Brendan Rodgers had to prepare a tired and injured squad in recent weeks as he competed for the League Cup, Europa League and league title. He rested players at Motherwell, bringing criticism from some quarters, but won the League Cup, qualified for the next phase of the Europa League and sits three points clear at the top of the Premiership with a game in hand.
At Pittodrie we saw Celtic move through the gears. Aberdeen are in their best form in years, but could not take a point despite two penalty kicks, one of which should have been tied in a Christmas bow it was so generous.
A little later, Neil Lennon took Hibernian to Ibrox. Neil has a significantly poorer squad than Brendan and is even more affected by injuries, but he would not be defeated. If Celtic turn up at Ibrox with the same attitude they or Neil Lennon had yesterday, they will shred Newco.
Odsonne Edouard looked like a player transformed after a short break. His contribution was critical in delivering the result. Scott Sinclair’s hat-trick thoroughly answered any questions about his form. Both are ready to do the necessary on Saturday.
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first started going to that midden in 1969 when I was 16, most of the lions were in the team we were kings of Europe, buti still had butterflys in my stomach and never over confident, tomorrow wont be any different il still watch with butterflys in my stomach, id settle for 1-0 right now, just hope and pray our supporters come home safe.hh.
Pub Iin balater to watch the game anyone
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 28TH DECEMBER 2018 4:03 PM
I feel exactly the same about these games , my stomach is in knots until they are over. Whatever anyone says ,these games are quite unlike any other. Because of the oldclub cheating years , because of the Scottish establishment and their media propaganda machine railed against us , because of the irrational hatred and bile and because of the combined , desperate efforts of all these to see Sevco back on top. The need to prevent them getting what they want , what they mistakenly think they deserve , is imperative. Even when we know that losing this game tomorrow will not prevent our march to title no. 8.
No matter the football on show the Sky presentation will decimate the game.
Their commentating duo destroy any atmosphere that the game can generate.
“Derby day in Glasgow” is a phrase that sends a shudder down my spine.
Then there is the AW analysis that would stun pigs — partial, forced and slanted.
They need to be replaced — the ISIS TV commentary is more informative.
Haven’t a clue about the lingo but the tone, the emotion and the enthusiasm on offer provide a much better handle on the game than the Sky duo who would struggle to count sheep.
Almore
Don’t worry ’bout a thing
For everythin’ gonna be all right.
DD has asked me to put on my sensible heid and take care of his Dub pal.
Did you have any thoughts on the famine memorial in Toronto?
Text me when you get into town.
HH
Al,
Oh! And BTW, I’ve started on the breakfast shopping list already. So far I’ve got 20 cans of Guinness.
HH
My take on tomorrow is that if the worse case scenario happens and we lose,we will be level on points with a game in hand..not the worst ” worse case scenario ” to be in.
They’re under huge pressure to get a result. As is their manager. They wont lack for intensity and effort. We need to be disciplined and match their intensity.
We are capable of doing that.
If the “worse case scenario ” from rangers point of view was to happen and a game of football was to break out I think we could cope with that also.
We are the better team with the better players, bigger mentality, more experience and we have better options on the bench and tactical versatility. I cannot see us losing the match.
Two things I am confident about:
1. We will not lose tomorrow
2. There will be at least one example of mibbery which will leave us fuming.
Let me be number three on this page to say that I , too, cannot see us losing tomorrow. For reasons other than a simple ability comparison , I think a draw is on the cards but I really cannot see Sevco winning.
JJ
WITS – agree about the pressure being on Sevco.
They really need the win so they will come out charging. That should leave plenty of gaps.
If they score, they’ll go into ‘Hang on to the lead’ mode which they can’t do for 80 minutes or whatever.
It may be that a 1-1 draw will allow SG to claim some credit and the same result wouldn’t be a disaster for us either as long as our players escape any violent challenges.
Final point is that though we’re all agreed about the ridiculous penalty late on at Pittodrie, when Celtic immediately after going 2-1 up, went into containment mode and invited Aberdeen on.
If it wasn’t a dodgy penalty, it could have been a deflected goal, OG or something. Keep the ball away from our box and we should be ok.
Anyway that scenario – both teams can live with a draw – is often the one that happens.
Anything can happen in football.
Of course we can lose tomorrow
It may be unlikely and hopefully wont happen
But it is a possibility
Just remembered a third thing I am confident about tomorrow……
Lafferty will pick up a yellow card for his ninth foul but will not pick up a second yellow for any of his next 4 fouls.
I know the officials can be rather partial but Bookies are not. Sevco are nearly 3/1 at Home.
JJ
Paul67 et al
Would rather we had 8000 supporters tomorrow, because of the added solidarity it gives us. 800 less so, compounded by the added ‘artifice’ at Ibrox I mentioned yesterday. No need for any of us to say that the health and safety of all our supporters is paramount, it is end of.
