Kieran, Jozo, daring to complain about the Government

I lost count the number of times I heard “Worst Dundee United team I’ve ever seen” on the way out of Celtic Park yesterday. They were guileless, unable to do any more than stand in Celtic’s way, and they didn’t even do that very effectively, as Leigh Griffiths demonstrated.  I hope Mixu gets a grip on things soon as I’ve seen a better United team than that relegated.

For Celtic it was an important win on the back of a week to forget. Martin O’Neill was fond of saying the most important thing after a defeat is to avoid another one, when confidence slips it can often do so for a while.

Kieran Tierney won the free kick which led to the second goal and the penalty for the third. His energy levels were high and he looked every inch a Celtic player. Ronny knows teenage talent needs to be developed at a comfortable pace but the stage is Kieran’s right now he might just make the position his own.

Delighted to see Jozo Simunovic after a long and, for some, worrying absence. This was a difficult game to judge central defenders, as Celtic did so little defending, but what was asked of him was carried out well. He also showed a decent change of pace and sent a rasping shot on target from 30 yards.

While last week will take a while to leave the system, the next five days are enormously important: Heats in the League Cup on Wednesday before Aberdeen on Saturday. We can speculate on what’s destroyed Aberdeen, but whatever it is, there will be clear decks for the visit to Glasgow on Saturday, but before then we have one of our biggest domestic challenges of the season at Tynecastle.  Need to get it right for both.

My first reaction when I saw the Green Brigade banner yesterday was they some poor sod was likely to get huckled for this entirely peaceful and appropriate protest against a ridiculous law and ever-conspiratorial government and police. Such is the nature of the Offensive Behaviour Act that you can’t really complain about the Scottish Government confident that you are free to do so.

The Scottish Government-Police Scotland pact is set in stone. No amount of ridicule from courts to stadiums seem to affect it.  I remain appalled and alarmed.

Brendan Sweeney, legend from Celts for Change and more recently Celtic Graves, is launching his book, Celtic: The Early Years, at the Jock Stein Lounge this Thursday, 29 October. I’ve had a preview, it’s an incredible work. If you’d like to attend the launch, to catch up with the author on some of the most incredible times in our club’s history, email him to book your seat, brendan67@ymail.com