You detect a notion in some circles that Newco might beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final next week, if only Scott Brown was removed from the equation. This belief is based on two football games, the corresponding fixture last season, when Newco prevailed on penalty kicks, and the more recent league draw at Celtic Park. On both occasions Celtic played well within themselves.
By any measure, we could lose on Sunday. Ross County (8th in the table) took a point on Sunday, while Partick Thistle and Newco have both drawn at Celtic Park in the last five weeks. Football regularly provides random results, and Celtic are due one. You will also share concerns we all have about refereeing decisions denying us the treble, as happened on Scottish Cup semi-final day two years ago.
But is a referee fails to award Celtic a penalty when an opponent punches the ball off the line, refuses to red card the player, then awards our opponents a penalty, and sends a Celtic player off, our chances of delivering the treble will likely perish again. None of this will have anything to do with Scott Brown.
We faced this lot in September without our talisman, Leigh Griffiths, who was injured. This created space for Moussa Dembele to score a hat-trick. What Moussa proved that day is that games are not determined by those who miss out, but by the attitude of those who take to the field.
Consider, for a moment, the attitude among the Celtic support, players and management since Sunday. There’s a sense of grievance there, a pulling together in the face of a clear injustice. It’s almost impossible to conjure up such a scenario when you’ve passed 40 games undefeated in the season, but here we are.
Let’s bring it onto the Hampden pitch.
The raffle winner of two tickets for the semi-final, courtesy of Celtic sponsor, Intelligent Car Leasing, has been informed but I’ve not had a confirmation email back – so check your inbox!!
Book & t-shirt offer ends midnight! All orders on their way! Order tonight and we will post in morning!
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General Election In June…If Brendan delivers the Treble, I will vote for him to be Prime Minister of the UNIVERSE !…on a part time basis, as his full time job is with T
The HOOPS….computer playing up again methinks ?
Can’t we nobble some of the Huns in the tunnel ?
HH
I don’t see anything other than a resounding Celtic victory on Sunday.
HH.
Would you all listen to yourselves, huns this and dobs that.
Let me assure you, there is nothing to worry or concern yourselves about.
Catch yourselves on, they are garbage, no mistaking that, so why all the worry. Refs, f##k them, just play to our best and we’ll score six or seven.
Am I ever wrong!!!!!!!!
Worry not
KINGLuBO
Kolo Toure ( if not playing ?), could knock out two or three of they bassa’s in the tunnel..nae bother.
HH
IF Kolo then gets the jail, we could have a wee whip round for his bail money ?
Imagine your only hope in avoiding relegation was Neil McCann?
A Stor Mha Chroi @ 9:21 am
“SFTB
So just for the record… are you saying that – that ref – gave – that penalty – to assist Celtic in their pursuit of the Treble?”
Sorry- work got in the way of answering earlier.
My answer is No! My assertion was that the ref made a huge mistake and in doing so, made it less easy for next week’s ref to do likewise becauxe it would be more obvious as a fix if it happened two weeks in a row. If Robertson was part of a cabal to do us down then he would have had the task of giving us unhustified awards and decisions so that next week’s “fix” would just be seen as “swings and roundabouts” payback.
So, either Robertson was not part of the conspiracy or there is no conspiracy but making us draw with Ross County does not diminish our season in any way.
It looks like it doesn’t matter whether Broonies red is changed to a yellow on appeal. He will still miss the second “OLD FIRM” game.
He currently has 11 yellows and served 1 suspension so far for reaching 18 penalty points with 6 yellows. He’s one yellow away from a second suspension. Unless any of his yellows have been for handling the ball or obstruction making it a 2 penaly pointer rather than a 3 penalty pointer and/or the reduction of red to yellow is applied from day of winning appeal or from when the incident occurred as there the suspension does not apply for 14 days after yellow is given.
MWD
Dessybhoy- Lustig didn’t play on Sunday, but agree on cutting out crosses into the box mate.HH
Big Jimmy.
All the best on the 25th May.
Hail Hail.
Tonight is the last chance to order the Launch deal on In The Heat of Lisbon and the stunningly good looking Jock Stein t-shirt with CQN branding. You can get both for just £19.67 until midnight.
We also have now got the t-shirt in SMALL size too, as has been requested.
Nearly all orders are on their way to CQNers all over Britain and Ireland and around the world. The last batch will be completed tonight and posted in the morning.
The book will be on sale at Celtic stores over the next few days.
Thanks again to everyone who has ordered, nice to know that so many of the folk who used to regularly post are lurking and have supported this project.
Profits to thank the Lions squad.
Moonbeams.
It was said before the game against Ross County that if he was booked he would miss,St J and sheep games.
25th May?
That date rings a bell.
HH!!
Who is doing all this nobbling I hear people speak of ? – the weedy kid who looks like Mr Bean ? Master Bates ? the kid Beerman ? The big streak of pish Toral ? wee Jason Holt ?
