Celtic have been completely dominant in Scottish football on many occasions but only once did this result in a domestic treble (the treble was won another two occasions when Celtic were only marginally ahead of the competition but were ruthlessly focussed).
At all other times we have had a morning like this, tossed out of one of the cup competitions by a vastly over-performing team. Little more than a handful of games against weaker opponents stood between us and a treble in each of the last two years, but as we have noted for many years now, Celtic are not consistent enough to win the treble. The evidence is substantial.
There are parallel ways we should react to this. In the middle of a Champions League campaign we should be focused on little else, players should be rested for the challenge ahead, even if there are resultant risks, but there will be disappointment that we didn’t see a recognisable performance from those drafted into the team. It wasn’t until Matthews, Commons and Stokes arrived last night that we looked anything like the Celtic we know. On no occasions should we lose at home to a Championship team looking for their first away win since April.
That domestic treble from a dominant position was achieved by Martin O’Neill in season 2000-01, a time when Martin scarcely made a substitution before 85 minutes, never mind rested players. This drew criticism, of course, as his ‘feeder’ players were denied opportunities to grow. Despite last night’s reversal I would still rather use these games to develop the wider squad.
I also don’t subscribe to the belief that ‘every game is a cup final’. Motivational strategies lose effectiveness if you roll them out too often.
Credit to Allan Moore and his “boys with desire and work-rate”.
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BCW
Deidco must be World Spin and Denial Champions. Their haul of shame is there for all to read…and its a long read.
Some examples of spin..
Barca 72…”.heavy handed Spanish polis thugs’
Newcastle 69..’Overcrowded terracing.’
Manchester 08..’the telly broke’
Pamplona 07..’heavy handed Spanish polis’
Bucharest 08..’heavy handed baton wielding Rumanian cops’
Villa pk 76….’intimidating tricolour flown at the Holte end’
Hampden 80..’gloating Celtic fans invaded pitch’
The last ones probably true but although I paraphrase the rest, they were the excuses and reasons given at the time for Hun actions.
No common denominator there then.
Good night all
I will leave you with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnmFfs9JXBY&sns=tw
Cant believe its just over a year fae the wee Oscar bucket collection
CQN and our family doing our best.
bring on the killiecsc
TET –
How can you get 3 goals from 1 corner?
:-)
Geordie Munro @ 23:26
I did.
big-cup-winners
23:01 on 25 September, 2013
See there’s a story linking Celtic to an Icelandic forward, currently at Ajax.
————————————
Yes read it. I actually mentioned this guy on here on 2 occasions before the signing deadline. He is a big mate of Alfie’s and like Alfie he won’t end up at Celtic.
Firstly I hope Neil Lennon is our manager for the next ten years and more however twice this season he has taken the option too lightly and IMHO got the line up totally wrong.
First in Karagandy – playing a guys at the back that had never played together rather than going for tried and tested centre halves. This might be unfair as I believe Ambrose was carrying an injury and Neil didn’t fancy playing him on the artificial surface.
Then last night against Morton – middle to front was fringe players and new signings that have not yet settled into Celtic life. Last night was not the time to mess with the team.
Having stated this I’m not too unhappy to be out of the League Cup just mad about getting beat at home by Morton.
Aberdeen v United would be the ideal cup final at Celtic Park.
Also all the talk about a wasted opportunity of win a treble for me the time to win a treble is 2015/16!
Tom
Just ask the pie man >}
How you keeping ?
HH
latchford
21:23 on 25 September, 2013
Yawn
Morrissey the 23rd
23:01 on 25 September, 2013
Cowiebhoy in support of Fearless Oscar & Family
21:21
176 signed resolutions were handed in to Celtic today. I offered to hand in lots more but have been told that wont be required.
……………………………………………………..
Great stuff Morrisey, my fear was that you would have a few more than a hundred and the board would try to fault or debar some to bring you under the magic number. That is what they used to do with the Trust apparently, back in the day when Sean Hamill and Charlie Johnstone were on it.
Will be interesting to see how it is portrayed. I can’t see the board endorsing the resolutions but how far will they go to distance themselves from them?
