I was shouting at Martin O’Neill through the television last night. With the game at 0-0, Wales’ Joe Allen was off getting treatment, which lasted several minutes before he was eventually replaced. Ireland had a man advantage, but still refused to press Wales, who were able to comfortably pass the ball around the back.
Ireland needed a victory, they had a brief window where they would enjoy the advantage, but they chose to defend instead. Then I remembered the game against Barcelona in March 2004. For much of the game Celtic enjoyed a 10-9 men advantage, but it didn’t look that way. We defended our territory and ventured up field only when a mistake or long clearance permitted.
We won that game, the first leg of a knockout tie, 1-0, but there were grumbles among the support in the days thereafter. “We should have gone for them, 1-0 will not be enough.”
Martin gambled successfully against Barcelona as he did last night. There was probably an acknowledgement on both occasions of the comparative limitations of his players, so his game plan was easily understood and scrupulously followed.
He could have urged his players to press forward for the period Allen was getting treatment, but that would have been counter to his simple message. Permitting such off-the-cuff decision-making would have been a fatal mistake.
Teams in possession are more likely to make bad passes in their defensive area than teams who have been drilled to get the ball as far away from their defensive area as possible. You don’t need to like this type of football (I don’t), but Ireland are in the World Cup play-offs when countries with more talented players are out of the competition, including Scotland and Wales.
You wouldn’t want to watch this football at Celtic today. Even back in his Parkhead heyday, Martin received complaints about his team’s robust, target-man, playing style. Ireland are simultaneously an echo of a bygone era and a lesson in winning against better-resourced opponents. I would take it for international football, or even for Champions League group stage, but it would shut the stands at Celtic Park if we tried it domestically.
Celtic wore commemorative shirts against Hibs to mark National Famine Memorial Day. One million people died in Ireland’s Great Hunger in the years of famine, from 1846-50. Millions more left the country, some of whom arrived in Glasgow, and formed the communities which founded Celtic 40 years later.
One million people dying of starvation in what was then part of the United Kingdom is an unimaginable horror. Scotland was also affected by the Blight, although to a lesser extent.
James Forrest’s shirt from the game against Hibs is available for raffle to aid the Celtic FC Foundation’s work (James will sign the shirt). Your Foundation carries on the mission that gave birth to Celtic 130 years ago. It feeds the poor in Scotland, Ireland in London and across the globe, but it also works with many disadvantaged groups of children and adults.
The Foundation is core to our mission as a football club. You can enter the raffle by making a minimum £5 donation on this MyDonate page and answering this question:
Which PSG player was booked for diving against Celtic last month?
Please forward your donation confirmation with the diving player’s name in the SUBJECT line to celticquicknews@gmail.com The raffle will close on Monday.
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The new Invincibles treble disc DVD is now available from CQN Bookstore HERE. It is quite simply unmissable. What a season that was!
All CQN t-shirts are now reduced to £10, choose from our Invincibles shirt, the Jock Stein one or the Gotcha classic! We’ve added some new books too and there’s some crackers on the way! More on that over the next few weeks or so.
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okay wont to talk about 2 ex celts who in my opinion dont get enough recognition. i give you jim and frank brogan .both would run through a brick wall for celtic. dont know where they are now even if still with us jim and frank ynwa.
Sorry, Tom the Tim
Roger Waters is playing The Hydro in June next year. Cheapest tickets when i looked were £96.50, and that was without booking fees. :-(
Gigs are very expensive now. And there are lots of them.
Nobody buys records cds or whatever any more.
Between streaming and downloading many of the rock stars are down to their last couple of million
Mans gotta eat
settling down to watch Mikel Lusteg on ITV 4. Got to support somedae and it ain’t the dutch
Great initiative by the CFC Foundation regarding the Great Hunger (an gorta mór). However while there was a potato blight there was no famine. Ireland had plenty of food it was just decided by the authorities to keep them hungry and while people starved to death 3 of the 5 years of the great hunger had record food exports from Ireland to Britian.
Is the bestest ever defender to play in Scotland playing for his country tonight:-))
FESS19-cheers didn’t know that game was on,was just about to settle down to watch the Alves show :-))
Just back from a short break and missed all of the International week fallout.
