Having successfully subjugated in-form Motherwell by the opening minutes of the second half, all it took was a deflected shot that looped over Scott Bain to shatter composure and reduce Celtic to a side clinging on and ultimately fortunate to stop an equaliser in the final seconds.
Within minutes of that Motherwell goal, Neil Lennon replaced Albian Ajeti with Leigh Griffiths, Greg Taylor with Diego Laxalt and Scott Brown with Ismailia Soro, which should have injected fresh energy into the side, but seemed only to add indecision. Mohamed Elyounoussi replaced David Turnbull, which like the earlier substitutions, was a like-for-like swap, expected to halt Motherwell’s momentum. Far from it.
An apparent urgency to get the ball forward saw possession carelessly surrendered. Without a reliable Out Ball, Celtic finished the game in a rear-guard action that only encouraged Motherwell to pour forward.
A second win on the bounce is a vast improvement over recent form, still, that disorganised look remains. The league is gone but there are still things to achieve this season.
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TURKEYBHOY on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:00 PM
Anyone saying that Jamesy,at 29,needs rested.Really?I know everyone is entitled to an opinion,but,FFS,try and make them a smidgen sensible.
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You should name the poster when commenting on their post .
I have seen many games when Jamsie has run out of steam . he doesn’t posses the energy levels required now to cover back now , imo …..
BANKIEBHOY1
Seen that wee Rat Davidson doon at the go karts in John knox St years ago…should have rammed the scumbag there and then.
Absolute bullshit what he said,..hes protecting the huns more than he is his own player..shocking
VINNIETHEDOG on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:31 PM
I agree about fitness. Teams sit in for 70 minutes, keep it down to two goals or less and know that any sort of meaningful attack in the last 20 minutes brings mass hysteria to the defence. The number of goals we’ve conceded from free kicks means, our problems with goalkeepers has nothing to do with fitness but both lead to nervy ends to games unless we’re 3 in front
– means
+ and
BANKIEBHOY1
Davidson is not a Ranger’s fan, but he is a Mason of the highest degree and he was speaking to his brother’s
DREW1967 on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:40 PM
I mentioned on here at the time, at HALF time, his management team were fist pumping hello’s to each other. The thing you do at the end of the game!
There maybe something in it though. If you look at Liverpool and them over the weekend you could see the number of games they’ve played taking their toll towards the end of the games.
You could call it lack of fitness or you could call it fatigue after playing two games a week for months.
However you look at it, nerves definitely play their part
AT
I am encouraged that there is a widening base of comments on this in the public domain. I do hope that Mark Daly and/or BBC Panorama is watching this develop and will report when they can
I still urge everyone to bring this to the attention of their MSP.
DREW1967 on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:40 PM
BANKIEBHOY1
Seen that wee Rat Davidson doon at the go karts in John knox St years ago…should have rammed the scumbag there and then.
Absolute bullshit what he said,..hes protecting the huns more than he is his own player..shocking
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and his clansman as well
VINNIETHEDOG
Did Duffy not injure Julienne in the Ross county game going for a back post header ….
i think it was due to injury rather than dropped for Duffy .
MP @ 2.39
Not sure anyone can realistically comment about JF’s energy levels and stamina when we ran him into the ground over the last year asking him to play when injured.
It is not a lack of stamina that reduced his mobility — it was his pain threshold running with a stress fracture.
General play he struggled.
Attacking play he was his old self.
And made his injury worse.
SAINT STIVS on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 1:09 PM
Re Mr Stein’s signings.
That list contains a staggering amount of goalkeepers. It is a recurring theme in reading the assorted histories of the club that, if Mr Stein had a blind spot, it seemed to be goalkeepers.
To the poster commenting in Joe McBride.
I am pretty sure I have read that JMcB never kicked a ball the rest of the Lisbon season after Christmas Eve 1966.
HRVATSKI JIM on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:11 PM
Would any inquiry be entitled to conclude, should their inquiries justify it, that the accused may have done what they were accused of having done, but that the evidence required to prove the case was deemed, for whatever reason, to be inadmissible?
Would it also be able to examine, and comment on, the calculation of the damages?
