First the treble then the double slipped through the net leaving Celtic absolute certainties for the inaugural Scottish Premiership title, but with only a couple of higher aspirations to aim for. Fraser Forster is closing in on Bobby Clark’s Aberdeen league shut out record, which if he keeps a clean sheet at home to St Johnstone on Sunday, he would be able to eclipse 31 minutes into the visit to Tynecastle on 22 February.
Neil Lennon called Saturday’s defeat unacceptable but it would be just as unacceptable to concede to St Johnstone at home this weekend when so close to an all-time record. Saints have scored only one league goal away from home (at Firhill) since winning at Tynecastle on 2 November last year. Notwithstanding their four Cup goals at Forfar on Saturday, you could not wish for a more goal-shy league visitors.
The manager was rightly critical of his defence on Saturday so will hopefully use this weekend to ensure they are ready to play up for their goalkeeper this Sunday.
One of the highlights for the Celtic community last year was the incredible Ben Nevis Huddle, completed on the snow-capped mountain in June. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, 28 June. Applications opened on Friday and there are only 77 places left (big mountain but limited safe standing capacity). Go here if you want to get involved.
If you would like to read the new CQN Magazine, GO HERE to read properly, and for FREE, the graphic below is just a taster.
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Nae Maitter How much Ah consider n delve,
intae..
The Whys or the Why Nots?
.. Huntin.. N Searchin.. fur the Answer tae the Reason fur oor..Disappointin’ n Deflaitin’ Defeat..
The answer tae the, ” Why”.. keeps. Poppin’ up..in Ma Mental Hard Drive.
“It wiz the Manager’s Fault.. Dummy.”
N..
Ye know sumptin.. Folk..
Ah am Beginnin tae Think that it
Wiz.
Kojo
Still,Laughin’
setting free the bears supports Res. 12 & Oscar Knox
14:13 on 10 February, 2014
LiviBhoy
“They pack the place out as long as they are winning. ”
How long was our winning spell going into the Aberdeen game? Yet it was not packed. Crowds of less than 20,000 were not unheard of in our 9iar years.
The point SFTB made is absolutely correct. In the early 1970s we kept on winning but
attendance figures were on the slide except for special games.
Another myth which seems to have grown arms and legs is that RFC provided us with competition in the grand old days of yore. Incorrect: from 1966 until the big Souness/SDM EBT scam it was Hearts, Dundee Utd. and Aberdeen that provided us with all the honest competitors Scotland could muster.
Terry-agree,how Biton didn’t come on at H/T is beyond me,it was obvious we were a man down in midfield.
Scottish bookies are delighted that millions(?!) of stupid, stupid supporters of a third tier club are backing them to win the Scottish Cup!
Feckin eejits!
Listening to Deep Purple! Not everybody’s cup of tea, but what a guitarist ole Richie Blackmore was/is.
Think he went a bit ‘strange’ a few years ago.
Neighbours complaining about the noise – told them to gtf. In a nice way ‘tho.
HH!!
I was not embarrassed by Celtic’s performance in the Champions League, the tournament went to form, we are a pot four team and we came fourth as expected, we were unlucky not to get better results from higher ranked teams, that was a bonus, people expecting better results are spoiled, people who demand we perform like we did last season are simply deluding themselves.
Saturday was poor from both players and manager, sometimes shit happens, if arrogant spoiled brats cant accept that thats their problem, stomping around and banging doors scweaming and scweaming that everything has to change because they dont like it is not going to make things any better.
I am as annoyed at Lenny as the next man, I thought he had learned that sometimes you have to stick to the traditional 4-4-2 when playing relatively strong teams, wing backs playing along side wingers is just plain silly IMO but Lenny thought differently, and knows if its unsuccessful the usual posse will be out to hunt him from Celtic Park the good thing is he’s going nowhere and he’ll lead us to ten in a row before he goes.
glasgowdave- you thought the Aberdeen songbook was “superb”, i beg to differ mate.
glasgowdave
Do you know what they were singing?
Good Evening,
It is not often that I start a post with a request, let alone the one I am about to make, but:
PLEASE READ!
