Ten men is always a hard shift, nine sounds impossible, as it proved for Hibernian at home to Hearts on Sunday. The two second-half goals they conceded were the first since February, breaking a run of four clean sheets.
Across 11 games since January, Hibs have lost only twice, both to late Hearts goals. They drew with Newco, won at Celtic Park. Falkirk are the only other team to beat them since mid-December. The bookies who moved Celtic to favourites for the title after the weekend, have perhaps under-weighted Hibs run of sustained form.
In the debit column, their Catcher in the Goal, Raphael Sallinger, and right back Felix Passlack to red cards on Sunday, both are ineligible to face Celtic. Astonishingly, this will be the fourth consecutive game Celtic have faced a reserve goalkeeper. St Mirren’s Shamal George was injured 30 minutes into this month’s game at Celtic Park. The same side then misplaced their second-choice keeper early in the Scottish Cup game at Hampden. Falkirk’s Scott Bain missed a game back ‘home’ as he was injured last weekend.
To make the most of those absences, Celtic need to get close enough to test the Hibs keeper and back line. Throw crosses in from each side, get shots off early. Find out why the reserves are reserves.
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Good afternoon all from the port custom bar, Stirling.
Braw.
True Paul, Celtic may be facing a reserve goalie but every goalie we encounter pretty much faces one or other of our reserve strikers.
Given our lack of an automatic pick number 9.
KyogosReplacement?CSC
Friday eve!
The narrative until 12pm on Sunday will be all about Hibs catching Motherwell and how that will be the focus.
Major media effort to lessen the feeling of every Hibs fan I have spoken with since Sunday.
The feeling of wanting us to beat them or rangers to beat them if it means hearts not winning the league.
Motherwell winning v Falkirk means there will be a 9 point gap with 12 on the table with a trip to Ibrox and home games with us and Motherwell to navigate. Let’s hope the reality of an impossible task is clear by tea time on Saturday.
We don’t regularly seem to enjoy trips to Easter Rd.
My own experiences have been mixed over the years (first game ever there saw Joe McBride score 2 shooting down the slope as they beat us 2-0).
I have been lucky enough to see a few great wins though in amongst the 4-4 cup games with penalty losses and 4-3 cup defeats. Lubo and the 4-0, 3-0 to win the league in the original 9 in a row. Lennys cup win first Saturday after BR left.
Hopefully we can overcome Hibs Dickinson and everything else they throw at us and any win will do.
I would love Maeda to get a couple at a ground where they seem to routinely abuse him for just being a really good effective footballer.
I remember a man in a hat playing harmonica with his feet in Leicester square in the 1930’s.
B78
why get mazed in the shiteswiping industry
3 points Sunday.eye on prize.
Look after ourselves only
HH
BRRB
Did Mary the Bruce take you thro to check out her ancestors?
Here’s me thinking they were from Glenties :-))
Enjoy
HH
Nor will Holden Caulfield play for Hibs on Sunday 🤪
Tim Malone Will Tell @ 11:11 am,
No, I’m not at it again!!
We either go on evidence or we go on guff – guff like TBB @ 10:25 in the am.
There is overwhelming evidence to suggest the Board and Executive are incompetent when it comes to running a football club…
Multi, multi examples, let me give you one…
Wifried Nancy
There is no evidence that our manager and assistant manager did not know their job – the opposite in fact.
Multi, multi examples, let me give you one…
Allianz Arena 18th February 2025.
Could we stop with the circular arguments and nonsense hearsay and get a few facts in please.
Hail Hail
Celtic decide who gets into the stadium, tells you on Ts&Cs for season tickets,.Ironically the banning of the GB will help their case ,in not giving the huns any tickets,and will refer them to hun behaviour at the cup tie.They can’t guarantee an issued ticket will stay with an individual or get sold on,should be a slam dunk.
An Tearmann
Stop yer kerry oan. 😂
Joe McBride now there was a No 9 – the very mention of his name. 43 goals in one season till a knee injury, and infamously missing out on EC67. The great Stevie Chalmers scored Celtic’s most famous goal instead.
Unable to reclaim his place, a short spell at Hibs including those to goals against his first love, a 1960’s version of Henrik Larsson passed through Parkhead’s gates.
