers didn't come to win, they came to make sure they didn't loose, with their nine-man defence and one up front.

Still two points ahead in the league is OK at this point. We'll have to make sure we don't drop any more 'daft' points in the league.

And I still think we'll win the league again this year.

STANDING UP

@BradfordBhoy

Your comments don't even make sense, are you just talking to yourself?

For instance:
"Its Strachans fault Skippy missed a sitter,imagine Gordon having the audacity to play a debutant who sets up our striker with a golden chance to score,a cheek that Strachan! still,he must go but only at the end of the season."

WTF? It is you who is the debutant BB, it is you.

A post that is a reply to the voices in your head. If you have nothing intelligent to say be quiet young man. I am fairly eloquent and do not need you to paraphrase my comments or decide on some hidden meaning. Get off your podium before you have a nasty fall.

I had to watch at home today. Wasnt the greatest of games and to be honest a point is probably a better result for the huns than us.
I started to get the feeling that the huns might snatch it late on. It was shaping up like one of those games.
Paul, Im glad you mentioned the Naismith on Brown incident. Incredible decision to book Brown,when he was taken late after the ball was away,wrestled to the ground and punched/pushed on the face when falling to the ground.
Just like big Jans booking, terrible decision.
Then we have the free kick,lets the huns stand 6 yards away and picks up the ball and moves it back a yard just before Naka hits it.
Setanta were at it again with the ''no replay'' policy of any debatable decisions involving us.
It was a poor performance from us but Calum Murray will go far if he can reproduce this type of form in the years to come.
Lynott67

NOBODY is saying sack Strachan now, WTF guys.

Don't just post crap like that.

NOBODY has said sack the manager now, EOS, yes.

The majority of the smart posts and comments all point towards a need for a change at the end of the season.

Mort...apologies.

Feeling a little sensitive after the game - can't believe we didn't have a proper go at it.

There are probably a lot of them on here - don't want to be lumped in with them!

4IAR is in the post.

By Space Cadete on February 15, 2009 4:09 PM
Paul67 - feel bad about this (like a grass) but how do you feel about longtime posters assuming that new posters are from the other side? (see comments on last blog)

I don't want to feel like I am not welcome because I am new.
____________________________________________________________

That is a childish post no matter how you carve it up.What do you want paul to do exactly? give us all lines?

PS

People who think otherwise are either too blind or too stupid (yes, some of us Celtic fans can be stupid, uneducated and blind to the real issues) to see the real problems.

We cannot continue playing this type of footie.

"play football the Glasgow Celtic way"

I don't see it right now and have not for a while.

Guess that makes me a Hun!

pish....paul please delete cos we where...
101

Not long back from the game, as a spectacle it was dire. Rangers are truly rank but we are little better.

I was struck by the referee's ability on the one hand to award a foul against celtic whenever we threatened the Ranger's penalty box (apart from Willo Flood's cross we really didn't threaten their goal!) yet ignore blatant pushes in the chest and dunts in the back by the opposition. Lafferty's leading arm and McCulloch's elbow were invisible to the man in black. The MIB bottled it at the end with only two minutes added time - Brown's treatment was worth 3 minutes alone, plus 4 substitutions.

Talking of brown's treatment, unbelievable that we would leave him to play on!

In the first 20 minutes Captain McManus was a liability. How many times did he play short passes to is team mates? How many times did he choose to pass to Caldwell or the FBs and put them in trouble? Wrong man for the job.

Strachan's team selection today (my son's first comment on hearing the team was this is stick on 0-0) confirmed his reluctance to start Crosas against a team which is potentially rough and tough - Crosas was left out of the starting line up in Inverness. We showed little attacking flair and creativity in midfield which we repeated today. The game plan was to lump balls up to a statuesgue JVOH who conceded possession with a predictable series of fouls. The old man at the centre of Rangers defence had little trouble coping with the turgid movement of JVOH. When Samaras eventually joined the fray we introduced movement across the width of the park and a willingness to bring the ball down and ask questions of the Rangers defence. In the limited time available to Sammi he didn't get much return out his efforts but he was much more effective than JVOH.

Playing Hartley rather than Crosas produces predictable pedantic square passes which take us nowhere, inevitably leading to a hospital pass back to the CHs who hoof the ball up the park - surrendering possession.

One shot at goal in the second half says it all. Actually it doesn't, it could well have been one shot in 92 minutes other than Skippy's attempted flick from Flood's cross.

Positives? Not many. We didn't lose, is that what GS was planning? Boruc was brilliant on a couple of occasions and deserves a lot of credit for a fine performance. Flood also had a reasonable debut. What else? One less game of mediocrity to endure till the end of season I suppose. Can't really think of anything more. Oh, the steak pie wasn't bad - let's you see I am easy to please really.

Celtic supporters shouldn't be satisfied with today.

The Special One

Nah,I never even watched the game your right with your "WTF" because I really never seen who provided the ball for Skippys header,it had nothing to do with Flood,who I doubt was making his debut.

Must be the voices

On a lighter note, playing Coldplay singing about Roman Catholic choirs must have gone down a treat at the end.

By StevieNoBread on February 15, 2009 4:36 PM
Ok, after a whisky I have tried to look for a positive.

We have been dross for weeks, I dont believe we can get any worse so its got to get better from here on in.

Heres to 4 in a row !

Keep believing m8 I certainly do.

Resistance D m8ty ;)

notthebus

I don't see it as childish - merely an observation.

I wanted to hear Paul's opinion on Celtic supporters being chastised for being new - not all newbies are from the other side.

I have apologised to Mort for what I typed.

Won't apologise to you because you believe that your opinion is more adult and valid than anyyone else's. WATP indeed.

DeniaBhoy,

what's this stuff about Coldplay & Roman Catholic choirs ?

Hail Hail

Mort on February 15, 2009 4:12 PM

I don't think you 'get it'...folk expressing concerns on here know we are top of the league, most even believe that we will win the league - but their 'point' is that does not off-set the misery of watching your team dwindle to a point where as they say - 'in the land of the blind - the man with one eye is king'

WGS is delivering the worst football in decades - even during the misery of the Huns 9IAR - I always had hope that we would put on a a show against the Huns - now we can't even do that against Inverness!

I love celtic - I'm not prepared to sit in silence while the club is having it's heart ripped out...I suppose that makes me a traitor?

Nakka-san - had it spot on... well said - that man!

Just new to this tho i am on CQN regularly.

Agree with most people that todays display was awful.
Only pass marks were for Naylor(Jeez!!) Broony (mainly for that challenge on Davis) and Boruc for not lettin the recent media guff get to him.

Can see the league goin to the wire once again hopefully with the same outcome!!

ST

Roll on the summer, new manager, new players, new hope.......& maybe even good football

Am I the first to link Artur's Black Strip and another important game v Them?

Keep the Black Strip CSC no 1.

Very slimming too, is black.

@Bradform Bhoy.

I'm done, clear off into your little manky hoose, we all know you married a Hun and don't get to wear the trousers anymore.

I never said Flood wasn't on a debut game and didn't cross the ball in. Your every word underlines my comment about you arguing with yourself.

Just you keep cheering for WGS BB, you are the man.

We were awful today, no other way to look at it, tactically naive, unable to break down or line up against a formation we all knew would be a 4-5-1. WGS bottled it and knew that everyone would say Walter played for a draw, that suited WGS, blame the other manager for killing the game is conveniently a good way to cover up our poor show.

We all knew, us, them, the LL that a 4-5-1 was on the cards and we failed to deliver anything different. Up and at them? Never with WGS, NEVER!

I realised something today.

Our problems are not in defence.

Our problems lie in our attack from mid to front.

Defragmented and a half.

Naka was for me MOM today but that says it all about the type of game it was as he did not create very much.

SKIPPY HOW DID YOU MISS THAT ONE?????????????

anyway, other than that op we only made the starfish make 1 save from a 25 yrd free kick which was on the wrong side for naka.

Samaras is a waste of space.

Flood played well but other than the cross for Sj=kippy's op our mid offered no more than "what if".

McManus proved to me today he is Celtic through and through with his header in at feet as he lay on the ground in the 44min jsu before Naka was assaulted by McCulloch.

Still

at end of day I know whos' position I would rather be in and it is not arREARS.

Hail Hail

4-in-a-row is the most important thing of all.

ST90,

welcome to CQN.

Your name sounds like a race car, Just a pity our strikers weren't like that.

Hail Hail

moonbeams

i thought our best player was Hartley, thats how bad we where...
90th minute before their keeper was called into action.....

just to play football the glasgow celtic way....

thank god im a eejit who will go week in week out

Today was simply brutal.

Rangers - a team of no imagination, no invention and, frankly, no ambition.

Worst of all? We are on a par.

From a quick review of previous posts, it appears there are many who now, rightly in my view, value standards above statistics. I think the recent debates between mineshafters and happy-clappers are reaching a conclusion - the mine is close to full. Its now a debate between standard bearers and statisticians.

Here we go again on Setanta.

Man, i need to get out a wee bit more.

billc on February 15, 2009 4:46 PM good assessment of our play and the ref.

Lynott67 on February 15, 2009 4:41 PM agree totally with regard to setantas deliberate policy of not showing replays when the decision is debateable .

Celtic should bar setanta from press conferences until their hun video editor does his job properly an without bias.

We need to change our style of play.

Unless and until we start getting players to the line and cutting the ball back (as Flood did)or play Crosas and start playing accurate passes into space that turn defences and our forwards to run onto we'll continue to struggle to score.

99% of the time our forwards are having to deal with balls coming at them in the air or on the ground with their backs to goal.

We create so few chances for our strikers when theyre facing the goal its hurting us.

We did it once today - unfortunately Skippy missed a chance he would have taken 9 times out of 10.

MOTM for me - Caldwell by a mile.

Still top of the league.

TLWIO

The Special One

LOL! and LOL again!

The Flood comment served to back Strachans leadership,Skippy scores that header,we have a great chance of winning the game,especially as one of Strachans buys pulls off some great saves,still,sack the manager!

Strachan just cant inspire Celtic to beat the hun,NEVER!

Anytime your in Yorkshire,give us a shout,Mrs B,the hun who wears the trousers will make you up a bed in our manky wee hoose.

lol.

Thanks Possilbhoy

Can believe it took WGS this long to realise "we're not at our best"!
We've been like that since before the transfer window and for me Flood is no better than Mizuno or Caddis etc.
I am not however calling for his head.
We're still top, in the LC final and still in the SC.
This has the potential of being his best season yet but for that to happen things have to improve dramatically, and a few more experienced signings wud hav helped.

KeepTheFaithCSC

ST

Thank you 'The Hat' for a concise summing up of the events.

I feel I have to leave the site for the day as the majority of the posters right now are not of the articulate type. Instead we have paraphrasing muppets who think we are marching along to a fine leader with impeccable reputation and tactics. It's feckin WGS FFS. Who is he again?

Shit with the press, shit with the players, shit in the dressing room, shit with tactics, shit with spotting potential in our bench, perfect for people who still love to read the Redtops. He's killing us.

Standards not stats!

Jan Vennegoor of Hessellink, whoever at CP is even considerig giving him a 1 year extension to his contract should be sacked. He's finished.

TLWIO

agree but how is it that i pick hartey, you pick caldwell...

why do we have to have theese players as our mom....

shocking.....bloody shocking......

red wine dinner coming up...

People always calling for ball winners in midfield.
All we need is to be first to the ball in midfield then creative when we have it.
Our midfield lacks a creative player, who in the Paul Scholes mode, wants to have the ball all the time from defense then go at the opposition, thus promoting movement off the ball in front of him and creating gaps, yet when we lose the ball having the guile to backtrack and win it back then start the surge again.
Not too many of this type of player around but Skoosh should be able to do it.
Running at the opposition from midfield and picking up the pieces for me is the answer to opening mediocre teams up.
Just an idea.

By Big Chris on February 15, 2009 4:30 PM
"By theweeman on February 15, 2009 4:05 PM

At the age of 40 odd`s that is the worst Glasgow derby i have ever had the misfortune to watch, and the sad fact is it doesnt look as if we will be watching any better in the games to come."

Err... the first old firm game of the season in my opinion was "worse", do you prefer getting horsed to a draw? Or were you lucky enough not to see it?

Perspective people, perspective.

Hail Hail!

Cx

IMO Celtic played much worse today as a team than they did back in august

@BradfordBhoy - STFU now.

Flood is a joke signing. You are basing your backing of WGS on the signing of Flood and a cross that never brought a goal? He may turn out to be a decent squad player but I, nor indeed anyone on here, was looking for squad player signings in January, or were we?

STFU now mate, better still rant away as you are blocked now anyway. Thank the lord for Firefox plugins that mean I don't have to read you posts anymore.

I think (for the rest of the reasonable people on here) that we will win the league in spite of our gaffer and his poor team selections and tactics.

Hail Hail all!

Blanyre tim

Agree

One way or another its unacceptable to me that , at home against a Rangers team that is at best mediocre, our best players are those whose job is to defend or disrupt and not create.

Enjoy yer dinner - and make it a decent bottle of red -- it'll be the only thing of quality youll have experienced today.

TLWIO

Life is shit!

mankyhoosesCSC

Wasn't that a poor gane? A team that tried to kick everything, another that hadn't the guile to create chances and a referee who made a series of mystifying decisions.

Boruc was our MOM which says a lot. I thought Flood did OK in his debut and Naylor was decent. Not sure anyone else mertis a mention.

Too many misplaced passes and an inability to create were our problems. If only Scott had scored that one early on ...

Blanyre tim

Agree

One way or another its unacceptable to me that , at home against a Rangers team that is at best mediocre, our best players are those whose job is to defend or disrupt and not create.

Enjoy yer dinner - and make it a decent bottle of red -- it'll be the only thing of quality youll have experienced today :¬)

TLWIO

I would hate to see half the posts on here had we lost today.........

ST

I predicted a 0.0 draw. After the all the hype it was sure to be a big time let down. I wasn´t surprised that there was no Artur Boruc stories in the newspapers this morning. Just the huns doing what they have perfected under Murray off the park. On the park The Cardigan sent out his best Messi-anti-football formation possible and no way was a very lacklustre Celtic of late going to break them down.

WGS post match comments about us being at the same stage last season as this season with one game less to play disguised the fact that Rangers had the Uefa cup and the Scottish cup to contend with during the run in and the massive advantage of having the last derby game at Celtic Park.

This championship may not go to the wire. We are dropping points at such a rate that it could be over by Easter. It´s that serious and the threat is that imminent. Unless we see a massive improvement soon then it´s not going to be over with soon. If that does not happen then hopefully the Rangers squad will be severely stretched and will be involved in the Scottish cup until the final. The drawback to that is that they are as much up for it as we are and they have as much chance as we do of winning the treble. They all know that the transfer window is about to visit them in 14 weeks and will have one eye on their new careers so I´m wishfully thinking that they will not be so comitted ---especially those whose contracts are up

I am therefore hoping on a massive improvement from Celtic. I cant see JVOH and Sammi playing so badly throughout the rest of the season. The Holy Goalie yet again today proved what a remarkable keeper he can be. The addition of Flood today was an interesting one he does give us something different. I was extremely dissapointed not to see Crosas starting and it´s a shame that when Lee Naylor and Hinkel find some form those in front of them are off the boil.

