Reo Hatate missed three games through injury early this season. During that period, we scored only one goal, went out the League Cup and dropped our only points of the season before Saturday. Reo returned as a second half substitute at home to Dundee, with only a penalty goal separating the teams, but within seven minutes of Reo’s appearance Kyogo and Matt O’Riley goals put the game to bed.
Reo is out again, and Celtic are blunt; again. It is no coincidence we have only dropped points when sans-Reo. He is the key to unlocking packed defences when minds and limbs are tired (which contrasts to the more open game we saw against Atletico).
Four full games without him, scoring only one goal, is quite a statistic for a team that rattles goals in for fun at other times. We have three league games before the November international break: St Mirren at home, Ross County away, then Aberdeen at home, with the return trip to Madrid scheduled in between.
With the likelihood of a win slowly slipping away, Brendan Rodgers turned to David Turnbull, James Forrest and Mikey Johnston, memories of 20-21 came flooding back. Mikey’s last appearance for Celtic came 21 months ago, also against Hibernian. The changes didn’t affect the result, but in the circumstances, Mikey did all right. He was certainly one of our better performers during his time on the field.
Until Wednesday, Brendan can ponder why a player tweaks a hamstring 35 seconds into a game.
Comments Section
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Now need to move McGregor forward into the 10 role hopefully he can still shoot as no one else seems to.
The next 4 games are massive.
Especially without Reo who clearly has the capacity to break down the packed defenses we come up against.
For me Wednesday will be a massive test. I hope it is an aligned and aggrieved support and team who let the referee know from the outset that they are being watched.
St Mirren tried every trick in the book at CP last season. They will do the same.
Hopefully our season book holders turn up with mindset of backing the team from first kick to last and not the one of whinging moaners who expect to be 2-0 up at half time or they will need multiple scapegoats.
If ever there was a time for alignment it is now. This league has a long way to go but winning domestically up until the international break will be a huge bonus and show we will take some stopping. Hopefully a couple of weeks off after that and we will be close to Reo return.
Beaton MIB on Wednesday, Walsh on VAR, they’re trying hard
Wee chance to try out Scales at LB withe the Madrid game coming up.
AJ. CCV. Lagerbielke\ Navrocki, Scales..
November 1).
It’s a 7:45pm kick-off at Paradise on November 1, with yet another sell-out crowd set to get behind the Celts, and if you can’t be at Paradise in person, you can still enjoy all 90 minutes of the match LIVE with Stream Digital’s pay-per-view service available to buy now for Celtic v St Mirren.
Enjoy all the build-up, live action, half-time and full-time analysis for just £12.99
Scales is too slow on the turn to play full back he is fine as a left sided CH/defender, I would play 2 up front from the start on Wednesday need to score early and get the pressure off a bit , Celtic never looked like creating a chance on Saturday and i know Forrest hit the bar but it was a cross the Hibs defence missed.
BADA BING
You were discussing TV programme “Welcome to Wrexham ” can you tell me the provider or channell were I can search for this.
The mention of the mining didaster in Blantyre intriigued me (is that the right word) ?
Although growing up in Govan I remember this and the school
children in Aberfan
HH
Fess 19- Disney +,or all good Firesticks…..
Could we go 3-5-2? Might surprise someone long enough to get ahead.
The guy who killed the ice hockey player, will be lucky if he gets away with manslaughter
In Scottish football, we should always have a system which plays 2 strikers imo
wed will take care of its self, don’t worry we will win 3,4, or 5-0 if previous forecasts from CQN experts against SPL teams are anything to go .
BADA BING
Thanks for that I’m sure I’ll get something fixed up with some Firestick here in Jakarta
Roll on 03:45 on Thursday to see the Champions again
HH
I like Iwata and Holm, both imo, could almost fill the vacancy left by Rio
KINGLuBO
May be a lot of empty seats at Celtic Park on Wednesday,
A. Holy Day of Obligation 🙏
Plenty Vigils on Tuesday night.
“!!BADA BING!! on 30TH OCTOBER 2023 3:16 PM
The guy who killed the ice hockey player, will be lucky if he gets away with manslaughter”
` South Yorkshire Police, which was called to the Utilita Arena in Sheffield, said it was “normal procedure” to open an investigation when an incident was reported.
“We would encourage the public to avoid speculation regarding the incident while we continue our inquiries.” `
“Celtic face in-form St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday (19:45 GMT).”
That will be `in form St Mirren` who have 4 points from their last three games.
