Yesterday’s Scottish Cup final was head and shoulders above the insipid FA Cup final at Wembley. Newco scored two excellent goals, including one from our ex-play, Kenny Miller. But it was our current, on-loan, player, Anthony Stokes who decided the encounter.
What should we do with Anthony? His attitude yesterday was magnificent. He decided he was leaving Hampden with a winners medal, and he had the skill, strength and capacity to ensure no one could stop him.
For the first goal he collected on the wing, made a beeline for goal before slotting the ball into the far corner, although he was assisted by the most generous defending since Jersey in June 1940. [Can you believe two defenders stood off him?] Scoring with a header from a corner when your team is a goal down with 10 minutes remaining takes character and determination.
Brendan Rodgers would have been impressed, but it remains to be seen if that attitude can be tapped into day-in, day-out at Lennoxtown.
I watched Motherwell fans invade the Fir Park pitch the Premiership Play-off final last year. On that occasion their actions went beyond mere celebrations, fans were deep into opposition territory, taunting Newco fans behind the goal. To their credit, Newco fans took it on the chin and left the stadium without retaliating.
I can’t imagine what possesses fans of a losing team to invade a field already populated by thousands of celebrating fans. Whatever it is, it’s primitive and unlikely to be a considered reaction. As a result, Newco will be dragged into a disciplinary situation which would otherwise only have effected Hibernian.
What’s worse, the one perennial get out of jail card football clubs often use when fans let them down: “We always criticise and warn fans about this sort of thing”, was fatally undermined by a hasty press release in the minutes after the final whistle.
While every Hibernian person interviewed acknowledged the role of their fans and need for improvement, Newco issued an adversarial statement. Compliant friends in the media were urged to drop the role of their fans on the field. Adversarial statements create adversaries, football administrators know this. Getting strategy wrong isn’t worth a few hours PR.
695 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 19
- »
HH
Podium on a wonderful weekend?
Mon the Falkirk!
Top 10 first time! HH
The pitiful spectacle of the SFA issuing a grovelling apology to sevco….shows who is in charge.
Time the whole stinking stable was gutted.
Its medieval, and then some.
Poison.
HH
Any links to yesterday’s goals
“but it remains to be seen if that attitude can be tapped into day-in, day-out at Lennoxtown.”
——
That would be my worry, Paul. Nobody doubts Stokes’ ability, but you just can’t rely on him turning up every game. Same with Forrest. Think both moving on would suit all.
Stokes is worth a place on our bench until we move the dross out. Knows how to score goals which is something most of our strikers seem to have forgotten.
Weeman67
BBC Website
You wouldn’t think it was possible to leave the Daily Record and end up in an even scummier job!
1-0:(
A good article for sunny Sunday reading.
But why is it simply not titled, ‘Stokesy! Stokesy! Ha Ha ha!’
;))
What a week for Celtic and sad fenian bastards or just fenians in general, what a way to end the season, which began with the news of the incoming manager, as Ronny bowed out with dignity and with an emphatic win, all perfectly orchestrated by Celtic to dominate a showpiece. Friday through Monday to start us on the Brendan voyage. A new dawn in news reporting, where Celtic supporters get the news from Celtic supporters and Celtic Quick News, foremost.
The week also saw the sectarian problem in all its former gory, 20,000 Sevcs in unison for the second time in two months, met with the sound of silence. Another world record broken with the fastest statement in the history of the game, laughingly claiming victimhood, and getting their union style retaliation in first.
The *Rangers* manifestation isn’t the problem, the lower Scotland foot soldiers that support anything out of the old lady of Edminston, and sing sectarian bile unrelentingly, are repeat not the quandary. The real Billy Boy problem in Scotland where we get the only live televised Roman Catholic hatred via our own BBC licence lies with those in power, those that cheated the old club to death, then promoted the stolen assets, in a mythological fantasy as same club
Not hearing it won’t do if *the Rangers* want to continue it seems they’ll have to be dragged into the modern world, they clearly can’t do it by themselves, but someone in power including those at Celtic need to join into any attempted solution.
Yesterdays so called ‘restraint’ was a timely reminder that Celtic require not to hide behind a business, if it’s a business we should be fighting for our discriminated against patrons on all possible fronts, and full steam ahead with Res 12.
The Celtic Ticket Office served long queues all week, there is new hope that was absent in the last two years, appointing a former EPL manager puts Celtic back in the spotlight where champions of Scotland has to have meaning and depth, and Celtic have done that.
