In football, the world changes on goals. Not skill, general play, or doing enough to deserve the win. When you are trailing in title chance, running out of games and level in the last 10 minutes of a match you really need to win, a goal changes the world.
Celtic should have been out of sight after a dominant first half, however, we have seen this story too many times this season for anyone to think the same would follow after the break. In the early moments of the second period, Tomas Cvancara missed the second chance when clean through on the Dundee goalkeeper, and that seemed to spark the home side into action.
Dundee are not a good team, but they did what they needed to do to get back into the game – get possession inside the Celtic box. Colby Donovan was the unfortunate defender whose arm met a shot. If Cvancara’s earlier miss motivated Dundee, the equaliser gave them a further shot of adrenaline. Celtic were briefly on the rack.
Change came in the unexpected form of Luke McCowan. With Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain flagging, Luke was preferred to Reo Hatate. I am pretty sure this was about energy. Luke can get around the midfield better than Reo and that quality was judged most required by Martin O’Neill.
Within moments of that early second half miss, Martin readied Kelechi Iheanacho. The Nigerian striker came on immediately after the Dundee equaliser and was able to hold the ball, and bring others into play. These two changes pinned Dundee back, who were not an attacking threat again until a couple of free kicks in the dying moments of the game.
It was a third substitution, Marcelo Saracchi for Kieran Tierney, that completed the win. The Uruguayan made everything look simple – most notably, getting the ball past the first defender and into the box in a manner that an attacker had a chance to get on the end of it.
When Kelechi controlled Marcelo’s cross and spun to shoot I didn’t think he had space at the near post, but this guy has banked tens of millions already in his career for a reason. You feel if we could get 90 or even 60 minutes out of him every week, odds on Celtic winning would shorten.
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CCB
Cvancara is very good with his touches,some very good.I said last post,that he is no slouch once he gets those legs moving.He left the Dundee defenders standing,when he,unluckily hit the post.His second one on one was very poor.Maybe his head was full of the first one.
He is like Nygren.Maybe,just maybe both would be much more involved playing in an,on form, free flowing team,and not the way we are.He has 6 games,if he plays,to prove it.
the long wait is over on 6th April 2026 1:31 pm
Bigrailroad
When I started reading your post I thought you were headed here:-
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QccPUSTMriM
—–
🤣🤣I was thinking exactly the same. Do you know, Kirsty’s dad wrote, the first time ever I saw your face, as well as dirty old town.
Beyond me how MON can keep Sarrachi on the bench with the paucity of talent we have at the moment.
Aurajo,is another mystery.I am sure all will be revealed by the Media shortly.
Not by us,God forbid.
The bookies now have rangers as favourites followed by u Celtic and then Hearts as third favourites. And given that rangers have picked up 14 points in their last 6 games, compared to just 10 each by Celtic and Hearts, you can see why they have come to that conclusion.
However, let’s look at the teams that these three have already dropped points against, whom they still have to face in their final 6 fixtures…
(* indicates where there are two games still to play against this opponent.)
HEARTS: Motherwell* (points dropped twice), Rangers, Celtic & Hibs.
RANGERS: Falkirk* (twice), Hearts (twice), Celtic (twice), Motherwell (twice) & Hibs.
CELTIC: Hearts (thrice), Rangers (thrice), Motherwell, Hibs (twice).
To summarise…
Celtic have dropped points against teams that they play in 4 of their final 6 games.
Hearts have dropped points against teams that they play in 5 of their final 6 games.
Rangers have dropped points against ALL of the teams that they play in their final 6 games.
Add to this the fact that Celtic still have both Hearts and rangers to play at home (with a point to prove by beating each for the first time this season in the league), and the bookies’ current odds might not prove to be defining. 🤞
BTB – assuming they remain free of injury it’s perfectly reasonable to expect greater contributions from the likes of AOC and Ihenacho as their fitness improves week-on-week.
AOC was training with Arsenal and has been with us for just over 2 months.
Genuine question – how long does it take for a professional athlete to get fully fit?
The endured rather than entertained season continues with another eye-itching performance.
3 points is all that matters, though, in the trifecta of torpidity we are engaged in with the 2 manky mobs (who both ooze mediocrity too).
Our home advantage might be important or our lack of threat up front might be. Who knows in this attritional season?
Odd thing is, even with our performances being so poor, I still can’t wait till our next match. Fitba makes ye mad.
Hope Ian Nacho stays fit. 🤞🤞🤞
ZIGGYDOC1 on 6TH APRIL 2026 2:30 PM
Did not know that -cheers.
EveryDay’sASchoolDayCSC
BABASONICOS71 on 6th April 2026 2:48 pm…
Good points, well made. 👍🇳🇬
Many league wins are massive. Arguably every one.
