Celtic blitzed Aberdeen with three goals in the opening 11 minutes in what at that stage looked set to be a drubbing, but the hosts pulled a goal back in the 12th minute, which set a parity for the remainder of the match.
Leigh Griffiths has had to be patient this season but he made the most of his starting opportunity tonight. The opening goal, came from his corner, which was headed into the net by Dedryck Boyata. Patrick Roberts had a clear chance to open the scoring seconds earlier, but Aberdeen keeper Lewis turned his effort behind.
The second Celtic goal arrived on the 8th minute. There was nothing really on when Griffiths collected the ball wide on the right, but one cheeky nutmeg later and the Aberdeen defence were chasing shadows. Leigh crossed and Callum McGregor fired a shot which was blocked by Logan. The rebound fell to Stuart Armstrong, who contorted his body to make a contact good enough to score.
Again, there was little obvious danger when Leigh Griffiths collected the ball 30 yards out in 11 minutes. The Celtic striker took on two defenders before cracking a shot from 24 yards, which moved and deceived Lewis before smacking the back of the net.
At this point Celtic looked more likely to score six than to settle for three, but, remarkably, the fourth goal of the game arrived just a minute later, when Jonny Hayes lost Kieran Tierney with a quick change of direction before thundering one into the top corner from 23 yards.
It was now Celtic’s turn to rock. Perhaps the game’s most important subsequent moment came after just 14 minutes when Stockley lost the Celtic central defenders, but couldn’t make contact with a cross 7 yards in front of goal.
Celtic’s passing in recent weeks has been exceptional, but they didn’t get this right on a choppy Pittodrie surface, as the unforced error count spiked. The ball rotation we have become used to seeing this season didn’t happen often, underlining the importance of suspended Scott Brown.
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Ronaldhinho respected Henke so much.
Thierre Henry, he quite liked Mr Larsson.
Maestro always formedable.
Since when was a 3-1 win at cesspitoddrie a bad result?
Thomthetim
Aberdeen gave it their best shot with little in the way of skill.
Brendan targetted a victory 100 pts and 4 goals last night, his words after game. I don’t think targeting a 4 goal victory in anyway leads me to believe he wanted to watch Aberdeen have a go at our defence.
We’ll need to agree to disagree on this one I think.
I just think it was and off night in terms of our usual standards of play due to Aberdeen actually growing a pair and having a go. I expect Aberdeen to fold easily against the Huns with 10% of the effort they gave against us.
MWD
If Aberdeen don’t beat that shower of sh*te i watched today they want to chuck it all together.
Skylined
German Kwality.
HH
THOMTHETHIM,
Rodgers simply does not believe in playing defensive midfielders.
That’s the way he sets his teams out and and he will try his utmost to kill the opposition before half-time.
Ronny Deila’s boring 4-2-3-1 was killing Celtic.
Brendan’s flamboyant style is terrific to watch.
I thought we missed Scott Brown’s conduit style of play last night.
Brendan knew we had to go for the throat early and we killed the game.
Still think we have a long way to go and whilst we are miles ahead domestically,European football is a different kettle of fish.
All the best in West Donegal pal.
THETIMREAPER
Mwahahahaaaaah!
Very succinct,but…
Couldnae agree more.
Gordy
Prefer the HnB vibe to most of Byres Rd. :)
We didn’t play well last night and still won 3-1 despite Aberdeen being at home.
I’ll take that anytime.
TCR,
If only I’d Witnessed the game.
I thought I woud but it didnae happen.
Patrick motM again?
The whole Club wants him for sure.
D are we getting Paddy B?
Huns celebrate Euro victory …….
Pedros Portugal…. sing it for ..erm Britiiiiiiiiiiiin.
Saturday nights chill oot night
He’s got a st##ner ;))
https://youtu.be/xIQg1ZP3lqE
HH
the morons believe there is money coming from hong kong they really are desperate
Danso
A North Korean takeover of der hun is more likely.
TCR,
I hear you had a bit of a celebration last week,
hope it all went well
DD
King Jong Dumb?
Gordy,
Aye pal.
Stephen and Garry McL were over and the family,friends and those two caught me lovely for a surprise party.Twas some weekend pal.
Pete,
Paddy B?
Thought Griff was the main man last night .Fantastic power in his goal and his corners were lethal.
I love the fella tae bits.
Destroyed Sevco’s defence last week.They couldn’t handle his speed and movement.
TCR,
i had known Stephen was heading over,said he had an absolute ball.
Heading to Santa Ponsa with him and a dozen others for 4 nights this thursday,
should be carnage i imagine
Glendalys
Who has said it was a bad result?