Super Joe CSC
This will annoy some, but where are the missing 2,000 ish Celtic supporters ?
Saying it forever, sometime soon, Celtic plc will put in a mandatory usage scheme for season tickets.
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saint stivs
April 30, 2026 2:10 pm
back to attendnaces.
As much as the Falkirk game was bhoy-ant, loud, and very supportive, there were still unoccupied seats.
Why oh why oh why bother owning a ticket if you cannot make it to the games for whatever reason.
Official attendance v Falkirk – 58,481 (1,960 unoccupied seats).
The Lisbon Lions lower tier public sales area was rammed full, but in every other area of the stadium there are little groups of empty seats, and hundreds of individual seats.
I cant unsee them,
What excuses are acceptable for not attending the next 2 games ?
We don’t operate a ticket exchange for fans that can’t make games. That being the case, there’ll always be a significant number of unoccupied seats.
All those Hibs fans that want their team beat unfortunately won’t get to pick the team. They won’t be in goals or find themselves playing CB.
Hibs will give us a game. I’ve no doubt about that.
One thing guaranteed for the next two home games…..the standing area will be hammered with bhoys who don’t have tickets there. Just look at the stairways and try going for a pish during game 😡
BSR.
my great old friend Jim Mooney talked about McBrides goals often, and a bit like Tontine he could remember exact games, and circumstances of goals. He oftend contended that Jock wrote Joe off too early, and maybe that is true because he scored goals after Celtic.
anyways, I always liked this piece. I recently heard Ferguson talking about watching Joe playing for the schools.
What a street in Govan than must have been.
—————
Sportspeople pay tribute to the sports stars who died in 2012
The Guardian 28 Dec 2012
Alex Ferguson on Joe McBride
Scotland footballer; would-be member of Celtic’s Lisbon Lions squad, joint top scorer with Alex Ferguson in Scottish League, 1965-66, died 11 July, aged 74
Joe was my first hero. I idolised him as a boy. He lived on the next close to me in Govan. I remember going to watch him play for St Gerards secondary school at Ibrox in a Scottish Cup final, and he was taking a corner kick. I was at the corner flag with my mates and he was taking it with his right foot – his left foot was marginally better, and I shouted: ‘Joe!’ And he turned round and he looked at me. I said: ‘You’re using your right foot!’ I don’t know why I did it! And he looked at me as if I had horns in my head and my mates are like: ‘What the **** are you doing?’ And he hooked the ball in.
I used to play with him as a kid in kickabouts, we loved it. He was always a goalscorer. We used to play in what was called the pen, at the local works, every Sunday. You would have to queue up for a game, it was about 20-a-side, and he was a goalscorer then too. He would score about 20 goals on a Sunday.
He was a natural goalscorer, two-footed, quick off the mark, and a really good finisher. He was the first of our group who went into professional football. He was a terrific guy.
As we grew up he went to Kilmarnock and then he was a traveller, to Wolves and Luton Town. Even then moving around was normal. In England it was full of Scottish players.
It wasn’t until Joe came back and played with Partick Thistle that the contact was there again between us because I was with St Johnstone by that time. I remember the 1965-66 season, when I was at Dunfermline and he was at Celtic [when Ferguson and McBride ended as joint-top scorers on 31 league goals]. When you’re top of the goalscoring chart you want to finish first. I actually got 45 goals that season in 51 games in total.
His great season was the next, 1966, when he scored something like 38 goals but then got his serious knee injury just before Christmas. Unfortunately he missed out on the European Cup final because of that. Celtic signed Willie Wallace as a replacement because they knew Joe would be out for a long time.
The thing I always remember was meeting him in February or March 1967, when I knew he was out injured, and I think I said to him: ‘You probably would have scored about 50 goals without the injury.’
He had an absolutely fantastic career. His scoring record is a great legacy [226 goals in 383 league games, third highest postwar], but that’s what he was: he was always a goalscorer. He was my first hero, my brother and I both idolised him.
It was a shock when he passed away. I kept in touch with young Joe [McBride’s son, also a footballer]. It was sad because he was a really genuine guy, a really nice man
Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s manager was talking exclusively to Jamie Jackson.
Bournesouprecipe
Joe was a great goal scorer and a really good guy.
