Confidence the biggest takeaway

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The headline at halftime had a familiar feel, Celtic’s run of poor results looked like continuing, but despite this, we dared to hope a corner had been turned.  The apparent lack of Commitment to the Cause which – seemed to envelop the team (I may be wrong) was not evident.  Instead, players looked up for it.

Whatever ailed Kieran Tierney until recently was not evident, this was the KT we remembered.  Available and energetic.  Sebastian Tounekti looked to be synchronised with his left-sided partner.  A word too for Michel-Ange Balikwisha, his late cameo brought energy and a bit of physicality which helped get the game over the line.

Benjamin Nygren was destined for headlines after last night.  I counted six headed chances he had.  Benji is not a winger, nor is he a target-man striker, but he has a nose for goal and after passing up four headed chances, he connected with a corner to put Celtic ahead.  He needed the goal; we all did.

Just three minutes earlier Liam Scales drew Celtic level, a move which also started with a corner, following yet another Nygren chance.  The equaliser was not a glorious goal, Colby Donovan’s cross was mis-hit, but Scales shifted his body angle and made the necessary connection.

You are going to think I am ridiculous, but hear me out.  There is a Celtic European tradition of sticking a foot out to make contact with a ball and divert it into the net.  When Liam’s shot crossed the line, I got the feeling things were going to be OK.  Inspired by legends, and all that!

I was calling for Reo Hatate to be hooked for most of the game.  That spark he so-often brings was absent.  However, he proved important during the last 20 minutes.  Despite being a man down, Strum were able to get into the Celtic final third far too often.  Reo was the man who slowed the play down and looked to impose structure.

We need to learn to hold the ball better.  This involves players moving into space, and not passing to others who do not have more than one option.  Reo’s muscle memory for this was evident.  Better game management would have kept Sturm out of our box during added time.

The game cost us Kelechi Iheanacho and Alastair Johnston, both likely to be out for a month at least.  We win things because we have the biggest budget and strongest squad.  It is for others to step up.

Last night’s attendance seemed down on the Braga game three weeks earlier, but those who were there were as committed to the task as the players.  The stadium had an energy about it, which perhaps lifted players’ confidence.  That quality – confidence – is as important a takeaway as the three points.

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  1. no to kyogo

     

     

    He was great whilst he was here

     

     

    But his time has gone

     

     

    And the last 2 or 3 clubs he has been at he has shown the same lack, as his last 6 months with us.

     

     

    Hearing some noise around Andy Robertson for left back?

     

     

    Has his time gone, or is he a viable option

  2. So the huns release an orange top accompanied by the Sloop John B song – which to the ibrox support is synonymous with the lyrics…the famine is over, why don’t you go home?

     

     

    The future for Sevco is this….

     

    Mid table finishes

     

    No European football

     

    A crumbling stadium

     

    Downgrades on every player who leaves or they manage to sell for a lot less than they tell their fans.

     

     

    Making a 36yo manager wear a suit to his work.

     

     

    Blaming…

     

     

    HMRC

     

    Gio

     

    Beale

     

    Clement

     

    Whyte

     

    Green

     

    Park

     

    Bennet

     

    Thelwell

     

    Stewart

     

    Martin

     

    Cavanagh

     

     

    They are a scum club with scum fans who deserve every single thing that happens to them.

     

     

    I predict….there will be no Rangers in 5 years.

     

     

    Anyway…I think CCV being out for so long is a blow….he brings a calmness to the team and the support and IMHO he is the best CH Celtic have ever had.

     

    However, I think Scales will become even better as the senior defender and we’ll be fine.

     

     

    I’ve a heavy bet on Celtic tomorrow at even money and a weeks bet on Johnny Kenny to score at anytime.

     

    A big game mañana which could define the season and maybe even the next few years.

     

     

    COYBIG

  3. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    RC …

     

     

    Who in the club would champions Kyogo’s return?

     

     

    He doesn’t fit the club model due to his age.

     

     

    Brendan isn’t a fan.

  4. KevJ…..this pish about the 60k ordinary innocent football fans being punished for the huns wrongs is just that…pish.

     

    They lorded it over us in the press, in pubs, in workplaces, schools, boardrooms etc.

     

    And why?…..because they hated the Irish snd they hated Catholics.

     

    They deserve every bit of pain that they’ve felt for 13 years and which they are going to feel for the rest of their bigotted lives.

     

     

    I hope Yamada is on the bench tomorrow….I really feel he has a good turn of pace.

  5. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    BTW … RC

     

     

    As a half season fix?

     

     

    Wouldn’t bother me in the slightest

  6. Cavanagh WILL 100pc sell the stadium to his ‘consortium’ and portray it a temporary measure for a cash injection.

     

    The strips are Ashley’s forever.

     

    The stadium is Cavanaghs forever.

     

    They are fekd and it’s what they deserve.

     

     

    Night

  7. lets all do the huddle on

    why have folk on here started indulging the brit racist in the last few months?

     

     

    thats exactly what he wants.

  8. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    “Cavanagh WILL 100pc sell the stadium to his ‘consortium’ and portray it a temporary measure for a cash injection”.

     

     

    Quite an emphatic statement.

     

     

    Why would anyone buy it?

