Ross County are a point off a European spot, a gap that has been narrowing for months. Their last six games have seen wins over St Johnstone, Motherwell, St Mirren and Aberdeen, a draw with Hearts and a solitary defeat, at Celtic Park.
County were points adrift at bottom of the table as recently as December, having picked up just three points from their opening 10 games. They are now a team on what looks like an inevitable march to European football next season. So yes, we have a proper job to do on Sunday.
In the event Celtic emerge from season 2021-22 as champions, two added-time goals at Dingwall can be regarded as having an enormous bearing on the outcome. In December, with Celtic drawing 1-1 and reduced to 10 men, Tom Rogic dinked a cross high into the County six-yard box, where Anthony Ralston rose, salmon-like to head home in the 97th minute of play.
Celtic went into that round of fixtures four points behind, the prospect of further slippage felt ominous with so many difficult fixtures ahead. The remarkable recovery told us lots about this group of players and their never-say-die attitude.
The other significant game at Dingwall was, of course, Newco’s visit there a month later. I watched the highlights that night, County were poor, conceded three and could have shipped a few more. Newco should have won the game comfortably, but a combination of lax defending and dreadful goalkeeping kept the match alive until County conjured up a 96th minute equaliser.
History is made in moments like these. News that Josip Juranovic is missing for the game gives Anthony Ralston his Dingwall stage again, horses for courses, leaps to mind. Just as important will be the fitness of Giorgos Giakoumakis. The Greek scored his second hattrick of the season in the aforementioned recent County defeat to Celtic – another horse for the County course.
Expect the pitch to be hard, bumpy and probably trained on today. Defending will need to be assured, passing from the back will be more risky than normal. Still, Celtic will travel with a point to prove. Expect another away win.
516 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- »
Wee Bit of positive news for Celts
As you all know in the last year we lost our fellow Celt Delaneys Dunky(Garry).Well today his son Ryan and his partner Kirsty were married:-)))
The very best of luck to both.
Hail Hail to Ryan and Kirsty.
God bless their future
HH
Only 3 of the Leipzig team from today likely to start on Thursday.
They also have the easier run in by far of the teams 2nd to 6th in Germany.
Ryan and Kirsty congratulations to you both.
God bless.
David 66
I lived down south for 10 years and so got around a fair few back then.
Still managed back up to paradise every 2 weeks mind you. Even in the 80s and 90s !
HH Ryan and Kirsty
Sky showing the least obvious angle for the ‘penalty ‘…..pathetic
BURNLEY78
Thanks for the ticket offer. Much appreciated.
I have a family commitment tomorrow morning so won’t make it.
Thanks again.
AT – Great to hear my old boyhood pal Garry’s bhoy got married.
Hail Hail Ryan and Kirsty and Garry who will be looking down and toasting with a pint in hand.
D :)
Burnley78 enjoy your day and bring back a victory.
I am having quite a few bhoys in the house tomorrow for the game after I got reprimanded by MrsDavid66 after coming home a bit late the last 3 weeks in a row after being out.
Will still end up inebriated right enough.🍺🍺🍺🍻
D :)
Ryan and Kirsty, congratulations.
Brian
Evening all.
An early post of songs this evening. Every Saturday evening, Mrs BB and I turn off the telly, sit back and listen to some music. Love it.
Getting excited for tomorrow’s game, quietly confident, 1-3 the good guys.
https://youtu.be/vvVtjaOnwog
https://youtu.be/ZZK5tH7J_0g
https://youtu.be/5ZnrZnFSlWU
Hope you enjoy.
Nite all.
Brian
HH
Class BB
Ange puts the team together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Loy55z4GpA
AN TEARMANN on 23RD APRIL 2022 7:14 PM
Wee Bit of positive news for Celts
As you all know in the last year we lost our fellow Celt Delaneys Dunky(Garry).Well today his son Ryan and his partner Kirsty were married:-)))
The very best of luck to both.
Hail Hail to Ryan and Kirsty.
Big D, you brought back a really nice memory for me with that. The first time I arranged to meet Delaney’s Dunky in North Stand Lower he was late! Instead I talked to Ryan, a lovely young man, who promised he would tell his Da I had been there as arranged. 2 mins before ko DD barges his way along Row BB, passing 30 seats to get to me and give me a big bear hug. And point out Friesdorfer somewhere behind me!!
Wish Ryan and Kirsty all the best; I’m sure they toasted DD.
Ryan & Kirsty
May you days together be blessed.