There have been a lot of heartfelt posts since Saturday, many ( rightly ) criticising the team and the manager for the performance against Aberdeen, and others bemoaning the activities of the board, the majority shareholder, and various others including the SFA etc for where we now find ourselves as a club.
Some have said that winning the league is simply not good enough, while others think that such an attitude shows more than a touch of arrogance.
I felt that we have seen some very good, and some very positive,points being made about various matters, whilst at the same time there have been some more negative comments that can’t be ingored and in particular I want to pick up on three.
Firstly, TBB made a great point earlier today regarding the current state and imbalance of Scottish Football. Forgive me I do not have the time of the post but it is on page two of this thread.
Basically, he was reminding everyone who seems willing to stay away from Celtic park or who criticise the lack of opposition or whoever bemoans their footballing lot, is that what we are seeing now is football reality.
Any re-emergence of a team playing in blue out of Ibrox into the top flight of football will have to be based on grass roots economics — something that has been sadly lacking in that quarter for 20 years plus.
Even today, the football coming from Ibrox is financially gerrymandered, with losses being sustained at a fantastic rate with a further insolvency event being virtually inevitable according to those who seem to be in the know.
Should that event happen, then irrespective of what footballing penalties kick in, the team in blue that emerges will bear no resemblance to the one that currently carries the name Rangers. They will have to substantially trim their costs and as a result will have no choice but to field players and pay wages that are in align with their divisional status.
Should they progress then no doubt income will increase as is the want of things but there will be no more major financial assistance from the Banks or others such as there was before.
No — the new model for the more senior and progressive teams in Scotland will be the Aberdeen, Motherwell and Dundee United formula where clubs have to live within their means and do the best they can when they come up against Celtic — the one club that has a clear opportunity to enjoy a wealth far beyond the reach of everyone else in Scotland at the moment.
I am finding it fascinating that many are now coming to the conclusion that we need to move away from the SPFL. I couldn’t agree more. I have felt we should have moved when we won the Big Cup.
There were game which were both entertaining and competitive back then but we didn’t really get stretched playing in Scotland. I will always remain convinced that we would have been even better if we had had to play the likes of Leeds every week.
There were plenty of “honest mistakes” back then too. The Aberdeen Cup Final was particularly shameful.
squire danaher
It’s all about opinions. I thought James was excellent. What about his cross that Virgil contrived to head over the bar?
I thought the problem on Saturday was Kris Commons. People say we only had two midfielders, but KC was playing behind our striker and contributed almost nothing. We played the same system against Trabzonspor – admittedly only a friendly – with Pukki in KC’s position and it worked a treat.
If you play that system, basically 4-2-3-1, which I like, you need the central player of the 3 to work his socks off. KC is not capable of doing that. It was shown in the CL that he is not fast enough and not fit enough. No disrespect to him, his goals have been invaluable this season.
“It wiz the Manager’s Fault.. Dummy.”
Strange way to address yourself whilst pondering.
Paul
Not sure how many fans are really interested in the ‘shut out record’. I’m not and what matters to most fans is the record recording trophy wins.
Results like Saturday can happen at any time we have no divine right to win. Aberdeen played well we played poorly they deserved their win.
So some of the doom and gloom merchants calling for NL’s head are a bit premature. However there is no denying this team is poor at times and lacks fight. Is it the tactics or the personnel? I do recall that most of our domestic losses have been when we only play 2 in midfield.
However there is no getting away from the fact that Lenny’s record in cup competitions is pretty poor poor. Not sure what we do about that.
We must remember he is still a relatively new manager. Does he need more experience in the dugout?
Just a thought all of our backroom staff appear to be defenders/defensive midfielders. Do we need someone with attacking experience in the set up. Remember a lot of MON’s teams were not great but then we did have Hen who won us most games.
Roll on CL
Sorry I didn’t mean to post that
Parkheadcumsalford- Aberdeen Cup Final- Mr R Davidson of Airdrie’s finest hour?
Steinreignedsupreme,
I really hope you are correct mate.Stand by though for monumental honest mistakes.
They are as good as in the semis,then they have a home tie.
If it happens,we only have ourselves to blame.
Please God,you will be right.