On the football front, bring anything close to our ‘A’ game and we bring home the points. With Jozo and Kris both fit we have two centre backs on the bench. Would be surprised to see Kieran return for this particular match, but if fit we know he would be desperate to play. If not, Johnny Hayes has both the grit and the mentality to do a job for us on the left. Tom Rogic may be missing but Oliver was the standout midfielder last time out, and coupled with Brown and CalMac with Forrest and Christie could offer lots of options during the game. Ideally both Scott and Eduarde to start, or if the latter on the bench young Mikey could well be the Ace in the pack. Brendan of course to instill the attitude needed to come out on top. Celts to win!
Some of the predictions are overly confident while others seem a mite catious. In the spirit of compromise I suggest that the most likely outcome will be …….
A mere 30 seconds left on the clock and with the score stuck at 0-0, 49,000 Ibrox mouths and a similar number of eyes gape in premature jean-creaming ecstasy as Lafferty breaks through with the goal at his mercy. But then in a sudden attack of intestinal flatulence, he hears his caprine ancestors’ voices calling him from their padded pens reminding him “YOU ARE A LAFFERTY”.
In that never to be forgotten first nano-second of self awareness he trips over his nose and nuts the goal post causing a massive gash on the woodwork but avoids brain damage by 70,000 years of evolution …….and 3 feet.
The satanic hoof slowly emerging from the stinking hadean sewer that suppurates beneath the scab ridden plook of a ground, kicks out in frustrated angst and sends the ball into the inviting bosom of a gust of heavenly sweet breath propelling a benevolent cloud which sprinkles its cargo of penicillin across the Ibrox terraces inoculating the future against any recurrence of the plague that lurks within.
As the hordes of blue red and white clad bacilli slowly dissolve from feet up, their last memory engraved on their psychic obituaries is of that life giving gust of inspiration as it bullets the leather sphere like a homing scud across the acre of their disease ridden midden and through the flailing tenticles of their “cortical homunculus mccgregoris”, rebound from the net stanchion and the referee to whistle ‘GOAL’!!!…………only for the returning missile of wind-fuelled triumph to catch the poor wee umpire smack on the gonads, causing him to swallow the silver whistle, and in a diarrheal panic to fart the shrill peep to end the game .
As the surviving 750 souls and upstanding members of Homo Sapiens Intelligentsia celebrate in traditional humility, they witness the first seeds of a new future of promise sprout from the manure pit around them.
Wars across the globe cease, Palestinian and Jew hug in amity, Donald Trump shuts his twitter account, the lion lies with the lamb, hunger, famine and pestilence are eradicated, the four horses of the apocalypse are confined to the knacker’s yard and a thousand cross-bred sparrow crows unleash a volcanic eruption of faecal derision.
A feckin bargain at £49…..you read it here first.
Hail hail
Matt
I still don’t know what the flap is about our form. After 19 games we are only 2 points worse off than last season. Our closest challengers this season after 19 games have the same points total as our closest challengers last season. Our goal difference is better. After the Hibs game we have played extremely well scoring 10 goals in getting 9 points. Forget the 2 penalties and the third Aberdeen goal which was a foul on the keeper.
Sevco have drawn 2, won 1 and lost 1 of their last 4 – only getting 5 points and 3 goals in the process.
The SMSM have created this faux title race when the real race is for second to fourth. We will cope with Sevco and their support tomorrow and show enough to take the Hun in black out of the game.
We will dominate from the start and if (when) we score early then they will combust on the field, in the dugout and in the stands.
Slippy G doesn’t have the tactical skill to outthink our manager. I imagine our tactics will change at various points in the game – they will be unable to respond.
KTF
Matt – feckin hilarious..??
D. :)
3-1 to the bhoys
I just cannot see them beating us. But you never know.
But as I have already stated and WITS so ellequently put sevco need to win, we don’t.
We want to win, but our need is not that of a must win proportion.
COYBIG
D. :)
Ibrox Park will be a cauldron tomorrow with only a tiny pocket of Celtic support present but the Hoops will enjoy playing on the wide open spaces of one of the best pitches in the SPFL and have hit top form here in recent seasons. Celtic have come through a gruelling 16 match European campaign knocking out a top Bundensliga team to qualify for the knockout phase of the competition. Sevco’s foreign legion did play some nice football in Europe but have been found wanting in the rough and tumble of domestic football. Celtic are hitting form again after a bit of a dip in performance so a result tomorrow to send the squad off to the winter sunshine break lads.
GLENDALYS @ 4.44
Indeed, and well said.
You need to have lived the life we’ve led, from London rd to Lisbon to understand.
The irony is the game means three points and nothing more, in a relentless perpetual Celtic superiority and dominance they know they can do nothing about because they are penniless while Celtic shop in Harrods.
If Celtic were to suffer, the rebel records will still be played, and their hope will kill Sevco faster than it did Rainjurz.
Sadly a draw will be treated by the SMSM as a victory for the Seething Gerrards.
I remember that game in Naples SoT, it was switched there because of the highly partisan crowd and the desperation tae make it tae England in ‘66, didnae dae them much good in the end as wee Kim’s ancestors took care of them lol.