MWD
I’ve ordered my copy
@JustABhoy:
https://t.co/IOTNyFrgIq
MWD
BMCUWP,
Yea, Eboue is a bit of a conundrum.
Is it because he is still young and joined us late in the season?
Perhaps he is till to come to terms with what is expected from him and is being given time and space to absorb what we are about.
In the couple of occasions when he has come on, he struggled to get to the pace of the game and to retain composure.
A good close season and preseason should see the lad raring to go in July.
Alternatively, maybe doesn’t fancy him or perhaps he is nursing some kind of injury.
Who knows? Let’s ask Jurgen Klopp. He knows everything!!
Feeling a bit giddy tonight as I am not used to getting so many replies to my posts.
Keep them coming, fans.
G’night.
Gordy,
A squad from Derry going to Santa Ponsa at the same time…
Good luck wae that wan.
I’ll play safe.I’ll be in Clydebank on Thursday too..
Looking forward to going back.
Aye. The cash is running dry
@RangersFC: ACADEMY: @RFC_Youth have obtained permission from the SPFL to be excused from the Development League for 2017/18… https://t.co/tnuzhEOyqb
Conveyor belt broke.
TCR,
how long are you over for,maybe catch you for a beer,
if not hopefully our paths will cross soon
Apparently they will play U13 European teams instead.
Blue Sky thinking one Stupid Hun said.
MWD
Delaney’s, if you go onto Celtic Underground twitter , there is a tweet about John Bourke when he was at Killie and some tweets about John being a good guy, which he was.
There are also tweets from St Roch’s about a racist and sectaran incident at their game today.
They complained to the SJFA secretary about it but the secretary’s reply has to be seen. He replied by saying Fenian is listed in the dictionary !!!!!!!
St Roch’s were playing Larkhall Thistle today . That would explain the sectarian stuff they compained about to the SJFA.
St Roch ‘s attached no blame to Larkhall Thistle but to some clown(s) in the home crowd.
Mal
Strong and Stable
Kill the NHS
Kill disabled people
Kill foxes
Kill poor people
Kill pensioners
Kill human rights
That’s all I have to say about String and Stable
MWD
MOONBEAMSWD
Thought you hated lists!
People can vote how they want,but for the first time in a long time,no-one can say there’s no difference between Labour and Conservative
Cue Mats Nilloc defending New Labour. Prick.
Celtic should be winning treble every year, says Mark McGhee
Graeme Macpherson: The Herald
“I think Celtic should be winning the treble every year”. The opening line from Mark McGhee, as he looked ahead to the forthcoming William Hill Scottish Cup final between two of his former clubs, was perhaps also the most instructive.
There will be many who agree with him. Celtic are enjoying a period of domestic supremacy not seen since the days of Jock Stein, the extent of their financial and playing resources casting a large shadow over the rest. Over the last five years especially, they have had no equals.
And yet, they have not completed the domestic clean sweep even once in that period. Every season since Rangers’ implosion in 2012 downgraded Scottish football’s duopoly to a monopoly, the question has been asked “who can possibly stop Celtic this time?”
And each year a different answer has been forthcoming: St Mirren, Morton, Aberdeen, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Ross County and Rangers. All have eliminated Celtic from the two major cup competitions over the past five seasons, depriving the Parkhead club of that desperately sought-after first treble since 2001.
Opportunity, however, knocks once more and this time McGhee thinks the outcome will be different. Under the stewardship of Brendan Rodgers, Celtic have ascended to a higher plane. With the title and the League Cup already back in the cabinet, victory over Aberdeen at Hampden on May 27 would place Rodgers in the same stratosphere as Stein and Martin O’Neill, the only two previous Celtic managers to claim a treble.
Standing in their way is the same Aberdeen side who capitulated so tamely in the League Cup final in November but who have also shown themselves to be the second-best side in the country for a third season in succession. McGhee rates them and their manager Derek McInnes very highly. To inflict another cup wound on Celtic, however, they will need to be at their best.
“I like the style in which Celtic are doing it, the quality they have shown and the organisation: everything about them is top drawer,” added the Scotland assistant manager. “Gordon [Strachan] and I had this conversation about how they would do in England in the Premier League and they would compete I am sure about that. They are a cut above everyone else in Scotland. I think of all the teams in recent years they are as good as any.
“There is only one team in Scotland that have any chance of stopping them in this game and it’s Aberdeen. They have to be organised, choose their shape very carefully to give themselves a chance of getting close to the Celtic players and to stop Celtic from playing. They have to be aggressive and stand up to Celtic, come out looking as if they are here to win the game and not just for damage limitation.
