Coordination and confidence

822

Wee Oscar’s dad, Knoxy, asked me to relay this message to you……

“The BIG cycle to Belfast… WOW! What an absolutely incredible effort by so so many people all to raise money for our wee hero, and a great night was had by all on Saturday night up at Donegal Celtic. It is very very humbling and I really felt that my thanks conveyed to them all on Saturday night was just not enough. I know they didn’t do it for thanks or for a pat on the back but I really hope they know that both me and Leona are deeply deeply moved by what they have done.

Over the last 9 months we have thanked many hundreds of people for all sorts of different things they have done for Oscar and I’m sure after a while the thanking almost comes across a bit ‘rehearsed’ and maybe a bit insincere but we just want to make sure they all know how thankful we are to them and to the amazing people who have donated to such a whopping total!”

Fantastic work by all, very well done.

Celtic have conceded 16 goals in the 9 games since Efe Ambrose’ much debated return to the team which faced Juventus last month, a period which saw them eliminated from the Champions League and the League Cup, while losing to Motherwell and Ross County.

They conceded 16 goals in the previous 24 games, including two Champions League games against Barcelona, one against Benfica and one against Spartak Moscow.  A problem which initially appeared to be limited to Efe, has clearly affected others, including Kelvin Wilson and even the goalkeeper looks less assured than before.

More than any other facet of football, defending is dependent on confidence and teamwork.  If communication is poor, you make mistakes.  If you expect teammates to make mistakes, you’ll make decisions accordingly.  If your decisions reflect a lack of confidence, you’re on a slippery slope to losing goals.  Bad defenders look good in good teams but good defenders look hopeless once order is disturbed.

Only just catching up with the antics on Gallowgate on Saturday.  Not read about the destruction of property or occasions of assault, which I assume preceded the mass arrests.  Surely?  I’m not sure if Alex Salmond has renewed the high levels of police funding for football-related activity, which was initially due to expire at the end of this month, but for someone who is usually so politically savvy, he seems to have set off on a road without checking consequences of the legal questions.

A bit like his major project…..

Where we are today is a consequence of the First Minister’s initiatives in 2011, and is why Celtic fans, the Club, and many others, opposed the initiative at the time.  It’s playing out pretty much as everyone with an interest in football expected.  Mr Salmond’s Scotland is looking a bit like Mrs Thatcher’s Yorkshire, circa 1984.

You’re as well blaming the inclement weather as blaming the police or anyone in the game, the police, like the weather, do what they do. This is the work of the Other Charlotte Square Bogeyman.
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  1. p8ddy

     

     

    12:40 on 18 March, 2013

     

     

     

    ‘The bill is absolutely a poor one – but initially looked framed to stamp out the nonsense from fans on the other side of the city’

     

     

     

     

    There was no need to introduce new legislation to deal with the huns, the existing legislation was sufficient.

     

     

    This legislation was introduced to even up the score.

     

     

    The question you should be asking yourself is why the SNP wished to even up the score.

     

     

    Is there anything in the history of the SNP that would help you answer that question?

  2. 79caps

     

     

    spot on with that..defend as team is a must..some of our players lacking in a wee bit of confidence..some might need to be benched as a wake up call..ff hasnt been the same player as paul said..that might be the cause in our defending??players in front of the defenders when not wining the ball or caught out of position dont help..big charlie had a decent game..but i dont think thats his position..kriss commons had a good game but didnt get back to help lustic enough..all this talk weeks ago about resting players early if the league was won has been totaly unprofessional and may have been part of the cause..imo

  3. Geordie Munro

     

     

    Yes, Efe is now the official scapegoat. I really don’t know what he did wrong on Saturday, but he played a big part in our equalizer.

  4. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    bawsman

     

     

    12:19 on 18 March, 2013

     

     

    I loved only the last minute of extra time ……..LOL

     

     

    Paul 67

     

     

    Spot on ……… This situation has developed as the result of the rushed introduction of a law with too many grey areas, which are causing too many issues …….. They need to re- address the detail ….. Saturday was ‘not good’ for the GB, or the Police…….some more clarity, Mr Salmond, please….

  5. It’s not often I disagree with Paul67 however this time his comparison of the weather and the police cannot stand unchallenged .True the weather cannot choose its nature the police though can choose .And when they make that choice it is always the same, whatever power they are given they choose to abuse it until forced to change their ways.

     

    The police are not there to protect they are there to keep us in line and the further down the scale of power you are the more in line you will be kept.

  6. P8ddy @ 12:40.

     

     

    I have to agree. Political argument on this blog is always refreshing, but I’m not sure an editorial slant is needed.

     

     

    I can accept the terms, ” Thatchers Britain “, or ” Putins Russia “, but ” Salmond’s Scotland “, is insular and misleading.

     

     

    Its why we don’t speak of ” Joyce’s Falkirk “, or ” Councillor Devlin’s Barrhead “.