We lose, which we won’t, it’ll be down to our failings, and not through any hun magic….
batter them back to 1690 Celtic…..
Good evening Ghuys.
My first ever post, but I wanted to thank all of you who entered Paul’s raffle which enabled me to win 2 tickets for Sunday’s semi.
As the winner I will now make another donation to Mary’s Meals. For some reason I am now Dad’s favorite!
Hail Hail
Meghan Ultra (aged 15)
Evening All.
LIsbon Dinner Update
We have close to 240 confirmed diners for Lisbon on the 24th of May and I am waiting to hear from a number of people who previously expressed an interest in coming but who for one reason or another have not confirmed yet.
If you are one of those then please contact me at jjoe88@hotmail.co.uk as soon as possible as we now have a potential waiting list for cancellations and the like. I need to confirm names and numbers very soon so please don’t delay.
I can also confirm that the musical entertainment for the night will be provided by a fantastic trio who are coming together especially for this event and the party the following evening.
The band comprises of:
Mick Ward from The Benidorm Irish Rovers and sometimes with Charlie and the Bhoys on flute, whistle ( yes an awesome loansome boatman is a certainty) , sax, guitar and vocals.
Joe O’Sullivan from The Mourne Mountain Ramblers and Ice Cool on electric guitar, mandolin and vocals (yup you can bet your house on Grace ringing through the rafters)
and
Scoogz who regularly plays in the Kerrydale suite on electro accoustic and vocals.
You know what these guys are likely to play — and there maybe one or two guest appearances over the piece as well.
Kickinthenakas has offered to show of hios talent (however limited that may be) and Malorbhoy has threatened us with a rendition of something if he can lay his hands on a keyboard or an accordian.
I can also confirm that we will be having a commemmorative mass on the morning of 25th May thius replication events of 50 years ago when many Celtic fans went to mass in Lisbon before the game for the feast of Corpus Christi.
Whether you are of the Catholic faith, a different faith or no faith at all, the whole point of the mass is to remember those who were present in Lisbon 50 years ago but who have now passed on and can no longer celebrate with us.
Special mention has been made of remembering Jock Stein, Ronnie Simpson, Tommy Gemmell, Willie O’Neill. Bobby Murdoch, Jimmy Johnstone, Neilly Mochan, Bob Rooney and other members of the Celtic party that day.
However, many are making this pilgrimage in memory of their own fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, Grandafthers, Grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cosuins and friend who were either there or who were instrumental in getting some of us there or to Celtic Park in the first place.
There are also our own to remember and El Dhiego Bhoy comes readily to mind.
Accordingly if you want someone prayed for and included in our remembrance list please e-mail me at the address above and I will start a register.
The stadium managment have been in touch and hopefully some dignitries from the stadium and elsewhere will accept our invitation to come to the dinner. I am waiting to hear on the exact details for stadium entry as in what time etc but arrangements are being made to allow our large Celtic party in to the stadium on the day with opportunities to take photographs etc.
You never know we may just have the Big Cup present as well!!!
I am pleased to announce that we will have the entire Road to Lisbon cycle team with us and we hope to honour their fanatstic charitable effort of cycling from Celtic Park to the Estadio Nacional. This is a herculean effort in terms of a bike ride, but I am also privy to the huge amount of effort and time that has gone into just managing and planning such an event.
These guys are heroes — there is just no other word which describes them.
Lastly, this will be like a who’s who of CQN though there are always notable exceptions who cannot come for a variety of reasons much to my regret.
However, we have CQN’ers travelling from Australia, New Zealand, South America, Germany, Sweden, France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Engalnd Scotland, Wales and goodness knows where else just to be present for what is no more than a celebration of all the best things that are “Celtic Football Club” and their fans.
Hopefully we can get together with a whole host of others for a very large Celtic Party in the centre of Lisbon on the evening of 25th May.
More details to follow as we get nearer the date.
HH
BRTH
JimmyNotPaul
You have a point.
14 days takes him past 2nd Old Firm game as it is a Sat lunchtime rather than Sunday.
Well spotted.
MWD
BMCUW @ 9:28 am
“SFTB
You say that the phrase “The fix is in” is used with more inaccuracy than precision.
You are also a strong advocate of Jock Stein’s view of scoring enough to take the refs out of the equation.
This confuses the issue.
The fix is only used when it can have an effect. Jock Theory would have us three ahead already.
So get the fix in early. That’s what happened the last game against the huns. They went right down our throats and intimidated us with impunity. Superior skill saw through till late on,and then the ref played a blinder right at the death by ignoring a penalty and red card.
Aye,yer right. No need to worry about bad refereeing decisions.
And that’s just the last from the near 200 I’ve seen in my time. Tame by some standards,like Jock’s last season.”