79 caps
Agreed
Commons has carried us on his back for long parts of the season
I prefer to point the finger at the manager who picked – not for the first time – players who were clearly unfit and deployed them in a clearly faulty formation
FWIW I have long thought that JFs future role should be a more central berth on basis if he loses possession he has two holding MFs behind him
I don’t think Glasgowdave is saying the songbook was superb; just the numbers who filled the Albert Bartlett.
We seem to have forgotten what it is like for a big support for a non- Sevconian Scottish team to come to CP and noise us up.
79 caps
Sorry forgot to put your moniker on my post at17-23 in response to JF question
“CQteN Dream Team”
Now is your chance to select your CQteN dream from the last decade
Rules are very simple:
Select 11 players from the list below, forming either a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 formation
So you will need:
1 goalkeeper
2 full backs
2 centre backs
3 or 4 midfielders
2 or 3 forwards
and of course….
1 manager.
Each player on the list below has made at least 10 starting appearances from July 2004 to date during the CQteN decade.
So no Henrik, then!
When you are selecting the players, you should ideally base your selection on their performances during the CQteN decade, but then again that is your choice.
Send your selection to us by email to doccqten@gmail.com with your CQN blog name (if you do not have one, then you need to get thinking as well)
Anybody can enter: bloggers, lurkers, friends and family, but you can only enter ONCE.
The closing date for entries is 3pm Sunday 9th March 2014
The CQteN dream team will be announced at the CQteN night on Friday 14th March and there will be a couple of prizes for the closest teams selected to the winning team.
Over the coming weeks, to assist you in your selection, we will select a category and list the players relevant appearances and goals. So watch out for these on CQN.
Good luck and get selecting.
HH
CRC
doccqten@gmail.com
——————————————-
Goalkeepers
Artur Boruc
David Marshall
Fraser Forster
Lukasz Zaluska
Mark Brown
Rab Douglas
————————————–
Full Backs
Adam Matthews
Andreas Hinkel
Cha Du-Ri
Charlie Mulgrew
Daniel Fox
Darnell Fisher
Edson Braafheid
Emilio Izaguirre
Jackie McNamara
Lee Naylor
Mark Wilson
Mikael Lustig
Mo Camara
Paul Caddis
Paul Telfer
Ulrik Laursen
————————————————-
Centre Backs
Bobo Balde
Daniel Majstorovic
Darren O’Dea
Efe Ambrose
Gary Caldwell
Glenn Loovens
John Kennedy
Joos Valgaeren
Josh Thompson
Kelvin Wilson
Stanislav Varga
Stephen McManus
Steven Pressley
Thomas Rogne
Virgil van Dijk
——————————————
Midfielders
Aiden McGeady
Alan Thompson
Baram Kayal
Barry Robson
Didier Agathe
Evander Sno
Efrain Juarez
Jiri Jarosik
Joe Ledley
Juninho Paulista
Kris Commons
Landry N’Guemo
Marc Crosas
Massimo Donati
Neil Lennon
Niall McGinn
Pat McCourt
Paul Hartley
Ross Wallace
Roy Keane
Scott Brown
Shaun Maloney
Shunsuke Nakamura
Stephen Pearson
Stiliyan Petrov
Sung-Yong Ki
Thomas Gravesen
Victor Wanyama
Zheng Zhi
————————————————
Forwards
Anthony Stokes
Chris Sutton
Craig Beattie
Craig Bellamy
Derek Riordan
Gary Hooper
Georgios Samaras
Henri Camara
James Forrest
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
John Hartson
Kenny Miller
Lassad Nouioui
Maciej Zurawski
Marc-Antoine Fortune
Robbie Keane
Scott McDonald
Teemu Pukki
Tony Watt
—————————————–
Managers
Neil Lennon
Tony Mowbray
Gordon Strachan
Martin O’Neill
1970 SC Final.
Thought Big Jock was going to kick f*** out of Davidson that day.
…but he had more class than that.
A dreadful performance from the Airdrie hun.
HH!!
Tricoloured Ribbon 17:41 on 10 February, 2014
“I really hope you are correct mate.Stand by though for monumental honest mistakes.
“They are as good as in the semis,then they have a home tie.
If it happens,we only have ourselves to blame.
“Please God,you will be right.”
Sevco and their media fan club appear to have forgotten what Inverness and Dundee United did to them last season.
