Exactly one year ago today, just after lunchtime, one of the pivotal moments in Celtic history occurred. Neil Lennon took his Celtic team to Kilmarnock, who had lost their three previous league games, and for 73 minutes looked like surrendering their league title chances just as Tony Mowbray’s team collapsed at St Mirren Park seven months earlier.
The manager later admitted to thoughts of resignation. 3-0 down at half time while already in heavy deficit to Rangers, who were riding a wave of positivity under the reinvigorating ownership of Craig Whyte, events looked to have escaped Neil’s grasp.
It is tempting to write the narrative that a half time talk or tactical change turned things around but turnaround was more difficult to explain. Celtic were awful for the opening 28 minutes of the second half; like condemned men waiting for the inevitable.
Anthony Stokes started the recovery by exploiting Kilmarnock’s weaknesses. A free kick drifted over a wall which didn’t jump and into the net. Had the wall jumped, would history have been different? Three minutes later Stokes fired into the corner of the net from distance, Jaakkola in the Killie goal was not equal to the challenge. Suddenly, we were back in the game, back in the title race.
Charlie Mulgrew, who erred to gift Kilmarnock their third, equalised with 11 minutes remaining, surely there was only one winner now? Not so, images of Heffernan’s last minute header from inside the Celtic six yard box gliding over remain vivid.
We escaped with a draw but it felt like a stay of execution, not a pivotal moment. Neil didn’t resign, he stayed, beat Stade Rennes in the Europa League and never looked back. The imperious positivity which surrounded Craig Whyte was ultimately proven to be a charade, those of us who told you Rangers were in peril were proven correct.
It is impossible to calculate just how much football has changed since Anthony hit that free kick, although imperious positivity still surrounds a charade which is doomed to fail, leaving a lot of football fans out of pocket. If only the football authorities had a warning from recent history that light-touch regulation is dangerous, or had the mechanism to order a financial audit. They do, of course, but despite the traumas of 2012 I doubt they have the appetite to head-off potential problems. It’s easier (in the short term) to hope everything will turn out well.
Not that you need worry about any of this, you can chill and enjoy the season.
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67 heaven
If the O.O were to start beating their drums outside St Phils then me Bazzabhoy and Teuchter would be there to meet them.
re BBC and SBC – why would the BBC not hand over property etc to SBC? Presumably the BBC in Scotland has at least been partially funded by the couple of million of TV license payers in Scotland?
By the same token, will the UK Government also hand over our portion of the national debt?
Ernie
“Is sibhse fuil m’fhuil, agus cnámh mo chnámh”
Looks kinda Gaelic to me.
Prince of Goalkeepers…
But the point is the same. Proportionally, they would be stronger. Denial of that simple fact is just wishful thinking.
More worrying, is the culture of anti-Irishness which have lurked historically in the Tories and the SNP. You think this is dead?
I’m not sure so sure.
prestonpans bhoys
The prices go in the wrong direction, and a season books are cheaper
As someone says on here stupid stupid H….
The Battered Bunnet
21:09 on 15 October, 2012
‘Ernie
“Is sibhse fuil m’fhuil, agus cnámh mo chnámh”
Looks kinda Gaelic to me.’
Don’t think a man from a good Presbyterian background like Salmond would be using that version.
More King James I suspect.
dirtymac
21:09 on
15 October, 2012
re BBC and SBC – why would the BBC not hand over property etc to SBC? Presumably the BBC in Scotland has at least been partially funded by the couple of million of TV license payers in Scotland?
By the same token, will the UK Government also hand over our portion of the national debt?
Dividing assets post-independence would be a logistical nightmare. It could take years. Scotland would take on part of the UK debt – a figure which could sink the new nation.
As for BBC – why should they simply hand over their property? The BBC owns it, what right has Salmond got to it? Sell it, maybe. Give it away? That’s fine in nationalist fantasy economics, but not viable in real world.
ItaliaBhoy
21:13 on
15 October, 2012
As for BBC – why should they simply hand over their property? The BBC owns it, what right has Salmond got to it? Sell it, maybe. Give it away? That’s fine in nationalist fantasy economics, but not viable in real world.
+++++
erm, because Scotland paid for it, perhaps?
But, yes, you are indeed correct, the BBC should indeed get to keep all of their property that my tv license has paid for; I just want my money back. Who should I write my bill out to?
re OO being proportionately stronger in an independent Scotland:
so would Roman Catholicism.
the prince of goalkeepers
21:05 on 15 October, 2012
ItaliaBhoy
21:00 on 15 October, 2012
I’d be amazed of OO membership in Scotland is anything north of 30,000.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland is an autonomous “secrets based” fraternity, similar to Freemasonry, that organises the Orange Institution in Scotland. Unlike Freemasonry, it is a staunchly protestant, and thus sectarian organisation. The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland claims to be one of the largest political forces advocating unionism in Scotland and the continuance of the United Kingdom.[2][4] It claims to have 50,000 members which are predominantly drawn from the Scottish Lowlands,[2] and its headquarters are in Bridgeton, Glasgow, although if this claim is true, it still represents a tiny minority of a Scottish population of over five million.
Thanks for the Craic Bhoys, enjoyed it. Anyway in the midst of all this debate the hoops are gunning for the last 16 of the champions league in the playground of the rich and the Hun are doomed.
Life ain’t that bad then!
burghbhoy
21:08 on 15 October, 2012
…..and i’d be right behind you……
ahh ye olde debt argument… so the debt is there allready, but its ok, its buried in some vault in the city of london.. so aint harming me Jack!
and then follows the BBC, perhaps the most frantic scraping of a barrel yet.. the same BBC that this forum constantly attacks for being anti celtic! and you want it to be part of a new and free scotland! PMSL!!!!!
