Rangers won three consecutive Scottish Cups in the 60s and Aberdeen repeated the feat in the 80s, however, Celtic have never won the Cup more than twice in succession.
The closest we came to three in a row was the 1990 final, when Sunday’s opponents, Aberdeen, won the trophy on penalties after the game ended 0-0. The double was achieved in the Centenary Season, before Joe Miller’s famous winner in 1989, but we were a busted flush by season 89-90.
A last 16 win over Rangers at Celtic Park was illusory. That season, Celtic finished fifth in the league; ahead of Motherwell and Hibs only on goal difference (Celtic had a goal diff. of zero). We were four points ahead of second bottom St Mirren.
29 years on, it is hard to explain how much we thought we needed to win that Cup in 1990. After a cataclysmic season, there was a chance to celebrate with an historic third successive Scottish Cup. Instead, we walked out of Hampden that afternoon telling ourselves a Cup win would have papered over the cracks, and that medicine of defeat would be a more effective tonic.
That was rubbish. Defeat is not a wake-up call, then it was a portent of what was to come throughout the 90s.
No Celtic fan who walks into Hampden on Sunday will have the sheer desperation to beat Aberdeen that we had at that 1990 final. But, unlike then, this time, we can look each other in the eye and say we deserve to join the three-in-a-row Scottish Cup winners’ club.
We have planned for our current success. Form outside the competition supports the ambition. If we win this Scottish Cup, we have earned it. 29 years is a long time to wait for compensation, but I firmly believe that without the pain of defeat, we cannot experience the full jobs of triumph. I want this for my May 1990 self. I needed a break that day.
15th Annual CQN Open Golf Day
This year’s CQN Open will take place once again at Aberdour Golf Club on Friday 21 June. The usual successful format and costs are £80 for the golf and evening event, £40 golf only and £40 night time only.
Please contact john@thewoodsidehotel.co.uk if you would like to come along. Speakers and charitable beneficiaries to be announced. Anyone seeking overnight accommodation, please contact John at The Woodside Hotel. John has an attractive package including a game at Burntisland Golf Club the day before the CQN Open, should you wish to hone your skills on the Fife Riviera!
187 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- »
DD
Here i gooo.. here i go
Off to meet a good tim 8-))
H.H Mick
OK Mick – sounds tasty – what pitch/park venue?
Quadro
Dendy park.. Brighton east.
Didn’t know there was a hun team up that way, knew there
was a Brighton Celtic and heard they were very successful.
Anyway just like their counterparts, they’ll be going back in
their box.
H.H Mick
No time to read back…zzzzzz’s call
Chairbhoy at 8:44pm
Who’s quote is this? You answer you’re own question… oh…. oh! I don’t think so….
“He’s a player we’ve liked for quite a while,” Lennon said. “We like his style of play, I think he’ll suit us. His first touch is excellent.
Hail Hail ??
CHAIRBHOY on 11TH APRIL 2019 9:43 PM
Surely that’s just conjecture? Or da you have facts to back that up???
I really need zzzzz’s now. Catch up manana…
HH ??
Chairbhoy, appointing a dof does not assure anything better that what we have and much of the structure is already in place and functioning well, but yes it could always be better.
Well educated players can play and understand a number of systems because their technique, touch, game awareness, positioning and movement is accompanied by proper physical and phychological development.
Our academy has improved over the last 10 years from the tommy burns years throught to the here and now. The introduction of the school tie in should give more young players more time on the pitch and that in turn should, if trained correctly, lead to better young players who can make it with us.
The tie in with the school started in 2009/10. To put into perspective the first kids to go to the tie in would only be 18 or 19 years old now. i am sure lots of improvements have been made to enhance the development of players since the tie in initially took place through learning, reflecting and responding towards improvements. Lots of money has gone into this, however, Its a long process.
Our transfers have changed little over the last 5 or so years. We sign up young players and try to develop them with the odd exception. some do well others do not.
I would like to think that we are putting so much emphasis in the academy so that it is more likely to produce more and better players and that well reduce the number of times we look outside the club. That will allow us to spend more money on fewer players i.e. quality over quantity.
HH
Just seen the animal who murdered Reammon Gormley, has been released….no words..
