Just as in Bologna on Thursday, Celtic’s passing during the opening exchanges was excellent. They dominated early proceedings and could have scored through a Liam Scales header from a corner before Benjamin Nygren put them ahead with an outstanding free kick.
This period ended after 20 minutes, when a series of Hearts free kicks interrupted the champions rhythm. Once Hearts established a foothold in midfield, Celtic’s passing disintegrated. Unforced errors allowed the home team time to build a way back into the game. Celtic were unable to do anything about this malaise, even when the game was 11 v 11.
Tomas Cvancara made his Celtic debut and started his first game since November. He had a relatively quiet game until he showed us what all the fuss was about just after the hour. A one-two with Daizen Meada allowed him to race down the left wing, drawing Craig Gordon before sliding a perfect ball into the path of Yang to put Celtic 1-2 ahead. This move involved the three fastest players. It offers an interesting template.
With Celtic needing to hold the ball in the middle of the park, I was surprised Reo Hatate was unused. Changes were limited to fitness or an intervention from the officials. Cvancara was replaced minutes after the aforementioned goal, Kieran Terney went off after treatment, and Anthony Ralston replaced Yang to bolster the defence after Auston Trusty was red carded.
The decision of VAR to intervene and suggest an upgrade to Trusty’s yellow card strained the credibility of an obvious error by the referee. You are asked to believe that Celtic’s fastest defender would not have adjusted his trajectory had the Hearts striker got free of Trusty. The decision cost Celtic a win and I was genuinely surprised when it was made.
Critical interventions from Liam Scales and Kasper Schmeichel, both of whom delivered their second outstanding performances of the week, kept Hearts at bay with so much on the line.
The result was celebrated by the home side in a similar way to how Philippe Clement’s team celebrated a 3-3 draw against Celtic two years ago. Then, as now, a home win would have gone a long way to eliminate Celtic from the title race. A draw did not achieve this on either occasion.
Early days, but what we saw from Tomas Cvancara was encouraging. He has pace and links the ball to feet or in front of him. Link-up play with his new team-mates will improve. If we can get his pace working with that of Daizen and Yang, we have an interesting fast counter-attack option. During the game, I was shouting for Celtic to go long. We’ll see how this plays out in the weeks ahead.
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Trusty red card hearing is tomorrow
TONTINE TIM
Just heard from my daughter that she has to have a UK Passport to get into Scotland as of next month.
Do you know anything about it or any other x Scots
Parkheadcumsalford on 26th January 2026 6:07 pm
Celtic should demand that MIBs inform the SFA which team they support (and I realise all that support the deid team will never tell the truth). I think it is the norm in England and, quite possibly elsewhere.
*Sounds good but lets face it they would all be like chic dung, Buddies supporters
I still can’t get my head around how the bigot Dallas got a promotion to Europe after being found out here.
*his brithers at the scottish freemason association would have given him a good reference plus the tentacles of the ludge stretch far
Heard we had bidded 1.2m + Welsh valued at 400k for the Motherwell player expected to be concluded by this weekend 🤞
Felix Horn Myhre from Brann,
allegedly
Fair play to those of you who still think we will win the league. I wonder however how many would put any of their hard earned on it?
Big difference between wanting it to happen and believing it will happen.
I agree with the view that this team, as it stands now, will not win the league as simply put we are not good enough nor tough enough physically for this league. This only changes with another 3/4 signings of the right quality and does anyone believe that is going to happen?
If the forward thinking Danish, Norwegian and Belgian teams are the current poster boys for modern progressive football clubs what does that make us?
Guys,
Surely you all remember the recent f@ck up by European officials and VAR.. The Braga game when our legitimate goal was disallowed.
There has been a long run of Celtic getting harsh / unfair treatment from European referees.
In fact we officially expressed concerns about the performance of officials in our European games not so long ago.
Don’t think that ” foreign ” officials will necessarily be any better.
HH.
As far as I can see The Felix talk is just that. Cannot see one reputable source saying we have spoken to his club, his agent or the player himself.
What we have is a player who wanted to move to Bodo/Glint to play CL football there or, as his “friends” say, with a team in a bigger league.
How that becomes a player we are in a race to sign beats me.
No doubt he will be unveiled on Friday 😂
Peter Grant nails every point here 🎯
https://x.com/PaulJohnDykes/status/2015883586516275481?s=20
Big league to win this year on three counts
1. If R2ngers win it, I’d expect them to be seeded in CL Play Off and qualify
2. The historically illiterate in their crowd will start shouting 56. And all of a sudden bragging rights, which have gone very quiet, will resurface to hack off our fans
3. Most important of all – the message it sends everyone.
If you can’t beat Celtic to the title in the season Celtic have had? …. you likely never will.
IMHO Urgent trumps important in these circumstances.
Get the players in to win the league.
