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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And grateful. The huns mooths are either spouting Walter Mitty fantasy or are permanently silenced.
Peepel I know who used to boast about how they were going to win the Champions League and rubbing our noses in it with their big money buys, now seem strangely unwilling to discuss football at all, whilst I have a permanent knowingly self satisfied smirk on my coupon.
The silence of the huns is one of the greatest benefits of the hunmaggeddon.
RobertTressell
Your mythical neighbour reminds me of a line from a book that I am currently reading.
It describes a stupid person thus:-
” If you put his brain into a bird, the bird would fly backwards”.
!!Bada Bing!!
12:20 on
Foe six year old I would still look on that amzon site, you can access the google play and download games no bother. To prove the screen I tried “Cut The Rope” which worked fine.
For £80 delivered 9.1″ screen good for the price, also has a usb port.
For build and reliabability I would have went for the Kindle Fire but needed it last week for a Birthday present, and the other one has a largere screen
RT – This is the problem with the rangers phenomenon, they are so consumed by hatred themselves they cannot perceive of any other motive for providing simple observation.
Can you imagine a life like that? Constantly in thrall to the demons of rage and anger, your mind a whorl of hate-filled complexities as you struggle to decipher the insidious motives and machinations of anyone who dares to suggest there might be a problem with your beloved rangers.
Thank god I was born a Celt.
You changed from saying “we still don’t have a fan on the board” to “explain who the fans representative is on the board “. Two different things IMHO.
What is a fan’s representative? Is it you? Is it me? Is it Joe from the CSCA?
You just need to look at this site to see how many differing views on how Celtic are run exists within the support.
The board runs the business, very well as far as I can see, and PL and Lenny are holding roadshows etc. to allow fans direct access. I don’t see any other major clubs doing this.
Also, shareholders have the AGM, (for what it’s worth).
Financial News article.
Rangers, the Glasgow football club, has had a torrid couple of seasons off the pitch, culminating in a spectacular implosion that forced it into administration in February.
In a lengthy blog post today, Channel 4 reporter Alex Thomson highlights a particularly disturbing aspect of the ongoing disaster: what he describes as a campaign of intimidation by Rangers fans aimed at those who have challenged the stricken club.
Although more a summary than an independent investigation, Thomson does a powerful job of explaining the underbelly of Scottish football – and he reveals the culture of threats ‘is getting worse’.
Thomson has personal experience of his subject: he wrote the foreword to Downfall, so far the only book on the crisis, and was, he says, rewarded with a barrage of abuse.
Downfall’s publisher, Frontline Noir, describes ‘pressure applied’ to discourage shops from stocking the title – while some stockists have reported fans screaming at staff for stocking copies according to Thomson.
And in a spectacular reverse ferret, the Sun announced and then cancelled a serialisation of Downfall, faced with complaints and threats considered so serious the police were called in.
This isn’t the only recent incident that has required police attention.
The head of the Scottish Football Association, Stewart Regan, consulted counterterrorism police after he claimed he had received death threats from diehard Rangers fans. Other Scottish Football Association directors had their addresses published online.
The three members of a tribunal that slammed Rangers for ‘bringing the game into disrepute’ also saw their addresses published, and again the police were brought in to advise them on security.
All of this casts the media reporting that has taken place – at both national and local level, in the business and sports sections – in a new light.
Thomson’s own reporting has included revealing a network of offshore transactions that brought the club to the taxman’s attention. And the wheelings and dealings of majority shareholder Craig Whyte have come under forensic attention from Thomson, Private Eye’s financial maven City Slicker, and others.
The NUJ Scotland is aware of 25 journalists who have ‘been threatened for telling the truth about Rangers’, Thomson says – and he wryly admits he has become used to the abuse himself. For local reporters, the threats may be far more plausible.
And even for a national reporter, writing a post like today’s takes courage. Little of what he reveals will surprise anyone in Glasgow, Thomson points out – yet from the outside this is an attack on freedom of speech so drastic that you would hardly believe it could exist in modern-day Britain.
The Battered Bunnet
12:05 on 15 October, 2012
Auldheid, Rogue, Ernie, replies on previous thread.
======================
Read it with gratitude (unlike that Rogue Leader who is lucky to still hold on to his X Wing licence after going AWOL).
I lost track of some of the proceedings lately but it does seem to me that the judiciary operate not so much in the slow lane but the hard shoulder when it comes to matters hunnish.
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
I think TBB answered your last questionon the previous but I’ve copied it over.
The Battered Bunnet
11:54 on 15 October, 2012
Auldheid
BDO have not yet been appointed. there was a creditors’ resolution last week to move to a Winding Up, following which D&P need to get Lord Hodge to dismiss them and asign BDO. I haven’t seen anything in the court Listings today to that effect, but I;m guessing it won’t be terribly long. that said, Hodge has still to give his view on the conflict issue raised by Mark Daly earlier this year. Might not be quite so straightforward for D&P to get rid of the job.