I´m not sure if it was more important to win today than not to lose but with the last league Derby at Ibrox we need a one point behind mentality from now on. If we do then clearly we can go on and win 4 in a row. If we cant then questions will be asked as why the team has dipped so severely ? and if that was to happen then regardless of the answers the repercussions at Celtic will be felt for a long time. It´s that serious.

HAil Hail

BT take it you decided against that pint?

still 2 pts ahead with 13 2 go.

i am not overly upset.

st90

you wouldnt have been able to see any - the blog would have been in meltdown!

Yours in Celtic

"starfish"

quality ;o)

The Special One

"You are basing your backing of Strachan on the signing of Flood..."

As I said,you dont half talk pish!

Where did I say that? I was talking about his tactics today,he didnt lose and picked a player who set up a potential matchwinner,not bad in my book.

I base my backing in Strachans record at Celtic and some of the great players hes signed.

Still,Scolari's available.

Someone posted earlier about seeing a lot of happy huns leaving paradise. You have to ask, how are they so happy with a draw?
The answer in my opinion is it was as good they can expect. They expected to get beaten today hence the blue team setup and all WS could do was to set up for anti-football. Dont be too downhearted Bhoys, they managed to get to a UEFA final playing like that, Barca struggled to break them down too and lots of other teams. WS will set up his team like this when he expects teams to come at them, he did that against Aberdeen a few weeks ago.
After the split is all top 6 opposition who will have a go. Will he set up for a draw in every match? If so there will be as many 0-0 draws as there will Hun 1-0 wins.
I thought we played some good stuff in the first half, shame it didnt continue, had we scored in the first half there was no way back for the blue team. The halftime whistle saved them. OK we didnt have many shots on goal, but thats the idea of Wattenaccio!!
Standing Up for 4 in a Row

Two things that struck me today are the lack of creativity in the team and no support for the front two. I could mention the scum of the earth who sang the famine song and big jock knew but these disgusting human beings don't deserve comment but pity. If you’re around Ed the pet Hun how you can support these Nazis and still have any self respect I do not know.

We seem determined to pass along the line and never probe or even try an overlapping run. All dare I say it aspects of Celtic of old.

We are predictable and bar naka lack anyone who can change a game.

McGeady came on and did nothing after a fantastic performance for us against Georgia. Why not today?

We leave our forwards isolated and they are neither mobile nor skilful enough to craft chances themselves.

This team is limping along and without having the happy clappies chasing me around the streets with fiery torches and pitchforks it boils down to a manager who is not that good tactically and a board who refused to back him in the transfer window.

We must all stick together but this is going to be a hard slog and I must be honest while we are favourites to win the league it can and could go either way. We are just slightly better than them and all this talk of them being on their arse financially means nothing as we are on our arse football wise.

Anyway we are two points ahead and surely to the big man we can't keep playing this garbage and must improve soon.

Hail Hail

Paul67 , I was interested to read your description of the Naismith-Brown incident as the commentator on Radio Scotland described it as "harsh on the Rangers player"

the inability to control the football and pass to a team mate is obviously the reason for the continued rubbish we have to watch.

I don't know who is to blame and I am begining to feel more apathetic as the season(s)go by.

it is time for fresh thinking. as it has been for a season or two.

F.I.A.R

Underwhelmed-Celt

I skimmed WGS comments as I don't tend to read them nowadays - I don't follow his logic so to speak - I know nothing and he knows all...so I was surprised that it is now registering that we are'not at our best'. Was interested also in is 'we have five strikers they need to sort it out' comment I would have thought he could have just told them what to do given his superior knowledge, communication skills and footballing genius?

As Ed Rooney said in the immortal 'Ferris Beuller's day off'...'The game is up!'

Season book renewals will only be the start of the fans feedback if this Celtic - hating joker is left 'in charge'...

Awe Naw...

do you want me to hold your towel. if nothing else last year taught me a hard lesson and at that time we were in a worse position than now. Their away form is no better than last year and that is why i believe we will win the league once more.

If we don't???...

Terry O

Ah sacked Setanta weeks ago,phoned,wrote even Emailed,finally cancelled the direct debit.Ave still got it.

Today.Couldn't believe the manager thought Crosas not worthy.Were rank Rotten Terry.

I thought Gordon would walk after last season,I sincerely hope he does this year.Even if we go on to win the league this year I think we need a fresh approach.

I'm p**d off and pouring ma self a hawf.

Man Utd proving that simple passing movements win games.

Look aboot yerselves there are people in right shady positions right noo.Its only a Fitba game.

Setantas got a re-run of the game on already.
Could see the point had it been a 5-goal thriller.
Bring back STV coverage with Gerry McNee!!!

ST

Fleck or Speckle?

@Bhoyfromcults

Amen!

Some on here will disagree and we should be open to discussion and banter but there are also a few muppets out there who have already had 'Flood' printed on their jerseys.

Bhoyfromcults on February 15, 2009 5:22 PM

Are you being ironic?

You cannot possibly believe that Strachan hates Celtic - he may not be dyed-in-the-wool but suggesting that he hates his employers is ridiculous.

PS

I am not picking on Flood, God I wish the gates would open up front, would love a flood but instead we are treated to a famine not a feast.

The manager hates the club? Whatever next?

There has been some nonsense written on here this week but that takes the preverbial biscuit.

Bhoyfromcults, Can you qualify your comments...

Season book renewals will only be the start of the fans feedback if this Celtic - hating joker is left 'in charge'...

I take it you are referring to a hun in charge of something somewhere else? Walter Smith? A radio pundit... surely your not referring to Gordon Strachan? if so your comments are unfathomable and I hereby send you my condolances on losing it

The special one

I felt underwhelmed that we signed flood as i think he was not even dundee unts best midfield player. I personally believe feeney was and is better.

I also nearly exploded in the car when i heard flood was in the team in front of a man who one of the worlds best maangers rates as one of his best players, McGeady.

That said with the quality or lack of it beside him flood did well.

He will be a good squad player but never a first team regular or we are truely fecked.

Hail Hail

"proverbial" even. I'm laughing so much at that comment that I can't type properly.

Flood wasn't awful and I am not trying to single the wee man out. He looked a bit lost on occasion and turned into tackles. Not the gifted insightful midfielder we need to place Naka.

lucknumber 7

7 point lead down to 2 pts.Survived the hardest away game in the run in, at least matched the champions in the head to head.

Why wouldnt they be happy.

They still have a league campaign to go for when they should be dead and buried.

nelsbhoy enjoy yir hauf

am away tae lie doon wis oot last night an kickin every baw the day has left me knacked.

The punt up the park

The square pass

The squandering of possession.

That is now the hallmark of Gordons Celtic team.

'there are some so blind they will not see'

Those who find the fodder acceptable because we 'top of the league' should take a look at themselves...

Is there anyone left who has absolute faith in WGS and the game he is developing at our expense (financial and emotional)?

Levien or Mowbury deserve the shout...and soon!

WGS should get back to relegation football where he can deploy his draw-inducing tactics at will....and stop deluding himself with 'free-flowing football' fantasies

Moonbeams wet dream

I´m always suspicous of guys at the baths who ask me that ?

what part of

"If we do then clearly we can go on and win 4 in a row."

do you not understand ?

or do you think that 14 points dropped from the last 24 points is championship form ?

You dont see a need for improvement after today performance ?

I do expect an answer to these questions they are not rhetorical. I´ll lurk on the CQN board sometime during the week as I can see its not going to be fun.

Hail Hail

Hail Hail

Eustace,
"McGeady came on and did nothing after a fantastic performance for us against Georgia. Why not today?"

I think the simple fact is he wanted to play good for Trappatoni because he respects him.
His relationship with WGS has been well documented and I see that as the main factor in his dip in form for Celtic.

ST

At last, the intelligent posters are back. Are all the anti WGS posters Huns? If only I hadn't blocked someone........

WGS may not hate us but he is not Celtic minded, he may have been a decent lil player but Celtic Manager he is not.

Ah, memories of Tommy Burns fill my eyes with tears, the Celtic way.

I am old enough to remember when we played great fitba, filled with passion and desire.

ST90,

Or maybe Aiden simply didn't get as much posession as he did in the Ireland game? He can't do much without the ball.

lots of comments about their anti-football set up today, can we honestly say our team wasn't set up in a similarly negative way ? no mcgeady ? no crosas ? gordon set us up not to lose, a sad state of affairs when we we are playing a weak rangers side with a 90 year old at the back.

when spain ran all over england in midweek they saw no need to pack their midfield with players who can huff and puff like paul hartley. they jut keep the ball, thats the one thing crosas gives us which is all the more galling when he doesn't play

some people on here have mentioned roberto martinez and dave jones as potential successors to wgs. i remarked on here previously that the recent match between swansea and cardiff had a lot more football than that on display at celtic this season. either of those managers would have the team playing better than it does at the moment, and have made much better use of tight budgets in comparison to their rivals than WGS . but he is the 2nd greatest manager in our history, yeah right

st90

I do not think you are wrong. I guess if i was a guy who trappatoni described as his best asset i would have no respect for a man who dropped me for Willo flood either.

But this is celtic he is supposed to be a fan we need guys like him to fight for the jersey.

The vast majority of the celtic fans I know don't like Gordon strachans style of team but we have to support him now. He is our manager and if we are to win this league he needs our support.

Hail Hail

Bhoyfromcults

I'm glad you are back on today because I posted something for you last week but you didn't respond so I assumed you didn't see it. This was in relation to your previous verbal abuse of Gordon where you accused him of lacking humility and dignity and having no respect for the fans. I'm sure you can remember it. Anyway here is my previous post to you:

-------------------------------------------------

Sorry for not being able to get back to you as I left work at 5.00 and wasn't online after that. I have only just scanned the posts since so I hope I'm not going over any old ground but I wanted to address some of the points you raised.

You quite rightly mentioned that the ethos of Celtic Football Club is enshrined in our charitable beginnings. Celtic Football Club was established principally to utilise a football club as a means of raising money for the poor of the city’s East End. Since then the money Celtic raise has gone to number of projects across Scotland and the wider world.

The principal focus of Celtic Football Club is to provide funding to help the less fortunate in our society. Winning trophies, playing beautiful football etc are all secondary aims. However, both are intrinsically linked because by winning trophies and progressing to the champions league provides the club with more prize money that can be used for good causes. A good product on the pitch also helps because it gets the bums on the seats. You believe the football we are playing now is worse than ever before. I disagree but that is my opinion and we are both correct as it is a very subjective thing.

Back to the ethos of the club. In a previous post of yours that I took umbrage with, you said that Gordon Strachan was destroying the ethos of this great club. If, like me you accept that the ethos relates to charity and that charitable donations can be helped by the club making money. If you also accept that since Gordon Strachan has taken over as manager we have won the league three times, got to the Champions League three times (last 16 twice) and very importantly posted a profit in 2 out of the 3 season he has been in charge, then you have to accept that Gordon Strachan is not destroying the ethos of the club, instead he is enhancing it.

I know I'll probably get stick by mentioning the dreaded "P" word, but I firmly believe that if Celtic is going to be able to make a difference to people’s lives through charitable works, then they need to be profitable.

You also have the audacity to speak about the way Gordon Strachan deals with the press and people in general and complain about his, as you see it, lack of humility. The true measure of a man, in my opinion, can be recognised not by how he deals with successes or happy times (as anyone can be dignified or humble when things are going well) but by how he deals with adversary and I don’t mean silly things like losing a football match but the bigger picture of how he dealt with the loss of a true friend.

The loss of Tommy Burns almost a year ago hit every single one of us, as we could all remember what he did for this club that we all love so much and to see our manager, Gordon Strachan, conduct himself with the utmost dignity and humility told me everything I needed to know about that man. He was genuinely upset and that was not an act. If you can’t remember this, or weren’t fortunate enough to see it, then have a look now. Gordon on Tommy.

The way he deals with newspaper reporters or TV reporters during press conferences or after matches means absolutely nothing. I couldn’t care less if he never spoke to a single one of them because when ever has one of the criterion to be a Celtic manager been the need to “lick up to the press.”

The last thing I’ll say on this is that you were completely out of order earlier with your personal insults against our manager that I doubt you would be man enough to say to his face. You also have a nerve to criticise one of the best liked posters on this site, our friend Zbyszek for his poor English when yours isn’t exactly first class.

We may have diametrically opposed views relating to Celtic but if you are at the quiz on 28 Feb, come and find me and I’ll buy you a beer and we can debate some more.

Hail Hail

Mort

WGS hates the Old firm - and was on record as saying so over and over during his playing days - leopards don't change their spots - in his heart he has no love for Celtic or the fans of Celtic - that is self-evident every time he opens his mouth to the media - he treats us with contempt.

That is not to say he is not doing his best or trying to rob his employers by consciously trying to undermine the club while in their employ....however - it takes more than that to be a CEltic manger - and I do not mean a life-long Catholic Celtic supporter who is 'Celtic minded' before anyone accuses me... all I'm saying is if in your heart and history you have hated Celtic you can not be the man to lead at Parkhead....and events are proving me right.
.........OPEN YOUR EYES!

ST90
The flawed tactics of our coach are i think a major reason for his dip in form for us.
But today he would have to have been 50 ft tall to be get possession.
Our hoof and hope tactics left him a bystander.
He never got any service so no blame to him for not being involved.

awe naw...

one answer

i see nothing in them that makes me think we will not make it 4.

agree though taht we could be a lot better.

my towel though is rasped firmly

we can go for a bath at end of season though but you will be the only naked one

I agree with you Gordon_J, but he didnt start so wasnt able to make hs mark on the game properly.

I also agree with you Eustace and I am behind the manager as long hes in the hotseat but to drop a player who was MoM in a world cup qualifier for a newbie with no international caps is crazy!

ST

Whats the diffrence from the football we played last two years and this season. Same players, same manager, whats missing, TOMMY BURNS and his style of play

I meant to add this link in my previous post:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7402855.stm

Mort

cardiffbhoy

Gordon strachan in my view is behind

Maley
Stein
McNeil
Hay
Burns

In being best ever etc celtic manager. And dont let anyone give me the celtic minded pish counter argument. I'm a football man i don't care who plays or manages as long as they do it with style passion and skill.

Strachan may have beaten some of the worst hun teams in living memory but the football has been crap, soul destroying and turgid. We have also seen some of the worst results and players in our history.

That said he is our manager now and if we are to beat the huns we must get behind him. If we are divided we let that scum win.

After hearing them sing thier poison today we must do everything we can to defeat them.

Hail Hail

I never saw any passion or desire from Celtic today,LOL!

Memories of losing the league under TB fills my eyes with tears,ah'll tell you!

GS aint Celtic minded though,not a bit!

LOL!

I started today with mixed feelings, applauding Gordon for playing Willo, but feeling Aiden should also have played. However, as the game unfolded, in my opinion, which let's face means sod all, I felt that if a player was to come off it should have been Scott Brown. Willo could have filled in and Aiden brought on. Surely a player who cost around £4m should, at the very least, be able to pass the ball 5 yards to a team mate. I actually thought he was very badly fouled by McGregor and the decision to let him come back on was very careless to say the least. McCulloch should have walked for his elbow and knee on Paul and the referee was totally inept in general, mind you, to be honest, this was to both teams. I think we are still favourites for the league, but our recent form, and lets face it, it's been for a lot of games now, needs to change rapidly starting with Motherweel next week.

Hail! hail!
CD

mn celt said it for me at 3.43.

One of the worst derby games I've ever attended - two awful teams - and without Artur we wouldn't have stolen a point.