Tom
Let’s forget about it and move on …whatever
Too much of that at CFC in the domestic cups
Last word on it from me …
leftclicktic oscar in our thoughts
23:27 on
25 September, 2013
Good night all
I will leave you with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnmFfs9JXBY&sns=tw
Cant believe its just over a year fae the wee Oscar bucket collection
CQN and our family doing our best.
bring on the killiecsc
—————————————–
I remember picking up SMB in the morning and whilst waiting for him to get oot of his bed, tweeting that Wee Oscar would find out today what the Celtic family was about. Little did I know how successful the day would be and indeed a potential catalyst that this would be to start a number of events from the Celtic family which continued to stun me ( I do not know why) again and again to help our Wee Celtic Warrior.
God Bless the wee mhan, his family and all the Celtic family that rallied to his cause
Makes me happy just watching the video again, expertly compiled by Bjmac. So many helpers and so many supporters, humble to the end. Hope it works out well for the family
thanks for posting the vid
HH
CRC
Morrissey the 23rd
Canamalar
If the resolution is rejected by the board, I wouldn’t give up, it will cause mayhem on the blog as to their reasons mind you.
I said many moons ago that it should be taken through the courts.
There will be a few lawyers out there who would give their time for free, I’m sure someone like say Paul Mc, the scottslaw bloke would advise and point in the right direction, he may well give his time for free, unless you ask, you will never know.
HH
crc
Minor injury last Saturday so skipping Thursday game to be less of a risk for Saturday.
I doubt whether most of the team were as motivated in front of 20k mostly bored fans as they are by CL games in front of 60k excited fans. That’s only human nature. The Lions were never as excited, professional or clinical in playing Morton as they were for more glamorous games.
It is a factor but not an excuse.
In the modern era, the gap between diddy teams and the top teams has drastically narrowed. Well organised and hard working defences against a classier but not fully fired up forward line can result in a stalemate. Add to that a slip and an unintentional handball and a drab draw becomes a home loss. It happened to MON’s team, WGS’s team and Neil’s team. It will happen to the next guy too.
I never expected the Treble. I posted, on record here these last two seasons, that Trebles are rare even when teams are dominant. Celtic in the late 60s/ early 70s, rangers in the 90s and Celtic now did not deliver a string of trebles despite being clearly the best team in the land.
It is the wildly optimistic mineshafters who felt a treble was a no-brainer that even Terry Butcher could deliver. When you set the bar high for someone else to deliver your “ambition”, you are cooking a recipe for disappointment and failure.
This Celtic team knows that we will win this league therefore, it is hard to give 100% focus on each game, even though the management will encourage them to do so. Even mickbhoy has more intelligence than to believe that ICT are truly going to sustain a challenge throughout a whole season, even though he will say the opposite on here because he is eating worms.
If you play a sport against opposition you know you will beat, 9 times out of 10 you can manage to produce a win regardless of your form. But on 1 occasion out of 10 you will lose.
With Ross Co., St. Mirren and now Morton we are batting at more than 10% losses but then we are not the Lisbon Lions. We are just a good young team who will need to continue to work hard just to stay where we are.
Meanwhile, those expecting a 2nd Lisbon, another UEFA final, an easy Treble, A fully seated reserve stadium, a string of £5m buys, 3 reserves replacing first team players each year, a growth agenda, a proven manager, a proven goalscorer from a top league, and never to be beat by a lesser team, are going to continue to be disappointed.
Pfayr,
Domestic cups? I wouldn’t say so.
League cup definitely.
BCW
Huns just re write history to suit
Give them enough time and the liquidation will be forgotten about ..
Hells teeth they’ve convinced themselves they’re RFC …
Geordie
You forgotten about the defeats to Ross County and Hearts ….
Anyway nobody seems to mind as long as we win the main prize….the one horse race league
bigshuggy
Very funny
Was I the only one on here that actually looked up “confugulum” to see what part of the goalie’s anatomy you were, ahem, pinpointing?
