Celtic’s run of 27 games unbeaten in domestic football came to an end yesterday as Kilmarnock surprised even their own fans, who bought fewer tickets for the final than they did for the semi-final, perhaps anticipating a reversal.
The bedrock of that magnificent run has been incredibly strong defensive performances; even when Aberdeen scored to take a point earlier this month, their goal benefited from an enormous deflection and the interaction of two debutant defenders.
Kilmarnock’s goal yesterday benefited from no such fortune. Ki didn’t match the forward run of Lee Johnson and Kelvin Wilson didn’t attack the cross. It was, however, a good goal, exploiting the expansive Hampden pitch with some fine passing and excellent movement.
Cammy Bell deservedly won Man of the Match but none of his many saves were spectacular. It could be argued that the stop from Gary Hooper five minutes in turned the match but it was a gift to Bell’s highlights DVD.
Celtic looked like a team who have run out of steam. Profligacy in front of goal and a momentary lapse in defence was all Kilmarnock needed to secure the cup.
I didn’t get a good view of the Anthony Stokes penalty incident at the game, it was Hampden after all, but on the radio going home I heard the evidence clearly confirmed it was not a penalty, which Neil Lennon would realise after he calmed down a bit, despite his initial reaction on seeing a replay.
Television evidence could not be clearer. Michael Nelson went to ground to tackle Stokes and didn’t come within 2 feet of the ball but clipped the Celtic player’s ankle while he was in the process of controlling a fast moving ball.
There was no dispute that Stokes ankle was clipped. No claims were made that Nelson played the ball, or even got close to playing the ball. The incident was an indisputable foul.
When you are running at speed the contact required to force you to lose to lose control of the ball is slight, more than enough contact was made on Stokes to hugely reduce his chances of scoring. Nelson made a rash and ill-timed challenge which should have resulted in an injury-time penalty.
Our sincerest condolences to the Liam Kelly, his family, Kenny Shiels and the Kilmarnock players on the death of Liam’s father Jack in the minutes after full time.
Check out ‘Celtic in the 1980s: The Lost Decade’, by CQN Magazine contributor, Sean Huddleston. Available on Kindle for a bargain £1.64.
Issue 7 of CQN Magazine is out now! Go to the dedicated magazine site here to read it properly (which you’ll not be able to do below).
We are now shipping hard copies of the magazine from the UK – and sold out last month. Order your copy by clicking on the link below.
Pay by card or Paypal.
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
955 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 26
- »
Sad podium :(
onto sunday and the league title!!
Hail hail Lenny
OVER HERE GHUYS!
Gordon_J, 10:45
That’s the way I read it too. With Ki on we’ll keep the ball more, they’ll sit back and hope to hit us on the break… so keep Wilson on as he’s our fastest player to cover. But not having Rogne to cover him left us exposed
Nelson himself has said it was a pen..
P67
Bigger fish to fry…spoiled a good day out, nothing more
hhplc
Oh no not again
Hail hail
Paul, hope you have a productive and a fully briefed lunch.
.
Drop Sammi = Drop Points..Lose Cups..
Summa
Wee William knows it was a penalty, but he will never give us any big call as he will be called biased by his hun masters and the hun media. Any time he has given us anything (not awarding Wallace a goal for example) is due to his officials not helping him out when he is unable to make a call himself!
Summa of Sammi…. on 19 March, 2012 at 11:14 said:
Agreed!
Condolences to the Kelly family tragic way to end a fantastic day for them all.
“Oor Wullie” ?
Nope.
Another ‘honest’ mistake
On the question of strikers when we signed Pawel on loan it was to take a look at him until the summer and see what he could do for the team. How will we ever do that if he is never picked?
Historically not a good competition for Celtic(barring 7-1 of course).
The double will do me.
HH
It was a penalty. I was convinced at the time and even more so after seeing the replays.
And Stokes has said in the papers today that the defender involved admitted it was a foul.
celtic *o* lennon
When we win the league he will surely get more game time.
It was a pen,,,but what can we do about it now?
Just hope the players are hurting and they take it out on the huns at Mordor!!
Hail hail
Needless to say that I’ve not read all of the posts since the final whistle, but I didn’t see many which mentioned Cammy Bell. He played very well yesterday, and sometimes goalkeepers win games.
Yes it’s frustrating that we haven’t won the Treble, but lets not take it out on the players or the manager who have won the most important trophy after being 15 points behind. Quite frankly that’s all that matters.
Also, I have heard mention we had ‘sectarian’ banners in our part of Hampden yesterday, can anybody tell me what these may have been, as I didn’t see any myself.
Paul67,
A couple of points.
Bell in his post match interview said that his stop from Stokes’ header was his best save ever.
As for Gollum, he is showing his dislike for us as Stokes said yesterday, why would he choose to dive in a one on one situation?
Very disappointed but retaining perspective – a young footballer has lost his father while another young footballer lies in intensive care.
Hopefully yesterday will shake a few of them out of complacency and we should have the league wrapped up before the split.
It’s a setback but not the end of the world as some seem to be making out.
pflan76
Bell had an excellent game and not just his fine saves but overall he was calm and composed.
I saw some tricolours in the stands, maybe these are what some refer to as “sectarian”. other than that, can’t say I noticed anything untoward.
Mort
Afternoon bhoys from a warm hun free mountain.
Happy for Kenny Sheils, a true gent and a footballing man.