Calum Murray will go far in the game.

The racist songs were being belted out loud and clear.

Possilbhoy @ 4.51 - when the game finished the DJ played Coldplay's Viva La Vida. For months I was sure the chorus's second line was "Roman Catholic choirs are singing", so maybe the DJ thought the same - it sure sounds like that to me.

In reality the lyrics say "Roman Cavalry Choirs are singing"

DeniaBhoy

I thought that was what the lyrics were too. Great minds think alike eh!

Mort

fan-a-tic
Agree again there was no football being played at all.
For me McGeady is the type of player who should be demanding the ball and going looking for it everytime instead of waiting on a pass. WGS may be restricting him from doing so.

ST

By nelsbhoy on February 15, 2009 5:23 PM
Terry O

Ah sacked Setanta weeks ago,phoned,wrote even Emailed,finally cancelled the direct debit.Ave still got it.

Today.Couldn't believe the manager thought Crosas not worthy.Were rank Rotten Terry.

I thought Gordon would walk after last season,I sincerely hope he does this year.Even if we go on to win the league this year I think we need a fresh approach.

I'm p**d off and pouring ma self a hawf.

Man Utd proving that simple passing movements win games.

Look aboot yerselves there are people in right shady positions right noo.Its only a Fitba game.

Pouring myself a hawf and a hawf too m8. :)

I think our problem is not the simple pass but the constant instant control of the pass.

Naka and Crosas are miles ahead of anyone when it comes to this in the Celtic squad, if all were at their technical level we would be competing at Man U's level. We have to somehow recognise how we can get players of this technical level and develop them further, if we can, we do have some good qualities after all. Big Micks bravery in heading the ball on the floor was unbelievable to me.

The referee stopped our play, our players, our players playing

The new Dallas

It's the inches all around you that a referee can steal - he did so - in fact yards might be more appropriate.

U

St90

Aiden isn't allowed to go looking. That was what wgs was having a go at him for before he gave him a 'piece of his mind' and ended up with a three week ban.

Paul,et al.

Firstly,I see that the Rearrangers have got another winning element to their game,namely a referee who was so much on their side it must have been embarrassing to be a hun supporter,For a ref that was playing in his first Derby Game he wasn't even trying to hide what team he follows,Can you imagine with a bit more experience the damage he could do to Celtic,He's as bad as I've seen in the past twenty years.Mind you I've seen worse but that was a long time ago.

The football would break anyones heart,I'm struggling to fathom out the way Gordon see's the game being played,to leave out our best passer of the ball beggers belief,
Our two Centre backs still don't instil confidence in me,so it must be the same for the team around them,they must be cra--ing it every time a ball is humped into our area.
Why have the goals dried up,that's our biggest problem at the moment no one wants to take a shot at the goals,you can't blame Gordon for the three main strikers being guff at the same time,or can you.

McCulloch must be the dirtiest player in the SPL,he actually looked to see where he was going to put his foot down when he was falling,he picked out naka's head to straith with his boot.He also tried it on with Scott Brown,but our man was up to it a bit more than Naka.

We must look on the bright side,We are still two points in front and we are by far the better equipped to win the League.

Back to the Referee,how can he justify the two minutes added on at the end,There were five substitutions which is two and a half minutes in anyones language,Scotts injury,about three minutes,Naka's injury one minute at least.Laugherty first time down time,one minute,then Laugh again 30 seconds,and there must have been other injuries,I make that eight minutes at the least.

As I said at the beginning We had better watch out for that referee,You would think he had been got at.

st90

I agree

Strachan dropping mcgeady says more about him than mcgeady.

I don;t care what the lyrics are - playing a Coldplay song can never be justified!

Mort

I saw your post and did reply...

I also posted a full apology to Zbyszek - I'm sure if he's lurking he will confirm - however I admit I do tend to take the hump when I'm accused of being a Hun!

Re WGS - I stand by my comments - that is not to deny the way he dealt with TB stuff - credit where it is due..although I can't imagine how else you deal with these things.

My view remains that WGS has no humility/empathy with the supporters. I take no lessons from any poster on here regarding the origins of Celtic. I firmly believe in the link between charity and humility...Therefore I find WGS attitude hard to stomach. His football is increasingly less appetising also..

I feel a shared empathy with all on CQN and respect their views (except when I'm falsely accused of being a Hun!!) regardless of whether or not their views concur with my own.

Today was another nail in the coffin for me - another display of mediocrity. Remember we are spending £10m/year more on players - with little or no evidence of it's benefit on the park. In my view the team are going in the wrong direction - the football is almost non existent.

The Club is not pressing the advantages we are enjoying - and ultimately..most fans I know are in dispair - those are my (admittedly bleak) views.. surely there is better out there or should I just condition myself to expect the suppression of the Celtic values I have grown up with?

A draw is probably a fair result today but Ted's team are nae mugs and it will take decisive management decisions to clinch the league

Cardiffbhoy.....

It was me who mentioned those two today and I have always been a big fan of Dave Jones. He is, in my view the best manager in the English set-up outwith the Premiership and has worked wonders with very limited resources.

However, my tip would be for the younger Martinez of Swansea whose career is just starting and may see a club like Celtic as the logical step-up, providing Swansea don't win promotion of course.

Saw them against Fulham and they never looked out of their depth. They play nice football too.

uly

just signed in to comment amongst other things on Murray

cannae really put it any better

a fecking disgrace

havnae heard a rendition of " Mason in the black " at a hun game for a while

very well merited today

every 50/50 call in their half went to them

everytime we approached their box we were thwarted ..every corner , header challenged for every bloody call

yes he gave us decisions , but where it didn`t matter , in the middle of the park

utterly disgraceful

Fantastic to see the banner of our Manager today.

Well done to the jungle Bhoys ? Or whoever made it.

Not our best performance, but the ref was shocking!

These games can be mince sometimes… Still top though. :O).

I haven't read through the posts from today yet and just about to.

I've got to say that I can't recall such a negative side ever turning up at Celtic Park to play football. Rangers got today what they set out to achieve, a 0-0 scoreline. They would have maybe hoped to sneak a goal but that side was set up to purely stifle Celtic, and I suppose to that end they played well.

What disappointed me was the lack of anything from Celtic today. No pace, no creativity, no energy. It was all very flat from Celtic. We can argue about the team selection all day long, i personally would have played McGeady after his confidence booster on Wednesday (I would have played him anyway to be honest) instead of Nakamura, who had flown halfway round the World and back, and probably Samaras instead of McDonald, who looked even more drained than Naka and he didn't even play on Wednesday. It definitely told that two of our forward players were not at their best.

On the ref, I thought he was very poor. I had an argument on here with someone after the Dundee Utd semi about this guys performance. That night on the occasions were Celtic were building pressure on the Dundee Utd defence out of the blue a free-kick would be awarded and all pressure and momentum lost. I felt he done the same again today. I also don't know why Brown of JVoH were booked when, especially in Browns case, they were more sinned against than sinner. And 2 MINUTES of injury time. 5 subs mean at least 2 and a half minutes, couple that with extensive treatment to Brown and Laugherty twice I was hoping for around 4 or 5 minutes.

To be honest though, another 50 minutes and we would have struggled to get a shot on goal never mind score. We are making this really tough for ourselves now. We must improve markedly if we are to win this League.

Although disappointed with the result ,cant help think that a good Rangers team would have sensed blood and beaten us.The fact that this did not happen leads me to think that we will go on and win the league,providing WGS can sort out our misfiring strikers.Is this not a good time to threw Ben Hutchison on and see what he is made of?

There should have been six minutes added on in the second half. I don't think we would have scored in the additional four, but that's not the point. It was cheating, pure and simple, by the ref.

I;m sure his bosses will be praising Mr Murray (no relation surely?) for his performance.

I don't think the Ref was biased. just out of his depth.he was a nervous wreck near the end and couldn't wait to blow.

I expect him to get another 3 or 4 of our games before the end of the season though. :-(

is the Reverend due back for a few home games at the bogotdome.

top of the league

UC

oldtim

to see that big self styled psuedo hardman McCulloch strutting around our park enraged me

he is a cheapshot , snyde pretend tough guy

for 5 mins to live the dream in a Celtic shirt i`d have booted that steward all the way up London Rd ....not one of our number is capable of that

where are the Mjallby`s,Balde`s, Sutton`s and Thompson`s now....replaced by spineless good teammates

a large part of our current problem

Terry O'Neil touched on the refereeing subject recently and today's mib played exactly as he predicted.
Are you psychic Terry?
Can you help me with next weeks lottery?Thought not.
Predictable behaviour from a cheating little Scottish ref. How unusual.
However our coach did more to deny us victory than the hun in black.
To pay so much respect to this crap rangers team is ridiculous.

ghuys

on the extra time debacle - and believe me it saddens me to say it - I was glad to see a quick end to the game.

They were as likely , maybe even more so , to snatch a goal and win as we were.

TLWIO

I cannot recall a more insipid uninspiring derby match. I didn't even feel the normal tension, every bit of life had been sucked out of the team and support.

Mystifying team selection,tactics and post match comments from our Manager.

JVOH is rapidly developing into one of our worst ever centre forwards. No pace, horrible control, no goal threat and an increasing habit of simply spoiling and fouling throughout the game. If we extend his contract the we have no ambition to play football the Celtic way.

The ommision of McGeady set our stall out, after 4 years of hard work we have finally achieved the impossible - we have lowered our standards to match those of the worst Rangers team since the mid 80's.

A week of good training has convinced our Manager that Willo offers more at home to Rangers than Aiden ??

We play Hartley for a full 90 minutes despite an obvious lack of pace and match sharpness. Why sign Crosas if we have no faith in his ability to turn the big games. Are we saving his skills for the St Mirrens at home ?

Strachan "delighted for Boruc", our goalkeeper made 2 saves both of which you would expect any top keeper to make. It shouldn't even merit a mention.

4IAR or not we need to change in the summer. I for one have lost faith in the Manager, today's performance was delivered by a 1st team squad missing only Maloney and Robson

Ulster-Celt

you having a laugh

he was an absolute disgrace

if he wasn`t biased then it must have been the mother of all coincidences that he gave the hun every 50/50 decision in their half

also

the only time i`ve seen a wall refusing to mave back ...therefore the ref moves the ball back ..

btw ...we were dross and he was not to blame for our poor performance

we have had to cope with worse however we were a much better team then

Re- Roberto Martinez, I also posted in his favour earlier.

What has impressed me most about Swansea whenever I've seen them this season is that all their players seem to have a good first touch and rarely waste a pass.

Remember, these are no galacticos or players that are 'out of our league' financially. For example, yesterday they started with Dorus De Vries (ex Dunfermline) in goal, and Jason Scotland (ex St Johnstone and Dundee Utd) up front. Not a 'box office' player in sight...but I wouldn't fancy our chances against them.

Well done Artur Boruc today.

The guy has class and ability.

Two stories grabbed all the media focus in the run up to todays game. Firstly Arturs spat with Aiden and secondly the heralding (Bring on the trumpets  ) of the boy genius Fleck.
If the agenda was to influence the outcome of the players’ individual performances, then the result could not have been further from intention.
The Murray Park Maradona wandered off with barely a kick of the ball to call his own, while Artur was in great form and desevedly most commentators MOTM.

HAil HAil

Gordon_J, Oldtim, PF AYr

Re: The ref

Got to agree, that was a great performance from him as he stopped lots of Celtic attacks and broke up the play many times. The number of free-kicks he gave when the ball went into the box during an attack was ridiculous. How he booked Scott Brown after he got dragged to the ground beggars belief.

McCullough was lucky to stay on the pitch after a deliberate kick on Naka and a knee in the back of Hartley. McGregor was also lucky to avoid a booking for clattering into Scott Brown.

Saying all that, I don't think the team played well today but Rangers are very adapt at playing for a draw and successfully done it last year manys a time on route to the UEFA final. Smith set out his stall from the beginning and by leaving both strikers on the bench it was obvious what he wanted.

We aren't playing well at the minute but I still have faith in Gordon and the bhoys to come through this stiky patch and deliver us another title and a possible treble. The most important match will be the final in a months time.

Bhoyfromcults,

Cheers for your reply, apologies that I missed your previous response. I'm never going to agree with your assessment of our manager but that's your prerogative.
Hail Hail

Mort

PF ayr

he booked Barry 8, he can't be biased!

he was just rubbish all round, like us.

UC

Re the injury time. I wasn't too fussed about it being wrong, which it undoubtedly was. We weren't exactly pinning the Hun back and with our back lot we were just as likely to lose a goal as score, which today we were unlikely to do.
I've got a feeling we haven't seen the last of this lot's 4-5-1, so we're going to have to go on a similar run to that which we had after the 2-4 game and keep our lead, which is by no means impossible, although it does mean playing far better football, which I think includes , Willo, Aiden and Marc Crosas.
CD

Why didn't rangers play their wonder kid fleck?

Ulster-Celt

He had no option but to book Ferguson with such a blatant act of dissent.

It wasn't exactly a surprise though when he blew for a foul as the ball came in from that corner kick though was it?

I cant wait for this season to end it cant come soon enough, i just hope there is enough in the tank to do 4 in a row, no matter what WGS must not be in charge of us next season, come May when we have to renew our season tickets they will there will be a backlash against WGS style of play as the fans in there thousands will not renew there season books!!! when we go to the game on Saturday there at least 10thousand not turning up who have already paid there tickets, as we seen at xmas they were trying to sell them for 150pounds and still could not get rid of them, i now believe STRACHAN must go!!! i would go for TONY MOWBURY & PETER GRANT i love the way Tony had Hibs playing just think what he could do with better players say no more & of course our Peter back where he belongs along with Lennon thats my dream team hail, hail!!!! ps GOOD LUCK GORDON WHEN YOU MOVE ON I THINK YOUR TIME IS UP!!!!!!

Not the result I was confident we would get.
Neither was it the disastrous result that we could have had, except for the feline reactions of the Holy Goalie.
All things considered....No damage done.
If, at the start of the season, I had been offered a 2 point lead after three quarters of the season, I would have gladly taken it.
Let's try to live in the REAL world.
We are strong favourites to win a 4th successive title.
God Bless the CELTIC.

Bhoyfromcults - Jock Stein grew up as a Rangers supporter. Some of his family disowned him when he signed for Celtic as a player.

You are talking absolute drivel and clutching at straws.

I have never ever heard Gordon Strachan say anything negative about the Celtic support - give me some examples so that I might eat humble pie! Suspect you will not be able to.

There was a guy on Radio Scotland (a Celtic fan supposedly) slating WGS for not giving straight answers to questions. Apparantly Coisty gives straight answers! I bet you were agreeing with the guy - drivel of the highest order.

We are TOP of the league. The onus as far as I can see was on THEM to win. THEY didn't have the bravery to play with two strikers against this most terrible of Celtic teams which tells me (a) they fear us
(b) they don't rate themselves

I am really struggling to understand the mineshafter mindset - this is the same Celtic team who drew with a great Manchester United side this season. It is more or less the same side who won the league last season from an impossible position.

I suppose people like you, bhoy from cults, will never be convinced.

But as I have said to you before - be careful what you wish for where our management team is concerned.

Top of the league and in contention for a treble.

We'realldoomedCSC

Joe Parkhead - do you love the way Mowbray and Grant have WBA heading for relegation?

Be careful what you wish for.

barcabhoy at 4.04.