Then … in the summer … rebuild / aligned to a sustainable strategy.
PS – get a strong personality and good leader in as manager.
Otherwise Martin is in danger of becoming our version of Raymond Goethals
Bigrailroadblues at 6.28pm
I hear you, brother. Me neither.
Moisey17
Not a gambler but I will put me money down.
£50 Celtic to win league – to Kano
Or
£50 to Newton Truth Defenders or your charity of choice M17 :-).
Keep the faith M17,
We have went thro worse.
HH
BURNLEY78 on 26TH JANUARY 2026 3:17 PM
I know many folks on here have no time for PL but he was not someone who held back in dialogue with SFA when things were being officiated against us. I do think someone needs to own this but not sure MN has the clout.
—————————
So why did we A – appoint him and B – keep him in situ when it was clear he didn’t have that ability on top of all his other self confessed “errors “?
Are the board waiting to see if we will have further European income after Thursday’s match with Utrecht , before deciding what we spend on what players?
TT
AN TEARMANN on 26TH JANUARY 2026 9:36 PM
Moisey17
Not a gambler but I will put me money down.
£50 Celtic to win league – to Kano
Or
£50 to Newton Truth Defenders or your charity of choice M17 :-).
Keep the faith M17,
We have went thro worse.
HH
————————
Not overly chuffed at the inference their my mhan but will take it in the jest I hope it was meant……..also more than happy to match your £50 for Kano should we win – happily hand it over
TINYTIM on 26TH JANUARY 2026 10:05 PM
Are the board waiting to see if we will have further European income after Thursday’s match with Utrecht , before deciding what we spend on what players?
——
Possibly.
Possible also that continued participation in Europe might be an incentive for players not cup tied , although I’m desperately clutching at straws there to explain our lack of signings when we patently need them.
Parsimony or basic incompetence much more likely to pass the Occam’s Razor test.
Good man.
Save and see me at seasons end.
Whatever way Kano will benefit.
Ha the Newton Truth Defenders were my mates quiz team a few years back at a chapel event in St Brides Cambuslang.They won the quiz at a dance they ran,the priest on presentation asked what NTD meant?
HH
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 26TH JANUARY 2026 7:44 PM
31003,
Would be great if UEFA forced us to have overseas refs. It happened once when the refs went on strike. I think our game was at Celtic Park and we got beat but everybody was happy with the ref.
If we had been reffed fairly over the years, our history (and the deid team’s) would be very very different
……
2-2 at home to ICT
HH
Waiting on last minute frees,or bargains( Celtic style ).
Cant honestly believe some are still, believers.When did £2.6 million become expensive?
TinyTim on 26th January 2026 10:05 pm
Are the board waiting to see if we will have further European income after Thursday’s match with Utrecht , before deciding what we spend on what players?
——–
Fair enough ask, TT but I doubt it (and hope not)
We can only reach the play offs before the end of the transfer window.
Reaching the play offs gets you gate money for one more home games plus … wait for it …
£260k.
With costs and expenses – we clear £2m?
Celtic need to stabilise quickly, then improve for a massive finish (win last eight league games stuff)
Two more players please.
All went down the chutes under Brendan Rodgers.
Didn’t see the Collective addressing this disaster zone.
Saint Stivs on 26th January 2026 8:08 pm
adam idah – 3 goals in 20 games.
kuhn – 1 goal in 18 games.
kyogo – 3 goals in 35 games
matt – 4 goals in 49 games
maybe the executive did fantastic in getting circa £50m for players who were on the down turn
incoming ………….
Does JPD ask PG why he consistently displays Trump pyramid hand signs on Sportscene?
lionroars67 on 26th January 2026 9:15 pm
Peter Grant nails every point here 🎯
https://x.com/PaulJohnDykes/status/2015883586516275481?s=20
so
someone is arrested for threatening peter lawwell online
Tomas injured already?
https://celtsarehere.com/tomas-cvancara-celtic-injury-concern/
Logging in for Christmas
HH
i have just seen a photo of the referee last night from the Sevco game & i kid you not be is standing behind Captain Disappointment as he scores from yet another honest mistake ( pen ) & you should see the joy on his face , i wonder if Celtic can do anything if they were to present this photo to the SFA sorry i cant share the photo with you as I have it on another Device , but i will try to post this photo tomorrow
BoabyEvans
Watch yourself mate,lot of fakery about
Little bit of Artificial intelligence at play in that play .
HH
.
From Jobo
Good evening, friends.
Just as our away point in Bologna kept us in the Europa League, the point from Tynecastle yesterday keeps us right in the mix with plenty of games remaining. We remain 6 points (and 7 goals) behind Hearts but are now also 2 points (and 2 goals) behind Sevco.
Celtic have now played 38 games, and have won 19, drawn 8 and lost 10. We have scored 64 goals and conceded 41.