Rogue – yip, it’s all a little troubling. On the one hand, it’s very common for new starts to plan a series of capital raising exercises timed to coincide with certain milestones being reached. On the other hand, it’s rather unusual to start a business that is reliant on raising external funds within 6 months of initial fund raising to fulfil contractual obligations. As you are, I’m rather surprised that SFA/SFL did not ask for a bond, but that was the least of their problems at the time.
I’m more interested to consider what the ‘conditions’ are which attach to Sevco’s ‘conditional membership’.
ASonOfDan
Which publication was that from?
Impressive mental gymnastics from Chris Graham today.
Bemoaning nobody sanctioning Turnbull Hutton when he declared the SFA and the SPL “corrupt” yet Charles Green is sanctioned for less, all the while totally ignoring the elephant in the room that is they were being “corrupt” to break the rules and shoehorn his cheating, tax dodging, scrofulous little club into a position they should never be considered for.
If he is lauded as the thinking man’s Rangers fan then no wonder they are in the state they are in.
Richie
FinancialNews.co.uk
ta
leftclicktic
12:20 on
15 October, 2012
James Forrest is Neil Lennon! We are ALL Neil Lennon!
& Hamiltontim
Agreed
And agreed here also, something special happened that day. I was still suspicious of our managers ability for a few weeks after that,( puts tin hat on) but events happened ..as they say.
The fans ,that day,dragged the team almost to a victory and that was why I had to be there in May to see it happen again.
TBB
On re reading I think your final sentence will become the focus of attention in due course.
I wonder, given Neil Doncater’s optimism about the impact of Rangers departure on the SPL, if the obvious fear of Armageddon that gave Green a degree of leverage, has disipated to sufficient an extent that the “governers” of Scottish football can act without economic fear in the future.
I wonder what the driving dynamic (apart from the twin propellor(heads) Taynor and Young will be when it comes to reconstruction?
Charles Green is the Hannibal Lecter of football….crossed with Coco the Clown to produce a unique, terrifyingly funny hybrid, the envy of Drs. Moreau and Frankenstein.
When it comes to reporting the truth about RFCia/l I guess the best movie title could be:
“Silence of the Succulent Lambs”
Richie the fans , if my memory is correct , put £14m into the club , as a collective more than any other investors group. We then took part in a second share issue £5m this time again if my memory is correct . I put my money into both , how about you Richie ?
The celtic board are , in my opinion, doing a good job ( I think Mr Desmond should attend the odd game or AGM and try to pay attention and not do the crossword) . None of that deflects from the fact that we , the small share holder have no representative on the board. I stopped attending AGMs years ago they are a farce , stopping questions from shareholders ” in the interest of time ” is a disgrace in any business , yet alone one as emotional as Celtic.
My point in all this is that people in glass houses should not throw stones. I think we were short changed by the board in 94 and its continued. Lots if people made lots from Celtic , Fergus in particular, the fans paid for that.
Paul67
Nice article, it was also just not long after that game, ‘the Sacred Stole’ arrived from Donegal.
We’ve never looked back, – I tell you it was thomthethim
Hail Hail
Copy ‘npaste from FF……..I spy some plagiarism from a post on here.
Re: Anyone else worried about Green and our finances?
——————————————————————————–
The last time Rangers had a share issue was 2004.
Rangers were top of the league.
We had 40000+ season ticket holders.
We had just beaten Scumtic 2-0 at Ibrox.
We were still in the UEFA cup.
We had spent over £8m in the summer, Prso being one of the new guys.
With that background, we gave our club just over £1m of our own money.
Murray picked up the rest of the £50m he expected to get.
OK, so how do we compare now?
Charles Green, during a recession and closer to Christmas than when Murray did it, expects 20 times more out of us.
We’re 4th in Div 3.
Sceptical? Damn right I am.
The Stones gigs : £106 minimum for a ticket. They can get tae. Loved their albums from the 60’s and 70’s and one from the 90’s. Nowadays they’re just an ageing tribute to themselves and completely greedy old f******s.
I’m off to see Calexico in Bristol in February : £18:50p.
Alasdair MacLean
MSM will read it as well, but won’t print it.
HH
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
One of them’s called Norm
One’s of them’s called Matt
both born in a council flat
Riders on the storm
See the Wee Oscar race night on 17 Nov….is that a CQN organised event?
SwanseaBhoy
I remember hearing the final whistle at Rugby Park that day with a sense of relief.
Relief that a repeat of the Mowbray event at St Mirren was avoided but also relieved that we did not have to start looking again for another manager.
For me Neil Lennon ticked all the emotional boxes a Celtic manager required at that point in our history and as a player had shown strong leadership qualities on the park. All he lacked was experience and that game had been another experience building block .
None of the names being touted who would have been avaialble filled me with confidence (Craig Levein was one remember) and I thought we had no option to see it through, but it was going to be a hard case to argue for staying the course on CQN that night had we lost.( I have a copy of one doozy of a post to remind me) indeed had we lost I think Neil Lennon would have lost confidence in himself and walked anyway.