Interesting to see the different reactions to some mild criticism of MON’s style and the vitriolic abuse and twisted dissection we visited on WGS’s humurous remarks on wee players.
Some things never change.
Two great Celtic managers for me- MON overturned a period of Hun dominance, a treble, and gave us a run to a losing final in Seville. Wee Gordon gave us 3 league titles and 2 quaifications from CL group stages (back to back and both last 16 ties narrowly lost).
And, just as with their respective recent runs in the WC with Ireland and Scotland, just a baw’s width and one goal away from reversing the success and loss allocation for both teams. Fine margins make the difference between the accolade of genius and the brickbat of numptie.
JNP
It was OK, but not a patch on the year before when The Pink Floyd headlined.
I also love music, I suppose I wasn’t being 100% truthful saying it was the last music thing I attended, had I said paying it would have been correct, saw a fair bit of Christy Moore, Paddy Reilly and Tommy Byrne in Ireland, but they were all in pubs and clubs so really disny count as a concert as such.
Paddy I saw nearly every day of the week as we both used the same bar as our local, when he had a few he would often burst into song, it was brilliant, that imo was real music and all for free :-)
HH
SFTB
Good point you make
Football fans are generally very fickle
Todays hero is tomorrow’s bum.
My knives were out for MON last night as I beleived he had blown it by being too conservative in the home game against Wales…but he pulls that result out of the bag and it now appears that rumours of his demise were exaggerated
DESSYBHOY on10TH OCTOBER 2017 5:46 PM
I wonder if the SFA will announce something about the enquiry by the Compliance Officer into the licence issued in 2011to RFC , Celtic have arranged the AGM for November 11th, I would imagine this might be brought up again. No doubt the SFA will say we are on it, when nothing could be further from the truth.
=======
The AGM is on the 15th and Res12 will be covered.
That coverage will depend on what the CompOff comes up with between now and then but Celtic have not taken their eye off that ball.
If you recall Celtic wanted to vote down Res12 in 2013 AGM as unecessary based on what they were told by the SFA in response to queries about the processing of the licence.
That clearly is no longer the case because events since then have shown that the reasons given from 2011 do not reflect what was said in court at CW trials.
That is what caused SFA to concede an investigation was necessary. What was said in court was already known but it could not be made more public for fear of prejudicing the trial.
All of that fell away in July and it is up to the SFA to persuade Celtic that it is still unecessary to pass Res12.
The SFA either can provide reasons that make Res12 unecessary that Celtic can take to shareholders as valid or they can concede that the licence was granted on misleading information provided to them that they failed to check in spite of having the power to do so.
Res12 is about holding the SFA to account via Celtic. The very fact the SFA are having to investigate is making them accountable regardless of outcome of an investigation but if SFA fail to show to Celtic Res12 is unecessary then Celtic have no option but to refer to UEFA.
If that licence was gained by deception, which is what was taken from witness testimony at CW trial, then there is no statute of limitations on corruption.
The Exiled Tim.
That sounds just magic about Paddy Reilly.
Nowadays it would be all over social media within minutes.
A wee daft thing about The Floyd and Another brick in the wall single.
When it plays the teacher part, how can you have any pudding when you haven’t eaten your meat. I swear it sounds just like my Dad. ( That’s not a good thing) freaked me at the time.
Hail Hall
Vote(s) cast, Corkcelt . Hope it helps HH
so looks like none of you guys have heard of the brogan brothers or dont care. see my post before .well anyone who wears the hoops and tries their best is allright by me jim and frank brogan no matter what the rest think hail hail.
Jimmynotpaul, nice to see you posting. I hope you are keeping well.
I didn’t realise Jackie Wilson’s version of higher and higher is a cover .
Jackie’s version is in my all time top ten songs . He was a fantastic singer.
How are Cumbernauld etying on this season?
I was at the Pollok Clydebank game last Saturday . Pollok won 4 nil. I never got a chance to speak to Tony unfortunately.
Auldheid
Thanks for your reply and apologies for getting the date wrong for the AGM, I might even attend this year as it might be worth listening to.