As for the voting numbers, it’s another £3 donation to C.H.A.S. thanks to the 85 who voted this time around (remember I need 70 when we lose, 80 when we draw and 100 when we win).
The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.
Schmeichel: 74
Araujo*: 52
Trusty: 7
Scales*: 54
Tierney: 8
McGregor*: 8
Engels: 1
Nygren: 9
Yang: 8
Cvancara: 33
Maeda: 0
Tounekti: 0
Murray: 0
Ralston: 0
Unused substitutes: Bernardo, Donovan, Forrest, Hatate, McCowan, Sinisalo
And so, the POINTS earned by each player for the game against Hearts are as follows –
25 points: Schmeichel
22 points: Scales
19 points: Araujo
16 points: Cvancara
14 points: Nygren
11 points each: McGregor, Tierney and Yang
9 points: Trusty
8 points: Engels
6 points each: Maeda, Murray, Ralston and Tounekti
1 point each: Bernardo, Donovan, Forrest, Hatate, McCowan, Sinisalo
The cumulative points achieved after 38 games played are now –
527: Scales
514: McGregor
451: Tierney
394: Engels
360: Trusty
352: Maeda
343: Hatate
341: Nygren
319: Yang
314: Schmeichel
309: Tounekti
269: McCowan
268: Forrest
248: Donovan
198: Ralston
191: Kenny
188: Iheanacho
158: Carter-Vickers and Saracchi
143: Bernardo
103: Murray
78: Yamada
75: Balikwisha
64: Sinisalo
61: Araujo
60: Johnston
40: Osmand
23: Inamura
19: Idah
16: Cvancara
14: Simpson-Pusey
7: Doohan
2: Isiguso
1: Hale, Hayney and McArdle
0: All the other players who’ve not yet made a matchday squad!
We now move on to our final game in this season’s Europa League, a home tie against FC Utrecht. A win will see us qualify for the play off round, with games scheduled for February 19th and 26th.
Hail Hail!
After the fiasco of the BR departure, Dermot sought out an available immediate replacement
The billionaire phoned a friend he was stumped with the question of who ?
Luckily for both Dermot and us the friend had the answer and more
MO’N with a little bit of love, direction and experience, got the winning show back on the road
Not content with the fiasco over BR, Dermot, Lawwell and Nicholson, ditched the friend who had answered the call when they were in desperate need, and embarked on a new disastrous partnership, the fall out from this unfathomable decision is still ongoing, until those who were involved in that footballing insanity no longer make important football decisions at Celtic, Celtic will find the new competitive world in which we find ourselves in within our domestic competition will see us getting used to no parties in the Gallowgate
MO’N, Shaun and Fozzy 2nd time around are finding the going tough, an exhausting program 2 games a week in which every game is a cup final, with a squad carrying a big injury list, light on quality and after WN low morale, quite frankly to be still in there fighting it out for the league says volumes about MO’N and his team
Is it too much to ask of those who hold the power to give something back to MO’N and the fanbase
2/3 quality additions in before Monday there cannot be any excuses
In MO’N we trust
Good morning CQN
Another fine day to be a Celt
Two days after a game, two days before a game.
Once upon a time it was merely a dozen or so back pages that needed filled with vacuous nonsense during the doldrums.
I wonder what that vast interweb thingy has in store for us?
To all of a Celtic persuasion …
… Hope you have a good one today
Nicholson looks out the window , weather grim — shrugs his shoulders and back under the duvet…
He is a massive Celtic fan though..
lionroars67 on 26th January 2026 9:15 pm
Peter Grant nails every point here 🎯
https://x.com/PaulJohnDykes/status/2015883586516275481?s=20
________________________________________________________________________________
I agree, although he should have added that McInnes is a bitter Hun no mark just to round off his excellent comments
https://x.com/i/status/2015885788332822883
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c62wly0y0g3o
27 days into the transfer window and we’re reading, on Celtic News Now, headlines like, ‘Celtic entering the race for Bobo/Glint striker.’
Depressing.
Non football post
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8x97w51r9ko
The “media”
They can’t just confine themselves to a photograph of the hearse and a few quotes.
Standard M.O. to intrude upon the family of a famous person when that family are at their lowest ebb.
Dreadful behaviour.
If anyone dares challenge it?
The response is to trot out bull5h1t equivocations along the lines of …
“You used the media when it suited you. You can’t have it both ways”
For the record, Terry Yorath did not do that
Maestro
That clip was dated yesterday, is that recent comments from Lawwell,or an old clip with a date added? If it was he said every penny would be reinvested in the club, what he didnt say is by when, the bank balance will take a wee while to run down to cover drops in income due to failure of the team on the park due to the team being worse than our competitiors through a lack of good players.
Imagine if we had no money and were actually skint.