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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Belgium to win by at least 2 goals tonight.
I listened to Papertalk on Saturday which was on Shortbread radio.
The consensus was clearly that Levein would be going, probably quite soon after this evening’s game.
I was struck by how the various journalists seemed to be able to talk fairly and dispassionately about the Scotland situation, something they are not always able to do when talking about club football.
Hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm……….
Ernie
Maybe pop by the library and get a copy of Tom Devine’s “The great Highland famine : hunger, emigration and the Scottish Highlands in the nineteenth century”
It is strange. Stirling Albion were managerless last week though!!
Sixteen roads to Golgotha
10:10 on 16 October, 2012
Sorry, the wee Stirling quip was for you.
celt55,
The Zombies might have done better if they were managerless too
The Battered Bunnet
10:15 on 16 October, 2012
So how many Scots starved to death as a result of the potato famine?
The Battered Bunnet (without google… who am I?)
Biography
I am a graduate of Strathclyde University and holds honorary doctorates from my alma mater, The Queen’s University, Belfast and the University of Abertay, Dundee. At Strathclyde I rose through the academic ranks from assistant lecturer to Professor of Scottish History (in 1988), Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and, finally, Deputy Principal of the University from 1994 to 1998. From 1999 to 2004 I was a member of staff at Aberdeen University, being successively University Research Professor in Scottish History, Director of the AHRC Research Centre in Irish and Scottish Studies and Glucksman Research Chair of Irish and Scottish Studies. I joined Edinburgh University in January, 2006. In addition to these appointments in the UK, I hold Honorary Professorships across the Atlantic at North Carolina (USA) and Guelph (Canada). Between 1992 and 1993 I was a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow.
Among my current and recent university and public appointments have been:
• Member and Vice-Chair, RAE Assessment Panels in History, 1992 &1996
• Trustee, National Museums of Scotland, 1998-2002
• Member of Council, British Academy, 2000-2003
• Convenor, Irish-Scottish Academic Initiative, 1993-9
• Advisory Board, ESRC Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme
• Research Awards Advisory Committee, Leverhulme Trust, Adviser on all History applications to the Trust, 2001-9
• Trustee, Edinburgh UNESCO World City of Literature
I have won several awards, fellowships and prizes in recognition of my scholarly and research achievements including:
• Senior Hume Brown Prize in Scottish History (1976)
• Saltire Prize for Scottish Historical Research (1992)
• Henry Duncan Prize and Lectureship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1993)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (elected 1992)
• Fellow of the British Academy (elected 1994)
• Hon Member of the Royal Irish Academy (elected 2001)
• Hon Fellow, University of the West of Scotland, for services to cultural life in Scotland (2005)
• Inaugural John Aitkenhead Award of the Institute of Contemporary Scotland for services to Scottish education and admission to the Academy of Merit (2006)
• Royal Society of Edinburgh/Beltane Senior Prize for Excellence in Public Engagement (2012).
Over the last six years, while at Aberdeen and Edinburgh University I raised £4.5 million from research councils (primarily the AHRC), private benefaction and other external bodies for advanced research in Scottish history and Irish-Scottish Studies. In 2001 I was presented by HM the Queen with the Royal Gold Medal, Scotland’s supreme academic accolade, and appointed OBE in the New Year Honours List 2005 for services to Scottish history. I am the only UK historian elected to all three national academies within the British Isles.
External appointments
Chairman of Advisory Board, Britain and the World, Historical Journal of the British Scholar Society 2009- . Member of Board of Publication, Scottish Review of Books 2011
Sixteen Roads @ 10.10
The other interesting thing about the appointment of Levein was that the vacancy was left unfilled for months while Gordon Strachan was available for the job and Levein was appointed as soon as Gordon went to Middlesboro.
Operation “Save the hun” was at it’s peak when Levein got the Scotland gig.
Last week’s game merely proved that it had failed.
kitalba
10:20 on 16 October, 2012
Yeah, but which Boys Brigade troop was he a member of?
up_over_goal
10:14
“Interestingly, Lennon played him in the Commons role v Spartak Moscow. It didn’t really work”
Your mad.
Brown was not playing there creatively.
He was there to harry, chase, press, win the ball high up.
Did you not watch Italy at the Euros?