Spot on. I'm sick and tired of watching this.

To see the manager smiling and joking on TV after the game might please him but doesn't please me.

I've been supporting Celtic for many more years than him.

Moonbeams,

They have MIBS

Are two points behind but play the next derby at Ibrox and have a better goal differnce than us.

You imho display the 2 points ahead mentality instead of the one point behind mentality I was alluding too

I´ll be celebrating at the head of the table with my towel firmly wrapped around me.

Sorry to disappoint you, you´ll have to try something else to see my naked body ;-)

Hail Hail

I agree that the ref was poor, however we put up with jokers like Dallas up until recently. We need to be better and make the ref factor irrelevant.

Jesus wept.

Just back. Poor game and a draw suited both in the end. Struggled to write something cool, witty and guid. But came up wiw this

Pancake Day. Celtic 0 R*ngers 0

Why don't we just play them at fitba'?

Forza

ulster celt

the booking of Ferguson was just ....just because he didn` like so many other doesn`t mean is fair

i suggest that you watch the game again ( or for the first time )
not biased ...BULL

geez peace

porridgeandbananas

My point is the ref was rubbish for both teams. Ferguson was rightly booked. The decision to award a corner was wrong/ the non foul from that corner was wrong. he was inept.

we should really direct our ire in other directions.

UC

There are any number of managers who perform brilliantly for a time. the guy at Swansea is one of them. He ma turn out to be the new Wenger or Ferguson. He may not. Hull's manager was performing miracles early in the season. Hull have found their level since.

If we haev to replace Gordon Strachan (and I hope we do not) then thoe of you on here calling for his head and criticising the clubs lack of ambition need to seriously think about who you are wanting to replace our 3IAR, progress in Europe manager with. I for one would take a lower league manager from England as a distinct lack of ambition.

Do any of you think before you type?

I am off to check teletext to confirm that we did in fact draw a game and not lose 5-0.

Get a gripCSC

Due to some technical hitch with Virgin/Setanta, I can't see the MunU game which is on Setanta 2 in Scotland and Eire. What's the score?

I'm watching a re-run of today's epic Glasgow derby.
Leaving CP I said that the ref was a bottler and incompetent rather than biased, but combined with his performance at the LC semi I'm beginning to wonder.
The injury time was a total nonsense. Forgetting all the substitutions, there was at least 4 minutes for all the injuries.

The ref couldn't wait to get out of there. New Dallas indeed.

TTTT

Ulstercelt

Totally agree.

Just reading the posts about possible replacements for Gordon if he decides to go at end of season.
How about Leo Beenhakker now managing the Polish national side. He is an old fox with tons of experience and aspiring coaches like Lennon will learn much from him.
Just a thought!!!

Having witnessed a very poor spectacle of a game, for my tuppence worth, it is no different from what we have been getting served for quite a while.

I for one will not argue with GS's record, 3 titles is not to be sniffed at and who amongst us would not have been delighted with this achievement had it been offered in the aftermath of Black Sunday!!!

Now that I've mentioned it, the Celtic team of that day, which, coincidently contained of the Suttons, Thomsons, Balde et al which many of us remember with great affection, lost and we all said in hindsight that MON should have and probably could have seen that team was moribund and bereft of impetus, freshness and idea, the rest is history.

I believe what we are seeing is the same condition in our current crop, and the same loyalty to the tried and tested that was ultimately the undoing of our heros that day.

The current team are also bereft of impetus and idea and cannot seem to lift themselves beyond the ordinary. This, I believe is partly due to the players and mostly due to a management. The team play with a style which has become predictable and at times easy for the opposition all too easily to render sterile. We have no expression. we have little guile and for the majority of games no cutting edge.

I have not posted this opinion as a direct critisism of GS I simply believe that there comes a time when a fresh coat of paint is needed and I believe that win or lose the 4iar, we should thank the wee man for giving us a continuation of our GoD and look to a new style of football.

I could offer my suggestion as successor but its not my job, otherwise I too would be shopping for sharp suits!!

I simply believe we need fresh ideas and blood and we need a wee bit less rigidity in tactics however, if GS returns for a shot at 5iar, I will stand 4square, 100% behind him and the team

Yours in Celtic

RagDaddy

Doubtless their usual racist and sectarian bile will be swept under a carpet.

Well it is Scotland.

ElDiegoBhoy

I am with you on this. they should be banned. as I speak thay are singing about dying a Fenian Bassa....

UC

Ulster-Celt

I have only ever noticed this ref twice in Celtic games, the semi-final and today. He reffed the semi exactly the same way he did today, preventing Celtic from bulding up momentum by awarding the opposition a foul to relieve the pressure.

I have never saw a ref stand in front of the penalty taker in a shoot-out, yet this guy done it twice, to Loovens and Hinkel. Before today I hadn't seen a ref in any game move the ball back after the wall encroached it's 10 yards. How McCulloch stayed on the park, especially basically telling the country in the press what his play would be about today, was beyond me.

It was a total cop-out by the radio I listened to coming home to say he got all the 'big' decisions right. Sometimes it's the seemingly 'small' decisions that can prove just as effective.

ROBERTTRESSELL, a wee quiz for you name 2 Celtic managers that joined Celtic after getting religated from the top league in England, 1 was big Billy & you can name the other 1?

ROBERTTRESSELL, a wee quiz for you name 2 Celtic managers that joined Celtic after getting religated from the top league in England, 1 was big Billy & you can name the other 1?

If we were 2 points behind in the league and turned up at Ibrox and got a draw who would be the happier set of supporters?

If we had relied on a 17 year old 'wonderkid' to be the key to unlock the rangers defence and he performed as Fleck did today, would we be happy with the clubs management for allowing our club to be so devoid of options while our rivals were able to bring on two international attacking footballers as substitutes?

I really think we need some perspective on today's game. The team who needed to win didn't.

Celtic will have to improve after a dismal months football and results to match. But improve we will and I am now more certain than I was since 27th December that we will win the league AGAIN.

That's as much positivity as I can muster tonight. Not a great game, pretty consistent with recent performances, played well in patches, came up against a stuborn defence who have conceded very few goals recently. The law of averages stated that a Glasgow Derby had to end in a draw at some stage.

In many ways Celtic are now on a hiding to nothing. It is a shame that a growing number of Celtic supporters cannot accept reality and enjoy this period in our history.

.

Nada-Nada....

And They Sang....

Were Up To Our Knees in....

0-01

not the best and not the worst referee i've seen

he gave many baffling decisions against us, be he also penalised lafferty every time he challenged for a high ball as well

even if he had got no decisions wrong today, i doubt we would have won

our problems go way beyond the officials.....way beyond

in the present climate, supporters who may be swaying about renewing season books need to be given reasons to make what may be painful financial decisions in order to renew.....it's not being unsupportive to question the club.......the quality of football is poor, has been for most of the season, and the transfer windows have been a desperate disappointment

both of those issues need to be addressed , and in a hurry

PF
Your hurt in pal,understandable.

However.Creativity,technique,imagination and composure would eliminate their 12th man.Ref was poor ill grant you,but C'mon.

The two most technically gifted footballers in the SPL not included in the starting line beggars belief.

We will always be the best because of who and what we are,but this is nae good enough.

EDBHOY

I thought wee Gorden was strangely cheery with wee Chick after the game.Looking for solutions not submissions.

As I said earlier Murray has a good career ahead.

WG spotted him straight away but someone defended him today as a Hearts fan. Aye right.

I understand that we can be prone to going too far when results don't go our way, but is it really too much to ask for more fight and passion from a team that seems to lack any real ambition? Not since the days of Regi Blinker marshalling our midfield have I seen so many overpaid underworked hacks dropping points like the only time to put in a shift is when a contract negotiation is due.

You could count on one hand the opportunities we made, and the Rangers team we faced had their best goalscoring chance through our captain making sure Boruc was paying attention. Simply not good enough in front of our home crowd, when you consider we have taken Europe's best over the last 7 years. I can't honestly put forward an argument for paying higher wages than 10 SPL clubs for anyone other than Brown, McGeady, Boruc and Caldwell.

A bit of a rant I know, so please feel free to add some composed logic to this address.

I was called a Hun earlier because I don't think everything is sweetness and light, although the person who made the accusation could not and did not back up the accusation.

I notice a lot of bloggers reiterating the mantra that "we will win the league." Well I'm sorry, but I wish I shared your confidence.

We may well be top of the league tonight, but by the time we kick off against Motherwell next Sunday, we will in all likelihood be second. I cannot see Rangers failing to beat Kilmarnock at home next Saturday, and who here can be confident that we will beat Motherwell away on current form?

Depending on whether Hibs or Motherwell finish in 6th place, Rangers may not play away against a top-six side again before the split. If Hibs do finish 6th, that will be their final match before the split. Until then, who do we see taking points off them?

Unless there is a dramatic improvement, we will not take nine points from Motherwell, Hearts and Dundee Utd away, never mind our home matches, where we have just one SPL win this calendar year. Since beating ICT on 29th November last year, we have won just THREE league matches.

There will be no-one happier than me if I am wrong, but my prediction is we will not be top at the split. I just hope we are still within striking distance.

Joe Parkhead, name all the trophies and European matches that Tony Mowbray has led his teams to. what was Hibs best league position with him in charge?

I see your point and I kind of knew I was walking in to it when I posted it but you could also argue that Gordon had far more experience of top flight football than Tony Mowbray when he came to Celtic.

Would you rather have an experienced trophy winning manager at the helm or take a punt on a manager who is currently plying his trade at the bottom of the EPL and previosly led a good young Hibs team to stylish football and very little success?

.

The 19th

Rarely watch the huns but listening to the hype I naively believed Bougherra had some ability.

He was nearly as crap as laugherty.

Ulster Celt 6.16 - The shock of captain unbookable getting a yellow card clearly got to them on Radio Scotland. After the game Chick piped up that Barry's booking was an injustice as the ref got the decision wrong (corner to us)which led to his wee strop. Dickie and Doddsy agreed.

So there you have it... if a referee gets a decision wrong players are allowed to berate the referee with impunity. Rest assured Chick, Dickie and Doddsy would feel the same if it was Neil Lennon, Artur or Aiden screaming at a referee and would stick up for any one of them accordingly.

Anyway, back on planet earth...

apparently the other big refereeing injustice of the day according to Alistair Alexander was Naismith's booking.

Anyone saying the ref was biased needs to learn to look at our games with a bit of objectivity. Scott Brown did deserve his booking (he grabbed at naismith's top and pulled him down with him- what im sure most of us would have done,but a nono nonetheless), McGregor should not have been booked for clattering into Brown. If that had happened at the other end and Artur had been booked, some people would have been decrying a masonic conspiracy such would the harshness of the decision have been. The ref was just bad, not biased.

On to the game: While i still want to keep Strachan as manager,I think i've got to the bottom of why the support don't take to him like we did with MON. Its because with MON, we set the agenda to our opponents, we set ourselves up to make sure it was the other team taking heed of us. Nowadays, and its not even just against Rangers, we look at our opponents before we look at ourselves. Sure,you can say Smith playing a defensive 4-5-1 shows he was "taking heed" of us, but i mean more in a selection-sense. Smith set that up to combat us playing our best team. Instead we put in grafty,rather than crafty, players to match them physically. Thus playing our less-dangerous players against a defensive system meant the writing was pretty much on the wall from kick-off! Its frustrating to watch your team unable to create a single shot on target in an entire game.

Agree with ulster celt as well. Mib was out of his depth, the rankers did their usual cheating they do under walt and he was either not competent enough to work out what was going on, or brave enough to do something about it.

Easy to take out our frustrations on a referee but we never looked like scoring no matter who was in charge

roberttressell

You too have missed my point - please re-read my comments - specifically -

'and I do not mean a life-long Catholic Celtic supporter who is 'Celtic minded' before anyone accuses me... '

So...thanks for the Jock Stein potted Biography - but there was no need - I too get Celtic biographies for Xmas - (what else do you buy middle-aged bhoys?)

As someone else put it - we are now in a debate between statisticians and standard bearers - I'm defending standards while others cling to statistics..

I could never make you eat humble pie - because no matter what WGS says you and I will hear different things....

... I hear contempt when he ends discussion with media on subjects we are entitled to hear his opinions on (Aiden-gate). I feel patronised when I have witnessed drivel and hear him say we played great/were unlucky - a oft occuring response, in my experience. Perhaps you think we always play well too? Did you enjoy today's game? Our recent visit to Inverness? the defeat by Huns last time round? European games this season? ... are you happy with the spend in January? Do you rate the signings WGS has made over the piece? Do you feel we are getting value for the extra £10m/year we spend on wages over our main rivals? Do feel the team improving ? Do you sense an atmosphere of happiness at parkhead? Do you agree with his petty handling of McGeady?.....I hear your 'YES' to all these questions - in a way I envy you your faith...but worry too much about the impact on our Club. So I don't share your views as much as you don't share mine.

Give me critical analysis anytime over blind acceptance...

001,

Am I missing something?

Whats with the 19th???

Maybe Im being slow!!

RD

The ref stuff will get better...

Kenny Misser is blaming him for not giving Rangers a penalty and thereby costing them the league.

STANDING UP

Woe is me.

I'm offski.

We're all on the one road bhoys but I'll say ot again before I go:

life ain't that bad and BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

Hail Hail

kilbowie Kelt - nothing wrong with being optimistic but as you are inviting us to live in the real world, what did you see today, or in the last two months, that makes you say we are strong favourites to win 4IAR?

A few weeks ago Rangers were predicted by all those in the know to be on the verge of imploding. Bankrupt on and off the park and heading for administration. If you had told me that our seven point lead would be reduced to two points by mid-Feb after a home game against them I would have thought you were at the wind-up.

In the real world, at least the one I inhabit, we should have been out of sight by now. Instead we are behaving like a drowning man trying to save his enemy from going under instead of standing on his head.

When we kick off next week we will most likely be doing so from second position (Rangers at home to Kilmarnock before we go to Fir Park on Sunday). It is highly likely that over the coming weeks we will swap places with them as league leaders on more than one occasion - even if it is only because of who plays on a Saturday and who plays on a Sunday. With away games coming up against Motherwell, Hearts and Dundee Utd. in the next few weeks there is also the possibility that we will not go back to the top as a matter of course. Then we could be into the same scenario as last year - relying on other teams to do us a favour.

Even if all went to plan for both teams, and they didn't drop points to anyone else, they will be favourites to win the final game against us at Ibrox.

I can't, therefore, work out how you think we are strong favourites, or even favourites. They are the team who are scoring more and conceding less, they are the ones who have cut their deficit to two points having been seven behind.

We are now in a bare-knuckle fist fight and there will be plenty of blood, snot and sweat before a winner emerges from this one.

The problem I have is that I dont see a system . I dont see a real team with shape and method and towards the end the defence especially the full-backs were falling to pieces. The mid field was shambles for alot of the game too . But we're still top and we do have a superior squad so hopefully we,ll get it together a nick this title.

Joe Parkhead

Did you ever say who your good journalist mate predicted we would sign?

Did you name your journo mate?

Surprised you're back on again with more nonsense.

Okay, I'm more miner than clapper. I'll be upfront. However, I have also advocated that whatever the criticisms anyone has of the team of Strachan etc etc, it should all be suspended until we win the 4th. I'll confess that I've teetered on the edge insofar as my own advice is concerned. And unfortunately, I've leaned and fallen over.