More than a football club, – why don’t you prove it?
Whole Kilmarnock team in crowd after goal.
No yellow card from Collum.
In the aftermath of their defeat in yesterday’s cup final, large sections of Sevconia are today immersed in self pity and their status as “victims.” What a pathetic shower they seem, but this mind-set is dangerous and needs to be challenged.
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/05/blogs/sevco-descends-into-dangerous-delusion-and-self-pity
Should have added that BR is likely to get a lot more out of Stokesy than RD and JC. His man-management style, as reported by those who have worked with him and played for him, suggest he knows how to make players feel better about themselves and give that bit more. Contrast that with what w have seen from our squad for the last two seasons when a number of decent players all seemed to go off the boil.
weeman67 on 22nd May 2016 2:57 pm
Any links to yesterday’s goals
============================
You’ll enjoy this:
https://streamable.com/e/b8e1
2-0:(
The strangest thing I have read was Lee Wallace being quoted as saying that on reporting the alleged assault on him to the ref, the ref called him a grass!
Did the ref not want to write it in his match report or did he genuinely feel Wallace was a grass. It will be interesting to see if the SFA bring any case against Wallace or if McLean makes any comment. If McLean denies it what happens? The Rangers captain is telling lies? My bet would be a joint statement from the SFA and Rangers stating that things were taken out of context or in the heat of the moment.
Interesting and bizarre
The Huns statement is embarrassing
A gross misjudgement
Have they forgotten about the Internet , Twitter , social media ….their lies can be investigated then challenged by anyone with an interest in doing so
IMO …it was just the same old Hun tub thumping bully boy nonsense …..happily an approached which is completely outdated
They got stuffed yesterday ….their fans embarrassed themselves with their pyros, their signing and their engagement with the Hibs fans
Dignity….aye right
Tin hat on but I thought the ref did well yesterday.
Just after Gray goal, with 2 mins left, he could have given a free kick either way but gave it to Hibs effectively killing Sevco hopes.
Most other decisions as well I thought he got correct.
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on 22nd May 2016 3:06 pm
harryhoodsdugbitme on 22nd May 2016 11:12 am
Pat Nevin is a green soup taking hun. CQN magazine had the opportunity to nail him especially for the ‘sectarian singing has been heard’ a couple of years ago at Hampden along side his BBC hun mates but they shat it. Sad to say. HH.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————
I have to say I disagree with the above for a couple of reasons and if you look back over the piece you will find that interview to be very interesting as a marker in the sand.
After watching Sportscene last night I commented on Twitter that I now never ceased to be amazed about what is not or never commented upon during the programme.
The Nevin interview on CQN confirmed that Nevin never heard any singing at all on the day when he went off on one and that all he heard was a message from a producer in a van who instructed Rob McLean to introduce the topic live on air despite this being a breach of the existing BBC protocols agreed for the broadcast.
So point 1 is that each BBC prog has a set of protocols agreed before a game — by their very existence what you are seeing live on TV is not and never will be live random chat as the whole thing is very controlled from the outset.
Next, the instruction to introduce the alleged instance of singing came from a Hearts supporting producer who had previous for anti Celtic leanings.
Rob McLean — who supports neither of the teams involved was smart enough to make it plain that no one in the studio could hear anything and introduced the piece by saying “Those outside who cam hear such things tell us ……” and made no real comment whereas Nevin jumped in.
I am told that afterwards McLean was less than happy with the instructions that were sent down his earpiece and let this be known.
As for Pat Nevin, well in interview with us he wanted to stress how proud he was of the Celtic mission statement that appears within each Celtic programme, his links to the club, how brilliant the club was but that after that broadcast he received a huge amount of hate mail from Celtic fans which he found surprising and vicious.
He fully accepted that he never heard the singing and provided the explanation given above.
Most importantly he explained that given the level of complaints, for a period of time his media work from BBC Scotland dried up altogether.
What is important about the interview is that since that date Nevin has rarely if ever commented on sectarian singing though he did give evidence to the justice committee re the OBAF act.
His media work rate has recovered and improved and he has gone on record to say that he was advised to get a hair transplant in order to keep that media status or indeed boost it. He duly had the hair transplant.
Since then, I have been approached by another BBC broadcaster on a specific occasion and asked to comment on a statement by Celtic where the BBC were deliberately reporting that Celtic had used a word which was not in their official statement. When I pointed this out, the journalist accepted that Celtic had never used the word concerned but explained that it how the matter concerned would be reported had been taken “at an editorial level” and so the journalist had no option but to peddle the line.