Ryan and Kirsty congratulations to you both.
I was very fond of Garry. Had fun with him in Dublin Glasgow Lisbon and Edinburgh. A good guy.
I met Ryan once when he came with his dad to Dublin in 2016.A nice young man.
Best of luck to you.
VP- Ta for update HH
Bada
No probs big fhella.hh
Team for manana:
Hart
Ralsto CCV Starfelt Taylor
Hatate Cal Mac
O’Reilly
Kyogo GG Maeda
D :)
D66…I’d keep Kyogo on the bench and play Jota on the right.
And I would start with Rogic and bring on Mo’R from the bench.
And I might start Turnbull with Hatate to come on later.
Otherwise, I agree with you 200%. :-)
scullybhoy on 23rd April 2022 8:34 am
JHB on 23rd April 2022 12:42 am
18 Yard Man @ 12:05
—
…and after that ‘witty & withering’ intro, are you actually going to offer any reply, retort, or, rebuttal?
Probably not – too much like hard work. The ‘back-slappers’ & ‘shoot from the hip’ lot on here, like nothing more than a slogan-phrase that they can bandy around when intelligent answers fail them and their agenda needs sating….& that is almost all of the time.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Make America Great Again
Get Brexit Done
SNPCult
The ‘noble’ goal of liberating and denazifying Ukraine
The slogan phrase loving CSC
David 66,
Only change for me would be Big NIR for Hatate.Should be nowhere near the team at the moment.Looks like he is out on his feet.Timing,passing,pace,all off.Not doing him any favours playing him.Push Calmac further up.
Why do huns always look so happy when they win or lose?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61115624
WEEBOBBYCOLLINS on 23RD APRIL 2022 6:10 PM
“When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.”
… Jake Houseman
“When I’m wrong, I say I’m right.”
…JHB
#####
‘It is better to be interesting and wrong than boring and right.’
Fred Hoyle
Not sure if I agree with him or not, but it’s certainly a point of view. Thankfully he wasn’t a train driver or an electrician or anything where it might matter too much, just the Astronomer Royal.
Reading some of the comments,I must have been watching a different Hatate.Knackered,surely its obvious to all ?
No ?.Oh well,must just be me then.
Goodnight all.
Seeing as someone has mentioned that thing about the SNP being a cult some of you might be amused by this little episode. Honestly, if you didn’t laugh you’d weep.
#####
‘Euan McColm: SNP can’t laugh off its ministers’ failures forever
Willie Coffey’s debate gaffe shows the stark reality of the party’s incompetence
Euan McColm
Saturday April 23 2022, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
Few people work harder than the staff of the SNP’s press office. Nationalist spinners are utterly dedicated to the art of outrage and each day brings furious new statements about the failings of opponents who may be placed into one of two categories: the dishonest or the stupid.
Implicit in these relentless attacks is the idea that Nationalist politicians are fundamentally different to others. They are uniquely wise, honourable and hard-working, and a vote for anyone but the SNP candidate is an immoral act.
Which brings me to the miserable subject of Willie Coffey MSP who, in just a few seconds, revealed a serious intellect-deficit in the SNP group at Holyrood. The Nationalist member for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, who serves as deputy chairman of the local government, housing and planning committee, was in the chamber on Tuesday, where his role was to close a debate on the national planning framework. This was not a taxing duty; Coffey simply had to stand up and read a statement.
We might never have known quite how inadequate Coffey is had it not been for the fact the politician expected to open the debate — Green MSP Ariane Burgess — failed to turn up.
Deputy presiding officer Liam McArthur suggested to Coffey that, in the circumstances, he might open proceedings. What followed was excruciatingly embarrassing. Coffey stood and, displaying a breathtaking inability to think on his feet, proceeded to deliver his closing speech. He giggled as he described a debate that had not yet taken place.
“From my perspective, the debate has been immensely constructive,” he said, “and I hope that it has been helpful . . .” Coffey chuckled on for a few more seconds before McArthur could take no more. “I do not think that this is reflecting particularly well on the chamber,” McArthur said before suspending proceedings.
McArthur’s remarks were quite the understatement. It reflected appallingly on Holyrood that an MSP did not have the ability to move off script, and that he didn’t seem to grasp just how inappropriate it was to place on the official report of proceedings his opinion of a debate that hadn’t happened.
Had this been a Tory MP in Westminster, the SNP press office would have gone into overdrive. We’d have heard accusations of parliament — and voters — held in contempt by a politician of such poor quality that their election could only have been a mistake.