A game of chess ?!! That's an insult to the players of that game. More like snakes and ladders in my book. Whatever the incompetency of the referee (and he was), this was one of the worst football matches that I can remember caring to watch. We had 2 efforts on goal - one was saved by Boruc (McManus) and the other was the inevitable freekick effort by Naka. Elsewhere on the pitch and during the 90 minutes, there was lots of effort, lots of blood, guts and snorters and...well, little else.

McDonald and JVoH upfront. The exciting tactic of punting thr ball forward to these pair. JVoH for whatever reason, never seems to get a fair crack when the ball is in the air. The Ref always blows, but my point is - EVERY ref ALWAYS blows. So, the alternative? Ah yes, the punt to the shortest man on the park. What on earth is going on in that hub of tactical decision-making? Smoking pot, drinking buckie?

We are appalling at the present time. The fact that they're rubbish provides me with no comfort. I don't care what they do.

However, whereas there is a distinct lack of entertainment on the park, off the field events at least give you something to divert your gaze toward. The "RudeBhoys" were again bullied by the police into removing their banner. Goodness only knows why. I'm told that there's some conflict between the Jungle Bhoys and any other competing group. Why doesn't the club just the fans get on with it?

Having said that, continue to play football in the current manner and the club can save themselve some money - you don't need stewards to chuck people out if the fans don't turn up in the first place.

BoredCSC

.

I Think Forfar Have a Chance....

001BridieCSC

just and extra comment, i meant shot on target from open play in over the course of an entire game.

Reasonable pigeons
RD

Today was unadulterated garbage.

No will to win , strikers who have gone on strike against a miserable near-bankrupt Darnel.

The clappers will clap but we desperately need a change of direction .

When was the last time , We, as the soul of the club, were entertained ?

St Mirren put up a better effort against them at home.

I have a question, is it simple player loyalty that goes way to far, or are Ben Hutchinson et al so poor that see's VOH and Samaras always the automatic partner for McDonald?

Goals are few and far between right now, and the dry spell the big two are suffering from would see Partick Thistle try out a new option...

Paul Hartley did nothing wrong, but we missed dynamism in midfield. Scott Brown alone could not give us enough.

Willo Flood had a good debut. Well played. He's direct and dynamic.

Maybe good players in the wide areas have had their day and what we need is more in the middle. Trade-offs, trade-offs.

Rangers played well in the second half. Credit where it's due. They improved after John Fleck went off, ironically.

Anyway, I haven't really been keeping up and was surprised to learn there are but 13 games to go.

I fancy Celtic to go on another excellent run and win all 13. I can't help it. Optimism is my default setting.

.

JOE PARKHEAD....

Is a 'Gay' Parkhead Icon....IMHO.....

Radio Clyde Phoneline: Hello It;s Joe Again....

Joe: Is This The Gay Hotline....????

Radio Clyde Phoneline: Hi Joe....Its Rodger.....

;

;

;

;

001102.5CSC

Was at the game and I've skimmed through it again when I got home. I was analysing the Ref more than the game though. He wasn't as bad as I thought at the game but it was still a strange performance and there should have been many more minutes added.

I think we're all more or less agreed though that we are off the boil yet we still sit at the top of the pile, if we get back to form sometime soon we will kick on and grab 4iar because bad as we undoubtedly are, they are worse.

Does anyone have their set - list for today ? from where I was sitting it sounded like the whole repertoire.

Chaplin.... who likes to lurk in FF but that's aw, honest !.

edb

WAS THINKING SOMETHING SIMILAR RE BOUGHERRA ..........£5 MILL .THEY`LL NEED SOUNESS TO GET ANOTHER EPL JOB BEFORE THEY GET THAT FOR HIM .MINCE

AS FOR LAUGHERTY ..........TED MCMINN WITHOUT THE SKILL :¬)

Did mean to add, thought 'Noah' made a decent fist of an debut against 'them'

RD

The routine distasteful aspect emanated from Rangers' support, who insisted on chanting about Scott Brown dying a "Fenian bastard" following his accidental clash with McGregor.

While the rest of us were left to consider what century these people are intent on living in, Brown was being reminded of who and where he was as he staggered from the field. Consolation will arrive from the fact these were 90 minutes of his life he wouldn't want back in a hurry in any case.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/15/rangers-celtic-draw-spl

UC

inky - having just watched the re-run, Kenny Misser could have had a penalty for a very clumsy challenge by our captain, but Murray appeared to let it go as KM got his (wayward of course) shot away.
It would have been daylight robbery if they had won today.

Do you think there will be any mention in the media about their fans disgusting chants today?! ;-)

TTTT

roberttressell,

Have to agree with you. I think we should be very careful if we want to get rid of our manager (tonight on CQN feels like the aftermath of the Motherwell defeat last season). I watched the Swansea game yesterday and certainly they played a great brand of football. But I would imagine that that has not gone unnoticed in the EPL boardrooms and, if he really is the real deal, he will be in charge of the likes of Fulham next season. Of course, he might be a 1 season wonder. Tony Mowbray has his teams playing a great brand of football but so did Tommy Burns and both had little to show for their efforts. Maybe Peter Grant might be the new Jock Stein. By that, I mean, both were limited as players but maybe Peter might have that certain something Mr Stein had in spades. I have watched Celtic for too long winning nothing for too long to be anything but thankful for what our manager has achieved, even if I think the football is too often dire.

.

Notafan....

Wee Agree....

001NotAFanOfNotAFanOfIfYouNoWhitAmeanCSC

Barcabhoy

I am not being confrontational, what do you suggest now that would have stopped people giving up their season books, and what would you have done differently on the recent past?

.

"The 19th"

TTTT

I wouldn't hold my breath for it

STANDING UP

Should read what do you suggest now to stop people giving up their season books

BEN HUTCHINSON CANNAE BE ANY WORSE THAN WHAT WE ARE WITNESSING

JVOH ..ABOUT 2 GOALS THIS SEASON

SAMMY...ABOUT 2 GOLAS IN THE LEAST 3 MONTHS

ABSOLUTE GASH

AND NEITHER CONTRIBUTES ANYTHING ELSE

AS FOR JVOH GETTING A YEAR EXTENSION ...WOULD SOMEONE /ANYONE EXPLAIN WHY ?????????????

some things never change.

the guardian

The routine distasteful aspect emanated from Rangers' support, who insisted on chanting about Scott Brown dying a "Fenian bastard" following his accidental clash with McGregor.

While the rest of us were left to consider what century these people are intent on living in, Brown was being reminded of who and where he was as he staggered from the field. Consolation will arrive from the fact these were 90 minutes of his life he wouldn't want back in a hurry in any case.

.

Wise Men Say....Only Fools Rush In....

001ElvisCSC

.

PF Ayr....

Skippy Should Never Been on the Park....

Jet Lag is 100 Worse Coming Home....

001

jvoh can activate a years extension himself due to it being in his contract its up to him and has every right to do so

I wish we'd stop saying we'll win the league because Rangers are rubbish.

Never mind your opinion of Rangers, just look at the fixture list ahead before the split. Who are they going to drop points against? So far this round of fixtures, they have already played Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and us, taking five points. Before the split, they have Hearts and Motherwell at home, and Hibs away. Sure they might drop something against Motherwell (come on Cillian) but Hearts is a banker for them. Hibs could do us a turn, but they are even more inconsistent under Mixu than they were under Tony Mowbray.

We have still to play Aberdeen at home, plus Motherwell, Hearts and Dundee Utd away. Our form since the end of November has been horrendous.

What anyone says on here will have no effect on the outcome of the Championship, but we are sleepwalking to disaster if we think everything will turn out all right because we are Celtic and Rangers are rubbish. Rangers would have bitten your hand off for a draw this morning, but after that second half, I bet they're kicking themselves that's all they got.

For those who are not completely scunnered with football for today, the Milan derby is live on BBC3.

Calm down.....

We Shall Not Be Moved.

Why did the rookie ref decide to take the ball back a few yards intstead of moving the wall back the other way. Did nobody notice.

TTTT

try self flagellation ...got to be better than watching that crap again

Chance missed

Hail Hail

Cumbernauld

yes i pose on that earlier

that was a new one for me

Milan Derby Live on BBC 3 bhoys ...

We're rubbish; they're garbage.
4 in a row in a two donkey league.

My apologies but at this rate, I might even subscribe to Sky...

Finally, what was Gary Pendrey telling Crosas with the benefit of his wee boards and notes when we're down to 10 with less than 10 to go ?!! How about, "get on there and score"??!

Paul67,

After the last Glasgow Derby there was a discussion on here regarding the away hun support and there racist and sectarian chanting.

At the time you said you believed that they would refuse their ticket allocation if the bile continued. Do you still believe this?

Personally I believe a more proactive approach is now required...

OOps, I will have to come back on this even though I said I was away:

Bhoyfromcults
1. I didn't misread you. and don't patronise me. I didn't need a biography to know Jock's background. My point still stands - people who once hated Celtic do not always do so. SEE JOCK STEIN. Background? Me thinks the bhoyfromcults doth protest too much.

2. I do not always agree with Strachan. I often disagree with his line ups but more often than not I have been proved wrong. todays first half for example. I thought McGeady should have played. naka was given room to roam and ran the show. Am I wrong? Go and watch the game again and see. Over the piece Strachan has delivered 3 titles and two cups. is he all that bad?

3. Our team have played poorly since december. That i see no point in dwelling on this and look instead to the positives (ie that we are still top of the league and have the best players in the SPL) is not some kind of flawed thinking it is reality.

4. the REALITY is we are not dealing in the same market as MON was dealing in for a maximum of two seasons. MON didn't get to deal in that market after his initial big signings. the world has changed. football is changing. celtic are preparing for those changes. to do otherwise is utter folly. that it will have an impact on the field is an unfortunate consequence. will it always be thus? I hope not and that is why Celtic seem to be playing the LONG GAME off the field in order to ensure CONTINUING SUCCESS on it.

5. Strachans signings - like other managers, some have been good, others poor. Do you know any manager with a faultless record in this respect and may I also refer you to point 4 - the times they are a changing.

6. Value for money for our spend? As a bit of a lefty I am appalled when I think about footballers wages. yet I am happy that we have won 3 titles in a row which has given us circa £10 million a year from the CL. So I couldn't say that I wasn't happy with value for money. Ask me about the catering at CP for the ordinary supporter and I'll give you a different answer!!

7. is the team improving? How do you improve on winning the league? By winning another one? Are we likely too in the face of what we saw from the huns today? Probably. I want to see more expansive football and there are too many individuals not cutting it at the moment. we are far from perfect and I could not disagree with you there but we also have to balance the performances with results and again, over the piece Strachan's teams have produced the goods.

8. Petty handling of McGeady? not sure what you mean. In my own work if someone was to call me names in front of other employees I would not be as restrained as Gordon Strachan was, I would probably take the Boruc approach. Your argument here would stand up if he had subsequently banished aiden to the reserves and never played him again. He hasn't. I don't see where you are coming from here at all.

9. Do I sense a happy atmosphere? from the supporters? Not on cyberspace but most of the guys I know in real life, yes, they are happy enough. Do you mean among the players? I see no evidence to suggest they are any different to any other football squad. They looked pretty happy winning at Ibrox in December, pretty together.

10. you make a grand claim about defending standards. I have asked before how you quantify these standards. it is obviously not measured in the traditional currency of footballing success which is trophies. so what is it? I used to love watching Cadete, Pierre and the fascist di canio but ultimately my guts were ripped out of me as season after season ended in failure.

Going back to the reality of the situation I am not a man of blind faith but I think I can read the signs of the times reasonably well, so while you go in search of standards I will count the trophies and the happy days I have spent celebrating and basking in the glory that brings to Celtic football club.

If all this was going on against a backdrop of growing debt, bad management at the club and a trophy drought then I would be concerned.

I hope and demand better from the Celtic team. The very minimum is a return to the standards set when we won 12 games on the trot earlier this season. We are not going to agree on this cults but we both know where we stand. I hope you get hat you are after, but BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

I'm sure many people would describe Willo Flood as having an alright debut, I take the view that Strachan was looking for the 'Robson Effect', where we all saw the other celtic red head take all of 20 seconds to become an old firm legend by knocking someone on his derrier, it didn't come off like that however. No real fight, no obvious talent that will offer us more than say having Maloney back.

We desperately need a striker-one who would consider 180 minutes without a goal as terrible, until then we need McGeady, Brown and sporadically a few others to carry us over the finish line before we can hope to improve on a poor squad.

And in relation to previous posts regarding a new manager, seriously? I'll take success over anything, and at the end of the day, substituting Strachan for anyone else means giving up our most successful manager in decades for most probably a "Celtic Man", as if winning isn't the core of what being Celtic minded is.

cheers awo no the missus is not happy

On reflection I think today's result is a good one for us. I say that because the team has been and is playing poorly - we all agree on that, even the manager. So we could easily have gone behind in the league today, as we were there for the taking.. before we even stepped on to the park. Don't know why the rivals would be happy about a stalemate today (not that I think they deserved anything more). Surely if you are chasing the leaders and they are playing poorly, you need to scalp them.
We WILL improve and as long as we don't slip up any more, we will be champions again.

TTTT,

In the second half, Rangers created clear chances for Weir, Ferguson and Miller. Laugherty had a more difficult chance and only for a great save, Mick could have put the ball in his own net.

In the entire match, we had Skippy's miss from three yards on about 20 minutes, then Naka's free kick in the last minute.

If Rangers had won today, we could have had no complaints at all.

Inkybhoy

No exclusive rumours for us tonight?

Anyone heard from Wee Chris Morris..thought not

Pf ayr

Big ben has a foot injury which will keep him out for another 6 weeks or so. Doesn't mean he won't be worse than what we're seeing at the mo mind

.

Manager v Manager....

If I Put My Top Striker on The Subs Bench.....

I Wonder if He Will....Do The Same....

I Wonder if I Put My 2nd Top Striker on the Bench 2....

No....

He is Not That Stupid....

001ManagerWithNoSurnameCSC

wgs interviewed and said "in the first half i told th players to keep the ball to prevent rangers counter attack" - this tells me he suspected rangers would sit back in typical rangers style - why then did he not start with McGeady or Mizuno to get some creativity around their box.

Not only did this tactic deprive us of creativity , it invited rangers full backs up the park to support their midfield and forwards.

I hope this is not the season where celtic handed a lifeline back to rangers - this could haunt us for years to come!

Hutchieson was on the bench today

Malceye,

apparently we dont understand .

Mr Pendrey is a guru who brings untold success to our club.

10 men is better than an un-lectured un-clipboarded 11

In contrast to this afternoon's fare, the Milan derby sees both teams line up 4-3-3. Hopefully a few goals will be in evidence tonight.

.

The 19th

001MPeopleMovingOnUpCSC

celtic4orme

Hutchison was on the bench today!

malceye

i find myself in complete agreement with you

turgid crap

and like you i don`t care that they are crap

what people should begin to appreciate is that their inadequacies do not in anyway enhance us as a team

we need to get our own house in order

roberttressell on February 15, 2009 7:22 PM

"Me thinks the bhoyfromcults doth protest too much"

Thanks for your 837 word response!

anyone know what the reaction has been on FollowFollow? I am banned. Timposter who was easy to spot!

think about this - If Martin O'Neil was appointed manager of Rangers would you be fearful of the team he would build? If WGS was appointed Manager of Rangers would you be fearful?