Maybe you ought to just ask him Ernie. I’m quite sure you’d get a reasonable response to your query, certainly one that may be a little more reliable than your own isolated interpretation of it.
Mind you: Quite what his Christian denomination has to do with the matter I’m really rather unsure tbh. Seems a little pejorative and unbecoming of you.
burghbhoy
21:19 on 15 October, 2012
Life is WONDERFUL ………l never thought I would see this in my lifetime…….when they bought Flo, that was when I got my first ‘flutter’ of …ooooooooooooooh ..?????
Salmond wouldn’t have let the huns go bust in an independent Scotland.
67 heaven
God bless u brother
Hail Hail
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Ernie,
Could it not be that this divide and conquer thing instigated by Unionists has had it’s day?
Do you really want to keep this status quo? Spending billions (we don;t have), on a nuclear deterrent?
Who the hell is going to invade Scotland? Would you not rather see that money used elsewhere?
Leaving the running of the country to public schoolboys and their pals in big business South of the Watford gap with their heads stuck in the trough? Something the vote in Scotland does not make difference to at all.
I think there are more important issues than looking under our beds for the big bad Proddies.
the battered bunnet
21:23 on 15 October, 2012
If I knew what ‘pejorative’ meant, I might agree with you ……LOL ….. But Ernie will…..LOL
dirtymac,
Scotland didn’t pay for BBC facilities in Scotland. It was paid for by UK license fee payers (including Scotland), as well as via profits from BBC’s commercial activities (BBC worldwide etc).
Post-independence, Pacific Quay would still be owned by the BBC and no amount of stamping of nationalist feet will change that.
The BBC would be a foreign broadcaster and it would be u to them what they decided to do with all their property. Unless of course, Salmond is about to go on a Soviet-style appropriation spree…
theweegreenman
21:25 on 15 October, 2012
That’s what the Poles said……
Mountainbhoy – sorry disagree – I have never seen a MORE SINISTER piece of legislation. It was unnecessary and quite remarkable.
It was nothing but sinister
theweegreenman
21:25 on 15 October, 2012
‘Ernie,
Could it not be that this divide and conquer thing instigated by Unionists has had it’s day?’
Go and find out what the founders of the SNP had to say about Irish Catholic immigrants in Scotland.
Then come back and tell me about sectarianism being instigated by unionists.
Clown.
ItaliaBhoy
21:26 on
15 October, 2012
dirtymac,
Scotland didn’t pay for BBC facilities in Scotland. It was paid for by UK license fee payers (including Scotland), as well as via profits from BBC’s commercial activities (BBC worldwide etc).
Post-independence, Pacific Quay would still be owned by the BBC and no amount of stamping of nationalist feet will change that.
The BBC would be a foreign broadcaster and it would be u to them what they decided to do with all their property. Unless of course, Salmond is about to go on a Soviet-style appropriation spree…
+++++
Yes, so who do I write my bill out to?
dirtymac,
I wouldn’t worry about that bill.
In an independent Scotland you’ll be writing plenty of cheques, courtesy of our Dear Leader.
People should be asking the esteemed First Minister why hasn’t there been a public enquiry into the misappropriation of circa £100M of Scottish taxpayers money. Money that could have been better utilised in the Scottish welfare system, instead of being used to support a thoroughly discredited Scottish instituition.
Maybe Fat Eck is waiting on the findings of the FTT and then he will order said public enquiry? Or maybe he will provide us with an easy excuse for voting No to independence!
T4
Italiabhouy
ernie lynch
You have inferiority complex !
To be honest, I don’t give a monkey’s about independence ……. It’s a lovely Country, with some really lovely people, but your heart tells you what Country you ‘belong to’ ……you have no control over it……my brothers and sister see themselves as Scottish, and I respect that, but, in my heart, I am Irish……and, just as my family are at peace with being Scottish, I am at peace with being Irish (Donegal, to be sure) ………now what is so terrible about that, bhuns ?
TTTT,
Shurely shome mishtake:
UK taxpayers money © ItaliaBhoy
Pat Bonner once came in with a horrendous coat on, to training. It was so bad, we hung it from a flagpole above the old Jungle.
Roy Aitken
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
21:37 on
15 October, 2012
To be honest, I don’t give a monkey’s about independence ……. It’s a lovely Country, with some really lovely people, but your heart tells you what Country you ‘belong to’ ……you have no control over it……my brothers and sister see themselves as Scottish, and I respect that, but, in my heart, I am Irish……and, just as my family are at peace with being Scottish, I am at peace with being Irish (Donegal, to be sure) ………now what is so terrible about that, bhuns ?
+++++
Facebook style like. \o/
Ernie.
Lick my piles!
Remind me, what was yer man Keir Hardie’s attitude to the Irish imigrants?
67 heaven
Well said
Possible good signing for sevco…..Tom Pope, Port Vale…..what do you mean, no way ? ….is he over 18 ? ……. Cause that can be the only reason for not signin um…..a mean, know what a mean…..!!!!
67 heaven
Gie’s peace man.
Now it’s back to 1939!
250 Orange lodges in England.
182 Orange lodges in Scotland.
England’s Population Approx. 51M
Scotland Population approx 5.2M
For every 204,000 people of living in England there is an Orange Lodge.
For every 28,020 people living in Scotland there is an orange lodge.
2011
MWD
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
21:42 on
15 October, 2012
Possible good signing for sevco…..Tom Pope, Port Vale…..what do you mean, no way ? ….is he over 18 ? ……. Cause that can be the only reason for not signin um…..a mean, know what a mean…..!!!!
+++++
Hahaha, imagine that ever happening and him becoming their all-time top scorer, with 40 goals or something in the lower leagues.
I’m picturing their banners with T Pope emblazoned boldly across them.
Or not.