  7. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    79caps

     

     

    13:08 on 18 March, 2013

     

     

    Spot on (again)…..

  8. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    Mihal…13.10

     

     

    Now you’re being silly…..!!

  9. ArranmoreBhoyLXV11 on

    HH

     

     

    Re EFE, if my memory is correct, I recall Bobo going to the African nations cup and returning a shadow of the player that left..

     

     

    I recall suspecting voodoo curses..

     

     

    Games like Saturday are too tiring. Good to see big Packie Bonner at half time..

     

     

    HH

  10. He’s still being hung out to dry for the juve mistake..a lot of people on here sounded concerned if he wasnt going to make..in hind sight he gave up a few days of free nookie to play for us..how many would have done that??

     

     

    nowantinmanatking cfc

  11. Geordie Munro on

    ” Games like Saturday are too tiring”

     

     

     

    Arranmorebhoy, give me games like that every week. ;)

     

     

    Maybe it’s the masochist in me but I’d rather we had endings like that more often.

  12. The crazy thing about Efe is that he could come good, like Sammi did.

     

    The problem is that I see none of Sammi’s thundering intensity which indicated a star whose pedigree was already established in Greece.

     

    It’s so hard to know…….a huge cultural gap to contend with…..crowd hostility…..all that baggage.

     

    NFL will know.

     

    But we have a most impressive squad….even anglo teams would envy us…….never admitting it, though!

     

    I wish the Bhoy well…..I really do…. And this whipping boy mentality scunners me something fierce.

     

    Where’s the whataboutery for Miku?

     

    I won’t indulge in it.

     

    Except :

     

    Prima donna damp squib.

     

    There…..I did it. Proves I’m a fragile human.

     

    Just like Efe Ambrose.

     

    HH!

  13. Look, guys, it’s all Efe’s fault:

     

     

    Aberdeen goal no.1: Efe used his incredible mind-bending powers against himself and the team to make Wilson sprawl to the ground after getting out-muscled.

     

     

    Goal no.2: Efe mind-directs Mulgrew’s pass, causing it to be intercepted, then stands on a butterfly in 1987, the rippling consequences of which cause Fraser and Kelvin to make a complete hash of things 26 years later.

     

     

    Goal no.3: Again, Efe’s mind-power at work, this time on several levels, as he orchestrates matters so that Stokes and Commons fail to close down, part like the red sea, and once again that squashed butterfly comes back to haunt Fraser.

  14. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    ERNIE LYNCH

     

     

    In fairness,PMcB appears to have been taken in by it at the time as well. It was an ambush on the Celtic support though I genuinely doubt that was the original intention.

     

     

    Well-meaning gesture which got hijacked and subverted,IMO.

     

     

    Salmond should be taking action internally against those who have damaged his party through this,but it’s not as though he was previously unaware of the incompetence-at best-of his Holyrood colleagues

     

     

    Hell mend h but pity those who pay the price for his vanity and for the vindictiveness of those colleagues.

  15. Geordie Munro on

    Cfc1888 ” I thought efe was still in africa when the league cup semi was played.”

     

     

    He was.

     

     

     

    Paul was doing his Scottish meedja impression there ;)

  16. tommysbhoy @ 13.15

     

     

    “he gave up a few days of free nookie to play for us … how many would have done that?”

     

     

    Shall we conduct a poll?!

  17. The keep calm and carry on supporting Celtic t-shirts nah not for me espesh the royal blue and white one!!! Ffs

     

     

    However on our trip to auld reekie this weekend the missus did buy a coffee mug in the same design which said

     

     

    DINNAE FASH YERSEL

     

    AND KEEP THE HEID

     

     

    she reckons it was worth it to see the confused looks o her work colleagues faces in her office at Warrington

  18. Steinreignedsupreme on

    I was arrested by the Glasgow Police many years ago.

     

     

    My ‘crime’ was coming off second best to several rabid Huns after a League Cup semi-final which they won.

     

     

    I walked round the wrong corner at the wrong time. I was 14-years-old, and after receiving a good kicking from several people in their 20s and 30s, I was chucked into the back of a meat wagon, and subsequently spent four hours in a cell where I was denied the use of toilet facilities and given another bleaching by a couple of plod when I complained.

     

     

    Obviously this experience has tainted my view of many people. But I grew up with many Huns and consider some of them as my closest friends. The lunatics who attacked me were blinded by hatred – I have often felt Celtic’s that night defeat was my good fortune.

     

     

    The action of Glasgow’s finest disturbed me more though – and it’s fair to say my parents went mental with the two swines who eventually took me home. I would not give the time of day to any policeman even now.

     

     

    I respect the rules Paul sets on this blog, and for that reason I will refrain from stating my true feelings towards them.

     

     

    But it’s pretty obvious from the footage and pictures taken around the Gallowgate on Saturday that nothing much has changed in the past three decades.