Well that was the crap game! We will lose this league if we don't get our finger out...

Former Rangers defender Terry Butcher has told Setanta Sports that the draw at Celtic Park has tipped the title in Rangers’ favour.

With The Bhoys’ form being called into question recently Butcher reckons the goal drought that has hit the Celtic strikers will eventually prove to be their downfall in relinquishing The SPL title.

“It’s going to be intriguing of course with one Old Firm game left at Rangers,” Butcher told Setanta Sports. “That will be after the split, probably the first game of the split.

“So, you sort of think that it sort of swings a little bit more towards Rangers when you think about those three points at stake.

“But you never know what’s going to happen in the season this year, there are some strange results and strange points that have been dropped.

“You just get the feeling in the way that Rangers set their stall out today – the way that they are – they seem to be on current form the more confident team going into these final few matches.

“As for Celtic, all the strikers haven’t scored their goals compared to what they did last year.

“They aren’t scoring regularly, they are dropping points, they are in a bad run of form and you sort of wonder if Rangers were to really believe in themselves a lot more they could go and win that title.”

Byoyfromcults - glad you had time to count.

celtic4ofme

Hutchinson was on the bench

if your going to contribute please have a passing smattering of accuracy

roberttressell

Well, well, said.

The number of negatores on here defies belief.

I went in to see my old man on Friday night for a cup of tea. He was watching CelticTV and it was the last 25 mins of the 3-2 game last season. We watched the rest together.

The way we played holding on to that lead was fantastic.

Guess what? We still have the same players now. The only difference is that they need to start playing as they did that day, when they believed that anything other than victory would end their season.

I think they will.

We Shall Not Be Moved.

PF - I sat through it again and it wasn't any better....definately a form of self-harm!

St. Michaels Bhoy - I grudge them and particularly Wattie anything. How many times did his teams mug us during his previous tenure?
I would have some respect for him if he started 4-4-2 today with Boyd up front and had a right go at us.

Martin42 is right. That's twice they have had the chance to go top and bottled it. With the run-in to the break, I can see them going top at different stages, but we have the players to come out on top.

TTTT

By DeniaBhoy on February 15, 2009 6:55 PM

kilbowie Kelt - nothing wrong with being optimistic but as you are inviting us to live in the real world, what did you see today, or in the last two months, that makes you say we are strong favourites to win 4IAR?
___________________________
I am not giving you MY OPINION when I say that Celtic are strong favourites to make it 4 in a row.
That is a FACT.
The best price available from any bookmaker anywhere,... is 8/13 Celtic for the SPL.
We are long odds-on with the people who don't care who wins, & who make their living by evaluating such probabilities.
What I think, or indeed what YOU think, is not important.

God Bless the CELTIC.

stebhoy - I would be fearful of any manager going there with a good track record and a history of winning things. I see Everton pumped Aston Villa today.

well from most of todays posters we seem to be developing a pro WGS camp and an anti WGS camp.
In the for corner we have the indisputable facts he has won us three league titles not counting cups or last 16 CL and is on his way to making it 4IAR and many more I hope.And at the start of his management we had in excess of 53,000 season tickets and a waiting list exceeding 10,000.

To date we have less than 50,000 and no waiting list and cut price season books available for all and sundry.

There lies the conundrum If WGS stays and goes on to win 10 IAR and I hope he does. How many of us will be there as season ticket holders to watch it. 40,000 maybe for the football on display is not nice nor enjoyable to watch. So we have success and that is the price we may have to pay for it dull negative tactics, little creativity,and no passion for playing for Glasgow Celtic with a nice pay cheque for the players at the end of the day.

Outwith todays disappointment we really hav'nt been playing that well if we are honest with with ourselves,forget the rest of the SPL we are, and should be above them.

Ever being the optimist we should also be looking to go further in the CL and not just settle for a last 16 place.

well thats my twopence worth.

Y I C.

roberttressell on February 15, 2009 7:34 PM

Top tip:

Try word count facility in WORD - under 'TOOLS' - an excellent facility!

13 points from a possible 27

I agree with tommytwists for the most part, I'd take Celtic for the better players, but what point is a better squad out of form?

So many players seem off the pace right now, it's a wonder how they don't get dropped.

After the disappointment of that today, I thought I’d revisit Paul67’s series of four ‘how to beat Rangers’ articles to see where we went wrong. With all due respect, Paul67 is not a football manager and won’t know exactly what Gordon Strachan has seen on the training ground over the last few weeks, but from reading the comments following the article, I think it’s fair to say his comments gained wide approval. I for one felt they outlined a common sense approach to the game, but one that was clearly not on the agenda of Gordon Strachan and the management team.

Part One

Part One outlined the importance of every outfield player defending like a unit, especially with their likely 4-5-1 formation giving them an extra man in the middle of the field. In doing this, it was clearly very important to avoid conceding free kicks around the area. It also highlighted the need to keep possession in the opposition’s half of the field.

To be fair to the team, I don’t think there was a lack of effort on display and the players did attempt to press them, but in the second half we lost all shape in the middle of the park (more on that later!) that crippled our chances. The introduction of Aiden McGeady and withdrawal of Willo Flood did not help matters either, with Aiden looking either way off the pace or completely disinterested. Willo’s industry and gradual improvement was one of the few lights from today’s game.

For once we didn’t give away stupid free kicks around our area, which is doubly impressive given Calum Murray’s performance! However, in terms of possession in the opposition’s half of the field, we only managed this in spells of the first half, when we actually got the ball down and tried to play football.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if we had some confidence in our own ability rather than trying to nullify the opposition’s strength, we’d get on a hell of a lot better.

Part Two

Part Two covered, for me, the most important aspect of the game. Crosas had to start, playing in a mobile midfield that would be able to dictate play and overcome the numerical deficit. Paul67’s comment “fix the midfield and we win the game, try more of the same in midfield, and we will not” proved unfortunately all too accurate.

This for me is the most infuriating aspect of Celtic at the moment. When you think back to the run of good form earlier in the season, Crosas and Brown were the key men, along with McGeady, Maloney and Nakamura. It is no coincidence that all these players are fit and mobile. Play your ball players together in the same team, allow them licence to roam and you’ll play good football. Bottle it and focus on the opposition’s preference for brawn and flooding the midfield, and you throw your own strengths out the window.

Today we had to start with Crosas rather than Hartley. Paul did well enough in the first half, but fell to his usual foible of dropping way too deep, pulling the structure of the midfield to pieces and leaving Brown running everywhere trying to cover the gaps. We were crying out for a Crosas to get his foot on the ball and pick some calm passes, but instead he was sitting warming the bench.

It is also no coincidence that Samaras’ dip in form has coincided with the team’s lapse back into one-dimensional long ball football in the last few months. Samaras is another ball player, lumping the ball up to him does nothing. Get mobile ball players getting him the ball to feet and supporting him, and he can go on scoring runs. Isolate him and ping 50 yard long balls at him and he’ll lose all form.

Part Three

Part Three focused on the key men of Aiden McGeady and Scott McDonald, with McGeady’s key dual with Broadfoot giving us an outlet and reducing their extra man in midfield advantage and McDonald being a big game scorer.

Dropping Aiden was a very strange decision and as above, I think it showed a lack of bottle and faith in our own squad’s ability to play some good football in the face of a fired up, physical Rangers team. I wasn’t bothered about the inclusion of Flood, as it did have the desired effect of cutting out any threat from the boy wonder Fleck, but surely Naka was the one to make way after his hectic mid week? Once he did come on, McGeady was hopeless, whether that was due to our total lack of structure in midfield at that stage or a complete lack of effort is certainly open for debate.

As for McDonald, he tried hard, he moaned, but he was simply not supported by anyone throughout the match. Jan was woeful throughout, though he was hardly helped by Murray’s propensity to blow for a free kick any time Jan jumped for a ball. During our period on top in the first half when we actually tried to pass it round them, Skippy missed the one chance we created, which unfortunately has been all too common from our strikers of late.

Part Four

Part Four outlined the role of the crowd, with Paul67’s claim that our support “make Celtic Park one of the most intimidating places in world football”.

I’m not at all having a go at you Paul, but the only intimidating thing about Celtic Park today was the usual disgusting chants from the away end. And my God we could hear it clearly alright as there was simply no singing from the home fans.

I know there’s the argument that the team must provide some excitement first, but surely in the second half of a game against Rangers that could see us go 5 points clear and take a huge step towards the title, with the team struggling, the fans have to drive the team on. But alas no, most would rather sit on their hands and moan. There were probably 6 or 7 in our area trying to sing today, but the rest couldn’t be budged. It makes the ‘best fans in the world’ chat seem a somewhat frivolous claim based on years gone by.

Paul67, with all that in mind, how do you rate the performance of the management team today?

I’m not at all anti-Strachan, but I have to admit to being increasingly frustrated at the lack of faith in our own ability, which, going by the continual squabbling between the players during the match, seems to be seeping through onto the field of play too.

Paul 67

The entertainment provided by our team of late, be it against Queens Park or Rangers has been zero. The danger is that we will be debt free but will lose a lot of fans who in hard financial times will not sacrifice to watch what has latterly been a combination of long passes and one dimensional long balls.

I'll be delighted if we retain the league but is it going to mean more of the same on offer? People were blaming the ref on here today but in recent time our on field problems have gone much deeper. Your thoughts ........

stebhoy,

I'm not in sack the manager mode just yet. WGS has won three titles in a row, and his team has yet to lose their nerve in a last day title-decider. In fact, Martin's Celtic arguably blinked twice on the final day against them.

That's not to denigrate Martin O'Neill, who was and is a great manager, but I think he would have struggled badly with the lack of financial backing WGS has had since taking over.

We should be careful what we wish for, because I don't see anyone else who could come in and transform the team without spending some serious cash.

Would David Moyes leave Everton to come to us? Have Owen Coyle, Tony Mowbray or Peter Grant achieved anything to suggest they might be the answer?

WGS is our manager and much as I might moan about our performances and title prospects on here, this is a time for pulling together.

I agree with tommytwists for the most part, I'd take Celtic for the better players, but what point is a better squad out of form?

So many players seem off the pace right now, it's a wonder how they don't get dropped.

Tully57 - great user name and thanks for giving me something positive to read before I get back to my neglected family! I might also open a cool bottle of stout this evening.

There is promise in our young side, but there is also the experience of evenings like the one you mentioned.

May your glass always be half full!

Tully57,

Unfortunately, the same players played above themselves at the tail-end of last season and are reverting to type.

Failure to freshen the squad in August/January could be catastrophic.

Top money being paid to dumplings

Notthebus

All I did last week was give a hint of what was going to be in the paper regarding the training ground fisticuffs and possible sanctions.

It wasn't me posting stuff about rumours that were floating about. Indeed, I hadn't heard them until I read about them on CQN.

I suggest you go back and see who was writing what Tuesday night - until then wind yer neck in.

Cheers

.

TommyTwists....

Rankers (Uefa Cup) Apart Have NEVER Won a Bottle Match....

and Their were..... People On Here and in The Media....Saying Walt Dinae....Had The HEX Over US....(AFTER Winning His First 3 Games Against WGS....1 @ Ipox Then Two....When We ALREADY Had WON The League....ie, Freindly's)

Message Ina Bottle (Police) Not Manchester....

001

Bhoyfromcults - as you may have noticed the many typos I make do you really expect me to know about stuff like that?

When I was studying I used to count the number of words on three lines on any one page (hand written stuff you know) take the average and multiply by the number of lines on the page to get the word count.

Life was so much simpler them!!!!!

All the best!

New Celtic Manager

Someone who is looking for a club...

Slaven Bilic

we were poor last season and and were taken to the last game by a very ordinary rangers team. but for rangers european run and the decision by smith not to play boyd they would have probably won the league.
we badly needed to strenghthen in the close season and for reasons only known to the directors we chose not to and we compounded the error by not strenghening in the january transfer window.
i have been watching football for over 40 years and this is one of the worst rangers teams i have seen yet they could win this league. they may even win the treble. when we have crap teams we win nothing. we never learn from our mistakes.
but it is not all bad news. we may win nothing this season but we sure will have a great looking profit statement and balance sheet. it is just a pity that qualification for the champions league is based upon the performance on the field and not the financial performance.

Mick

wishful thinking from that hun bar steward

Everybody is having their say so I may as well chip in. That was awful, absolutely awful, but as is my nature I will try and find some form of positive.

We can be better. We all know we can be better, we've all seen all our players play better. Whether GS can help the players find their form is another matter.

From what I've seen of Rangers this season, that's pretty as good as they get.

People have said look at the run in. Well it's the same teams we played when we won twelve in a row, so I've every reason to believe we can beat them all. I think they'll drop more points than we will between now and the end of the season.

I don't think the three points at Ibrox will be too important in the overall scheme of things.

We are still top of the league. There is a long way to go in the race for the title and I'm sure both sides will drop points along the way.

Our players need to rediscover the form that won 12 in a row not so long ago. And we have to start next weekend at Motherwell, when we will likely be playing to go back to the top of the league. Fir Park saw one of our best performances of the season and we will need another like it to get things back on track.

.

Question....

How Many 0-0 Draws Has Walter WON When He Drops Christopher....

001HeMightBeOnTooSomethingCSC

PF

you and I think alike on a number of issues - I think we both share a similar view of our capitano.

Anyway I'm off to 5's to see how difficult it is to recreate the sort of form I witnessed today.

CluelessCSC

inkybhoy

were you surprised that the Boruc scandal did not appear

methinks that the legal eagles have refused permission

any thoughts

.

The 19th

Right 001 Bhoy what with all thid "The 19th"???

inkybhoy

You gave plenty of hints okay.Absolutley no substance.Convienient that you are happy to say it was about the training ground incident now !

Notafanofstan

How do we know they won't play above themselves again?

All we KNOW for a fact is that, when the chips were really down, this team defied all the towel-throwers last season, and they went and won 3 in a row, one of our best ever nights.

This team were bad today. No creativity, and (especially JVoH) poor movement up front.

But guess what.....avoidance of defeat today might be our eventual winner.

The fare is poor, but thankfully so are the enemy.

NAFOS - Hopefully we will share another pint in Dungloe and we'll celebrate me being right on this one!

Hail Hail Pal,

Tully.

ONE LEAGUE VICTORY IN 2009

NO GOALS AGAINST SPL OPPOSITION IN 5 HOURS

Reading some of the posts, it would seem that we lost the league today.
I suppose, I better go and have a look at the game again.
STILL STANDING UP....

PF ayr

FFS some people just don't get it

still peddling and repeating rumours

wot a pr...k

legal p..h

get a life

.

How To NOT Beat Rangers But Get a No Score Draw....In a 'Old Firm Game'....Part One....Put ALL Your Goalscorers(Yes Even Kenny Misser) On The Bench....Oh Yes and....Ahh Feck it....Whit's The Point....)

001APointEachCSC

notthebus

i think you will find that Inkybhoy was responding to questioning

think you have the wrong bhoy big man

I started to write a huge rant against the negativity on this blog, but you know what? Words fail me. We didn't lose today, we are 2 points ahead and we are on for 4-in-a-row. 4-in-a-row FFS!!

Standing up for the 4-in-a-row Champions

Adriano scores with his arm for Mourinho's Inter.

broadsword

do you have any basis for such calumny

i know about defamation ...do you???

i know those solicitors who work for newspapers.... do you ??

please don`t insult me in such fashion ...you demean yourself
and

btw i wasnae talking to you

please reply ...big man

.