Jimmynotpaul,
The mad Scottish Teacher wasn’t even Scottish….Roger Waters himself voiced that part.
Sleep easy tonight :-)
Big Packy, I think Jim Brogan suffers from dementia . Hopefully , I’m wrong .
My dad loved Jim as he was as tough as they come and wasn’t to keen on the first Ibrox club.
BIG PACKY
Remember Frank and Jim Brogan.
Jim was a hun skelper, in fact he skelped everyone he played against.
He would have put peepul like mcculloch in their place.
They were pussy’s compared to Jim.
Both in their 70’s now, I believe.
Alves a sub, but when back in Portugal , he had his hair trimmed by ‘Ronaldo’s personal hair dresser’
Bateen Bhoy 8.19.
Magic, that made me laugh.
Dallas.
That’s disappointing you didn’t get to speak to Tony, particularly after a thumping victory, he would have been in good spirits.
Cumbernauld, after a really poor start have won 3 in a row, they put out Tayport in the Scottish, then beat Glencairn and Large, all games,away from home. Every game they were 5/2 or bigger on the coupon. I had a dabble when they beat Tayport but not the other two.
Jackie Wilson is/was a tremendous singer. What an era him, Sam Cooke, Otis Reading and many more.
Are you going to the semi or is Dallas jnr going?
Hail Hail
Should read Largs.
PHILBHOY thanks i thought i was going crazy. must be my age yes hunskelpers they were ktf.
BIG PACKY-never seen they two brogans,but seen loads of John brogan for the accies:-))
I’ve been on the beer today or more accurately the whiskey, home now and surprisingly I don’t feel too pissed.
I’ve said it a couple of times since tea time on Wednesday when I made the original post but this place is magic.
I posted a request looking for votes for my daughter, I expected maybe a dozen replies but to date have had 92 if my counting is correct,
I have tried to acknowledge each one individually so here I go again, LymmBhoy, Hot Smoked, Tim Horton, Jimbob71, Wee & Big BGFC, Terge Vigen,Cosy, Corner Bhoy, Starry Plough,Soukous, Leftclicktic,Newradbhoy, Fess19, Sin City Bhoy, ACGR, Torontotony, White dog hunch, Fairhill Bhoy, thank you all so much.
To Bobby Murdoch & Bateen Bhoy who took it on themselves to repost my original message to keep it fresh, to those who even have gone out of their way to canvass non CQN Votes, no words can express the emotions & the gratitude I feel.
For the record I am crediting Sipsini as Vote 67 & ACGR as Vote 88.
Enough is enough I feel guilty of hogging the blog too much, so to everyone who voted for Niamh & to those who even got extra votes for her a sincere thank you. I love you all, but let’s close it now & get back to the normal madhouse.
Ok
Now that Corkie is finished hogging the blog can we start the poppy debate.
Is blog hogging even a thing?
Calgalus, Thank you pal, only saw your post after I typed my last one, so the 92 becomes 93.
Yep Wits, I’m up for a Poppy Debate or even an Easter Lily Debate, which would you prefer a Lily you pin on or one you stick on.
Robben playing well v Sweden, our work will be cut out trying to stop him v Bayern
Big Packy
Liked the Brogans, did Jim not have a garage or car dealership near Hampden when he retired?
Brogans gonna get yi was the cry lol.
HH
CORKCELT-Your one of this places good guys(there’s a few btw),so it was always going to go this way:-)) hopefully it helps Niamh get that wee bit of recognition:-))
To many-:)) me thinks
As I Recall we had 60K sell outs most weekends under MoN’s style of football as well as forever breaking the dominance of Murray’s financially doped Rangers. Throw in a European final and it’s clear BR has some way to go before he matches MoN.
Lichtsteiner getting away with murder again v Portugal….
Thanks Fairhill Bhoy, the odds are still against her surviving the Public vote but all the support she has received has given her great encouragement & determination to make her new business succeed,,
Netherlands 2-0 up at half-time against Big Mikael’s Sweden tonight , needing to win by 7 clear goals to make the playoffs.
Sweden sitting back and inviting the Dutch onto them. That never ends well. Unless your Irish, of course :-)