MADMITCH on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:59 PM
MP @ 2.39
Not sure anyone can realistically comment about JF’s energy levels and stamina when we ran him into the ground over the last year asking him to play when injured.
It is not a lack of stamina that reduced his mobility — it was his pain threshold running with a stress fracture.
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If this is true why are the physio team still in place …….ps , im not just talking about this season .
SAINT STIVS
Jackie Clarke is a friend of mine,lives in Mississauga (outside of Toronto)
Big Man U fan.
UIRE DANAHER on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 3:05 PM
SAINT STIVS on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 1:09 PM
‘if Mr Stein had a blind spot, it seemed to be goalkeepers.’
###
He said so himself, in relation to him punting Ronnie Simpson from Hibs.
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/m/page/McBride%2C+Joe
He scored for Hibs in a famous game at Easter Road in 68-9 season the weekend after the Red Star second leg (which JJ was excused from)
Hibs led 2-1 after 74m and Celts won 5-2.
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/m/page/1968-11-30%3A+Hibernian+2-5+Celtic%2C+League+Division+1
Joe McBride Celtic Legend
Joe McBride joined Celtic in June 1965 from Motherwell for £22k, a dream move for the lifelong Celtic fan (despite being brought up not far from Ibrox), and there are few if any other players who have had as great an impact in the whole of football as the great Joe McBride in as short a spell. There also is unlikely to have been fewer as unfortunate as him either.
A truly wise man once wrote: “McBride? He’s no use – all he can do is score goals!”, and that is exactly what made him one of the greatest ever, boasting an incredible strike rate of over 91%. In his first 18 months Joe McBride blossomed into the most prolific striker in the world and the sky was the limit, only for injury to curtail what should have been.
The fans even made a ditty for him parodying a Rangers chant that went:
“Side by side with Joe McBride, We’ll kick down Derry’s Walls!”
While speculation in football is essentially meaningless (but mandatory in football), it is a reasonable suggestion that if Joe’s career had not been seriously interrupted by injury at such a crucial point, he might have established an unparalleled club scoring benchmark. He’d played a crucial role in the 1965/66 season to bring the league back to Celtic after 12 years and Celtic were unlucky not to have reached the European Cup Winner’s Cup final in the same season.
In the glorious Season in the Sun of 1966/67, he had amassed an astonishing 36 goals before Christmas, but then an injury at a match v Aberdeen saw him aggravate a knee injury. He was out for a year, and despite not kicking another ball following his breakdown at Pittodrie, he remained the country’s top-scorer at the end of that season. He ended up missing out on a place in the Lisbon Lions, the glory that was the European Cup win. Few would argue against that if fit that he would have been in the side.
When Joe McBride played his first full 90mins in a match against Morton on 23 Dec 1967 (after a whole year out), he scored three goals.
Sadly for Joe McBride, by the time he had regained match fitness a year later (though it was doubtful whether he was ever fully fit again), events had overtaken him. Celtic were now a major force in Europe and Stein, a man of unwavering determination once his mind was made up, had evolved a system around a main strike force of Chalmers and Wallace. Joe McBride became a peripheral squad player which was unthinkable at one point. He moved on a year or so later to play out the rest of his career with relative success at Hibs and Dunfermline. In the minds of those who saw him in his peak, though, he will always be, simply, ‘Super Joe’.
Joe McBride was rated the very best by two Celtic legends: – Jock Stein, who made Joe his first Celtic outfield signing (from Motherwell in the summer of 1965) described him as the quintessential striker, a man who stuck the ball in the back of the net when he couldn’t think of anything else better to do it, – Jimmy McGrory included him at centre-forward without a moment’s hesitation in his all-time Celtic XI: “I have been asked to name the best Celtic centre-forward I’ve ever seen play and the man I choose may surprise you. He’s Joe McBride.”
The courage, style and obvious relish of his performance in the ‘Hoops’, allied to the cruel way he was robbed of his rightful destiny, won him the undying affection of a generation of Celtic supporters. For whom Joe McBride will always be an honorary Lisbon Lion. He was awarded with a European Cup medal for his efforts in the campaign, but he is too often sidelined rather than being on the pedestal along with the others. He’d had the greatest moments stolen from him by injury and poor fortune, and it is hard not to feel for him in that sense, but the positives outshine all else and his record means he can more than hold his head up high with any others throughout the club’s history.