Jobo....

The 19th? Sorry this post was deleted due to the privacy 1983act

001HopeThatExpainsItCSC

Right dont know what happened there.

My point is basically I feel that Celtic need a new face in charge for next season...but people need to get off WGS case AND to say that we should get rid of him for Peter Grant??, Tony Mowbray?? or Robert Martinez....well that is taking things too far. Martinez has done a good job at Swansea....but thats it, he is still very much unproven and he is still the same wee guy that used to play for Motherwell and assists on Sky for Spanis footie. Give me WGS any day over the earlier 3.

We need someone to take us to the next level, someone that (if we can attract them) has done it at the top level and to be honest, whether he has or has not green and white blood pumping through his veigns is not the point, we need quality.

For all the people that are saying Mowbray OR Martinez..calm down

.

PF Ayr....

Legal People are Not my 'Favourite'....People at the Mo....But I Am (behind) You....No Not in That Way....

Keep Telling it PF....

001

Can I remind everyone.....and for those just tuning in.....

And I realise this will be contraversial....

We did not lose today.

We are still at the top of the league.

WSNBM
Tully.

Anybody watching the milan derby? People comfortable on the ball, constant movement and great first touch-it'll never catch on!

hi ghuys

extremely dissapointed not only by the result,but also the performance,and the team sent on to the park by gordon strachan,,,,watching our back four lumping endless long balls(2nd half especially)up to macdonald today,,,,i mention the wee man because jvoh was atrocious,and missing all day,,,,the midfield,,where do you start,,marc crossas must be doubting his own ability,,when an average at best paul hartley gets the nod ahead of him simply because hes one of the managers faves,,,,gordon will say he played hartley instead because crossas is a bit lightwieght,,,,but he then hands a debut to flood who is very small and slight,,,double standards me thinks,,,the worst of all though is mcgeady not starting at home against our great rivals,,,,,i watched the wee man during the week and i was thinking,,,that i cant wait to let him looose against the huns at parkhead,,,obviously gordon had other ideas,,,the standard of football we have,or have not played lately has been abysmal,,,

anyways onwards and upwards

hail hail

you know nothing

absolutely nothing. if there had been any substance in the rumours we would know by now

why don't you drop it, and do yourself a favour and stop publising the fact you

are a big PF ( and in the know) and we are all in the dark.

you as bad as the person that first rumoured it on

here, after he read it on follow follow.

think before you post

Watching the Milan derby...would have been good if the bbc could have tied up the commentary and the game, itis out of sync

.

Tully57....

Cheered Me Up....

001WhoDisnaeNormallyNeedCheeringUpCSC

Tully 57 - well said that man.

But please dont spoil it for all the ragin', indignant, "learned counsel" multiple-personality trumpets.

Let the Trumpets blast.

broadsword

all very interesting

didn`t answer my two very reasonable questions ..

except with vitriol

think before you post ........you would do well to follow you own advice

Celtic's lack of quality came to the fore again today. No goals, no shots against ICT, only two goals against Queens Park, McGregor no real save to make today yet people still complain about Lee Naylor, McManus etc.
Fact of the matter is we lack quality all over the pitch not just at the back. Playing JVOH is currently like playing a man short. He is so static, it's unbelievable. McDonald's first touch is so bad his second touch has to be a tackle.
Nothing creative at all today. Some posters suggest Naka had a good game. And your evidence for that is what? Once again against Rangers Naka was missing in action.
If we don't win the title this season then WGS, Lawell and co should be held to account for their inability/refusal to buy some, even one, quality player(s) in January.
Celtic are beginning to go backwards and on current form I have no confidence in our ability to win at Motherwell next week never mind win the league this season.
Fitter, faster, stronger was the mantra from WGS when he took charge. I don't know about fitter but we are weaker and slower than I can ever remember and I've been going for 30 years. Rangers were physically far stronger than us today and also had more players with pace.
Let us hope we can turn it round. Not gaining direct entry to the Champions league would be a financial disaster for Celtic.
A major revamp of the team is needed and despite being a supporter of WGS over the last 3 and a bit seasons I am no longer convinced that he is the man for the job. I hope he proves me wrong and leads us to 4 in a row but right now I think that is unlikely.

We are top of the league tonight, but we will not be top of the league next Sunday morning.

This title is in the balance and all the positivity in the world will not change the fact that we have been rank for nearly three months.

We are now in the unacceptable position of hoping that no matter how bad we are, Rangers will be worse.

We cannot rely on that.

Stankovic makes it 2-0 for Inter.

Touché

UC

WW

I'm enjoying the out of time commentery- i feel physcic!

.

On a More Serious Note....

Paddy Power are Refusing to Pay Out My ScoreCast....

.

.

.

.

.

My Bhoy Georgious and 0-0....

Whits the Score....????

0010-0CSC

not read back ,don't need to
When I first heard the rumour that wattie was going to go with the team he played today .I thought no chance ,even he would not put out such a NEGATIVE team as that .
4-1-4-1 or as I would put it 5-5-1 with what turned out to be laugherty playing as his first line of defence
I defy any team on this planet to make a FOOTBALL game out of that .
But put the kettle on for the RANGERS FANS will be happier getting the point .
Well if I was a ger I would be spitting nails tonight .
They really are f****d if this is what they have come to .
ALL CREDIT GOES TO THE TIC FOR 6TRYING TO MAKE A GAME OF FOOTBALL OUT OF THAT DEBACLE .
Anyone who says otherwise is deluding themselves IMO
hail hail

Tully57,

That would be great !

Hopefully today is the low point because we need to step up to the mark.

Hopefully see you soon.

.

Was Lee Naylor MOTM....????

btw ImaFanOfLeeCSC

001

001bhoy

HE WAS CERTAINLY A CANDIDATE

HE PLAYED AS WELL AS HE HAS IN SOMETIME

PF ayr, aidy

i didnt realise he was fit, last thing i heard he was out for 2 months. i sat in my seat right on kickoff today so i didnt hear the subs.

apologies for the innacuracy

fergus slayed the blues.
I hear you (even if nobody else does).
STILL STANDING UP...

CELTIC4OEME

i was very surprised to see him today

as i had been led to believe that he was to out until mid March

makes sense that WGS let Sheridan and Killen go out on loan

Artur was MOTM

I think WGS pre-match comments about the fear of loosing this game added to the fact the Huns scored 4 last time contributed to the personnel and tactics.

he has been putting teams on the park for the last 9 odd games that have failed to deliver. there is a serious lack of confidence all round.

UC

PF Ayr

you know nothing, and nobody, and if you are what you boast in your moniker, you should know
better than to repeat the rumours, just so that you could remind everybody that your are in the legal profession.

PF

I echo the substance of broadsword, if not the style.Thre is neevr any need to get personnel

We are up to our neck with rumour and counter rumour.Started on here by WCM and fuelled by the likes of inkybhoy.

Your post earlier perpetuates the myth.There is nostory, in fact the NOTW published a story today about the "non story"

Please drop it

celtic4orme

I was surprised too. It was reported he was out for 2 months

.

BroadSword....

Get a Life....Son

001CallYourselfADannyCSC

Evening all - it's been a wee while since I posted, started a new job recently so been pretty busy and my posting will be greatly reduced in general. But still trying to keep up with reading the blog.

Great to see the return of The Gate In The Woods!

Just wanted to get my major gripe off my chest - and it's one that a lot of posters seem to have raised. I'd be what certain posters would refer to as a happy clapper, and I still back Gordon for all he's achieved, but I have a concern.

Why can't we just play our best team and let the opposition worry about us?????????

IMHO we've the best team/squad in the SPL and if we just went out and picked our best team (which MUST include Crosas if he's fit) we would be a lot better off. Gordon has earned the right to pick the team he wants, but his over analytical concern for what the opposition might do is strangling our own side. I back him to turn it around but I sincerely hope that he goes on to build a team around Crosas - the one central midfielder we have that gets his head up and looks to play forward, incisive passes at every opportunity.

He doesn't need wrapped in cotton wool - let him loose!

Rant over - onward to 4IAR.

Hail hail

EHIY

I think Hutcheson was on the bench necause of the under 21 rule. Don't think he was ever going to come on today.

Ghuys
No one from a Celtic perspective got what they hoped for today.
Some might say we got what we desrved.
But I think a bit of calm is called for,
things are getting personal etc, No need.

Ulster Celt

Did Artur get MOTM or is that your personal opinion?

He had a couple of crucial saves but for me, Caldwell was the main man today. Commanding, strong, good positionally as well as having a bit of urgency and organisation at the back. The Skipper in all but name... (which isn't an attack on Mick before someone has a go...)

EHIY

PF 7:53 ayr

I hope that is not the explanation why it did not appear in the media for anybody. We can say bad things about Artur Boruc but he is not that much stupid to do that. I say it again. I do not remember similar act of medias hate against the sportsman. Shame is not the proper word to describe it.

Bhoyfromcults

Yes, I confirm you came back with fine words. Thanks.

broadsword

your silence speaks volumes

what rumour did i repeat .....

you my man are a foulmouthed fool who considers it necessary to abuse me without either knowing me or anything about me

btw

PF has nothing to do with my professional qualiication

and again i was asking an acquaintance a civil question
a lesson in civility ..you wuold do well to receive

.

The 19th

.

Ben is 22

Just in after the pub so hope this does not turn into a rant.
SHOCKING display, home team against Rangers and one chance created all day. Not good enough. 40 Year old Davie Weir and Clubfoot neither of whom broke sweat all afternoon. Not good enough.
Fed up watching one plank of wood up front being totally crap for 60 minutes and being replaced by the other plank of wood who turns out to be just as ineffective. Pass marks to Hartley and also the much maligned Hinkel whom i thought done reasonably ok. Also Naylor a lot of good passes into the inside left channel 1st half but unfortunately no Mcgeady there to pick them up (answers on a postcard for aiden's emmision today).
TFOD are just as poor as ourselves at the moment, but they have someone up front who is capable of 30 goals a season which we do not have. This i believe could be the difference in the title run in. Ominously in comparison to the recent pantomime defending by ourselves they have also now only lost one goal since losing to Celtic on 27 Dec.

roberttressell

I remember the hand-written era - superb - I used the 400 words a page rule!

At least we agree on something - life was much simpler then!

Cheers

BFC

By PF ayr on February 15, 2009 7:53 PM
inkybhoy

were you surprised that the Boruc scandal did not appear

methinks that the legal eagles have refused permission

any thoughts
___________________________________

PF, if its not a "rumour", but fact, then please expand on what exactly is the story of the "Boruc scandal"

EHIY

official

UC

Moonbeams wet dream

I'm just back from having a few jars, however having none before the game, I can without doubt tell you that naka was not the motm!

He has great movement with ball however, I'm not even going to talk about lost headers, lost tackles or being on his heels instead of being ready for punts up the park, against rangers he is only there for one reason, a good ball in from a set play. i counted 3 corners / freekicks that hit the first defender. His other crossses created nothing.

Man of the match - I do not think so.

THG had two great saves - MOTM

Cognitive Dissonance - #21

After watching that superb programme 'Times of our Lives' and reminiscing about the Lisbon Lions and especially Jock Stein, i am left to ponder what Gordon Strachan's last words are to the players as they leave the dressing room - "Remember - entertain the crowd"?
Mmmmm. I wonder!!!!

notthebus

i had no intention of starting or perputuatig anything

i asked inkybhoy a question

i did not promulgate any rumour

and if i had not been met with such rude abuse i would not have posted on the subject again lest i received a reply from the intended recipient

your articulate thoughts are always welcome

i will not put up with abuse from ignorant fools

.

NotTheBus....

Arthue Abuse of Charlie is NOT A NonStory....

SSM Has also Abused 'Chick' Nicholas....

Do The Math....Not The Meth....

001CocaineRunningAroundMyBrainCSC

todays game?....hmmmmmmm

My concerns today when the teams were announced were confirmed as the game swung into full flow...

willo?...bit early i thought to fling into such an important game?
i just didnt get it...mcgeady after his midweek performance imho should have started.

hartley?...do we just dust him off for derby days? imho again!...i would have opted for the far more mobile crosas whom doesnt need 2..3..4 touches to control the ball and pass?

my other concern was....i couldnt see where the goals were going to come from?...what is wrong with our forwards???....
dont get me wrong the supply today was very VERY poor!...
but i feel we need a striker with genuine pace in order to give us another dimension when its simply not working.

HOWEVER!

plus points....

Our very own Holy Goalie..........different class!
i simply love the guy!even when he endured a wee drop in form i couldnt see anyone filling his boots!on days like these...he is simply world class!

Today may have been a poor advert for 'the greatest derby of all'
but we are STILL top of the league.

Stand up for our champions!

.

Arthue=Arthur=THG

ceaser1967

I agree with your assessment that both full backs had decent games today (in particular the much maligned Naylor, who is having his best spell for well over a season).

On the flipside I can't agree with your assessment of Hartley. Further to my post above, I believe that his selection over that of Crosas was the main reason we didn't win today. If you want to win you need goals and if you want goals you need supply to your danger men. Hartley's a good honest pro but he lacks craft and guile and the chances of seeing an incisive forward pass are pretty much nil. Not really his fault - we all know his limitations. He did ok for what he does (negative, destructive play), but given the FOD only had the equivalent of a giraffe on ice skates up front on his own, we didn't really need extra protection in front of the CBs.

Flood did better in his time on the park than Aiden did, although again you can blame supply (or rather lack of it) for some of Aiden's lack of impact when he came on.

As for the FOD's defensive record - if you play 11 men behind the ball in a return to last season's anti football, then keeping clean sheets is going to be the result more often than not.......

EHIY

As for the 'New boy wonder' the saviour of scotland.....
john who???????????????

UC

Thanks for the clarification - still think GC was better!

EHIY

celtic4orme on February 15, 2009 7:06 PM
Barcabhoy

"I am not being confrontational, what do you suggest now that would have stopped people giving up their season books, and what would you have done differently on the recent past?"

celtic4orme

we are in uncharted territory here....we have a winning manager, however we have a support who are in large part dissatisfied with whats on offer....i won't be arrogant enough to claim to speak for the majority of the support, my view is mine and mine alone, but the sentiment is shared by everyone i speak to who supports the club...i accept there are diffferent views on CQN, but the rationale that PL and GS are performing well currently is one that nobody has put to me verbally

to add to the unusual situation of a winning manager being constantly questioned is the financial situation....i don't feel we leverage our advantage properly...we go for quantity rather than quality....we appear to get our targets out of sync with our ability to deliver them....that needs to change

the team today had one player who wasn't on our books in January 2008, if aiden had started we could have played last years team in its entirety......even with good coaching its hard to improve a bunch of mid 20 and 30 somethings......

we have signed players who the manager , by his own selection, doesn't trust in key games....so the first thing i would have done differently relates to our signing record....it has been mediocre for 12 months, thats a clear failure of leveraging our advantage

the second thing i would do differently relates to team selection....what i'm about to say is harsh...i don't mean to be cruel, but Celtic will never consistently play quality football with Stephen McManus in the team...he just does not have the ability to contribute to a team aspiring to play a fast passing game.....

i believe the manager made a huge mistake in making him captain....nice guy, wholehearted and brave.....but then so are a lot of guys playing today who are not anywhere near good enough to play for Celtic

thirdly i believe the manager , but more importantly the chief exec have to come out of their ivory towers, and communicate properly with the support....paul67 was correct when writing part 4 of his how to be Rangers...last year the support willed the squad to a great performance in the last 7 games.....Celtic are "mas que un club"

i have met 4 of the last 5 Celtic CEO's...they were pleasant guys,but are now consigned to history...some successes, some failures....all failed to motivate the support...the current CEO, has performed much better in that regard....until the last 12 months....so i would say to him....communicate, share the vision, explain the strategy....your customers (fans) and owners (shareholders) deserve much better than they have been given recently

and explain to the manager that attacking attractive football is not an optional extra at Celtic
....it is what we demand, every bit as much as winning

PF Ayr
You raised 'the rumour', in the hope of debating it all over again, implying that there was a legal reason, as to why the story didn't appear.If you had read the Sunday papers explaining there was no story in the first place, you would have been bettered prepared, and might not have made your daft post, about legal issues that don't exist.