Condolences to the Kelly family.
A bad day at the office yesterday.
Some of the posts in the last day have been hunnish.
Paul67
I just bought the new edition of the mag, not that it matters but it charged me for sending to the rest of the world and not to europe.
I am both annoyed and full of sympathy for our players.
I know they should have done better but as a mid 40s supporter I’m confident I’ll see another treble opportunity taken.
As players they know they could have done better but will they ever get the chance of a treble. Maybe for some?
I doubt many of them will shave today..looking in the mirror will be a painful experience..
KJamBhoy on 19 March, 2012 at 11:21 said:
Lets hope so the guy has something to offer us I think just hope he gets some gametime to prove it.
Maybe the “Dont Panic, blame everything on the Green Brigade” banner was what caused offence?
Well said Paul
Gollum will never give us big decision in games
Watching games from Scotland England Italyand Spain yesterday there isnt a referee anywhere who wouldnt have gave penalty and sent defender off ( except when its against us in Scotland)
Still cant believe people saying killie deserved win A good open game that we probably had 65% poss ,more shots , more corners and missed easier chances and denied stonewall penalty and thats us playing well below par
And for those saying we shouldnt have to wait on 94th minute penalty bol****s! The game should be played to rules and there are many better teams over history who have relied on pens to beat inferior teams Yesterday the wee naff of ref didnt play to rules
So when stokes went round keeper to slot Ball into net ,but was tackled by killie player and went down should have been penalty.no debate according to wee pat Nevin and Craig levine.only in the mind of willie collum was it never a penalty too.A penalty in any place but here,and some celts even saying stokes dived ffs.if that had been a killie player up the other end def pen given for sure.A lot easier to say stokes dived than to let Celtic have pen and send player off.Collum has failed on a regular basis disregarding rules when we play and will add may more in the future
Jam67
Just weren’t at the races yesterday. Had a bad feeling form the moment Hoops missed the one on one with Bell.
A few personnel changes required for sunday i think. hopefully the players will be out to make up for yesterday and we can enjoy the party.
On a different note, is it just me or is Craig Patterson unbearable to listen to as a co-commentator?
It’s not even a bias thing, it the pitch and tone of his voice coupled with his banal ramblings.
He offers zero insight or thought on what’s happening on the pitch all he does is describe what’s heppening in the replay we are all watching anyway!!!!!
Rant over, looking forward to sunday and the jelly and ice cream.
When I heard Kenny Shields last week bumming up Celtic, saying that we were so much better than every other team, and adding that it would be a travesty if we didn’t win the treble – I thought, oh aye, I hope there aren’t any Celtic players buying this guff!
Unfortunately I think there were a few in the team – either consciously or unconsciously – who went onto the park assuming that a Celtic win was inevitable.
Kilmarnock turned up with a good game plan and belief, so well done to them.
Hopefully lesson learned by the Celtic team.
Feeling pretty sanguine about yesterday. Kilmarnock came and had a go, leaving men up front when defending corners to give them an out, and attacked when able. I don’t feel as bad when that happens. It’s the time wasting spoilers that get to me and they didn’t do any of that.
For a few weeks we’ve had the rub of the green, bounce of the ball. We didn’t get it yesterday and our finishing was diabolical. On another day we’d have won it by a couple of goals.
No treble which is a shame but we’ve only two captains who’ve ever lifted a treble in our history and I’m not sure this is a treble winning team, yet. Well, clearly it isn’t.
Small comfort, but had we won yesterday the air of invincibility going with us to Ibrox would not have served us well, next week will be a battle.
Lots to play for and celebrations ahead.
Mon the hoops.
heppining = happening
i’ve been in Belfast too long, starting to type with a local accent…….
Reading this article brings home the fact not paying your taxes lets you afford to have better players than your opponents.It is not a level playing field in Spain neither has it been in Scotland.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/sam-wallace-spanish-clubs-unpaid-tax-bills-are-a-disgrace–and-a-warning-to-all-7576759.html
Lessons are really only useful if you get the chance to apply the learning gained.
Luckily next (Hun free) season is just round the corner..
No one wants to win anything unfairly.
I’ve never, ever heard a Tim say that they’d want to win any game, title or trophy by cheating.
I doubt that type of ‘win at any cost’ mentality is in our DNA……
The game in Scotland will only improve when these things are obviated.
Wullie looks like a man painted into his own wee SFA corner.
The wee guy playin’ up to his superiors…….
I suspect he knew full well he’d need to carry through and book Stokesy as well.
Just another costly honest mistake.
Aye.
soukous
Hopefully the tides are changing across Europe and our Board’s financial strategy leaves us in an excellent place to grab a seat at the top table when the house of cards inevitably comes tumbling down.
Mort
All thoughts now turn towards our game at the Bigotdome
I am pretty sure like ourselves, Lenny and the players will be fired up and looking to make amends for yesterdays horror show
A victory at the Tax Dodgers Arena would be the perfect antidote
Get them pumped up all week Lenny, and tear this mob a new one on Sunday
As an afterthought, our discipline will have to be perfect on Sunday. The MIB will do anything to stop us winning the title at their place
Wasn’t to be yesterday. Lenny will hyave them fired up for next week and get the ultimate prize.
But i do not like messing around back 4 in games when players are fit. Sometimes people like Ledley and Wanyama are getting shifted around for no reason. Ledley at left back, wanyama in defence. No need for it when we have natural players for positions.