“I don’t mean kicking and flying into people but they have to be prepared to be aggressive with the ball, with their running, be determined on the set plays, for and against, and show aggression in defending. All of that combined, and then their match-winners – Jonny Hayes, Niall McGinn, Adam Rooney or Kenny McLean – one of these boys, could pop up with something special on the day.”
A Celtic team filled with Scots playing well can only be good for the national team, with Strachan starting six in the World Cup qualifier against Slovenia. There is every chance the same amount – if not more – also feature against England next month, and McGhee thinks that’s mostly down to the improvements Rodgers has been able to draw out of them all.
“I think that they are fitter and that is not a cheap shot at the previous management,” he added. “The lads themselves have risen to the challenge that Brendan has set them, how he wants the team to play and the way he wants them to train. Whatever he has said to them, they are just energised. We want to play the best players available at any given time and if they happen to come from one team then we have got to make that decision.”
Kieran Tierney is perhaps the best of the lot. An attacking full-back who loves the art of defending, McGhee can’t help but admire the teenager who turns 20 in the week that England head to Hampden.
“You see him walking into the dining room and he is like some wee boy who has just walked in off the street, a wee boy with his little rucksack on,” he laughed. “And then you see him on the training ground and he turns up, no jumper, shirt sleeves in the snow and the sleet and he’s not only a man but an Exocet missile.
“I think one of the things I like about him is that he is a defender first and foremost. He loves a tackle, loves a challenge. Modern defenders aren’t all like that, a lot of them want to prove how good footballers they are before anything.
“I watched Juventus the other night and you have [Giorgio] Chiellini and [Gigi] Buffon high fiving after a block at the near post, or heading the ball away. They get such pleasure in defending. And the lad is like that as well. He doesn’t want the guy to beat him, to get by him. He wants to block it, he wants to win the ball back for his team. He is terrific.”
The GB will need to learn to rap for this one. Play on Tiny Tempad Invincible
Come on you Bhoys in Green, Celtic, Celtic Lets go.
Invincible, invincible
Invincible, invincible
We’re invincible
Ah, yeah they said Celtic shouldn’t , and then they said we wouldn’t.
Just look where we are now, Celtic we done what they said we couldn’t.
As bad as the odds were looking.
Win yeah, the Bhoys kept on winning.
And every time Celtic scored a goal yeah we kept on scoring.
There’s evidence that proves that you were heaven sent
‘Cos when I needed resucin’ you were there and did not lose at all.
Celtic you are my best friend, you made me feel alive again and again
Celtic just kept on winning and we went and won the league and cups unbeaten.
invincible, Invincible
Invincible Celtic you are just perfect
Invincible, Invincible
Invincible, we’re invincible
JOEL SKED: The Scotsman
Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side became the second in the history of Scotland’s top-flight to record a century of points.
The 3-1 defeat of second-place Aberdeen on Friday evening took Celtic on to 100 points.
It meant, with two games still to play, the Hoops equalled a feat only achieved previously by Martin O’Neill’s title winning side of 2001-2002. The current Ireland manager’s vintage recorded 103 points but lost one of their 38 games.
If Rodgers’ men can claim at least four points in their remaining games, away to Partick Thistle and home to Heart of Midlothian, they will go out on their own as the team who have recorded the most points in a single top-flight campaign.
Since the change to three points for a win in Scotland ahead of the 1994-1995 season both sides of the Old Firm have been close to achieving the century.
To go along with the two times they have reached at least 100 points, Celtic recorded 97 points twice (2000-2001 & 2002-2003), 98 points once (2003-2004) and 99 points once (2013-2014).
Rangers have only come within a win of the feat once, when they pipped Celtic to the title in the 2002-2003 season, recording 97 points as they won the title by a single goal. Post-war, both Celtic and Rangers would have reached the milestone if a win was rewarded with three rather than two points.
Rangers won the 1992-1993 title with 73 points over a 44 game season. Award their wins with the full three points and they would have finished with 106 points under Walter Smith.
The year previously it would have been 105 points after 72 points won the league for the Ibrox side.
Celtic won the league with 72 points in 1988 with 31 wins and 10 draws, a year after Rangers claimed success with 69 points, winning 31 and drawing seven.