Stick to the fitba

notthebus

what i was referring to was effectively the weeks comings and goings regarding the stories that had been circulating all week

i deliberately gave no specifics and fail to see how a general question about a over rehearsed topic could be considered as perpetuating it

i was being intentionally vague

and would ask you to appreciate that i also directed my question to a specific individual

Joke Break

A blonde gets a job as a teacher.
She notices a boy in the field standing alone, while all the other kids are running around having fun. She takes pity on him and decides to speak to him.
'You ok?' she says.
'Yes.' he says.
'You can go and play with the other kids you know.'she says.
'It's best I stay here.'he says. '
'Why?' says the blonde.
The boy says: 'Because, I'm the f***ing goalie'

for those decrying mowbray or owen coyle or anyone other than wgs, here is a brief analysis of wgs winning record as a manager before coming to celtic

coventry

1996/97 - 4th from bottom - avoided relegation by 1 point
1997/98 - 11th
1998/99 - 15th
1999/2000 - 14th
2000/2001 - relegated

southampton

2001/02 - 11th
2002/03 - 8th - lost FA Cup Final
2003/04 - 12th

martin o'neill, by comparison, won promotion with wycombe twice, leicester once, two league cups with leicester . the 4 seasons he was in direct competition with wgs at a similar sized club show who the better manager appears to have been. his team finished ahead of wgs every season.

1996/97 - 9th - won league cup
1997/98 - 10th
1998/99 - 10th - lost league cup final
1999/00 - 8th - won league cup

yeah wgs has won 3 titles in a row , against what competition ?

last 16 in europe - yeah only once knocked out a team seeded above us in europe (benfica). would martin have got us out of those groups ? id take the bet that he would have.he beat better and bigger teams in both our uefa cup runs, such as liverpool and barcelona

the team is going backwards just like all of the teams gordon has managed before, time for him to go before he drags us down any further.

I tipped the result last night, we are mince and so are they.
Damningly, the only time I got really intense was towards the end of the game due to the ludicrous decision making from our bench. Firstly, not to subsitute Scott Brown after he was pole axed, but then to put him straight back onto the park when he was clearly unable to continue. Not for the first time a player has been put in danger and even from a cold outlook,i.e. discounting the safety of the player, we were down to 10 men.

.

Who Let The 'LEEK' In....????

001NotAFanOTheValleysCSC

broadsword

i will discuss what i want and with whom

i was directly posting to someone i know

it was not an open invitation to reply

it would not have been rehearsed had you not been so ignorant and rude

lastly

i don` read such papers

had you acted reasonably and advised me of the existence of the story to which you refer them that would have been the end of the matter

unfortunately you chose to act in the manner you did ...regrettably i`m sure

THG.....worldclass!

rumours from TFOD failed to get the desired result?

'we think he is going aff his heid' was quoted from poland?...arent all keepers?

When called upon today he showed EVERYONE what he is all about.
A performance in-line with any that he has produced since arriving!
Dont get me wrong...he practically had hee haw to do but when it really REALLY mattered (eh mick?) he never let us down!.

I reckon the MarkbrownCSC is now well and truely defunct.

.

The 19th

Tick Tock Tick Tock......

001KanyeWestCSC

cardiffbhoy

It's easy to wheel out stats and speak about hypotheticals but until a team take the plunge and changes a manager it's really in the lap of the gods.

Whilst I'm less than happy about our current form, it's not that long ago since we won 12 on the bounce and were starting to play our best stuff since GS took over.

Every team goes through rough patches and Gordon Strachan has won the right to steer us through this one.

EHIY

Joke Break

I posted this before but who cares it's a favourite

Dubai television has been refused permission to broadcast The Flintstones.
A spokesman said viewers in Dubai would not understand the humour, but the people of Abu Dhabi do

001 Bhoy,

Ben Hutchinson is 22 now but qualifies as an under 31 player by rule.

PF Ayr

This is a fairly new trend here now. I was on the receiving end the other night and directed a question to a certain individual, before I knew what was what I was being invited to 'meat' (sic) I thought I was being asked to a 'dogging session' TBH

Cardiffbhoy

great stats - with the millions given to MON he couldn't give us 3 in a row.

MON had Henrik, what happened when he went?

Sorry meant to say Hutchison is 21 (born 27-11-1987) but qualifies as an under 21 player in the SPL.

Is the 19th the day Rangers go into administration?

Chaplin

LOL

empty vessels pal ..empty vessels

.

Gordon j....

At Least....Ageism is Better Than Heightism or Naylorism....

Race No Longer Matters....

001WhoCannaeMakeTheCQNQuizNightCSC

AC pull one back - great game in the San Siro.

I think someone on here has been reading too much John Mortimer, who as well as being an actual, genuine, bona - fide lawyer also wrote some great fiction.

Rumpole o' the Briggait - geez peace.

ParadiseLostCSC

Why can't one Celtic player pass the ball to another Celtic player?
How hard can that be? Scott Brown in particular and others as well.
It's a very basic skill, is it not?

PF Ayr

you posted thousands of celtic fans read regardless of who you directed it to.
diddums somebody swore at you from cyberspace. get over it or stop
peddling celtic rumours and there non existence.
you clearly implied that there was a story that wasn't printed for legal reasons, meaning that there is a story.you made a mistake get over it i have, and have even stopped cursing your stupid post.

talk about fitba

GordonJ

when is a player aged 21 is under 21 ......in the SPL

seriously there must be a cut off point like kids age group football ...i was born in May and was always gazumped by guys who were in fact almost a year older than me

that and i was rubbish which didn`t help

.

Cardiff Bhoy....

Do You Want 2 'Meat'....????

001TonJonesCSC

Hi Bhoys,

Was a game lacking cutting edge today, Thats all.

I am not worried. We will win the league.

For what its worth, I thought Hartley had a good game today, and although i would have said before that crosas should have had the nod, I think Hartley done us proud.

The problem is the strikers are misfiring, end of.

WE WILL WIN THE LEAGUE.

They were playing with NO STRIKERS!

They are worse than us.

THEY ARE AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAME, WE ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF OURS.

COME ON THE BHOYS! 4 IN a ROW!

Champs

There's a lot on here who wanted Aiden on from the start today,why was that.
Anytime I saw Aiden ever play against the Rearangers he was,"what would be the best way to say it"Not very good,they knew how to play him,let him run,sure that he would either lose the ball,or run over the bye line,He may have played well against them once.

He may have been the MOTM on Wednesday,but as the old saying goes,one swallow doesn't make a summer.Would he have been MOTM today if he started,Going on past form,I doubt it.

Off topic - but has anyone got a ticket offer letter for the league cup final as of yet?

That referee. It was back to the Dallas days.

broadsword

your views are different from mine

your interpretation of my post was wrong ..i asked a question

feel free to disagree with me at anytime ..there is however no need to be so foulmouthed and personally insulting

Well gents,
I never got to have my heart racing for the game today, I was working, I never got to make a conclusion on the players or the ref.
After reading on here I think maybe I was better off, but then I think, am I procreational simulation, I'm jealous of all you greetin faced spoiled brats. So we never wiped the floor with them aww, you got to feel the excitement/thrill of a very tense drama, better than any cops, robbers or gangsa telly.
Worse still from what I've read here, you let a minority tell you to go home, spout their racist sectarian bile and you stood listening to them, instead of drowning them out with chorus's of support for my team. Call yourselves supporters, my team were hoping for a we bit back up I expect, it looks like even the glasgow derby cant get the support to back my team. What chance have we got, every home game is like a man down, instead of being the extra man, it seems they have to overcome the support first.
Then again the way the thought police at Celtic park are operating, maybe the home support are afraid to sing.
Rant over, its no easy being the best Celtic supporter in the universe, bar none :OD
Out of interest, what was the ratio of Celtic to scotlands shame supporters ejected from the stadium, and howmany more points did we earn this time last year from the same 3months??

the treble will have to do

hail hail

.

The Next Person to Mention Anything Legal....Gets a Right.... Writ....OK....

001WhoIs380,000ReasonsNotToLikeQCSCSC

PF ayr,

As someone said the other night, young footballers are like racehorses: all born on 1 January!

So any player under 21 on 1 January 2008 counts as an under 21 for this season.

Oldtim67

he didn't start and we didn't win.

so it can't be his fault

UC

Dennis - you are deluding yourself if you think the ref. made a material difference to the outcome of the game today.
Poor for both sides - every aerial ball into the boxes he automatically called foul for defending team.
Could easily have booked broon for rash early tackle. And the incidence where ferguson was booked for protesting , the ref incorrectly awarded us a corner when it was clearly a hun goalkick.
Not the ref's fault that we had one chance at goal in the entire game.

canamalar
Indeed.

oldtim, maybe because he is one the few players in the Scottish game who is exciting and take the game to the opposition. Flood had a decent deut, but fell out the game because the ball stopped being passed and didn't get to him. That continued when McGeady came on. If he went back to get it he would be castiagted for not holding his position.

WGS has spent as much as MON - 3.5 SEASONS OVER 5

UC

.

PF Ayr....

Why? Do You Not Use CAPITALS When You are Being Serious....And l presume angry?

001ForencicWritingCSC

PF

With respect that's weak.

"were you surprised that the Boruc scandal did not appear" is not vague.

It is also a public Celtic forum on the night of an old firm game.There are many ways you can communicate with other parties in private should you wish your comments to remain private.

I do belive the people that started these rummours and fuelled them all week were no friends of Celtic.Further discussion on the rumours perpetuates the non story.

Canamalar

it was a very surreal experience at the game today

the build up was quite good

a great rendition of YNWA then Let The People Sing

unfortunately it went downhill from there

the disruption to the green brigade didn`t help ....i`m guessing their drum was removed again ....somethig really needs done about the oppression of our supporters

leanbrannagh, oldtim,

Mcgeady has never done anything in a old firm game! Nothing ever!

So.... although i would have said play mcgeady, he would probably have done hee haw. probably... but then again he may have produced a moment of magic... but odds are he would have been the same as every OF game he played in.

So I can understand WGS not playing him.

leanbrannagh, oldtim,

Mcgeady has never done anything in a old firm game! Nothing ever!

So.... although i would have said play mcgeady, he would probably have done hee haw. probably... but then again he may have produced a moment of magic... but odds are he would have been the same as every OF game he played in.

So I can understand WGS not playing him.

.

Ulster-Celt....

We Are Due a One-Liner

001

Down-Under-Celt

Tommy-Cooper-CSC

poor game fair result
seen a few derby games as bad as that effort today
well played arthur naylor caldwell and hinkle
bed time fir me
hail hail
keep the faith

Keevins said on the radio today that, " After the game next Saturday Rangers will be top of the league".
That's an exact quote.
On reflection it might have been one of the other eejits on Clyde, but I think it was Keevins.
Well. anyway...

JTT on February 15, 2009 7:38 PM

Interesting point you make about the season ticket numbers falling.

I was thinking about the lack of transfer activity not only in January but also during the summer.

WGS makes a point of stating that we operate at a certain level of the transfer market when asked about targets, this is a deliberate statement and I believe is aimed at the board.

In the good/bad old days the Celtic support would be able to take meaningful action.

A boycott of home games to force the board to release the significant funds the manager needs could be an option, drastic action some will say, but I fear it would not matter to the suits as they have our money and don't actually care if we turn up for home games, the support has by virtue of supporting the club and buying so many season tickets had the route of genuine protest removed.

The suits are only intrested in the bottom line, not a bad thing in most business, but this business is football and football is meant to be entertaining, what we are being served up is not.

To maintain the product, WGS must be given the serious funds needed to, not necessarily take us to the next level, but at least to inject some entertainment into the team.

And whilst I am peaching, we need to get rid of some of the seats at the stadium as well, I watch my local 3rd division team when I can and there is more craic at one match than an entire season supporting Celtic.

JinkyNewton

Fair point on Mcgeady performances on FOD, can recall him having a good game when Gravesen and Misser scored in our 2-0 win a few season back. That apart i cannot recall him doing to much againt them either

PF Ayr

i'll remind you once of what you said

"inkybhoy

were you surprised that the Boruc scandal did not appear

methinks that the legal eagles have refused permission

any thoughts"

how does one misinterpret that?

you clearly imply there is a story false or true, but you imply it none the less. an error that if you had checked even the trashiest of newspapers such as NOTW, that you probably wouldn't have made it.

i've moved on now sorry for cursing your error, nothing personal because you are a regular here and normally agree on the fitba

.

The 18th

Inter beat AC 2-1 in a cracking Milan derby.

Mourinho hasn't lost a home league game with any team he has managed since 2002 - 100+ games. Incredible record.

Jinkynewton, I think you'll find he has scored against them. In the famous Kenny Misser one, he set up misser up with a fantastic passage of play. In fact he almost scored with a header that Tommy G virtually stole from him. So, not exactly nothing, even though I agree he has under performed in these games. What I would say, is there are far more problems in the Celtic team than Aiden McGeady failing to emulate Messi every week.

I expected us to win today.

We were at home and i felt we would prevail.We didn't.

Todays result was a better one for The Darnel than it was for us.

This is a very poor Celtic side.

We have centre halves who struggle against the most basic of big centre forwards.

We have too many midfield players who do not have the physique or the heart for a physical battle.

We do not have a forward will burning pace to allow us to mix up the play.Infact we have two who have proven to be impotent recently.

I found it sole destroying to watch 40+ Weir have JVOH in his pocket.Yet watch Lafferty create problems for our centre halves with every high long lump up the park.

We are crying out for a 6'5" ish centre half,i would prefer two.

Just wait and see how much trouble the very basic Kevin Kyle causes us the next time we play Killie .

We need more power and pace up front and in midfield.

We have played The Darnel twice at home and once at Ibrox ,and over the piece they have been better than us.

I despair that the manager thinks that 6 goal Fletcher can answer our problems.
2 goal JVOH is past his sell bye date.

Mr Strachan is a major concern for me.
It is well documented on here that i have no faith in him.

His interest in Fletcher ,reconfirms my doubts.

.

Sorry Should Read....The 19th

Last season with 13 games to go we won 31 points out of 39. We drew with Dundee Utd. and lost to the Hun and Motherwell. The rest we won. To win the league this year, we need to do better, remembering that we played them twice last season in that winning 36 point run. We don't have that luxury this time. It really is imperative that our strikers start getting their form back and our midfield chip in if we are to make it four in a row. A Celtic team playing well can do this, but it won't happen without the backing of our support. May is the time to go into our inadequencies and there are a few!

Hail! Hail!