Badabing
Truly sad mate
A 23 yo gets life in 2011
Out now to have his life,
Certainly makes one look at life
And its value
God bless the gormley family,
Rip raemonn,
Hh
baby balloon was having a bad night, so decided to join mama and papa balloon, lying between them both was a bit tight so he loosened papas knot to make more room ‘ah thats better’ he says,but after a while he realized it was just the same. he then let his mum down a tad, thinking thats done the trick, but shortly to realize it wasn’t quite as comfy as it should be
what next? he thought……he then loosened his own knot and settled down to a great nights sleep….only to be wakened by his raging father who was snarling, spitting, punching and kicking even grabbing baby balloons bits shouting out ” not only have you let me down, you’ve let your mother down, but most of all you’ve let yourself down, baby alfredo why are you not a team player? ”………..then it blew up!!!
Greetings from Young and Jackson’s pub in Melbourne. In the excellent company of Melbourne Mick and the very fine Guinness is flowing.
It was very easy to recognise this handsome individual, resplendent in his Celtic shirt.
Just my view the on DoF, Chris McCart was on SSB a few weeks before BR left the building, it was a really good listen and he mentioned the same process has been in place for many years Neil, Ronny, Brendan and now next manager, all have to suit the football operation and this is explained to the manager at interview stage. I would imagine this would be the same for our next manager. He then said along the lines Brendan & Peter were both interested in all the work him and his staff were doing and both played important roles but also knew their own role in the football operation. This might not be too many people’s liking but think we already have a director of football operations and it’s not the one who went to Leicester and until Dermot D finds (appoints) anybody else we go with what we have
Hope Cqn’s very own Phileas Pog and his good lady enjoy their travels and am sure Melbourne Mick will be his usual terrific host
Phileas get your fitba pick in before you have too many guinesses :-)
Good morning CQN from a mild and dry Garngad
Pog & MM enjoy yer sells, I am so jealous. ??
Pog love your globe trotting story’s, keep them up?
MM love the story’s about your young football team, always I still confidence in the bhoys.
Confidence and a bit of talent will go along way, shyness and talent will take longer.
In a Glesga accent get intae them on Sunday.
HH
D. :)
So a couple of sleeps as Jobo would say till we see the Famous Glasgow Celtic
So I will have a bash at a team to start on Sunday:
Bain
Lustig
Ajer
Benkovitch
KT
Broony
Cal Mac
Forrest
TR
Weah
French Eddie
Again barring injuries, this should leave us a strong bench to pick from, if needed.
Personally I think Lenny’s substitutions/ game management needs to be better, but that’s my opinion and maybe not everyone’s.
COYBIG
D. :)
Good morning friends and a Big Happy Friday from a frosty/sunny East Kilbride. A weekend of the cup semi finals and The Masters lies ahead, what’s not to like?
But first, it’s Hi Ho time…….
Oops forgot about Ryan Christie, so maybe drop Weah to bench and have Christie wideish left.
Thus management malarkey is hard.
Subs:
De Vries
Simonovic
Ntcham
Hayes
Weah
Johnson
Burke
Sinclair
D. :)
in ither news………….
“Peter Andre and Steve Martin have both been linked with the Celtic manager’s job but are expected to knock back the east end outfit in favour of a bigger move to their boyhood heroes – the rainjurz…….”
Aye.
morning bhoys from another blue skyed Cheshire, roll on sunday.hh.
Goodness it’s as slow on here as the zombies ???waiting for Sevco to win a cup.?
D. :)
David66
I would go with your first attempt. Initial starting line-up.
I would be happy to start Weah wide left, and let him rotate with French Eddy up top.
I’d also be happy with Christie on the bench. What an impact he made coming off the bench against St Mirren. Better impact than when he started against Livi.
Quite content for Christie to make a prominent impact 2nd half from the bench.
Also agree with you about Lenny’s game management.
I could see after 10 mins against Livi that the back 3 system wasn’t required.
3 centre halfs marking 1 Dolly Menga…
It meant the likes of Simounovic was charging forward 35 yards with the ball. Only to reach the brick wall of Livi defence, to then run out of ideas, and then turn the ball back the way.
We would of been better served with a back 4, and attacking / over-lapping full-backs.
!!BADA BING!!
Incredible!
The lunatics are running the asylum.
BB,
No wonder very few have faith in the justice system.
Our hotel rule : Gentleman and boys over 14 must wear long trousers for dining.
Bravo I thought; one in the eye to the ” snowflakes”
Then I remembered, I don’t have any long trousers with me. Oops.
ANTONIO CANDREVA
Inter . 54 appearances for Italy .