Joe McBride made 94 appearances for Celtic scoring 86 goals and is still very fondly remembered. With such a record, it’s a bizarre fact that he won just two caps for Scotland (don’t ask why he won so few, its a story for another day when it comes to Celtic and Scotland).
His son, Joe McBride junior, was a talented youth international who went on to play for Everton, Rotherham and Hibs amongst other teams. He was often linked with a move to Celtic but it never materialised.
Sadly, Joe McBride passed away on 11 July 2012 following a stroke. His goalscoring talents will be long revered in the memories of Celtic supporters and his contribution to the unprecedented 1966/67 season cannot be overstated.
@celticwiki
ERNIE LYNCH on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 3:05 PM
HRVATSKI JIM on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:11 PM
Would any inquiry be entitled to conclude, should their inquiries justify it, that the accused may have done what they were accused of having done, but that the evidence required to prove the case was deemed, for whatever reason, to be inadmissible?
Would it also be able to examine, and comment on, the calculation of the damages?
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Ernie – I don’t understand the question. It would be good if you can clarify, especially around the term “accused”, just to ensure that i am on the right track with any answer that I could proffer.
The original “accused”, i.e. the administrators, have been exonerated in full so there is no inquiry into their actions unless the CPS reverses its position that the prosecutions were baseless. This seems unlikely since damages have now been agreed.
With regard to an inquiry, there are no “accused” at this stage as the purpose would be to discover if the reasons behind the malicious prosecutions. Maybe the findings could result in a person(s) within the Scottish Police and/or CPS having acted in a way which would bring criminal charges against them. It would only be at that stage when the term “accused” could become applicable. Possibly the reasons could be a systems failure with no individual person having acted improperly.
My thoughts re damages – these have been assessed and negotiated between the plaintives and the Police/CPS so, i assume that it would not be the role of an inquiry to “examine” them but it would surely be relevant to “comment” on them give the multi-million pounds cost to the the Scottish taxpayers at at time when the country needs to preserve all the resources it can to use for the benefit of people,public services and businesses suffering under the financial consequences of COVID. Estimates of the cost to Scotland range from £30-100 million pounds. Of course, this is additional to the approx £60 million pounds tax/penalties not paid by Rangers.
As an aside, I pointed out to my MSP that Duff and Phelps is a Chicago/New York firm of 4,000 financial professionals who will be advising their clients about international investments and I could not see how this treatment of their people would reflect well on their view of Scotland.
Does this answer or have I missed the point?
With the apparent imminent departure of Hatem, it is likely that come June our only recognised full backs will be Ralston (debut in 2016 and only 11 appearances since then) and Taylor.
Given that Lawwell was fully aware that Lustig was leaving in June 2019 and Kieran was leaving as soon as the asking price was met, it is another example of his failed stewardship that approaching two years later we have still to sign adequate replacements.
HOTEL DE PARIS on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 3:40 PM
We have Bolingoli to bring back.
And I would. Best LB at the club. He should be the benchmark to improve upon, not Ralston nor Taylor, two SPFL level players.
HH
Joe McBride: far and away the best Centre Forward I have had the pleasure of watching. I was going to say – in a Celtic jersey. Simply the best centre forward I have had the privilege watching.
On second thoughts, I could maybe have phrased that last sentence differently. Joe gave the Lisbon Lions the confidence to become the Legends they will always be.
HOTEL DE PARIS on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 3:40 PM
We found an adequate replacement for lustig – someone just paid us 11.5m quid for him
Whatever yo say about the Taylor sub on Saturday., I guarantee he wouldn’t have made that last second goal line clearance at the weekend to secure the points.
My own view is that he has been average for most of the season with a couple of exceptions. We really need to raise the bar. Trying hard should be a given.
Marsapa… Julien was on the bench against St mirren
I have just seen this article – cost of the malicious prosecutions against David Whitehouse and Paul Clark
plus legal fees TO DATE £24million from the public purse. Legal fees will rise further.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55983492
VINNIETHGEDOG
Apols , i thought you meant after the 5-0 game v Ross County , yes unforgivable to play Duffy before Julienne , would you put him against St Mirren Wednesday , if yes , who would you drop ?