But on such small things as a defensive wall not jumping high enough does history depend and here we now are, top of the heap.
But before we get too carried away (whilst still enjoying the experience) remember the Zen Master tale from the movie Charlie Wilson’s war.
.Gust Avrakotos:
There’s a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse… and everybody in the village says, “how wonderful. The boy got a horse” And the Zen master says, “we’ll see.” Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, “How terrible.” And the Zen master says, “We’ll see.” Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight… except the boy can’t cause his legs all messed up. and everybody in the village says, “How wonderful.”
Charlie Wilson: Now the Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
.
Just watched that 9 Minute Shydive of the New Austrian Super hero..
It Soo Much reminded me of Sammi’s Celtic Career..
He was Ready to Jump and Some Big Balloon was Full of hot Air: David Murray says he will send Private Jet to sign Samaras..
He Jumps from New Balloon: Celtic FC..Winning Title for Celtic At Breaknet speed breaking records..
He Goes into a Tailspin: Scores 12 goals in 10 games then gets Injured for Greece..
Refuses to Press panic button to Save his Life and Stablest free-fall: Sammi knock back Club after Club to stay at his beloved Celtic..
Land on Earth with Everyone Saying:I Always believed in Him l knew he would do it..: Read Previous Comment..Tho Sammi broke more records by Scoring the Winner in 3 CL Away games in a Row..
Both of them Now Cult Heroes..
Summa
I watched that game at Rugby Park in my kitchen with Celtic_First.
He nearly gave my dugs heart attacks with all his whooping and hollerin’ as each of Celtic’s goals went in.
I loved it.
SwanseaBhoy
auldheid
13:01 on
15 October, 2012
Thank you very much for that explanation……!!!!
bournesouprecipe
13:19 on 15 October, 2012
Paul67
Nice article, it was also just not long after that game, ‘the Sacred Stole’ arrived from Donegal.
We’ve never looked back, – I tell you it was thomthethim
Hail Hail
******
I hope you have it housed in a safe, secure place.
Struggling clubs all over the World will be covetous of it!!
P.S.
I e-mailed you yesterday, but I seem to have two addresses for you. Perhaps I sent it to the wrong one, or else, you are still reading it!!. :>)
It’s amazing to think how much the pendulum has swung since that 3-3 game.
After avoiding defeat in that game and a pretty decent run in Europe, we went on to win the league. A possible treble was missed, which highlighted that there was still room for improvement. I feel that this season we have a stronger squad, whose confidence is steadily improving. This has been demonstrated notably by the recent away win in the Champions League. We’re still not the finished article, but the general feeling is that we are on the right track,
Meanwhile, oldco is history and newco is down in the pit that is 4th tier football in Scotland. For them, the pendulum has not only swung but is still swinging. It is swinging slowly back and forth: it is scythe-like and it is gradually getting lower and lower…
Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc, …
I wonder what changes we’ll see in the next 12 months?
Pass the popcorn.
;o)
Allyhuntersgloves:
No-one is denying the fact that the support were fundemental in helping to save the club through share purchase.
I was just making the point that a so-called fans representative would cause as many problems as he solved. A thankless task if you ask me. You don’t mention the roadshows. Do they not count?
Let’s focus on what we agree on, the club is being run well and we have a bright future with Lenny and his team. It’s a good time to be a Celtic Supporter, shareholder or not :-)
thomthethim
I’ve got them and am still laughing, will email later
Leaves leaves leaves everywhere.
ONe of the things that got Celtic out of the hole that day was actually a refereeing decision.
Stokes was taken down in the area – a clear penalty but as usual the referee made an honest mistake and it wasn’t given.
Stokes was so incensed that he turned it on and banged in two goals in the space of 5 minutes.
We have a lot to thankful to him for.
How can we chill and enjoy the season, when 2 of our best players, victor Wanyama and Gary hooper are about to leave the club in a few months or even a few weeks. We need to start talking and looking for suitable replacements
tictaewin:
…and we may lose Efe
…although that’s to internationals in January :-)
What happened that day can be summed up in one word BELIEF, from that game on we found belief in ourselves as a TEAM. From then on we knew if we kept fighting, right to the end, we could be victorious. (ok apart from the league cup final an the SFA semi, but apart from that….)
Snake Plissken
“We have a lot to thankful to him for”
The MIB or Stokes?
James Forrest is Neil Lennon! We are ALL Neil Lennon!
12:10 on
15 October, 2012
Remember being at the game and listening to the Killie fans at 3-0 , I think one of their songs was ‘ SPL your having a laugh’ and then being aware of the Celtic fans’ response.
I remember saying to my son driving home that I thought the Killie fans , inadvertantly , contributed to their loss of 2 points by causing the celtic fans response.
Little did I know how it was going to turnaround the season and not just that game. Something else happened that day that started me thinking, and that was gers losing a last minute goal to St. Mirren.