Learns that a primary school in Verona had denied the child of migrants who’d arrived in Italy on a RIB from Libya the right of a free lunch at school .( in accordance with the policy of the far right Italians First policy ). Contacts the school and pays for a year’s worth of school dinners for the child … A very political act . Very brave in the current political climate
Regarding the DOF…
I’d point out that this is a structure imported from american sports.
The NFL has 32 teams and 30 teams have that sort of structure. The current superbowl champions do not.
Bill Belichick is head coach and GM. He’s a workaholic Sir Alex Ferguson type figure who’s led his team to dominance.
If Neil Lennon wants that power and is willing to put the hours in then I’d leave him that responsibility.
LARSSONSE7EN @ 12:35 AM & 12:46 AM,
You’ve kinda lost me there but I’ll have a go. If you are alluding to the fact that Teemu was signed during Lenny’s first tenure and that he saw a player there…
…quite.
My point was if instead of businessmen being in charge of the process to bring the talent into the Club, football guys were, could a different approach yield better results?
Now if you mean the recruitment process as defined by Mr Lawwell, this was set out in a podcast, think May!? 2018… as I say, straight from the horses mouth.
STEPHBHOY @ 12:56 AM,
I’m not at all sure we’re disagreeing on much.
If the structures and processes are in place then of course the players, managers, coaches, trainers, specialists can work towards their goals and aim for excellence.
My point really is we are inconsistent and often knee-jerk. Hardly the basis for a sound framework.
If we had someone or even a collective responsible and accountable for delivering this excellence then it would be much clearer to all and I believe our results would be more consistent.
As Far As the Academy goes I deeply and sincerely hope you are right. If Celtic are going to achieve anything outside Scotland then these young ghuys are key.
It’s not one of my better traits but in this regard I’m quite cynical… I remember when the Aidan Nesbitt group were going to be “the ones”, and then the group before them…
Of course we got Kieran from that bunch and Im hopefully of young Ralston and Calvin can come good but a once in a generation player, and that’s where we are at the moment, looks more like an outlier than a trend.
Hope you’re right about this group though, I remember different coaches and a different approach been brought in with our link to the school. I’ve never had an issue with those at the coal face, they always seem to give 100%.
So I’ll keep my eye on their progress and fingers crossed.
GFTB @ 6:51 AM,
That’s interesting, didn’t hear that, very impressed by Chris McCart.
As far as the system in place, no doubt the Academy and development squads are run on this basis but it can’t be the same for our first team.
Ronny was very different from Lenny, brought in a lot of his own ideas… Kris Commons is on record, scathing about Delia’s changes.
Then it was all change again when Brendan Rodgers came in, brought his own people and methodology. One thing all agree on is, it was professional, exacting and got results.
Now we are back to Lenny who is on record as saying he is going to keep things as they are but doesn’t understand the approaches or game plans. Can he learn or do we change back?
Let me give you an example of how this impacts…
A couple of years back Celtic were nominated for the Puskas goal award. It was a goal away against St Johnstone…
11 men involved
15 passes
1 Rabona
1 Back flick
1 Sublime finish
Now, one of those eleven men was the goalie, Craig Gordon…
…he did not hoof it out to a target man, he did not start the move with a pass out from the back.
No, in the middle of the move the CH passes the ball back to the GK, he passes up the middle of the park to our Captain and the second phase of the move is started and a sublime goal is scored without a St Johnstone player getting close.
Now Lenny has stopped this manoeuvre to the keeper as too risky after Ajer was caught in possession in the box and gave away a penalty. For me it is one of the reasons we are not as fluid.
Let me give you another example of knee jerk reactions. When BR and his staff left, there was an expectation that Lee Congerton would go and Mr Park would come back as head of recruitment.
Of course Lee didn’t go…
So he was offered the position of Sporting Director, he turned it down.
Now, why did we need a Sporting Director all of a sudden, if Lee’s not taking the job will it be offered to someone else…
Or was this just expedience, the fly by the seat of your pants decision making, that would never be tolerated in the PLC but is all too familiar in the football department.
We need consistency and we need excellence.
If as you say we already have a defacto Director of Football operations that explains a lot.
Did you ever watch Seinfeld? It was a hugely popular American sitcom.
Now recently the “female interest” got an award.
Jerry Seinfield made a speech at the ceremony…
He said the role started as an executive note. Apparently that’s when the executive producers make a suggestion to the comedy writers about a sitcom.
