I’ve been to a few non-Celtic games over the years and always found is striking the different reaction mid-table teams have to a defeat compared to how we react. There is simply not the expectation that every game has to be won. For most of the last 40-odd years Celtic have been nip-and-tuck with a direct opponent at the top of the league, so a single defeat can have a significant bearing on league title prospects.
Even when we were not involved in a close league race, the desire to win by an astonishing number of points provided an edge, whereas, back in the 90s, the chasm between Celtic and the top was made increasingly unbearable by each passing defeat.
This season is different. We’ve dropped 10 points in 10 games but substantial evidence exists that the team is making solid progress, a fact not disputed by the support, even as they left Celtic Park on Saturday. For most, the distress of defeat has tempered.
We’re two points ahead of three teams at the top of the league, with a game in hand, which makes this the most competitive SPL ever. The gap between second and second last is just six points, St Mirren who sit second bottom, would be level on points with joint-second St Johnstone had they won the game between these two earlier this month.
All this honest competition has resulted in a rise in average attendances for most clubs during “Armageddon”. It’s too easy to poke fun at the miscalculations of the SPL and SFA chief executives who believed the game needed a fatally flawed giant in the top flight. Instead, what it needed was genuine competition, which we have, to a degree.
Hibs, Aberdeen and St Johnstone are all two points from the top of the table while Inverness and Killie are only one win below them. Can you imagine how good a league this would be without the last remaining over-sized behemoth?
The SPL didn’t need Rangers, in fact, it is a better, more competitive league without them. The same goes for Celtic. We are not good for the league and do nothing for Aberdeen, United, Hibs or clubs who want nothing but a sporting chance in the game. Many of these clubs seem to have Stockholm Syndrome; locked into the belief that they need to be with their tormentors.
If I was writing a blog about any of these clubs I’d tell Celtic to go find themselves some fantasy football league and let the rest of the country get back to a proper sporting endeavour. They have nothing to lose but their loser labels.
The next issue of CQN Magazine is due out shortly, let me know if you would like to advertise, advert@cqnmagazine.co.uk.
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Roy Croppie
All they ever do is pay is lip service to these things
Small minority don’t you know…yada , yada, yada
I think we should judge Miku only when he has had the chance to play in the real Celtic team, playing 100 percent, must win attitude. He never had much of a chance on Saturday IMO. He looked very disappointed with himself and his performance when coming off. I don’t believe he understood that we just wanted to get on with the game and his slow trudge to the side infuriated many of us.
EC67
To lose the GB would be to lose the very soul of our club.
Spiritually as much as Physically.
It would be the beginning of an end.
And it would come at a cost we could never repay.
U
roy croppie
That’s great, hopefully lots of supporters will take the time to do the same.
Publicity is the other ally the GB have.
ACAB!
Ugly
Correct…well said
When is the AGM being held?
I also feel a letter to PL coming on!
The club’s collusion with the polis is both disturbing and disgraceful!
HH!!
ulysses mcghee
The GB are literally our sons and daughters.
PFayr
‘lip service’ is spot on. Wearing t-shirts and badges will change nothing…minutes later we hear the famine song. I keep forgetting that’s only banter!
Nice badge Ally.
Can anybody guess what “respected” ex-referee popped up on Radio 5 today to talk about Chelski-Man Utd..?
I worked in Goldbergs…volunteered to help design and construct top floor area where kids could meet father Xmas ..being dyslexic didn’t help when I was sacked for sign writing ” Satans Grotto” above the entrance ..
AGM 16th Nov
to anybhoys whom I forwarded oldtims new number on Saturday..
he has just deleted them all, so you are safe for a wee while yet… o))
LondonCalling
Now is the ‘Winter’ of my discontent.
How about tomorrow night the rest of the fans “stand up for the green brigade” ridiculous and disgraceful that this amazing section of our support are being victimised in this way.
Hi all
Dont waste your time writing to PL on the subject of behaviour in Celtic Park ,I did and he sent me a copy of Stadium regulations which he printed from the club website, nothing about my concerns particularly on the treatment of the Green Brigade and the wrecking crew from Govan.
What Every One Wants,now there was a shop.
Not watched the Seville 90 mins since either, feel sick at the thought.
Very much the one that got away…
Pretty much the exact same Porto side won the big cup 12 months later, which says a lot about them and us
BT..I am due to pick him up tomorrow his new phone still ok?
Why do we not get everyone to request this information from the police.
I would envisage one document where you have to enter your own name and address attached to an email with some instructions and then forwarded to all guilty parties. The police and Celtic plc. They both only ever want our money. If no quick response is forthcoming then hit the PLC hard and where it hurts. The pocket.