The idea that they are going to win the Scottish Cup is laughable. And it will take more than some honest mistakes, the level they play at is two yards off the pace of the Premiership teams.
They are a third division outfit in every respect. Reality is about to hit home on how good they really are.
Here is a Coupla..or. Three… Refreshin’ n Potentially excellent Additions tae oor First Team Cadre.
Mark Hill.. He is a Great Wee..Na.. He is No too “Wee”,in the Least… He is a Very good Prospective
C.B… (Ignore the “Wee”.. Ah jist used it, by force o’ Habit.)
Ryan Caird.. He is ..in the woids of Ma Informant.. “A Boabby Dazzler.”
Best Bet fur Fame n Fortune..of course.???
It must be..
Cal Miller..
He hiz it awe..n.. Ah don’t think he hiz Any “Badges o’ Ignorance”.. eethur
at least Ah hope he hiznae..
Fur..
Tattoos , oan a Player.. Tells Me.. that He is No Playing wi’ a Full Deck.
Although, Thur ur Exceptions tae that Rule.. Which Ah know awe aboot..so
Please do not Remind Me.
But..
Nevertheless..Ah prefer Ma Celtic Warriors tae hiv Un- Tattooed… Skin.
If A see A Tattoo oan a Player.. a Celtic Player..
right away.. Ah Mark him doon.. as a Guy who Diznae Think Aheid..
N..in the Game of Soccer.. as Ah want it tae be played..
Ah .. demand that Every Celtic Player , should be able tae
Think Aheid.. wi His Heid..
n.. Hiv the Malum tae go Alang wi That..
Unfortunately, Ah seldom Get Ma Wish.
Kojo
Still,Laughin’
Davidson’s performance in the 1970 final ranks as the most anti-Celtic I have ever,ever witnessed.It beggared belief.
TBH,Aberdeen played well that day but Davidson’s antics were sickening.
The only surprise that day was that he didn’t lift the Cup for them.
Scottish Cup odds Courtesy of Mr L Adbrokes
5/2 Aberdeen
3/1 Guess
9/2 ICT and St Johnstone
5/1 Dundee Utd
28/1 Raith Rovers
100/1 Dumbarton
350/1 Albion Rovers
400/1 Stranraer
The value bet would appear to be Dundee Utd although they will have a tricky QF tie away to either ICT or Stranraer.
leftclicktic We are all Neil Lennon
Why do we have wingers and play a crossing game when we have no centre forward or anyone who can heid the ba’
Always puzzled me that one!
Hi Bada Bing
I was referring to the noise and backing they gave their team.
I’m In 113 and a bit corned beef, I may be wrong, but didn’t hear anything that made me blush
Where they antagonistic, sure, that’s what they’re like
Some of our support were also giving it back with the Sheep references.
Getting into chants and songs could cover an entire blog,.
Personally I would prefer that profanities were not part of football, but we do live in the real world, so providing there are no sectairian or racial references, which I did not hear on Saturday, I tend to rubber ear the rest.. I believe Neil came in for special treatment, but, after what had transpired last week, was it ever going to be any different.
I have no issue with Aberdeen fans, they did not like our old rivals, and now that they’re gone, some of that resentment might be transferred to us. ? If so, I can live with it, as long as it does not get out of hand,
Well – I’m over it now – 48 hours is usually enough
Accept or reject
Well there’s little chance of the latter.
I can’t join people in asking for Neil’s removal.
And I’m also quite sure that the English leagues will be keeping tabs on him.
I hope he stays.
I hope we, as a club, reduce the ‘selling club’ strategy – because that, for me, is the quickest way to zero attendances.
I’d rather hold on to a no bad team than watch the Wanyamas and Hoopers and Van Dykes conveyor belt out the door.
U
I hope the rest of the SPL managers of teams still in the cup will use this utter fantasy of Sevco being second favourites to motivate their players, should they meet Sevco in the semis. It might turn a run of the mill drubbing into an embarrassing cricket score.
Even better if they failed to get past Albion Rovers.
Come to think of it, if the wee Rovers beat them would they replace Sevco as second favourites?
Hail Hail and my 2 cents on the game:
Ok Matthews wasn’t 100% fit but he wasn’t why we got beat. Didn’t help but that wasn’t the main cause. Fisher wasn’t playing because he was poor in the last game.