Now Seinfield was fairly scathing of these, he said they weren’t funny, adding why would they be, these guys are paid to produce a show, not to be funny.
JS said it’s equivalent of him being in a desert with a geologist and the geologist sends Seinfield out to find Bauxite…
…he said it would be useless, he had no idea how to identify bauxite, in fact says he, even if he found bauxite he would know what it was.
So he called these “executive notes” bauxite…
Now that’s my feeling with Celtic’s football operations directives, executives messing where they should’na bein a messing… this for me is why much of our footbal decisions are a load of bauxite…
Hail Hail
POGMATHONYAHUN
Glad you enjoyed your Guinness with Mick , my good lady and I met up with him in the same establishment last year , he is a fine Celtic mhan indeed !! Enjoy rest of your trip HH ! ?
TIMALOY29 on 12TH APRIL 2019 10:22 AM
Regarding the DOF…
I’d point out that this is a structure imported from american sports.
The NFL has 32 teams and 30 teams have that sort of structure. The current superbowl champions do not.
Bill Belichick is head coach and GM. He’s a workaholic Sir Alex Ferguson type figure who’s led his team to dominance.
If Neil Lennon wants that power and is willing to put the hours in then I’d leave him that responsibility.
___
I’d also point out that the appointment of GM’s/DOF’s is as risky as managerial prospects. It’s a good system if you get the right guy and keep him in place for a number of years. However, they also move about.
For example, Monchi left Sevilla for Roma where he was forced out the door. The same with the German chap at Arsenal.
MELBOURNEMICK
You hame fae Young & Jackson’s yet ? God Bless Arthur Guinness !!
I wonder why BR didn’t take Lee Congerton with him, given he took everybody else he could?
Are the board still on side with Lee Congerton and happy with the grand job he’s doing?
We should be told CSC
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 12TH APRIL 2019 10:41 AM
I wonder why BR didn’t take Lee Congerton with him, given he took everybody else he could?
Are the board still on side with Lee Congerton and happy with the grand job he’s doing?
We should be told CSC
____
Could be that. Could be that BR lost faith in Congerton after two poor windows and didn’t want to bring him with him.
Maybe Leicester haven’t given BR the authority to completely restructure the football department. They have a DOF already.
Chairbhoy 10.24am
Chris McCart was very complimentary to both Peter & Brendan and said both were always looking for updates and both very approachable, it’s a really good listen and insight obviously Karamoke got a mention but think Chris batted it away and spoke about all the younger players and not individuals… he was adamant the “football operation” that is in place and has been for a good number of years and by the sounds of things this is the model the club are sticking with, not sure if utube or Twitter would have the programme but McCart was very impressive and I enjoyed it, think the club is in good hands but who cares about that just win on Sunday Celtic :-)
PARK ROAD 67,
Thanks, you were mentioned in dispatches along with one or two others.
I am grateful to have joined the elite that Melbourne Mick has graced with his presence, an absolute gent of a man who inconvenienced himself to come up to see us. Mrs PMTYH loved him to bits.
I would also like to take this opportunity to say thanks to those who endorsed me to MM, I was however a wee bit better behaved than normal due to to the presence of the Frau. ?
Tomorrow sees us on an early flight to Kuala Lumpur where we will stay for 3 nights taking in an Ed Sheeran concert and then going to watch the game v The Sheep on Sunday.
MM, I hope wee Grace is feeling better.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
SOT…read about that yesterday…well done Antonio Candreva!
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 12TH APRIL 2019 10:41 AM
I wonder why BR didn’t take Lee Congerton with him, given he took everybody else he could?
Maybe Peter should remove ‘collection in person only’ from the advert and substitute ‘I’ll drive him to you myself’
Ebay csc
Congerton finished his last 2 jobs on extended gardening leave,i think he was over a year at Sunderland doing that.
The summation of a hun.
Celtic need somebody at the wheel looking at targets anyway. NL and Congerton are working together on that at the moment.
We are due to lose the 4 loan players along with Izzy, Lustig, Gamboa, Sinclair, De Vries, Boyata
My personal preference would be to see Micky Johnston, Ralston, Henderson & Calvin Miller step up in the squad.
Even if that happens we’d probably still need to sign a RB, couple of CB’s, a 3rd choice keeper and probably another striker.
Plenty of work to be done. Maybe Celtic have agreed to let Congerton go after the next window? We couldn’t afford to lose him now.
A new headscout wouldn’t have the time to take such crucial decisions.