THE EXILED TIM @ 23:41
I spoke to him about it a few months ago. I also thought he’d be supportive.
The exiled Tim
“I’m sure someone like say Paul Mc, the scottslaw bloke would advise and point in the right direction, he may well give his time for free”
Let’s hope he didn’t notice himself being called a self serving gobshite by one of the main players in the proposal then.
Morrissey the 23rd
And he wasn’t ?
HH
PFAyr
I remember when the Glasgow Cup was a competition we were bothered about.
It did not prove too difficult to let that object lapse in our priorities. The League Cup remains important but only, if you are not going to win Euro qualification via league or SC success.
It is a good thing that we can afford to be sniffy about the League Cup. I remember times when winning that competition was our best or only chance of success. I don’t want to go back to those days.
Off line for a few days ..play nice and FFS beat Killie
HH
SFTB
Your opinion
I don’t share it
kickinthenackas
Get in touch please. Respond and I’ll tell you why. #frobbied@yahoo.co.uk.
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
Geordie Munro
There must be other Tim lawyers out there, Paul McBride can’t have been the only one.
HH
Pfayr
Of course I haven’t.
But if you think the team team on each occasion was tinkered with, weakened, filled with fringe players, new signings and players not giving good effort I think you are well wide of the mark.
PFayr
They are a strange lot no doubt. Imagine being able to lie to yourself and publicly sped ounce the truth. Remarkable lot and would make a good social study project for some intellectual.
Celtic fans don’t like loosing at any time, no matter whom we play.
That doesn’t mean it won’t happen!
However!, I can take my ‘licking’s’, and move on!
I m not in the business of playing the ‘blame-game, it still hurts, so, I just put it behind me,
why?, because I AM a Celtic Fan! I can see no value in letting ‘ our enemy’ feed on our ire!
Still, there is always something to be recovered from any disappointment, if you can hold
your nerve!
For me, and I speak only for myself now, I was greatly heartened by the fact soooo many
‘Peeple’ were out-ted’ over the lat two days!
Gives you a ‘ warm- feeling, doesn’t it!!!
H.H.
There must be tet.
Whether they will do it pro bono is another matter.
Geordie Munro
Then we get a fund going.
……………………………………..
Nite Timland.
HH
KTF
THE EXILED TIM @ 23:48
I spoke to him about a blog he wrote on the subject and said I would gather enough support to take it to UEFA if he would front it. He didn’t think it was worthwhile trying and it didn’t seem to me that he wanted to discuss it further. It was a short chat. I don’t think it’s fair for me to comment any further as he doesn’t post here and cannot respond. He’s done sterling work exposing the wrongs in Sevconian and making things clear to the layman like me.
If anybody can get him or someone similar on-board. Please do so.
HH
TET,
We better get nans proposal delt with first then.
PF – should you be mentioning horse races after your day at Ayr?! :-)
T4
PF Ayr
“Your opinion
I don’t share it”
Which of the three opinions I posted do you disagree with?
Do you think we should still treat the Glasgow Cup seriously?
Do you think the LC is important for reasons other than it being the only Euro route left to you or just to rub noses that we got a treble? (Are treble winning seasons really the pinnacle of our aims?)
Or do you long for a return to the days where we sweated on the LC outcome?
Weefra
Tried to email you there…not sure of it was correct…
Kikinthenakas
Kickinthenackas
Got your email. Gie me a minute to answer you. :))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
SFTB – the LC only takes on any real significance when we haven’t won a trophy for a few years. I doubt I’ve had a better celebration than the night in the Smiddy on Dumbarton Road after watching Wim’s Tims beat the Arabs at Mordor. We were dancing on the tables and absolutely blootered!
My one and only time in the Copeland Road stand….unlike some who post on here! ;-)
T4
Sftb,
For me the league cup lost it when the euro place was taken away.
And why was the place taken away?
I’m repeating myself now but I’d do away with the competition. I was pissed off last night but I’m sure I’ll survive.
Outside these isles I’m not sure if anyone else runs a league cup. Most have ditched it as it’s a pain in the thrupennys