Well watch them again and look at their highest player in the midfield. Montolivo. He played as a “forward destroyer” (no not a destroyer of forwards) he done the same thing, played at the tip of either a midfield diamond or in front of their double pivot (2 sitting mids) this was to afford the deeper players more time on the ball by reducing pressing from the opposition mids, leaving it up to their attacking players to track back. It meant opposition mids had less time on the ball and had someone in their faces instantly.
Brown was played in that role. And he done it superbly.
ThinkTacticsCSC
kitalba-Obviously Opus Dei is not as “secretive” as the masons.
Hen1rik-Savile’s family obviously knew what he had been doing.The “new” revelations only started coming out about a month ago,and the family destroyed his headstone last week,with no protest .
up over goal
“Interestingly, Lennon played him in the Commons role v Spartak Moscow. It didn’t really work. Brown played well, but couldn’t contribute in the way he’d been doing at CM”
Have to disagree on a few points there. Brown may have occupied a similar geographical position on the pitch, as the nearest player to Gary Hooper (and often even more advanced than Gary) but it was not a Commons “role”. Scott’s remit was to shut down the ball carrying defenders and to harass them in trying to build their forward movements. He performed that task brilliantly and, more impressively than he has done in the majority of his Central Midfield performances (for me he is still better on the right side of midfield because of his passing weaknesses).
He was, most definitely, not in Moscow to play a creative role as a No.10 making slip passes.
Neil Lennon would not ask him to do such a role when there are more capable performers on our roster.
As for his current fitness, I think we have seen a well managed programme of training and play from Scott recently. Playing only 45 minutes against Wales is part of that management.
Ernie
I’m afraid I’m just a half wit, and wouldn’t know. But Prof Devine I’m sure will have a decent idea. Maybe read his research if you are interested in the topic. Of course the potato blight was widespread across Europe, with varying degrees of human impact. Loads of reading there if you’re inclined.
Perhaps once you’re done you might be able to publish a league table of human miseries, and thereafter decide which of the Great Hungers most deserves a monument. Folk need to be told you know.
@BhoyEddie from KDS http://t.co/bdreM97y
Someone posted earlier but this is a joke.
Son of Gabriel beat me to it.
Ernie:
Is your life really so miserable that cynicism is your only opium?
Scott Brown is a phenomenal athlete,but he is still human when all is said and done.
All the tireless endeavour that he puts into the game is bound to take it’s toll.
His performance against Benfica was magnificent.
Scott Brown is a Celtic legend,in my humble opinion.
hen1rik 09:47 on 16 October, 2012
“The only reason i ask about Saville is because Ministers, BB leaders and the OO have all done the same yet it gets covered up”
It could be argued the Saville stuff was covered up for decades.
The genie appears to be out of the bottle now though.
I see the SPL are supporting the Show Racism The Red Card campaign again this month.
I’m sure they will find that the incidents of terracing racism and sectarianism go down at their games this season.
Son of Gabriel & sftb
In my post, I said that I recognized Brown’s qualities as a destroyer. It worked in the Dinamo game, but not particularly in the Spartak game. OK, maybe you misunderstood me when I said he was given the Commons role – I should have said ‘position’. There. Sorted. I reiterate – it didn’t work. Spartak kept the play upfield and Brown was forced deeper into our half. Not only that, but Commons was stifled out wide on the right.
Kit
Is it John Fleck?
Anyone still thinking of going to Barcelona ,this is good value
flying out
Mon 22 October 2012
dep 06:40 London Gatwick (LGW)
arr 09:45 Barcelona (BCN)
Monarch Airlines ZB278
flying back
Wed 24 October 2012
dep 10:50 Barcelona (BCN)
arr 12:20 London Gatwick (LGW)
Monarch Airlines ZB279
If you deduct the in flight meal and cargo luggage it’s £102.50 inc tax
Sixteen Roads to Golgotha
His performance against Benfica was magnificent.
Agreed.
Scott Brown is a Celtic legend,in my humble opinion.
Not so much.
Gordon J
Show Racism the Red Card – don’t get me started!
In Scotland, another source of whataboutery.
They have a pack for schools which prints the entire words of the Famine Song and asks teachers to contrast with the singing of “Go Home ya Huns!” at football games.
Then says; remember its not to say that this is racist or sectarian but all views are valid.
Simple questions.