Meanwhile, not worthy of comment Dundee have five points from their last three. Who do they play?
HS- Unless the video I got is a different incident, it’s definitely not an accident
GOT GOTTI’s great on netflix – everyone looks like sly stallone, it’s history/pastiche.
!!BADA BING!! on 30TH OCTOBER 2023 4:27 PM
I didn`t realise there was a video. Sounds awful.
https://youtu.be/YS4nOBoqUyk?si=tMI2DTYWaxscY6Sr
Brendan’s presser,Holm in the squad for Wednesday
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ta da
so BR says Hatate has a dramatic start to this season , no more dramatic than finding you were dropped for David Turnbull .
RC on 30TH OCTOBER 2023 6:22 PM
so BR says Hatate has a dramatic start to this season , no more dramatic than finding you were dropped for David Turnbull .
you are never done slagginf odd celtic players are you, do you get a wee thrill from it ?
slagging off – need glasses on
SAINT STIVS on 30TH OCTOBER 2023 7:01 PM
slagging off – need glasses on
maybe you need them on for watching the game,
only wee thrill I get is when we win
Got a mate goin to game in Madrid. He has a spare. Needs to go to a good home.
No timewasters.
Playing St Mirren Wednesday will end the first cycle of SPL games, victory giving us 29 points from 33, a good effort by any standards. Still got to beat the Saints on All Saints Day of course, which might seem heretical to some on here, but needs must. I for one am really looking forward to the match not least because we have managed to get tickets for the game, the first League match under the lights if I’m not mistaken. Sounds from Brendan’s presser that more players are becoming available. Though disappointed personally that hardly anyone from our own B Team/Academy is making a breakthrough at Celtic itself though some are getting some game time at places like Queens Park. Just a thought, albeit from a one game at a time believer, win on Wednesday we give ourselves a chance to extend our SPL lead at the weekend. That has got to be an incentive in itself.
Roger Hunnah on Clyde claiming he doesnt know which team a referee supports.
The SUN ?.
FFS
Do they think we are stupid. ?
Login piss
“ADI_DASSLER NOT FOR 2ND BEST on 30TH OCTOBER 2023 7:41 PM
Do they think we are stupid. ?”
In my experience and in many cases ( evidenced on here as well) , they would be correct so to think !! :-))
RIP James Doleman
Hot smoked
Cccs
Wee reminder that Superbru starts again tomorrow night at 7.45 pm
“ADI_DASSLER NOT FOR 2ND BEST on 30TH OCTOBER 2023 7:57 PM
Hot smoked
Cccs”
I fear my inability to understand `Cccs ` consigns me to the ranks of those I maligned :-))
From BroganRoganTrevino&Hogan to Cqn
This afternoon I was doing some work when, for whatever reason, the computer through this at me.
It is a post from over 4 years ago and contains the text of the eulogy for Stephen Houston. I almost managed to get through it without breaking down, and when I came off the alter in the church I was given a huge hug by the late Helen Dunese Stewart.
I will never forget that hug.
Anyway – I thought I would post this here because some from here get a mention and all of you were meant to hear or read it – that was Stevie’s intention.
Any responsibility for the misuse of words lies with me at the end of the day.
WARNING LONG POST
STEPHEN HOUSTON – MURDOCH AULD AND HAY.
I can’t log on to post on the main CQN site and so I have decided to post Stephen’s Eulogy here in the hope that someone else can post it on the main site.
Months ago, when Stephen realised that his diagnosis was terminal, and that it was likely that no solution would be found, he started to make preparations for his own funeral.
Out of the blue, he asked me if I would deliver a eulogy. This was a surprise but clearly a great honour and something that I agreed to with mixed emotions.
Over a number of weeks we discussed what he wanted to say and have said, and in the main he set out his thoughts in some e-mails which I then turned into a sort of open letter (though addressed to me) which was then read out – with some difficulty it has to be said – last Friday.
He wanted various people, including his friends from CQN to hear this and, indeed, read it.
Accordingly what follows below are in the main Stephen’s words.
Hopefully, I have captured his mood and message. He was, and always will be, a special man and hopefully the words below convey just how special he was.
———————————————————————————-
I was born on 31st January 1961 in Elderlie Maternity Hospital next to Johnstone which was always home wherever I went in the world and it is the place where I was always most comfortable.
My immediate family comprised
Father – Peter
Mum – Eliza Jayne
Older Sister Anne
Older Brother Jim
Myself
Younger Sister Frances
Later there were sister in law Joanne, and brothers in law James and Edward.