HH
I was thinking about the position of the club re the Green Brigade.
Weeminger said earlier that the club might be sort of held to ransome by the police re issuing licences etc, at the time I thought he had a point.
I can’t see how they can object to with holding any licence, on what grounds ????
Cos they don’t like the GB !!!!
A half wit lawyer could get any objection thrown out.
The board are complicit, they were last year when the bill was brought in, what gets me is the reason why.
At the end of the day they are shooting themselfs in the foot, many will walk if the GB go, the atmosphere will be non existant apart from the booing…..
Are the board desperate to get back on par with the huns ? if not, they sure are doing a good job at trying.
I could understand the boards position if the GB were trouble makers, they are not, they are all inclusive, non sectarian, non facist unlike other supporters of a rival [ past ] club.
The suits should be defending the GB to the ends of the earth, but alas, they seem hell bent on dividing the support.
I have been swithering whether to buy an overseas season book.
I don’t have Celtic TV cos the picture is brutal, that is down to my broadband width, so a season book seems like a compromise.
It will have to wait, I am not going to support them while they are treating sections of the support differently, and in doing so deeming them criminals for a political end.
Who has big lists of Celtic fan email addresses ?
Has this infornation been put up on the clubs facebook page ?
HH
I will offer my AGM pass and another family members to contacts I have within the Green Brigade, they can attend and raise own concerns as required. Their support is part of the experience I enjoy about being a Celtic Fan
London calling,
Yep, winters; a disgraced bigot on to give his opinion on an accusation of racism. You couldn’t make it up.
Palacio
I park at Nuneaton Street. Never had a problem there.
MWD
The laddy….,
Can the GB post evidence of the harassment on their website, especially any evidence of breach of data protection, names can be blanked out on any documents, letters and correspondence the proves the board/club were actually the source of information.
I suppose we could raise an FOI to the club to request how many supporters details have been issued to the authorities and how many requests the authorities have officially made.
dessybhoy
If they keep treating Celtic fans like this you’ll be able to ‘laterally move’ all around the stadium.
johan murdoch
phone still ok, he will be online soon enough..
pabloh
to be fair to the plum Nicky Campbell,he did try to nail him on it..
Maybe Ron Atkinson was busy!
FT Celtic U20s 1-0 Dunfermline U20s. Jack Kirwan’s second-half strike gives the youths a deserved three points.
All over at Firhill Celtic win one nil
dessybhoy
I understand where you are coming from regarding writing to PL about the (mis)-treatment of the GB – but surely if enough people DID write to him expessing their concerns in the strongest possible terms, he, and the board, would HAVE to take it seriously?
HH!!
Regarding the GB, in this the digital age, would it not be worthwhile
to film the police in action so to speak, and get the various footage
on to the internet, a couple of hundred videos on the internet would
expose this abuse, to a wider football audience, and continue until
there`s a ground swell of opinion against this intimidation
http://www.gold.ac.uk/media/ogasawara.pdf
Worth a read if ya got 20mins
Tallybhoy
I left after the 4th year. I’ve just turned 57 now and you were probably a couple of years older than me.
Possibly one of the big boys who threw me down the banking on my first day?
Watch yer back, I’ve a long memory :)
Was reading the Paul maconville page earlier, he was saying about that the sevco share issue prospectus will be popular when released.
I heard if anyone requests one it’ll cost them £3
Fair bit of damage if 100’000 of us are interested ;-)
Torontony
Congratulations my friend. Not a surprise to anyone who has met the crowd from the club… they seem a really nice bunch.
I had hoped to come by on the weekend, but was out on Friday and Saturday (Saturday’s girl… WOW!) and fell asleep yesterday…. my apologies.
Will make it into the club one of these days to catch up.
Cheers.
Having spent last season in section 111 I’d have to confirm the obsession the polis have with our GB. I watched them film everyone in the section at every home game- standing right in front of the GB, between 2 and 7 strong, often for the full game, scanning the section with a camera- there would be another 4-5 polis in the stairwell and often they would call a young GB’er who passed by their christian name- showing that they had checked up on them. The Hibs game was appalling and seemed to be a response to the fans against criminalisation march that had taken place before it- having provided a mounted and helicopter escort to the ground they decided to send snatch squads in to lift some young GB’er. Poorly planned and verging on inciting a riot, and all of this condoned by the Celtic hierarchy- a poor, poor show- especially when you see what they were willing to accept from the bigots who regularly wrecked our toilets