Anyway big Jock was temporarily in charge due tae former deidco captain mccoll walking out on them during the campaign, nothing seems tae change. Due tae call offs he was forced tae park the bus.
It was an afternoon game and the workplaces emptied at lunch time. I was up in Duntocher at the time and when I got tae Clydebank Central the station was mobbed as was the train when it arrived.
When my da got hame that night he was beelin, no not at the result but me taking a half shift of tae watch it. He had Irish parents so felt nae connection tae the national side like a lot of oulder Celts back then.
“You take time off tae watch that daft game” he said. Both him and my mother had great work ethics, beginning tae wonder if we were closet calvinists lol
Teeling stout cask Whiskey is worryingly drinkable!!!!!
https://www.obrienswine.ie/spirits.html
and this perma pi*&ed panto bunch can keep you in the Yellow Spot, home and abroad if you have spare sheckles !!
https://www.lmulliganwhiskeyshop.com/
guesswholuckedoutonthechristmaspressiescsc
Heading to Dublin tomorrow. Any pubs with the game and a good sing song.
Thanks from earlier sftb
TAL…
Hope you have an outside cludgie.???????
3-0 to the hoops tomorrow.?
I know we can get beat tomorrow yet I have little angst about the outcome.
By establishing a 3 pt lead with a game in hand, we have earned the right to a setback, whether that is caused by form or mibbery.
Over the course of a season, we have a better squad and more strength in depth. We need to stop talking of a settled midfield or playing our strongest 11; it is no longer the 60s and the last time such a concept was relevant was Dundee United in 1984.
For the past 35 years, teams have needed a squad to see thru a season. None have finished with the same starting 11 that began the campaign.
Ryan Christie would have only scraped into our 3rd team back in July; tomorrow he is a certainty to start. In 2 months time he could be benched or injured- who knows?
Well one man is nearer to knowing than we are- that is the man who sees them 5 times a week and knows how fit they are and what their form is like.
Sevco have 4 good-ish players (Morelos, Candeias, Tavernier and McGregor). They would need some of their journeymen (Halliday, Jack, Goldson and Lafferty) to all come close to top form or one of their promising youngsters (Kent, McCrorie, Middleton, Barisic) to have the game of their lives before their good 4 can overcome our better 11.
It might happen but the odds are we will get, at least, a draw/
Then we can quit moaning about how tight the league race is and get back to moaning about how uncompetitive the league is.
Giuseppi67: Bad Ass Café in Temple Bar in city centre is your best bet.
McGettigans beside Bonnington hotel in Drumcondra/Whitehall is another option.
Ivehadtochangemymind: Teelings is a lovely whiskey. I got into it about a year ago.
TÁL: Definitely interested in Famine memorial. Btw, Guinness is wasted on me but some of the others may partake. Will call you later.
hear hear sftb
Top Journo Carpeted For ‘Old Firm’ Mistake https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/top-journo-carpeted-for-old-firm-mistake/
Anyone listening to Billy Dodds on Sportsound:-0
Sevco’s gameplan is to get a draw so that the other teams can close up in order to keep it tight at the top of the league!
Utter nonsense.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 28TH DECEMBER 2018 6:12 PM
Unfortunately , we don’t have a Tardis which could whisk us back to pre-reformation times to somehow change the course of history. We are where we are because of historical events and what we do now is to close ranks and gain strength from the discomfort of those who have made themselves our enemies.
I was thrilled by our victory at Pittodrie on Wednesday but that will be eclipsed totally by a victory tomorrow.
BBC Sevco doing their best to say “old firm” as much as possible. Aaaaahhhhh – sad, desperate, deluded people. Jim will be happy with you though.
None of them seem to have twigged that their good home form was because all their early games were against the lower half teams. As soon as they started playing the better teams they started dropping points.
Oh, and Celtic won’t have a six point lead if they win, unless Kilmarnock slip up at home to St Mirren. There are other teams in the league beyond your beloved Sevco!
16 ROADS. on 27TH DECEMBER 2018 3:10 PM
BBC News – The infamous day a ‘savage mob’ broke bones and a club died
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46693533
———–
good read ta, incredibly sad.
I remember at the Q&A session at the AGM in November one shareholder/supporter expressing his concerns about the forthcoming December fixtures against Aberdeen and “Rangers”.
His anxiety came across strong but Brendan ended it and made the audience laugh by saying in response. “Stop worrying, we’ll be fine”
So far, so good.
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM
I liked the bit where he said that Wallace is popular with the fans because he stayed behind when all the nonsense was going on.
Errr – the word is “liquidation”, Billy!
Fair point though – he didn’t up sticks and leave like the other treacherous traitors like McGregor and La Farty for instance. Oh, hang on…….
apologies auldheid, think your a bit younger than me, stop worrying we’ll be fine, means nothing in this game ,ive sat through too many when we should have blown them off the planet but we didn’t, ill stop worrying at the final whistle tomorrow.hh.