1966
1968
1979
1988
1998
2001
2008
2012
2017
2019
2020
2022
All spring to mind of the ones we have won as being super significant and important.
This seasons will be one imo. Let’s hope it is one we win.
Why ?
The need for restructure at Celtic is obvious and will happen. On and off the pitch. Not easy. We absolutely aced it when we last had chaos in 2022. We got lucky.
If the Govan lot win it carries double bonus for them. A guaranteed CL place is almost certain after last night in Athens. Olympiakos now 5 behind with 5 to play in Greek league.
For rangers to be guaranteed CL qualification with NO qualifiers would be massive. They would have no stressful pre season games and time and space to plan with no jeopardy. They can sell Guaranteed CL place to any potential signings. Plus of course the revenue.
Equally though there is the belief it will give their young squad. That is what differs from 2022. Young squad who have growth in them.
It has never been more important to win a league since 1966 imo.
Our Goalie Sinsalo needs to very careful when he passes the ball to our defenders especially Scales who is a bombscare ,i dont trust him ,unfortnualy we are stuck with him ,also McCowan is just not up to it ,i would rather Martin play Hatate ,or Bernado before McCowan ,also i would have Sarrachi start against St Mirrin this Saturday ,Tierney to me sadly isnt the left back who played for us a really few years ago .
B78
We’ve had a huge financial advantage for a number of seasons – what have we done with it – just kept ahead of them in the OF duopoly.
We’ve got a board with zero ambition, a hollowed out squad and a temporary manager.
Well done Mr Nicholson & Co
Wee bit of hilarity on this Easter weekend , hope it doesn’t offend anyone…. Think this was a precursor to Life of Brian …Watch out for Mrs McMyre 🙏🥴😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GICtWmX754
La Liga a footballing talent producing success story
Guillem Balague@GuillemBalague
Remember the following next time someone tells you @LaLiga is behind.
La Liga just showed us its 24/25 numbers. A record €5.464 billion in total revenue. A record 17.4 million fans in grounds. €70 million profit before tax. Squad costs held at 70% of income. A league that lives within its means, but also one that is growing as well.
Here’s what really doesn’t get said enough, although it might not be fully surprising.
#LaLiga leads Europe in academy player market value.
€1.46 billion. Ahead of the #PremierLeague.
Those players represent 26.6% of LaLiga’s total market value. In England? 9.7%.
LaLiga academy players play nearly 20% of all minutes in the league. In England, 13.5%.
This is a league that develops talent, trusts it, and builds on it. 91% of those academy players are Spanish.
The Premier League is a financial phenomenon. Of course it is, no one is pretending otherwise.
But it spends more than double what it earns. Has been doing so for seven years. That should be worrying.
A league that turns a profit, fills its stadiums, and leads Europe in growing its own? It sounds to me like it is a good way to run football.
Things to improve: refereeing, VAR, the behaviour of fans (LaLiga has been fighting racism and discrimination, but even more has to be done), the departure of talent, more women involved in decision making at all level
Posted without Irony
For rangers to be guaranteed CL qualification with NO qualifiers would be massive. They would have no stressful pre season games and time and space to plan with no jeopardy. They can sell Guaranteed CL place to any potential signings. Plus of course the revenue.
If only Celtic had been in a position of such dominance………………………..
Oops try this one ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL8_cfi-bCw&list=PLcw-mvllEhm-7qUJqh94fl4wV6UEwAJIy&pp=8AUB
Hearts, league leaders with just 6 games to go, are now THIRD favourites with Paddy Power to take the SPL title. I guess that’ll get a mention in Derek McInnes’ next team talk. Let’s see if Falkirk can effect another change to the identity of the bookies’ favourites next Sunday…
—-
I seen the Huns at 11/10 and us at 2/1 after Dens.
I don’t quite understand that disparity.
I’d genuinely take our position over the hun’s position at this point. 4 homes games is a significant advantage for us.
If the huns do win the league and go on to rake in the CL riches , while we struggle for the funds required to enable our massive rebuild, does anyone think they will throttle back in the interests of keeping the OF competitive ? No , me neither . Our glorious board are going to feel kind of silly when they realise that the OF project is not quite as reciprocal as they thought .
That’s the dangerous game we’re playing and that’s why we’ve got to either win or hope that Hearts do .
Lion roars 67
Re la liga you are spot on.
Re EPL it is about when not if the cards fall
Re dominance
Yup we were. 3 years ago we were loving great football, for me the best ever, and winning g a treble. Automatic qualification for Europe’s top competition. The major shareholder / owner whatever declared UDI and decided to allow one man control of the football department. That man wasn’t Tisdale or Nicholson. That man wasn’t the coach he had been and had a fraction of the energy for the task. His behaviour was not that of a leader in any form of life I have ever worked in. Indeed it was quite the reverse.
