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.
240 Comments- Pages:
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JOBO
Welcome to the old codgers club, congratulations to you and your family on this great news.
Big Jimmy missing your stories and craic on here , glad to be back to league business come Saturday international break is boring. HH
HOT SMOKED @ 9:34 AM,
“I can`t say these words from Henry McLeish fill me with hope:
“I think the tentacles of the club game are so intertwined now with the ambitions of the country game, and that is not what I would like to see. We need clear demarcations of responsibility and I put it quite boldly to say that the SFA must now become the dominant political institution in Scottish football. The two institutions of the SPFL and the SFA have got to rearrange and reprioritise what their objectives are and the country, in my view, must overcome the power of the club.””
Well at first sight I can see your point but look further than Club vs Country.
I see this as a damning criticism of the SFA, at least I hope it is.
Here is an organisation (obviously used as an adjective and not a noun:) that fails in just about all its multifaceted remits; Youth Football, Grassroots Football, Junior Football, Professional Football, International Football and everything betwixt.
They are a National Embarrassment. Henry McLeish issued a report on Scottish Football in 2010, when Scottish Football was in a terrible state. He says himself seven years later it’s in a worse state.
The SFA have ignored this, having no regard to Scottish Football at all levels and it’s short, medium and long term requirements for just one reason.
I B R O X
It’s their whole raison d’etre it would seem. Their obsession with one (or two) Clubs has seen any attempt to bring Scottish Football into the 21st Century ignored.
We have a “NEW” President of the SFA, he comes to “preside” over this shambles, this car crash, what is his priority, a veiled attack on Celtic for being too successful and another “Scottish Football needs a strong Rangers” mantra.
McLeish is correct the SFA needs to “rearrange and reprioritise”.
Or as us Non-Politicians would put it…
Sack the lot of them and Restructure the whole goddam mess…
Hail Hail
‘Sake, can you imagine the lead article if Ireland hadn’t won??
It would’ve been like the court scene from ‘Midnight Express’, with Paul67 as the ragin’ Turkish prosecutor, and poor MO’N as the wee drug smuggler in the dock.
“Boo!”
Jobo
Congratulations on your great news
Maria Rose Balde has a nice ring to it.
:)
CHAIRBHOY @11 46
” Sack the lot of them and restructure the whole goddam mess “.
Absolutely ! .
Your words also absolutely describe the prevailing view in Italy .. Heard a pundit on the radio last night saying this —
” They have reduced us to watching an Italian squad full of players who struggle to get a game for their Club while they pay themselves a fortune , travel first class, stay in 5 star hotels and grow so fat you wonder when was the last time they could see their feet while standing up “
A lunch time choon from Glasgow 1970 .
There’s more to life than Taggart .-
https://youtu.be/RHMUZG5XCNU
SOUTH OF TUNIS @ 12:03 PM,
Yeah! It seems like Italy are suffering from the same malaise as Scotland.
Of course I see Scotland in terms of history as a great Footballing nation.
But for Italy it must be so much worse, Serie A should be the best League in Europe with a Commensurate National Team.
It was always the Country I supported at the big tournaments. It’s incredibly depressing to see how greed and self-serving institutions and individuals can ruin the aspirations and hopes of a people and their National Sport.
Hope both Cabals are purged and some true Football People take their place…
Hail Hail
new article posted.
Congratulations to JOBO and family ! Brilliant news !!
CHAIRBHOY .
Yes ! . I liked this one too –
“When you are watching the World Cup Final between Germania and Spagna , having not been surprised to have seen Italia being beaten by Panama,you can bet your last Euro that the camera will pan over the VIP box and there will be Carlo Tavecchio sitting there with a showgirl from Colombia ”
Tavecchio is the Italian Regan.
Congrats to Papa Jobo on his fantastic news.
HH
CRC