What is a tag? How do you get them? What have I to do with them?
Seriously.
I got a new phone last week, Galaxy Samsung thing.
It keeps telling me I’ve got tags.
Freaking out here, scared to come home with some foreign stuff, ‘no what I mean.
Ta,
EC67
The Battered Bunnet Nah! ya numpty… it is Campbell Ogilvie.
up_over_goal – Maybe not yet,but the courage he displays,and the effort that he puts in,is second to none.
He is a credit to the green & white.
One of my favourite ever quotes from a Celtic player: “I am captain of Celtic,one of the biggest clubs in the world.Why would i want to leave to go anywhere else?” – Scott Brown.
!!Bada Bing!!
Exactly what I thought when I read it.
Sixteen roads to Golgotha:
When Scott Brown signed for Celtic he was asked if he was happy with the move…
Scott Brown… “Every professional player in Scotland wants to play for Celtic”.
Kit
Doh! Of course.
kitalba
10:33 on 16 October, 2012
I can no longer open this link, but my comment relates to what he says at the end of the lecture.
http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/devine/
up over goal
“I reiterate – it didn’t work. Spartak kept the play upfield and Brown was forced deeper into our half. Not only that, but Commons was stifled out wide on the right.?”
Well, I am for more of those “didn’t work” CLAWs. They are far better than the successful tactics that result in defeats.
Spartak kept the play upfield, did they? Not from where I was sitting. I saw Celtic mount many counter attacks. I saw Spartak carve out few clear cut chances. Their first goal was a beauty with a well weighted chip pass and a beautiful cushioned touch on the run. Their second was a rare mistake from Fraser and a switch off from Efe (as well as a dodgy offside).
Perhaps if Scott had been CM, he would have harassed the guy who made the great chipped pass or been involved in chasing back for Fraser’s spilled save but he was too busy reducing the chances Spartak had to create such moves. He was damming further upriver to great effect.
Yes, Kris Commons was not as good in Moscow as in surrounding matches but he had a quieter effective game. Scott’s brilliance in that role did not result in Kris only having a competent, not stellar, game. Kris will have to take responsibility for that himself. Otherwise, you’d have to accept that every poor performance from Scott has to be excused on the grounds that Commons excellence as a 10 leads to Scott being played out of position in CM or RM. That won’t wash.
There are few domestic ties and few home Euro matches where Scott can be used to good effect in the Moscow role. He will be of more use to us in harrying Xavi and Iniesta, just as he did to the often-excellent Aimar in our first CL tie this year.
kitalba-“the fabric of society” bollox sounds like a Masonic phrase which is at the core of this country and wider.The latest cover ups ,Hillsborough and the huns scandal.Good people will never get an even break,or the truth.
See if an Independent Scottish government can sort this crap, I am in.
£3bn in sales and only paying £8.6m in tax!?! Nothing for the last 3 years. That is a scandal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/15/starbucks-tax-uk-sales
Top of the morning to you all from a dreich Fife.
“Cycling: tyler hamilton tells al jazeera his doping antics [with Lance Armstrong] robbed other cyclists of honours.”
It is only a matter of time before lawyers for losing cyclists seek compensation.
Will the same thing happen with losing football clubs when/if Rangers are found guilty of financial doping?
SFTB
I’m just glad someone else made the same point and it didnt start a “thats not what CM’s are there for” debate
Up_Over_Goal
Yeah that position was definitely occupied, understand you more clearly now, but I think you are being harsh again. Even when he dropped that deep it was to help out Mulgrew and Wanyama who were both on bookings. If not it was when Moscow had sprayed passes around for a fair amount of time, meaning he would only be wasting his energy to continue chasing in same area when he could be blocking through passes.
Remember pressing is not only about getting in peoples faces, its about, and I cannot stress this enough… controlling. the. space. something we done excellently, the way they got their goals even shows that.
In this view I’d say it was a complete success. A very mature performance
And I definitely think he is best when wide right due to his passing, could not agree more.
So far this season however his distribution has been of a far higher quality imo and this has lead me to be more than happy when he has been in centre midfield. Perhaps it is due to playing with a more settled group of players for first time in a while or maybe it is his positioning and spacial awareness have improved. I am not sure.
In this line of argument I would very much like to see a comparison of Browns completed pass %age this season in comparison to others when he has been with us.