I think JJ clarified my intent quite accurately, Bobby, but I have repeated it above to A Stor Mha Chroi.
BTW- I don’t think I am a strong advocate of that Jock Stein argument which I find a bit masochistic (I favour impartial refs and a level playing field) – so any confusion caused by adding it to my view is not my responsibility.
I have seen fixes and horrendous one eyed decisions but the last couple of Sevco setbacks do not rate high in my eyes. They got a late draw by dint of a bad couple of decisions (some by the ref and some by our players) but, though that did not help, we did not dominate them enough to make ourselves clear winners. In their previous “triumph” the cup semi final win on pens- Sevco were the better team but less effective. Despite their possession superiority and battling qualities, we were the more effective in creating chances. Their fix, on both occasions, was not good enough, as they ended in draws in regulation time- we alone were responsible for losing on pens.
Like you, I have seen fixes before but they are not all fixes. Craig Thompson is cited as one of the worst nut he is also the ref who gave us a soft pen at Ibrox when Sammi was slightly hampered and that could and should have won us a league that the old club were still contesting and realy needed the title- so what happened to the fix there? Was Sammi in on it as he missed the pen.
Now, I could end up with egg on my face if Willie Collum gives a Mike McCurry type performance next week but, as I said in the original post, if the fix was in as often as it has been predicted on here we would never have beaten the old Rangers or Sevco and probably not Aberdeen the past few years either.
In summary, I agree we have bent refs and a dodgy system but I don’t think we have a widespread conspiracy. Unless they are as rubbish at conspiracy as they are at paying social taxes.
ex Celt Colin Healy
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/he-was-just-a-phenomenal-person-john-caulfield-leads-colin-healy-tributes-after-retirement-decision-35632699.html
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/cork-fans-are-remembering-a-certain-wonder-goal-as-city-legend-colin-healy-announces-his-retirement-35632174.html
BRTH
Sounds great and all your hard work is falling into place.
Had you thought about inviting Ryan Gauld to any of the events. He might feel at home amongst us.
BRTH,
I think my Dad would like those who were with him on that great day to be remembered at that Mass. I think he is one of only 2 left of his wee group. The other is John Kelly, the finest Celtic supporter it has been my privilege to meet, is very ill (and has been for some time). I’ll get him to give me the names of those who have passed away and send them on to you.
FAN-A-TIC
I got the Anderson.paak album a while back, like it a lot, great to see them posted on the ole CQN jukebox..
Nice One!
HH
SFTB
The huns can cheat with impunity in Scotland.
They don’t give an monkeys if it’s in plain sight.
The world outside does not give a hoot what happens in our league.
The mssm will belittle us and gloss over cheating.
The Hogmany game being a perfect example with us being denied a stone waller and red card tackles not even meriting a foul on one occasion and another merely a yellow.
Cheating is in the DNA of the majority in Scotland.
It is acceptable to keep the inferior Irish and Catholics in their rightful place
BRTH – mouthwatering stuff. Thank you.
STARRY PLOUGH @8-03 PM
My stepson told me about him at start of the year.
I really enjoy NPR’s tiny desk series so was good when he popped up on there.
It is a great setting for real musicians.
FAN-A-TIC @ 8.05
Good post
I agree with every word.
BRTH
You have mail re Lisbon
FAN-A-TIC
Great series, old school feel for new music:))
I liked the Leon Bridges one too!
Great way for me to catch up with new stuff in one place!
1-0 to A. Madrid.
Leicester need 3 goals now.
BRTH
Any performance by me in Lisbon you will have to go through my away European Agent Kickinthenakas, oh and by the way l don’t come cheap
Bada
I know he wasn’t playing but like JF he stands off the man and lets him cross too easily,On Sunday JF just stood and let the guy get the ball onto his strong foot to put the cross in a wee bit of effort might have blocked the ball or at least put pressure on the crosser
There are at least two possible reasons for the plethora of posts concerned about the power of the ref to affect the result on Sunday:
1) People believe that the ref really does think that it is in his interest to do all he can to manipulate a Sevco victory so ,naturally , many are worried about his influence;
2) This is a one off, Cup game and Sevco are third in the League .They could win fairly and some are getting their excuses in early.
JJ
PS I am confident, genuinely so, that we will win .
Malorbhoy
“oh and by the way l don’t come cheap ”
Surely you won`t be asking for TWO pints?
JJ
Dear oh dear oh dear
Champions league fitba on 2 channels oan the telly and some fholk just canny help themselves stoking each other’s persecution complexes
Anyway beyond Leicester noo methinks,so hoping for a German goal next to make it interesting
Leicester being totally outclassed by Atleti.
SFTB
“I have seen fixes and horrendous one eyed decisions”
*****
I’ve seen a horrendous no-eyed decision, and the guy who made it is still on the premises 7 years on.
Still, at least the team in whose favour he made it isn’t.