Ironically signed by Hibs as a replacement for a very different kind of person in Colin Stein who had signed for rangers for a record £100000.
He also scored against us in that amazing 5-2 win in 68/9 when we scored 4 goals in the last 10 minutes at Easter Rd against a great Hibs team.
Later in life I had the pleasure of hosting Joe and Peter Martin down at new Wembley for the Man U v Spurs Carling Cup Final. It was great sharing his legend status with those in our company that day.
Bournesouprecipe @ 8:41 am,
Hope your lawn is looking pristine and you are enjoying the fruit of your labour…
Yes, you would hope the next four games will see a Celt or two reaching legendary status…
Callum Osmand could enter stage left…
Hail Hail
St. Stivs
This quote from Alex Ferguson stood out to me for obvious reasons ! ‘Celtic signed Willie Wallace as a replacement because they knew Joe would be out for a long time.’
Pity that sort of thing’s gone out of fashion .
SAINT STIVS
Superb stuff , – I like Alex Ferguson, not his fault he played for the wrong club. He’s very friendly with Celtic folk e.g. Willie Haughey, and secretly a Celtic supporter, he just doesn’t know it.
Burnley78
Splendid memories, – forgot about Colin Stein he was a scourge. Brings back 🎶 “ We don’t need your Colin Stein, Eusebio or Alan Gilzean “
Coz we’ve got someone twice as good – “ We’ve got Harry Hood “ Oh Harry, Harry etc etc 🎶
Joe was a lovely fella, and aunt of a wife of mine’s neighbour used to wave to him when she would see him.
GD
if they could get away with it, they would probably try to replace Kyogo with Willie Wallace now….
Possible moneyballers:
Celtic are reportedly weighing up a summer move for Polish defender Oskar Wojcik with Sandefjord centre-back Zinedin Smajlovic reportedly being considered.
Dividenders will delight £5m for the pair!
An Tearmann on 30th April 2026 10:39 am
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Sinn Fein are in power in Northern Ireland parliament which is registered in the UK.
SF are the SNP of N.I. full of guff and enthusiastically vaxxinne genocided their voter base who were stupid enough to trust them as they speak out of both sides of their mouths.
They should not have listened to Corbyn’s house of cards piss.
You usually bleat about posters not posting links to back up what they say.
Put up or shut up!
Independence under SNP will be nothing different to what it is now apart from an new Tartan VAR system which like the honest mistakes will favor only one team, and more Orange Order parades, and more never to be used cycle lanes all around the Parkhead area.
And Women will have even less rights than they do now under these gender bending freaks.
Suck it up like you usually do.
Sad are the homes…..
My Joe McBride story is that I used to go to watch Motherwell as a kid and Joe played for Motherwell. My older brother took me to my first Celtic games hit then joined the Merchant Navy and went off to see the world. My Dad would not let me go to Celtic games as he thought I was too young to go into Glasgow from Coatbridge.
So for a while I was a Motherwell fan and watched Joe banging in the goals for them every other week. My clearest memory though is of the 1965 Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden. My pal from St. Pat’s, Coatbridge, Johnny Manning (RIP) and I went to the game. Johnny was supporting Celtic and I had a foot in both camps but was mainly supporting Joe. Joe made it 1-0 and Celtic equalised. He then made it 2-1 only for Celtic to equalise again. The following Wednesday Celtic won the replay 3-0.
My Dad didn’t allow me to go to the evening game and next day I got pelters from my school mates and returned to the Celtic supporting fold. A crowd of us from school went to Parkhead for every home game and stood in the Celtic End behind the goals.
In later life I became headteacher to the school that Joe’s grandchildren attended. Joe phoned me one day to say that he and Ronnie Simpson had the European Cup and were taking it up to the Shetlands for a CSC function. He asked me if I would like him to bring it round to the school to show it to the pupils. It was one of the two best afternoons I had in my teaching career. I took Joe into our two Primary 1 classes thinking they wouldn’t know him because of their young age and it would require a bit of an explanation.
“ Do you know who our visitor is boys and girls?”
“That’s Joe McBride of the Celtic!” they yelled as one. I had underestimated his fame. It was the same in every classroom.
Back in my office he told me some great stories. He had loved playing for Motherwell. What I remember most is that he was a lovely, modest gentleman and it was great to meet my first hero in the flesh.