Yet Coffey was not elected because of his ability but because he is a Nationalist. Scotland’s constitutional division means that the SNP — which gathers up all the pro-independence votes while the unionist parties have to make do with a share of the rest — could stand a block of wood for election and bank on success. Coffey’s political success adds great weight to that hypothesis.
The Ayrshire MSP is no lone wolf. Start digging into the SNP group at Holyrood and it won’t be long before your spade clangs on the head of an imbecile.
This lack of talent in the SNP group has some upsides for the party’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon. Given that so few of her MSPs are able to think for themselves, she may depend on them to do what they are told without asking questions.
The downside, of course, is that good government requires the participation of clever people. And when it comes to creating a ministerial team, Sturgeon doesn’t have many of those available.
A frequent — and fair — criticism of the SNP administration is that it is too timid, that it shies away from risky projects such as long overdue reform of the NHS or the education system. One reason for that is that the party fears any controversy that might damage the argument for independence. But another reason, say some SNP insiders, is that Sturgeon and deputy first minister John Swinney don’t have much confidence in their team.
“Basically, Sturgeon and Swinney micromanage everything,” one source said. “Some people say that’s because she’s a control freak and maybe there’s something in that. If there is, it’s a good thing because you need a control freak to keep on top of such a poor-quality team.”
When the SNP won its first Holyrood election in 2007, it did so thanks to the support of a significant number of Scots who did not favour independence. During campaigning that year, then SNP leader Alex Salmond was at great pains to reassure Scots that a vote for the Nationalists was not a vote to break up the Union but a vote for a competent government. Let us show you what we can do under devolution, he said, and maybe then we’ll talk about constitutional change.
This softly-softly approach to the independence question seduced enough former Labour voters to put the Nationalists in power. Have those voters witnessed the competent government they were promised? No. Absolutely not.
Scandal-scarred projects to build major new hospitals in Edinburgh and Glasgow have seen delays and complaints of substandard work. A promise of new ferries was broken, and now ministers evade questions on the matter.
Last week, in a jaw-dropping statement, the Scottish government claimed it couldn’t find paperwork relating to the £240 million ferry contract. We should hope this was a lie because if it is truly the case that these records have been lost then we have a government that cannot be trusted to properly administer public funds.
Across other areas, SNP incompetence is clear. Standards of literacy and numeracy in our schools are troublingly poor, while hospital waiting time targets are routinely missed.
We can expect the SNP to do very well in next month’s local government elections. The monomania of committed nationalists will see to that. But without the power to hold her promised second independence referendum, how long will Sturgeon be able to spin the idea that her party represents a model of competence?
Will the Braveheart true-believers continue to ignore the reality of the SNP’s failure in perpetuity, or might they start to question why the party has failed so conspicuously to use the powers it already has to reform public services?
One thing is for sure: if the SNP lets voters see the likes of Coffey up close, it will do its cause no favours at all.’
Surely the phrase of the last couple of Centuries
“The liberation of Mariupol ”
Used to be called Scorched Earth policy.
Anyway,now that Putin has “Liberated “it,the residents can now all go back to their homes.
Ernie…Fred Hoyle could have been wrong on many things but never boring.
Just glad he’s not picking the team for tomorrow. Might have put Barkas in goal.
Guys probably agree regarding Hatate but not Turnbull in that position not right away.
I think RC are going to boot us off the park as they will have watched another cheating bassa ref last week let Huns do the same and get away with it.
We need pace up front and direct runs, Kyogo and Maeda both offer that with the Braun of GG a perfect foil.
Whichever 11 Ange plays let’s get at them from the off.
D :)
Right fight time.
D :)
Turkeybhoy..re Mariupol
Take it easy with all that pro western Anglo American Imperialist propaganda.
You have been brainwashed by the daily telegraph.
Putins little helper will be on soon with the truth
ERNIE LYNCH @ 9:59
—–
As long as 350k of our ‘kind’ shamelessly keep voting for the cult because they are “sticking to the huns”, empty-headed policy, incompetence & corruption will continue because any opportunity for intelligent debate is met only with fingers in ears and a bellowing of “argh….Boris Johnson”.
Coffey typifies most SNP MSPs, MPs, Office bearers, members & voters. “Push the propaganda….it’s all we have”
totally lost it
JHB…fud!
Haha unionist amoeba twins.
Both contorted in their own wee way by Tony Blair.
How it has cored you both.
Poor wee Victims of propaganda themselves.
HH