Conclusion:
Little of what to hear from the BBC is determined by the presenter who does the reporting or the summariser who does the talking. Everything is spoon fed from an editorial base and, if necessary, the facts, as reported and relayed, will be distorted or fully bent.
Pat Nevin, does not strike me as a strong man as his journalistic integrity is determined and undermined by the need for a regular cheque. In my opinion he lacks the courage of his stated convictions, and is, at times, only to willing to please his paymasters with a view to preserving his position.
His objectivity has to be in question, and is there for all to see and form their own opinion on.
Rob McLean struck me as far smarter, far more policy savvy, and far more likely to be fair, square and objective.
There was no question of “Shitting it” as question after question was put to Nevin and like all people he had some good points to make and some where he fell down in my opinion.
Shitting it is where you don’t ask questions, duck the issue and make no comment or observation.
That piece was designed to go beyond Nevin and his words and bring out the fact that the BBC is a very controlling body within which you have individuals who will, and can, determine a live broadcasts path long before any presenter says a word.
That became blindingly obvious by the time we got to the Independence referendum.
Had we simply sat there and called Pat Nevin a wee hypocrite and a scumbag he would not have stayed for more than 5 minutes and we would never have gotten to the editorial or producer part of the story.
As someone who hailed from Troon and has a good few Killie fans as friends I hope they stay up. The politics of their board are of no interest to me. Ayrshire needs a SPFL team :)
James Forrest
Problem is, who is going to challenge them ?
The people who run scotland are of the same mindset, their sense of entitlement takes precedent over what’s right.
We as a club need to leave.
HH
Hibs fans run on to pitch in celebration.Some misbehave and taunt hun players and bigots in stands.
Huns attack celebrants.
Kings bitch Regan apologises to his masters.
mSSm go into overtime with revisionism,deflection and victim myth.
Only in the best wee bigoted country in the world.
I thought Stokes was outstanding yesterday,but
NFL never played him in the big games,RD clearly
didn’t trust him……are they both wrong?
hadnt read this before – well done, tis good.
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/celtics-9-in-a-row-years/
The most generous defending since Jersey, June 1940.
Hehehe – worth popping in for that alone.
Not sure what the “beans” will make of it though.
Hi Paul67,
You are quite right, the statement absolved Newco fans of any blame, in fact it praised them for restraint.
If you look at the foorage it is quite clear the spill of the Hibs fans onto the Park was celebratery over exhuberance, although a few idiots went up to the Newco end to Mock their fans.
Totally contrary to The Rangers statement, a large number of Newco fans trooped onto the park with the sole aim of getting involved in, what was up to then, skirmishes, leading inevitably to a violent confrontation.
It is interesting when the shame game took place, the shaming was done by the then Rangers, we were brought into it in a “ones as bad as the other” sense because our Manager reacted to severe provocation.
He was the only one to get a subsequent punishment. There was no talk of goading then.
The SFA needs to get it’s act together (in many ways) and sort out the common denominator that blights the Scottish game.
Hail Hail
Watched a Brendan Rodgers interview on Goals on Sunday from a while back. His teams defend from the front, he expects his forward players to press high up the pitch. There will be no hiding place for Stokes if given another chance.
Mullet & Co. Think that Lee Wallace quote was a wind up.
Nye,
That’s 2-0 now :-)
mare silver polish please
http://image.wikifoundry.com/wiki/kds/image/1bG2Un4YdxlppDfos61LQ$A==52820/GW401H324
Nye Bevans’ rebel soldier – NFL had better options up front. RD didn’t. None of the strikers bought in the RD era are better than Stokes.
MULLET AND CO 2 on 22ND MAY 2016 3:08 PM
The Wallace statement isn’t real, it’s a wind up.
It’s worth going back to the last few comments on Paul’s previous article to read BRTH very informative post on the Pat Nevin and the BBC issue.
Remember the Rapd Vienna player who was ‘hit’ by an invisible object and was photographed with a dodgy bandaged head along with a ge it up you smirk on his coupon?
I expect one of the assaulted sevs to have their photo appear in the media in a similiar vein.
Anto Stokes is a very good footballer, his pass to put Cummings in yesterday was a pass that Gary Hooper thrived on….. I would keep him but not sure if he will get a game before Griffiths, Benteke or Ibrahimovic…….but it’s a yes from me