The other great memory I had as a heidie was when one of the astronauts from the International Space Station and the Director of the Houston Flight Control, Joel Montalbano visited the school. The only time pupils and staff asked if they could stay on after the Home Time bell sounded.
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy- Love that Joe McBride tale ! Thanks for sharing
Joe in the team list
It was a case of who would add to Joe’s tally
It became a given he would score
@Thomthethim:–)
HH
An Tearmann on 30th April 2026 3:34 pm
Joe in the team list
It was a case of who would add to Joe’s tally
It became a given he would score
@Thomthethim:–)
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If he played as a lone striker he would have been like Johnny Kenny was under Rodgers and Nancy.
Mr Stein was not a stupid idealist in a one horse league.
How many strikers have we ruined because 60,000 dullards refuse to see through the Rodgers one trick Pony, in the one horse league?
Sad are the homes….
Joe signed for Celtic not long after that Cup Semi against Motherwell. There was a bit of a tug of war with Dunfermline who offered more money than Celtic. The Pars offered £25000 for him and we offered £22500. Joe wanted to come to Celtic and Celtic appealed citing his age (27) which meant that he was considered to be a bit of a veteran at that time. How times and football have changed.
Celtic haven’t, however, and are still lowballing in the transfer market.
Kevvi
SF are the biggest party in the stateen
Wow! You are correct that currently is in the UK
However unlike your homeless grifter, currently looking for voters to give him an income,(as well as your tenner),some say he will have to rely it
No tongueing/salivating of the kings ring tho.
Stay unionist….that won’t change
Stop seeing Celtic 21 years ago
Typing bout Celtic since lols
.
Bless you
Saint Stivs on 30th April 2026 2:25 pm
BSR. my great old friend Jim Mooney talked about McBride’s goals often, and a bit like Tontine he could remember exact games, and circumstances of goals. He often contended that Jock wrote Joe off too early, and maybe that is true because he scored goals after Celtic.
*I believe that it was after that game Jock admitted he had let Joe too quickly, Joe was the ultimate predator and in Jock’s first big game for us he tore Big Billy a new one scoring both ‘well goals in a 2-2 draw in the semis of the SC.
glendalystonsils on 30th April 2026 2:50 pm
St. Stivs This quote from Alex Ferguson stood out to me for obvious reasons! ‘Celtic signed Willie Wallace as a replacement because they knew Joe would be out for a long time. Pity that sort of thing’s gone out of fashion.
*Actually we didnae as he was signed to partner Joe but unfortunately it didnae pan out and Stevie came back intae the side, which worked out for us.
Maolmuire O Muirgheasa on 30th April 2026 1:04 pm
I remember a man in a hat playing harmonica with his feet in Leicester square in the 1930’s.
If his feet were in Leicestershire Sq, where was the rest of him?
Just wondering like.
“The other great memory I had as a heidie was when one of the astronauts from the International Space Station and the Director of the Houston Flight Control, Joel Montalbano visited the school. ”
Were they returning Dixie’s penalty ball?
por cierto
Tough game coming up.
Agree Paul we should get the ball into the danger area earlier.
Not just in this game mind.
POR CIERTO on 30TH APRIL 2026 4:15 PM
“The other great memory I had as a heidie was when one of the astronauts from the International Space Station and the Director of the Houston Flight Control, Joel Montalbano visited the school. ”
Were they returning Dixie’s penalty ball?
por cierto
…………………….
They told me it went into a Black Hole and is gone forever. 🤣
Hospital. A terrible tragedy, no question. I can still hear the screams, the ones from the onlookers, anyway. Not his, mind you. He was too far gone to scream. Tram ran right over his legs. Like pressing a flower. But the music? That never stopped. Like a ghost from another dimension, or a drunk who forgot to die, it just kept playing. A lonesome caterwauling sound. The kind that splits rocks. And grins while it does it.
Memories.
Did I ever tell you about the time myself, Willie Maley, Frank McAvennie and Joe McBride were hosted on a yacht by a fella in a gimp suit? Leather hood. Zipper where his mouth should be. Served us champagne from a silver tray. Never said a word. Just nodded. Like that was normal, and some broken horn still howling through the fog.
Best prawn cocktail I ever had, and that is not a word of a lie.