I loved this family unconditionally and with every breath and it was their love that helped me through the dark times of addiction. In my immediate family we were six, but in my Grandfather’s and my wee Grannies house there were 15 if you included uncles and aunts and it was a house full of love and compassion.
Now, I look at my nieces and nephews of whom I am really proud – Kenneth, Jayne, Ralph, Philip, Calum and Alana and Jayne and Ralph’s gorgeous children Dylan and Eliza Jayne and see that same love and that same compassion.
Jayne was the first Houston to go to University (she got a first class honours) – We all shared in Jayne’s triumph but of all of us My granny would have been the most proud as when she arrived in Scotland she couldn’t even write.
Home with my mum and dad was a really loving place. There were times when thrift was required due to lack of money but we never went without – my wee mammy saw to that. She was a wee woman but a real force and we all loved her dearly – only to be loved ten times more in return.
Sport was a big thing in our family. My dad had played football in the Highland League and was Celtic daft. He was determined to pass this passion on to myself and brother Jim and so he took us to Celtic Park on the supporter’s bus and that was the start of a love affair that has lasted all my life.
If my dad believed in Celtic, my wee Mammy believed even more in the church and so she would send us out to Mass and St Margaret’s – a lovely little chapel which played a huge part in all our lives. Births, Marriages, Death’s, Baptisms, Communions – St Margaret’s was a constant in our lives. It was there I received and took in the basics of Catholicism and the ways of the church. I might not always have followed the teachings very well but this gave me the grounding for all that I came to believe in my adult years and it is where I learned how you should behave and how you should treat other people.
I have always loved my sisters. They inherited all the goodness and love of my mother and they gave me that love all my life and a thousand times over. They nagged every now and then – but that’s what sisters are for – I think.
Growing up, my hero was my older brother Jim who I really looked up to. We both shared a great passion for sport and we would talk for endless hours discussing every sport under the sun but with football and Celtic always being our main interest – though we would also talk about Athletics, Tennis, Boxing, World Cups, The Olympics and we would test our knowledge against one another with facts about previous champions and winners. This provided endless hours of entertainment.
Jim always knew more than me by the way – at least that’s what he said anyway. Don’t tell him but he was right!
I was quite good at sport and had a trial for Scotland at under 15 level and I was on the books of St Mirren when Alex Ferguson was manager – but he didn’t fancy me. I always meant to tell him that I didn’t fancy him either!!
I also won cups in Basketball, Athletics, Volleyball and played for loads of local teams whenever I could during my teenage years and in my football days I played with some quite well known players such as Joe McBride junior, John “Submarine” McDonald, Sydney Devine’s son, and the best of all Murdo Mcleod’s brother – Alistair?
I loved to travel, especially with my dear friend Karen with whom I went all over the world – we even went to visit Elvis (he wasn’y in) but Johnstone has always been my home and the town, its people and St Margaret’s have always meant so much to me.
Do you remember the night in Lisbon when we sang Sinatra songs …. for hours?
Regrets? Yes I have had a few but then again too few to mention.
Alcoholism nearly killed me – yet it actually saved me and, in the end, was important in giving me, and I hope my family, a better life.
I was seriously addicted to alcohol for around 15 years and these were my darkest days. Those days were a nightmare of horrific proportions. I embarrassed my family and really disliked who and what I had become.
Yet that family were always there for me and stuck with me through thick and thin.
I was drinking myself to death and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t find a way back. I tried many times to stop drinking on my own but couldn’t find the way. Then I was referred to The Alcohol Problems Clinic and it was there I found ….. Hope.
Hope is the most precious of things. Hope and the belief that things can change – you can change.
My thinking and learning changed and I learned to live without alcohol and it gave me a chance to live a life again.
I grabbed that chance with both hands and over weeks and months I found I was a new person and was able to enjoy so much that I had been missing.
I was on the road to recovery.
20 years down that road and what a life it has been!
20 years sober and no relapses – not even the thought of one.
For the past 5 years I have been chairman of the Sunshine Recovery Café in Paisley and this has been a great success in helping others on the road to recovery – the café has been running at record levels. I am really proud of that.
We provide hot meals, writing groups, walking groups, poetry classes, photography classes, arts and crafts groups and all sorts of other things which help people recover and go on their own journey back to health.
We can have 60 or 70 attend the café in any one day and if we get the funding we could move to bigger premises and make it the hub for addiction services for Paisley — we hope to be named Recovery City in 2021.
The recovery community in Scotland is flourishing and we can help the local community and the local people to get over the stigma that normally attaches to addiction.