  19. South Of Tunis on

    BMCUW @ 13 02

     

     

    ” Us older types are a wee bit more savvy in dealing with the cops ”

     

     

    This particular older type certainly is ——- my knowledge re the cops includes —–

     

     

    Personally learning that cops in North Glasgow were prepared to lie and fabricate evidence .

     

     

    Personally learning that cops in Govan were prepared to lie and fabricate evidence .

     

     

    Personally learning that cops in west London were prepared to lie and fabricate evidence ..

     

     

    Personally learning that at least 3 UK judges had no problem re convicting an entirely innocent person on the basis of lies and fabricated evidence .

     

     

    Personally learning that at least 3 defense lawyers in the UK were not all surprised that some cops lie and fabricate evidence .

     

     

    I can still remember a lawyer telling a teenage me ——-” sorry but —}

  20. BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS

     

     

    13:20 on 18 March, 2013

     

     

    ‘ERNIE LYNCH

     

     

    In fairness,PMcB appears to have been taken in by it at the time as well.’

     

     

     

     

    Paul McBride wasn’t taken in by the Bill. He fully understood it and agreed with it. Whatever he may or may not have been he was no libertarian.

  21. Oh, and in the spirit of fraternité, egalité and aw that fronglais, i bought my protestant bud two raspberry fairy cakes from Greggs to go with his Welsh.

     

    Wellllllllllll……you can only do SO much without appearing too soft n the noggin.

     

    Besides ……if they’re good enuff for lardy Sally………

  22. i’m expecting a statement from the club today about what happened on saturday, and it better be good.. we need the power of the club behind it.. up until now i thought the green brigade were over reacting and asking for special treatment but from what i seen from the gallowgate the police are a disgrace..i think now the club has to say and do somethingf about it

  23. GourockEmeraldBhoy on

    Seems I missed a good game on Saturday but was worth it for the new addition Max to our family (another future Tim).

     

     

    God bless the Green Brigade and Neil Lennon ( and my bhoys of course)

     

     

    Hail Hail

  24. South Of Tunis

     

     

    I’ve got it, naw only joking, I’m strictly an amateur digger, nice track tho’ I found an mp3 version…

     

     

    70’s reggae is still my favourite, John Peel playing all those now classic tracks..going down to London for the first time to buy tunes, happy days..

  25. GourockEmeraldBhoy on

    Sorry meant to add well done to all the cyclists and attached helpers for all the hard work. It must have been hard going, but all for a worthy cause.

     

     

    HH

  26. I saw some of the footage posted regarding the ‘kettling’ tactics employed by the police on Saturday, it was surreal in the sense that the police had seemed to surround a group of bemused and placid people and kept them there until they became something other than placid.

     

     

    I’m not massively familiar with these tactics, but I thought they were used as a measure to control a crowd who were in danger of becoming a riot, a response to a heightening of tension within a crowd. On Saturday it looked to me like the police using a convenient situation to carry out what was in effect a ‘live’ training exercise in a low risk environment. Have the Celtic fanbase become the plaything of the Strathclyde police? To tease and torment as the mood takes them, like a cat with a mouse.

  27. up_over_goal

     

    13:19 on

     

    18 March, 2013

     

    Look, guys, it’s all Efe’s fault:

     

     

    Aberdeen goal no.1: Efe used his incredible mind-bending powers against himself and the team to make Wilson sprawl to the ground after getting out-muscled.

     

     

    Goal no.2: Efe mind-directs Mulgrew’s pass, causing it to be intercepted, then stands on a butterfly in 1987, the rippling consequences of which cause Fraser and Kelvin to make a complete hash of things 26 years later.

     

     

    Goal no.3: Again, Efe’s mind-power at work, this time on several levels, as he orchestrates matters so that Stokes and Commons fail to close down, part like the red sea, and once again that squashed butterfly comes back to haunt Fraser.

     

     

    ……………………………….

     

     

    love it….

     

    i don’t think efe is anywhere near as bad as people are making out and i’m sure he will prove me right. i have no problems with him being in the team…

  28. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    GEORDIE MUNRO

     

     

    No hesitation in awarding you

     

     

    POST OF THE MONTH!

     

     

    Brilliant,mate….

  29. tommysbhoy @ 13.15

     

     

    “he gave up a few days of free nookie to play for us … how many would have done that?”

     

     

    Does Efe normally pay for “it”?…

  30. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    SOUTH OF TUNIS. 1326

     

     

    Unfortunately some members of my family read this so I canny really go into detail

     

     

    Obviously I’ve been that bit luckier than yourself and STEINREIGNEDSUPREME as I had a touch of the teflons.

  31. Ye goddes in dweep…………they’ve paid up.

     

    Fly me to the moon.

     

    Wel…..the p.o. will do for now.

  32. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    JOCKCFC

     

     

    Maybe PL was referring to the police with his comment about giving them enough rope to hang themselves.

  33. btw

     

    Went to se Cloud Atlas……not to be missed.

     

    When it’s released I will be buying it. It is truly epic on every scale.

     

    A masterpiece.

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