Great times need suitable historical frame

At the start of this month I look at the fixture list; three away games, at Inverness in the Scottish Cup and both Edinburgh grounds in the league, sounded a tall order.  Before the Inverness game I wrote that it was games like that which often brought a promising treble run to a halt, while Hibs and Hearts had already taken points from us this season.

‘The record shows’, we’re in the next round of the cup and hit an incredible nine goals over two visits to Edinburgh without reply.

We’ve scored 21 goals away from home since the last goal conceded (at Udinese) and have scored 26 in domestic away games since Motherwell took the lead against Celtic on 6 November last year.  In that time Dunfermline Kilmarnock and Dundee United have scored at Celtic Park, while Falkirk managed a goal at Hampden in the League Cup semi-final, but I don’t remember such an imperious Celtic team away from home.

I remember throwing a troublesome away stat at Gordon Strachan’s team.  Despite winning the league Gordon’s team went over 15 months in all competitions without keeping a clean sheet away from home.  Celtic were the best team in the land, indisputable winners, but no matter how lowly the opposition, there was a fragility about the team.

These great times need to be placed in a suitable historical frame.

The signed Celtic jersey we were auctioning on eBay raised £5000 on Saturday. I get to see a lot of Celtic fans, so should know your nature well enough by now, but you continue to raise the bar higher.

Stunned.

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