We have gone from trebles and a great squad under Ange to scraping through to doubles against a chaotic rangers under BR and this season carnage and a complete lack of leadership. No one person to blame. The easy target is DD as he made a very bad appointment initially and then another one with WN. As for Nicholson. He is simply the bag carrier. It is not his fault but he doesn’t add his value in any other way.
Bigchipsuk
“Let’s keep the football arena for sporting action and take the politics to venues appropriate for those issues and debates… like MP’s surgeries and Westminster
there would be no celtic if all folk thought like that
its like that spok eared gimp rubio trying to separate his politics from his faith
This Saturday against St Mirrin is another test ,hopefull we get a win ..which should give us more confidance going into the split,can we win the 6 games especially with 4 at home ,
PaddyF on 6th April 2026 2:08 pm
Celtic FC’S POLITICAL History: The Undeniable Facts by Liam Kelly
*I take it that isnae the cu(rre)nt sevco back up that wrote this WTF
Blogger @ 2:42pm
Genuine question – how long does it take for a professional athlete to get fully fit?
——
Cheers, GM.
My response might sound like a cop out
“Fully fit” is relative. There you have it.
As previously mentioned by other posters, cumulative injuries take their toll.
Kelechi – built like a sprinter, with sprinters hammies.
Sprinters hammies?
Tighter than violin strings.
100m specialist sprints for 120 metres?
Pop. His hammy will go.
Trains at 10° Celsius instead of 12°?
Pop. His hammy will go.
Transitions mid-race at 35m rather than 40m?
Pop. His hammy will go.
No point putting Kel onto an elite fitness programme.
He’ll simply break down.
So salvage what we can.
His nous, his touch, his low centre of gravity, his calmness, his finishing.
If we can? Still a serious asset.
Ox?
Explosive pace was his best asset in his prime.
Injury history across various joints, ankle, knee, hip has reduced him.
Still has the rudiments of that pace.
Case in point yesterday first half.
Outpaced Dundee guy over five yards, who proceeded to try to tear his shirt off before he released Yang.
But can’t do lots of bursts or bursts over longer distances.
Pedigree still evident.
Makes simple moves and passes .. er .. look simple.
If he can carry a small chunk of the load just so Callum, Arne, Reo and Luke can carry for shorter periods but do more in them?
Will do for me.
For me its a personnel issue , we have to just try and win games with a lack of quality, it isn’t a good league so anything is possible.
3 points was all that mattered yesterday.
We achieved that.
But it must be said that we are not good to watch.
I still think we will win the league, but it will be the poorest Celtic team to do so that I can remember.
HH.
Haven’t you got bored regurgitating that lazy trope of blaming BR for all our footballing ills, its a lazy narrative which lacks any detailed analysis to underpin it, its been reduced to rubble on here by many posters time and time again
“The major shareholder / owner whatever declared UDI” WTF Just recently ? He has always been the de facto owner, he has had the final say on football managers at Celtic for decades, O’Neil x 3, Strachan, Rodgers X 2 all elite managers, all hired by DD, terms and conditions all agreed with DD, its then all handed over to the “Bag Carriers” your description, clearly Lawwell was quite a level above Nicholson in the bag carrying
That DD all powerful era has now came crashing to an end, the footballing universe has moved on
Celtic FC has to modernise transform into a modern progressive football club with new structure and personnel controlling our football decisions
The SPFL is evolving, 49ers and Tony Bloom are not going away anytime soon, we have real domestic competition
The problem for the majority of the fanbase is the question of trust, non communication from the de facto owner leaves a vacum, no communication from the club on WHO can carry out this important transformation the club desperately needs, Celtic FC 2026 require a new model for the football dept, new structure, new personnel, new recruitment to get new players, overhaul youth player development all to be undertaken in a World Cup year, with possible European competition qualifiers starting in July
Lets keep the debate civil BR keep the gang in check
B78
An £800k pa. bag carrier- if he’s not carrying out CEO duties he should be nowhere near the club.
He has duties and responsibility to other shareholders not just DD.
No way to run a club.
Of course its Brendan’s fault
Why not play Tomas Cvancara along side Keleechi Iheanacho, and play direct with midfield runners like Ben Nygren feed off the scraps?
The wingers from us have been sussed by opposition teams who double-mark, low-black, draught-excluder etc tackles and other blocks to nullify our wingers, making the wingers look like expensive flops, and the manager who bought look like an unlearning comfort zone manager, who is only in the job because he is/was the boss’s pal until he was ejected to Arabia.
MON is merely trying to mop up other found out manager’s slop!
