Adrenaline dip, reds, wanton ruffling

1215

Cast your mind back to earlier this month.  February ended with a 100% domestic record, qualification for the League Cup Final and two merit awards for performances against Inter Milan.  We then walloped nearest challengers Aberdeen 4-0.  A small matter of a game against St Johnstone lay ahead before the Scottish and League Cup double-header against Dundee United.  Which we lost.  At home.

If a team drops even a few percentage points below its optimum the actual drop in results achieved can be enormous.  Celtic have answered all the big questions over the last seven weeks, despite the reversal in Milan; there will inevitably be a drop in adrenaline when normality returns, which is tomorrow, again against United.

We have a month to prepare for the Scottish Cup semi-final but another St Johnstone-type episode would cut the gap at the top to zero points, with Celtic having one game in hand.

I’m a great believer than a manager cannot and should not ask his players to climb the mountain every time.  If he does, he loses that special intensity he’ll need for the truly big occasions.  The players, from captain to novice, must carry the burden.

Niggles between players happen in every game.  On most occasions it will be a couple of months before you face the same opponent again, so whatever happened last time will have been replaced in the mind’s gallery of items the player feels sore about.

Since Scottish football became the Celtic-Dundee United show that’s changed.  A player who elbowed you last game will be running at you next time out.  This is the stuff red cards are made of.

There is a chance that we’ve beaten United into submission and that they’ll turn up in body, not mind, tomorrow, but if Jackie McNamara manages to convince them they are victims of wanton Celtic player’s face-on-United player’s elbow action, you can expect more reds.

Keep your cool, Celtic.  Nothing more than wanton hair ruffling.

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  1. theglasgowcelticway on

    Steinreignedsupreme

     

     

    I recall Alex Totten giving his opinion on who’d win the 95/96 league.” It will go down to the last game but Oldco will win it.” Oldco played Totten’s Kilmarnock on the last day.

  2. Ciaran10

     

     

    Well done posting the Creditors list.

     

     

    It’s proof they’re not the same club, yet, despite this, you still get the odd post or two on here referring to Sevco as Rangers.

     

     

    Purveyors of The Big Lie will love that.

     

     

    They don’t even call themselves Rangers without the definite article, so I’m damned if I can understand anyone else doing so, especially if you’re a club who were owed 40k by Rangers (1872-2012) before they went into liquidation.

     

     

    http://www.rangersinternationalfootballclub.com/

  3. Ray Winstone's Big Disembodied Heid on

    NatKnow. Hope you’re right and the pish continues.

     

     

    I believe McNamara has been having another go ( on STV this time).

  4. Tomorrow for me will be a continuation of the series of games with D/U.

     

     

    They’re not good enough to match us at playing football and that’s the whole crux of the matter imho.

     

     

    Of course Simon Donnelly backed that up himself when he admitted to putting shifty over to see if they could get Efe sent off. This of course was discussed with his manager obviously.

     

     

    Our two new bhoys (if played) will be the target for them tomorrow.

  5. Geordie Munro on

    Jackie mac is doing is fair share of whining but fek me does it have to be reported quite so much by the media?

     

     

     

    If…big if….it kicks off I can assure you they’ll take not one scrap of responsibility

     

     

     

    HH

  6. corkcelt

     

     

    :)

     

     

    I tasted the finest T Bone in my life in Foynes Co Limerick I still think to this day Irish beef is better than yer Aberdeen Angus

  7. PeteTheBeat

     

     

    For all the financial gurus, the FTSE100 breaks the 7000 mark

     

     

     

     

    Good news for the city bhoys

  8. Geordie Munro

     

     

    The media and the fitbaw establishment are desperate for a Champion, some one, somewhere, somehow to put Timmy in his place.

     

     

    Nothing put’s the fear into them more than a good winning Celtic team:))

     

     

    Next for the Big Up, The Mighty Highlanders of Inverness, coming to a rag near you very soon:))

  9. Steinreignedsupreme on

    theglasgowcelticway 15:24 on 20 March, 2015

     

     

    Totten may have left the Huns as an employee when Sue Ness arrived, but his heart was always at Ibrox.

     

     

    None of his teams ever put up much of a fight when they played our former rivals.

     

     

    I’d rather have the McNamara situation – because when Celtic win anything we know nobody has done us any favours. We have to earns our success, and that’s how it should be.

  10. Mon The Hoops! on

    twists n turns 14:40 on 20 March, 2015

     

     

    Nags…look away now and save your money:

     

     

    Been told to back red danaher at 3 35pm Sedgefield

     

     

    Last! Hahahaha! Only had a five-spot on it, thankfully … ;-}

  11. Ray Winstone's Big Disembodied Heid on

    That Red Danaher coming last. Maybe Sean Thornton gubbed him before the start of the race in the stables.

  12. Geordie Munro on

    Jeez,

     

     

    The rhythm method is another belter.

     

     

     

    Starry,

     

     

    You better believe it

     

     

    HH

  13. bournesouprecipe @ 14:45,

     

     

    “Did the SFA get Sevco back in the SPL during the eclipse?”

     

     

    Well they buried the SPL with Rangers when they died as a mark of disrespect to Scottish Football.

     

     

    Sevco are most quietly contemplating their interment.

     

     

    árd macha @ 15:10,

     

     

    We have a saying here about the ‘hurler on the ditch’.

     

     

    Great expression.

     

     

    Do you know I’m beginning to wonder, what if….. What if they looked under the boot and everything was hunky dory.

     

     

    And all they had to do was pony up. Oops.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  14. Mcnamara making in personal now , saying RD acting like a manager under pressure…I really really dislike him now…hunlike….

  15. bournesouprecipe on

    natknow

     

     

    Indeed – everybody is a striker

     

     

    starry plough

     

     

    Eurochamps67 was one of the teachers.

     

     

    Chairbhoy

     

     

    thumbsup © philvis

  16. Hope we get off to a flyer tomorrow and put 2 of 3 past DU in the first 20 minutes. Give McNamara something to greet about. Start with GMS and SA just to rub it in.

  17. There used to be a baseball player called Rusty Kuntz.

     

     

    Im not sure what he is into now though.

  18. bournesouprecipe on

    I had the misfortune of seeing Sevconian Paul Paton at very close quarters on Wednesday night, players that gesture to the crowd during a game are thankfully

     

    rare.

  19. Not heard YYZ for years,will be looking out the Rush collection tonight.A 2112 evening I think.

  20. theglasgowcelticway on

    starry plough

     

     

    Remember one of wee Fergus’s comments which I thought hit home.” Everyone wants to see a strong Celtic but not too strong”

  21. Was talking to someone on Tues who played against Macnamaras Partick team ,said he had them the same ,trying to kick you and unsettle you straight from K.O, Ciftcys attempt at making it look like Broonie fouled him on Wed was shameful,

  22. bournesouprecipe on

    Dundee Utd have had three go’s at Celtic on the trot, and tried every trick in the book,

     

    – shame they’ve enlisted the Sevconian press for the fourth.

  23. Talking about lads with questionable names. I together with a good few ladies worked with a lad called Mike Hunt.

  24. Ray Winstone's Big Disembodied Heid on

    Yes indeed.Oh for the halcyon days of the classically ugly hun. You knew where you were with them then.

     

     

    Today’s huns are typically rat faced and weaselly looking eg Novo et al, whereas your Shearers and Caldows were Calibanesque brutes.

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