  9. laxalt

     

     

    There’s an old joke in Scotland that when the clocks go back, at Ayebrokes they get turned back to 1690.

     

    I do not think the hordes realise just what has been happening in recent years in the relationships between both the Churches of Scotland & England and the Roman Catholic Church which culminated in the invitation from Pope Leo XIII to King Charles and Queen Camilla to the Vatican this week. This time it was Leo and Charles who turned the clock back, over 500 years years in this case.

     

    During the service at the the Sistine Chapel, Charles sat in a specially made throne, (bearing the King’s coat of Arms) bearing the message “Ut Unum Sint”…..that they may be one. That throne will remain at the Chapel, for his use and that of his successors. The King was also declared the ‘Royal Confrater’ of the Basilica and received a Papal Knighthood from Leo. King Charles was accompanied by the Right Reverand Rosie Frew Moderator of the Church of Scotland who presented both the Pope and the King a copy of the Saint Margaret Declaration, the historic statement of friendship between the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church in Scotland, signed at Dunfermline Abbey November 16 2022, the 950th anniversary of the that very building, and the burial place of both Margaret and Robert the Bruce. A ceremony also attended by Princess Anne. In return Pope Leo was made the Papal Confrator of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. A new orange strip will not stop history in the making…

     

     

    ForeverChangesCSC

  10. Laxalt on 25th October 2025 8:58 pm

     

    Hi, Laxalt.

     

    Its like this.

     

    Example: DD, Lawwell, whoever, is running a sort of EBT scam with all of these project players, and some Celtic hater susses it out, and Celtic get into bother about it and the club will probably be closed down because of it.

     

    So who is to blame?

     

    The crooked EBT/Project/Player/Scam/Directors?

     

    Or the 60,000 innocent Celtic fans who were never near a boardroom?

     

    I know, we all do about how evil etc the Huns fans are, WE get that absolutely.

     

    BUT.

     

    The fans might have done horrible violent things for decades, and are horrible bigots, etc, etc.

     

    BUT.

     

    The fans did not steal EBT/TAX/DODGING/MONEY.

     

    But the fans got punished for it NOT David Murray.

     

    ~

     

    [Yes DM went to court and was fined etc, etc, lost a lot of his companies etc.

     

    BUT.

     

    In a short period of time he had more or less got his lost money back, cause he is a Knight remember, they don’t get punished, that is why none of them should be in control of Celtic.]

     

    ~

     

    Is that not wrong what happened to the Huns fans?

     

    If it happened to us would it be wrong?

     

    They can do the hating. Life is too short.

     

    Btw, Nobody hates, if you can call it that, the Irish more Today than the Majority of Celtic fans who turn a blind eye, ignorance is hate, to what is happening in Ireland TODAY, not 1916.

     

    Maybe a lot of Celtic fans should stop being hypocrites about Ireland, if they care about Ireland and its people, and don’t just use the Irish and their history as a badge of honor, which is wearing somebody elses medals.

     

    Irish Republican Volunteers came onto this blog, CQN, and politely asked if Celtic fans could drop the Irish conflict song book as the Irish people were and are still trying to process a HARD WON Peace process, which must still be processed.

     

    Sinn Fein are in clique mode now and they could not care less about the Irish working class.

     

    They have tasted the gravy train money, just like the Snp, and now both of them could not care less, and do nothing but deflect or don’t answer their phones.

     

    Troubled times for very different reasons now.

     

    HH

     

    oot.

  11. Yip….in perpetuity….that’s what they get for chasing Dougie Park n Bennet n co.

     

    But hell mend them… Park n co tried their best to keep it going that their only out was to sell to people that they knew were financial gangsters.

     

     

    With absolute certainty….I’ll say that Cavanagh paid no more than £20m for the required shares to own 51pc of the Sevvies.

     

    Even at that, I’ll bet hes regretting it now.

  12. mates a rangers fan (not a uhn, there is a difference)

     

     

    Fecking a week tomoz we play the huns

     

     

    ugh

  13. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    It’s only a perpetuity if they can pay the rent in perpetuity.

     

     

    I’m not an accountant, but I think the rules changed (IFRS 16) whereby the present value of future lease payments are capitalised, which means leases are now (correctly) classified as debt.

     

     

    A sale and leaseback effectively layers more fixed cost on to the business.

  14. Laxalt

     

     

    After seeing the multiple videos of huns raging against their directors

     

     

    He aint the only one regeretting shit

  15. Fascist is another diluted insult commonly used because you don’t agree with something.

     

     

    Fascism is the evil that was the National Socialist workers party. and the National Fascist party of Italy..

     

     

    The evil regimes were defeated by ordinary men and woman. Many of the international brigade continued their fight against fascism in WW2.

     

    Possibly some of James Mcfadden,’s deceased relatives were involved fighting fascism

     

     

    You are entitled to hate everything about the Poppy. You certainly dont need to wear one if you exercise your right to disagree. You are entitled to despise the British government. You are entitled to dispise the Royal Family.. You are entitled to despise British history and the establishment but calling millions of ordinary people fascists for wearing a Poppy is just wrong.

  16. shush now,

     

     

    Its an argument that neither can win

     

     

    Just be catholic

     

     

    And turn the other cheek

     

     

    One of you can….

     

     

    (and thats my problem with religion…

     

     

    …no one can)

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