All that came about because of another new venture for me which was volunteering which I found I loved to do.
That came about, at least partly because one day I logged on to a football website called Celtic Quick News – and for want of a better phrase became addicted.
I was really glad I did because I have made some terrific lifelong friends through the site. Suddenly I was involved in bucket collections, raffles, charity quizzes, dinners, auctions – all to help people – and I found a way to meet fun people who shared a similar outlook to me, and who just wanted to help others who needed a helping hand for whatever reason.
We had some great successes, and sadly, some real disappointments.
We started with the appeal for Martin Kane (Kano) and I became involved in the Bringing Martin Home campaign to get Martin home from hospital so that he could live the rest of his life in the specially adapted home which he needed and which we helped to raise money for and have adapted.
Although it seemed impossible at the start, Martin did go home and I even managed to get out to Australia to meet him and his family in that home. I was the first person from CQN to do that and I now look back on that with real pride. The Kano foundation which has looked after thousands of kids at Celtic Park followed.
Another great trip was the one to Belfast where I led the St Patrick’s day parade along with the lady mayor and Wee Oscar Knox who we all got behind as best we could. I got involved in the cycle for Oscar from Cairnryan to Celtic Park. Me- cycling in driving snow? Crazy stuff.
Sadly, Oscar didn’t make it and he succumbed to his cancer but the fight to save others from Neuroblastoma goes on.
Yes, I have had some great trips and adventures when volunteering and raising money I can honestly say this was the happiest point in my life. Volunteering and doing good for people and being around really fun folk helped me so much because I felt I could really help. All this gave me my pride and respect back. My life had meaning and I could use my talents for the benefits of others. Yet at the same time I had found this new big happy family.
Then came Lisbon – a trip to celebrate a game that had taken place 50 years before! The trip to the stadium, the beautiful Mass in the Basilica dos Matres, – Fatima! Who could have imagined such a thing? What a trip! What an experience.
One regret I have is that I remained single, never married and never became a parent. I would have loved that but hey maybe you can’t have everything? I was just too busy enjoying the work I was doing and going to dinners, and on trips, working in the café and hanging out with people like you who could tell great stories — By the way you know you talk too much!
I remember the night we talked about great speeches and I told you that my favourite ever speech was Bobby Kennedy’s affirmation of Hope speech in 1966.
And that speech contains the message I want to leave especially to the young folk like my nieces and nephews.
Some men see things the way they are and ask — why?
I dream of things that never were – and say Why Not?
Cheers – and all the best.
Stephen.
P. S. – Make this funny!
———————————————————————————-
Stephen was the embodiment of the Good Samaritan – he was always willing to go out of his way to help others.
He believed passionately in social justice, that you should stand up for your fellow man and that you should do your utmost to make a difference to and for others.
He was, and always will be, one of the most inspiring people I have ever met.
He was funny. His sister Anne told me that to celebrate his 57th birthday the family went away for the weekend and because Stephen was losing his hair because of Chemotherapy he insisted that all family members should join him in wearing a wig – no matter how ridiculous they might look.
He took the name Murdoch Auld and Hay on Celtic Quick News – but only after he had ditched his original posting name of – Lou Macari’s Betting Slip!
He travelled extensively, but his ability to get lost in a phone box was legendary. If he was in a shop and it had several doors to go in and out of, Stephen could be in there for hours!
That Kennedy speech he referred to is often known as “The Ripple of Hope” speech because at one point Kennedy talks about how if just one man or woman stands up and says or does what is right in the face of what is wrong or incorrect or immoral – then that creates a small – maybe a very small – ripple – of hope. If that one person is joined by someone else, and then another and yet another than that ripple becomes a wave, a river, a tidal wave and an unstoppable force for good.
It was Stephen’s favourite speech and he adhered to that belief all his life.
And so he asked me to say to all the people from the Sunshine Café, From CQN, From Johnstone and St Margaret’s — never ever be afraid to Dream – and Dream big in good times and in bad.
There is always hope – there is always belief and faith in each other and yes one person can make a difference to someone else each and every day.
Some people look at the way things are and ask why.
Stephen looked at things the way they should be, could be, and how they could be better and asked – why not?
God grant me the serenity and peace to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
God bless you Stephen, we are all much the poorer for your passing, but it is nothing in comparison to how rich and how privileged we were to have you with us.
Jim
And yes – when I came across this earlier I couldn’t help but have a wee greet to myself!
God bless Stevie and Helen.