The hardline RUC officer who now claims Thatcher knew of assassinations by British security forces
Russell Leadbetter: The Herald (Last weeks print)
IT was said to be the largest single loss of life suffered by the IRA throughout the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Thirty years ago tomorrow, on May 8, 1987, eight IRA gunmen were shot dead in an SAS ambush as they tried to storm a police station at Loughgall, in South Armagh. They had used a JCB earthmover packed with 500lbs of explosives to break down the gates – but the RUC garrison, acting on an informer’s tip-off, had been evacuated 48 hours earlier. The area was staked out instead by SAS troops and police marksmen.
Reports said around 1,000 bullets were fired into the IRA men’s bodies. Among the dead, who were posthumously referred to by republicans as the ‘Loughgall martyrs’, was ‘The Executioner’ – Jim Lynagh, one of the IRA’s most notorious gunmen. The dead also included an innocent civilian passerby, Anthony Hughes.
A 2002 book, A Secret History of the IRA, by Ed Moloney, claimed that the eight had actually been planning to form a rival armed republican faction. Now, 30 years after the killings, another book – Secret Victory: The Intelligence War that Beat the IRA – reportedly says that Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister, and her Secretary of State, Tom King, knew about the ambush in advance.
The book, by a former RUC Special Branch officer, Dr William Matchett, says Thatcher was informed about the killing of IRA members in ‘shoot-to-kill’ operations. It defends the conduct of the RUC during the Troubles, and rejects allegations that the British security forces colluded with Loyalist paramilitaries – despite huge evidence to the contrary.
A noted US academic, Anthony H. Cordesman, has said the book provides a “vital case-study in counter-terrorism” at a time when the West “needs every lesson it can get”.
Secret Victory receives its London launch at the Policy Exchange tomorrow lunchtime. Matchett will speak about the book and his experiences, and afterwards take questions.
Matchett, who had a 30-year-long career in Northern Ireland, is no ordinary ex-RUC officer. He went on to implement police-building programmes in Iraq and Afghanistan, run by the EU and the US Defence Department. He has a PhD, and currently works as a senior researcher at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at the National University Ireland, Maynooth.
The sales pitch for his book will seem bizarre to some, claiming as it does that the IRA was “the Islamic State of its day” and that Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan are “similar” wars. In these, it adds, “an insurgency like the IRA/Sinn Féin mix is the main problem. A proven solution is the rule of law, where police intelligence dominates because investigative practices fail. The approach – widely misrepresented and commonly misunderstood – devastated the IRA …. The IRA was forced into a ceasefire.”
It continues: “Had this been disclosed in promoting the peace, nations would have benefited and lives saved. But the political endgame was botched. Unrepentant insurgents in government tainted security to sanitise their past. IRA leaders became peacemakers. Others contemplating conflict watched. Al-Qaeda was encouraged. New York’s twin towers stood tall. Peace had a price.”
Matchett has also queried Gerry Adams’s ‘freedom fighter’ remark at the graveside of his friend and colleague, Martin McGuinness, recently. Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, the author observed: “The difficulty with using the term ‘freedom fighter’ is that it is claimed by many other organisations”.
He said Khalid Masood, who murdered PC Keith Palmer during the Westminster terror attack, would claim to be a freedom fighter. “So are Osama bin-Laden, Mullah Omar and Jihadi John.
“In my opinion, this is the category McGuinness fits into for most of his adult life, the time-span the Sinn Fein president [Adams] was referring to. The old adage still stands. One person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. But it is one or the other. A person cannot be both at the same time”.
Republicanism, he noted in that same article, is renowned for “false claims of victimhood. It unashamedly romanticises terrorism and rewrites history”. The conduct of the media and “various leaders” over McGuinness’s death “was gut-wrenching for innocent victims of terrorism”. What was broadcast around the world “did little to expose” McGuinness’s “dark side and much to hide it. Violent extremists of every type will be encouraged”.
Secret Victory has been praised by a number of prominent figures, among them General David Petraeus, who was the US army commander of coalition forces during the troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan, and later the head of the CIA. Petraeus describes the book as a “superbly researched, highly readable, and very thoughtful examination of the strategy that defeated the IRA – and of the implications of that model for contemporary challenges”.
In the words of Emeritus Professor Arthur Aughey, at the University of Ulster, the book shows how the RUC Special Branch operations “so confined the capacity for terrorism that it made possible the conditions for political agreement.”
Why did Dr Matchett write the book? In a brief video introduction, he gives a simple answer: “The motivation to write something like this came from working on programmes, police professionalisation missions, in Iraq and Afghanistan, where people, particularly Americans, were asking, what was it like for the police, the challenges they faced, in Northern Ireland’s conflict?