Any Celtic team that does not play with 2 striker, utilizing quick, high, long balls, over the top, then charades are being engaged in and will run out of luck sooner or later, like when we were recently defeated by a boring Hibs team at crest fallen Parkhead library Arena.
Blessed be MON Forever!
The hatred of Brendan Rodgers is unacceptable. Give it a rest.
BTB – very fair point.
I’m coming at it from aerobic fitness, you’re coming at it from physical robustness given age/injury record.
Hopefully both can be managed to maximise their contributions.
There is no hate to Brendan Rodgers just accurate conveyance.
Sad are the homes around mixed-up Parkead’s sleepy slopes were only the rivers of slop run free!
Sad are the homes around mixed-up Parkead’s sleepy slopes were only the rivers of slop run free!
—
how many times can someone miss out the letter ‘h’ in a single sentence?
sad are the omes
NCFC Analysis
Jaw dropping stuff big Clement hailed as hero
Norwich City FC@NorwichCityFC
🗣️ 𝘾𝙇𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏! 𝘾𝙇𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏! 𝙎𝙐𝙋𝙀𝙍 𝙋𝙃𝙄𝙇 𝘾𝙇𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏! 🗣️
https://x.com/NorwichCityFC/status/2041176603670274074?s=20
NCFC Analysis@NCFC_Analysis1
Incredible coach
@NCFC_Analysis1
The Turnaround: Clement’s astonishing impact at Norwich.
🟡 Points per game boost. 📈
🟢 JHT vs Manning vs Clement. 🔍
🟡 The missing piece. 🧩
It might not be all doom and gloom if we don’t win the league. It’s always possible that the bad luck which routinely hits us when we try to strengthen from a position of strength doesn’t materialse and we are able to strengthen. Think of Ange’s first two windows for example.
We shall win our 6 games. Easy peasy.
Henry Winter@henrywinter
1h
Imagine telling Norwich City fans when they were 23rd in November that they would have a faint shot of the Championship play-offs in early April. They’d have laughed. Imagine if Philippe Clement had been appointed earlier. When he arrived on Nov 18, Norwich had 9 points from 15 games. They are now 9th with 58 points from 41 games. Highly unlikely but not impossible that Norwich could make the play-offs. 6 points off with 5 games remaining. Still a long shot. But Clement has transformed Norwich.
He’s improved fitness levels, defensive concentration and mood. Improved recruitment, too, and credit to sporting director Ben Knapper: Mohamed Toure, Randers, £2.6m, scouted by Knapper since 2022; Paris Maghoma from Brentford and Ali Ahmed from Vancouver.
Knapper’s appointment of Clement has been inspired (and may have saved Knapper’s job). Clement has authority, presence, good decision-making and deals with adversity. He lost Makama to injury, and Sargent to a sulk and Toronto FC. He had 10 players injured going into Friday’s game with Portsmouth, drawn 1-1. Norwich trailed 1-0 to Millwall at a sold-out Den today, but Clement’s subs turned the game around: Mohamed Toure 2x assists, Schwartau the winner. Clement has restored hope to Norwich.
lionroars67- Great post
Tontine Tim on 6th April 2026 5:02 pm
PaddyF on 6th April 2026 2:08 pm
Celtic FC’S POLITICAL History: The Undeniable Facts by Liam Kelly
*I take it that isnae the cu(rre)nt sevco back up that wrote this WTF.
===========================
No Tontine,no relation at all and currently researching Celtic players in ww2.Based in s.e of england but writes a bit on Celtic.ok guy.
==============================
PaddyF on 6th April 2026 12:03 pm
Proclamation read outside the GPO to commemorate 1916 rising.
https://youtu.be/QB7ETHJhcxs?si=bmEJktvcRBqAs0mi
An apt podium on this bright easter morn.
==========================
BigChipsUK on 6th April 2026 12:07 pm
Thanks for that PaddyF. I thought this was a Celtic FOOTBALL blog. 🤷
Big Chips Celtic have been political since the good brother stepped of the Altar of Glasgows 2nd parish.
Feeding people is a political act
Feeding children of irish catholic immigrants in the land of the reformation is a political act.
As a Celt I would suggest your good self has given to various ‘charities’ associated with Celtic or their support
Being of irish catholic origin is a political act at times.
Celtic is the reason why many of us veer into politics,it’s to be active and push our community forward,all of it,with each of us getting a little bit better.
I like Celtic,you should read of those active in the irish struggle who were also active in Celtic in Brendan Sweeneys Celtic the early years.its all part of who we are and where we came from.
If you want to see a confusion look along the M8 to Hibs who nigh on uncoupled all their Irish links,ripping out anything that highlighted their past- ie the brickwork Harp in the 50s.
A bland glass of water indeed.
Hail Hail