The reason we got beat was the Aberdeen midfield 3 were better than our midfield 2. Experience and numbers. Playing Sammi and Forrest on the wings meant minimal tracking back and that didn’t help either. Neither did Stokes up front who didn’t do much of anything aside from the goal.
Commons couldn’t get the ball because we didn’t have it. And every time he did get it everyone was all over the place so he lost it. Some of Stefan’s passing was a bit rough too but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt as he is no doubt building up fitness.
Was playing Biton the answer? No, I think playing Charlie was the answer but he was injured. Would Ledley have made a difference? Would playing Boerrigter instead of Sammi made a difference? Assist apart of course.
That’s a lot of questions for one game. I thought the whole team looked disjointed and that happened for spells around Christmas – the Partick game in particular.
glasgowdave- thanks for reply,they do have a large noisy support,which i welcome mate.Mostly offensive stuff BTW.HH
CRC, nae Larsson!!!!!!!
:-)
…and the two handballs didn’t help.
Settin Free the Bears
at 17.33
Sure.. Doncha Know that
In Yer Heid.. Everybuddy’s Heid.. even Your’s…
That
There Lives an Inner Man?
in fact..thur ur Two Inner Men..who happen tae Live Within..
The Ither Wan?
Ah don’t wanta discuss..him/Her,,,.at this time..
Anywey
Ah Am astonished that…Everybuddy,
Disnae Know that Everybudy hiz….Two Mental Lodgers..
n.. it is frum the result of Thur Discussions n Pondederings..
That .. thur Conclusions Filter Door tae..
the Outer Man..
Which Means.. You n Me..
That is How the Outer Man or Lassie.. Reaches Hiz or Her Conclusions.
fur.. Ye shouldnae think fur a Moment.. that Wan manages tae THINK , Clearly..n Reach
a Sound Conclusion. well Maist of us,anyway..
whithoot.. a Leetle Help?
Ah thought Everybuddy Knew this..
But..
Obviously, there ur some folk oot there..lke yer Guid..Sel..
Who are
unfortunately? Blissfully?
Unaware..o’ whit is Going Oan in thur Ain Heids.
Hey.. Ye hiv a Loat tae Learn ,pal.. so ye hiv.
But Noo,thanks tae Me… Ye know.. T
Right?
Kojo
Still,Laughin
HT
Yes, it was a surprisingly poor performance, and I hope Aberdeen are as ‘brilliant’ if they get to play Sevco 5088. Where Derek McInnes’s game will need a beat officialdom plan,, and yes Orcs at Celtic Park, is stomache churning, but might produce some good, when they embarrass themselves.
I criticized the format at half time from inside CP, but I defend Neil Lennon’s right to believe that the Celtic formation that’s twenty one points clear, would have come good after half time.
We are a one tactic club, when we play Scottish teams at Celtic Park.
Word BSR
Jungle Jim……. Thanks for that , it was a misprint in one of the Sunday newspapers.
Doc is Neil Lennon
18:17 on
10 February, 2014
Will Laursen do? Surely close enough! :-)
Even Zheng Zhi
HH
CRC
Kojo,
Yup, it’s the JohnBhoy of old. Popping back for a moan.
I’ve been a busy Bhoy of late – too busy for the often patience-sapping meanderings of CQN. I like things to be structured.
Like what the Celtic midfield isn’t.
(How’s that for some strangulated English?)
If we are going to play two wingers (it would be Forrest and Boeritgger for me) then the “Number 10”, or second striker, has to do a shift defensively when we don’t have the ball.
The wingers also have to come inside when we are defending on the far side, much as a left back would tuck in when the right back is challenging for the ball on the far touchline.
It’s all about keeping the game simple – but working extremely hard.
I feel our manager complicates the game quite often by changing the team shape repeatedly, even during the course of 90 minutes.
And he indulges lazy players in a way that someone like Mourinho never would.
Just think of the teams that have beaten us in cup competitions in his time in charge:
Ross County, Kilmarnock, Hearts, St Mirren, Morton. At least Aberdeen are half-decent, which none of those other teams were.
It’s happened too often to be mere coincidence.