“Essentially, this book is an account by practitioners, police officers, who actually policed an armed conflict. It’s from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”
KEVAN CHRISTIE: The Scotsman
Imagine you’re a 29-year-old footballer, playing in front of thousands of adoring fans every week, at the peak of your powers, getting paid well to do the job you love – then suddenly you’re struck down with a mystery condition and it all ends – leaving you not only unable to play but unable to get out of bed.
That was the fate endured by Celtic and Scotland star Davie Provan back in the day when players didn’t have to wear shin pads and goalkeepers stooped to pick up a back pass.
Provan, who was eventually diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) during the 1985/86 season, spoke at length to Scotland on Sunday about the devastating condition ahead of the Millions Missing protest to raise awareness of ME in Scotland, which took place outside Holyrood on Friday.
The 61-year-old, who is a regular football pundit on Sky Sports, said he was “lucky” that he never suffered the stigma of being told the illness was “in his head” like so many others who have the condition.
Provan said: “I was both lucky and unlucky. I was lucky in that I was playing professional football at the time, so, given how enjoyable that profession is, I don’t think anyone doubted there was something wrong with me. A lot of people who are struck down with ME have a problem getting acceptance that they are actually ill – they can be accused of being malingerers or work-shy, which is not the case.
“It’s difficult for the ME sufferer because they look no different from everyone else – if you’ve got a broken arm, you’ve got a stookie on your arm or if you split your head you’ve got stitches in your head – [with ME] you’ve got nothing tangible to prove that you’re unwell. ME is different – there is no obvious physical sign – the symptoms are so wide and varied that it’s difficult at times for clinicians to pin it down and therefore diagnose accurately. I was lucky in the sense I was playing for Celtic and nobody in the club doubted me. I was unlucky in that there was no real diagnostic test at that time to prove it was actually an organic illness.
“There was scepticism in the medical profession back then – the tag “yuppie flu” didn’t help and that label trivialised it to a horrible extent. This is an illness that ruins lives.”
Provan, who has suffered around half a dozen relapses in the years since diagnosis, reckons he would not have caught ME if he had been playing today given the level of medical attention and sports science that surrounds football at the elite level.
He added: “My illness was definitely triggered by a virus – I had gastric flu and had lost quite a bit of weight. I had it for about four or five days, continually having sickness and diarrhoea, plus I lost a bit of weight. I made the mistake of continuing to train to try and keep my fitness up. Nowadays, the clubs would take a blood sample, measure your T-cells, and you would rest until your blood cells were at such a level that it would be safe for you to go back to training.
“Those days we didn’t have that level of science, so I was out doing laps of the track when I should have been resting and I think as a result of that the ME has kicked in for some reason.
“I still read some medical advice to ME people to do exercise, and certainly from my point of view that is the worst possible thing that anyone could tell me to do.”
Provan spoke about the common misconceptions around the illness that can be damaging to the individual and offered a message of support.
He said: “In terms of the mental side, I know there are some people who think ME is a by-product of depression when in fact depression is a by-product of ME – the last thing the ME sufferer wants to hear is that they are depressed.
“I would say that time is a healer in this illness and I would just tell people to live in hope, never give up and keep trying different treatments. What didn’t help me might help someone else – never give up, your body is a great healer.”
SS has shades of Larsson about him…..
but,……
since big MD went out the team….
SS has been invisible…..
also,……
Calum has for two weeks in a row,……
skelped hun pub teams……
but,…….
against Aberdeen FC……
Calum went back to being invisible…..
hopefully it was a one off….
also,……Dundee FC’s rb should be brought in….
as well as Hibs John McGinn as # 7….imho.
PMG Thanks and God Bless.
Hopefully,…..
Jeremy of the JUNGLE will bring some….
JUNGLE Justice to this island….
please help him…..
the alternative is a nation, 95% of which,…..
will be the descendants of DANIEL BLAKE…..
my plan would be….
get Theresa Thatcher oot…
get Jeremy of the JUNGLE in…..
sort out Brexit…..
then,…….
allow the Irish to “all” be allowed to decide if,…..
they want to join the Euro…..
then, as Jeremy has said before,…..
allow, if they want, Scotland to have a……
second referendum on Independance…..
Jeremy is not a bull sh#tter…..trust him…
a vote for Jeremy Corbyn is a kick in the stones of all…
Invaders…..
Crooks….
and…..
Bullies….
take care Tims……off-oot.
“Essentially, this book is an account by practitioners, police officers, who actually policed an armed conflict. It’s from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”
So they won then, but then negotiated the peace with the USA and Ireland.
From the goodness of their hearts, bless them.
Demographic clock, just keeps on going.
And their eyes dance in mockery when I mention I’m one of eight.