DREW1967 on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:40 PM
BANKIEBHOY1 Seen that wee Rat Davidson doon at the go karts in John knox St years ago…should have rammed the scumbag there and then.
*was he no one of the Perth players that refused tae clap our team ontae the park after we had won ANOTHER league.
Watching the 5-0 game against RC i thought if they had a couple of decent forwards the could have scored 2 or 3 goals, the warning signs were there.
CELTIC MAC on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 1:27 PM
madmitch
Common enough mistake but Jock Stein did not sign Willie Wallace to replace Joe McBride.
Willie signed on December 6 1966, made his debut in a 4-2 win against Motherwell at home on December 10, as part of the Lisbon Lions forward line, scored two goals in a 6-2 home victory against Partick Thistle on December 17, Joe McBride also scored that day, and was in the team on Christmas Eve in a 1-1 draw up at Aberdeen, the day Joe got injured. Got a vague idea that Joe may have actually played after that in the New Year, but would would need to rely on Tontine Tim on that one.
*Joe never played that season after his injury up at Pittodrie; in fact he never played a full game until about a year later.
Joe was a sensational penalty box striker, in one game at Parkheid he tried tae beat a man outside the box tae when one fan in front of me shouted FFS Joe don’t try and play fitba just score. James Edward rated him the best centre forward he ever saw in the Hoops.
A couple of season after leaving us he scored both goals in a 0-2 loss at Easter Road. Jock allegedly said later on that selling Joe was his biggest mistake.
Wispy was a sensational signing, we never saw it coming. Rumour at the time had it we were in for peter cormack and either he widnae sign for us or Hibs widnae sell him tae us after we had stolen Jock fae them so we moved on tae Willie. Shades of Drew Jarvie airdrie and Dixie come tae mind.
The night we signed him deidco had a credible 0-0 tie over in the fatherland against Dortmund, they had taken a 2-1 lead there so one away goal and they were oot.
I’m almost sure that game was live; anyway the headlines that night in the Scotsport studio was us signing Wispy, Jock knew how tae knock the huns off the front page.
Willie had a brother who worked in Burroughs Cumbernauld, this plant had a lot of former Vale of Leven, Dumbarton and Clydebank employees who had relocated from Strathleven Estate. Story that emanated at the time was Jock told Willie, a Scottish international at the time, he may be fit but not Celtic fit so wouldn’t be going straight intae the side.
However, Joe was just coming back fae a knee injury and rather risk him Jock picked Willie who had a very quiet game, not so Stevie who we all thought Willie was bought tae replace, he scored a hat trick.
Willie would score two on his home debut the following week as did Stevie fae the right wing while Joe grabbed a solo effort; we were quite healthy in the striker department then not forgetting the Bear and Buzz Bomb.
I think the last goal scored by Joe Mcbride was in the European Cup on Oct 2 when he scored a goal against St St Ettiene in1968, and his last game was against the same team on the same night.
TIMHORTON
The warning signs were there in the Hamilton game. Which Paul67, highlighted at the time.
We look no better at defending 6 months later
and maybe actually worse
ERNIE LYNCH on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 2:08 PM
BIG JIMMY on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 1:50 PM
Reminds me of the Two Ronnies joke.
‘How do you ask a one armed man with a digital watch what time it is?
What’s the time, cock?’
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Very good ERNIE.
LOL
HH.
1968.I forgot to put the date in.
TONTINE TIM on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 4:20 PM
Interesting to read your recollections from the time.
I was too young to appreciate that period being aged 5 when The Big Cup was won.
How do you think things would’ve panned out had JMcB not got injured? How do you think his availability might have impacted on team selections/formations?
HH 👍
Tontine
I think it was Murray Davidson who refused to clap, rather than Calum Davidson. Might be wrong though, but that is my recollection.
HH
FRIESDORFER on 8TH FEBRUARY 2021 4:32 PM
Tontine I think it was Murray Davidson who refused to clap, rather than Calum Davidson. Might be wrong though, but that is my recollection.
*is that the one who was crocked and could miss the LC Final, if so good.