If we are looking for reasons why Celtic have dropped so many points in recent weeks it is revealing that we have not kept a clean sheet away in the league since Boxing Day, and that was to bottom club Dundee.
Losing goals, of course, is seldom about the last line of defence, and losing goals this consistently is seldom even an issue with defence, in dominant teams, defenders are seldom taxed. It is more likely a consequence of the shape of the team. Goalkeepers should be protected, as should defences.
It’s the midfield we should be looking at. Dominate possession and stop leaving spaces for the opposition to exploit; we’ll stop losing goals and start winning games.
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jungle jim
10:40 on 12 March, 2013
parkheadcumsalford
This has happened too often this season …….hopefully, with the shoite in the LL today, it will not happen again…..if it does, I, for one, will find it ‘strange’ that our club representatives continue to ‘comment’ on the club which tried to bury us, and Scottish Football …… Fortunately, they simply managed to bury themselves in the process ……watch this space….!!!
voguepunter
My wee Bhoy gets baptised that day at 2pm.
Few of the attendee’s won’t be happy with that KO time!
LB
celtic_first
11:08 on 12 March, 2013
ABSOLUTELY …… The LL are all just hurtin’ huns, trying to preserve their oldco and their corrupting jobs …..did their mums not tell them ‘honesty is the best policy’….
Nuclear bovril
You should buy a periscope…
Bit of help required here bhoys. I was looking to get my dad membership of a golf course in glasgow area . Any suggestions or advice gladly accepted. Thanks in advance.
67 Heaven
No, they’re conflicted because some of the contributors, perhaps a lot of them, really believe the Charles Green message. It’s the cynical bean-counters higher up that are more worthy of contempt because they are just seeking to cash in. They know it’s a sham. Same as Charles Green himself.
LiviBhoy
Selfish dada,they’ll be plenty of semi-finals for you and your friends to go to:O)
Trophybhoy
If he’s southside, look at Cathkin Braes and Kirkhill. Different types of courses, both v good, and both have vacancies atm.
Kirkhill I think has waived the membership fee and require only annual subs. Similar incentive at Cathkin, and prob elsewhere too.
Look around though. Lots of good couses with deals.
I posted this long piece late at night a few nights back. I think it is still relevant to today’s discussion:-
“What constitutes a successful season for Celtic in our current environment?
If you expected that, with Rangers gone, Celtic would win the treble, remain undefeated domestically, tie up the league by January and continue to progress in Europe, then, depending on the weight that you give to each individual aspiration, you were probably disappointed with our season.
We have blown a treble. The league will not be won until late April. We have drawn 5 and lost 6 league games plus defeats to St. Mirren, Benfica, Barca and Juve (2x) in tournaments. We have produced individual games of mediocrity, sometimes 2 or 3 in a row, and, though, to my working memory, that is no different to any other season I have spent watching the Celtic, it seems that rose tinted glasses are used to view our past whereby the bhoys of the 60s, 70s and 80s plus MONs teams but not (WGSs or the bhoys of the 90s) were always winning with a spectacular display of entertainment.
Well, I am highly pleased with our progres and I think, it is because of the match between my expectations and the outcome we are seeing.
I did not predict we would win a treble. I felt a double was likely but not guaranteed.
I did not predict we would remain undefeated. I felt that was highly unlikely and the bookies would have given long odds against it. The huns team thought they would manage this in the 3rd division but, like us, they are facing a cup final every week. Incidentally, I will not sing that “here we go, 10 in a row chant” because it is boasting before the achievment. Having lived through Jock’s 9iar, I can confirm that we only sang and chanted in anticipation of the next title e.g. after title number 6, we sang “It’s magic, you know. it’s gonna be 7(never 10) in a row”.
I thought, this year, we would be lucky to qualify for the CL groups but favourable draws in the qualifiers gave us a better chance than I anticipated and, blow me, did we not exceed all expectations in Europe (aye but that’s gone now, it doesn’t count any more, the right-to-whiners will moan) by qualifying for the last 16, having failed to qualify from a Europa Group stage last year and having come close to not making Europa group stage.
And I made these predictions way back at the start of the season on CQN. These are not post-hoc justifications. I predicted that a league win was a certainty despite all the faint hearts in September and October predicting that the sky was falling in on us. Because it was a racing certainty, the manager would experiment with many more fringe and younger players over the course of a season and would vary the tactics and positional placements in order to test and develop players. And , as a result of both of these aims, we would drop more points than we needed to.
A manager only interested in the short term enhancement of his own win record, would have played the regular first teamers to exhaustion. He would have made CL qualification and group stage 2nd place unlikely by not resting our established players. he would have aimed to win as many games as possible to make his record look good and wrap up the league early to claim some PB or record. He would have accepted the hit in Europe, where our fans had low expectations, to satisfy the lust for a record league win and a domestic annihilation, which some fans called for.
A manager with a longer term view would use this season to blood new players, to rest injuries and fatigued players, to have a longer look at some players considered failures previously to see if they could be rehabilitated (Forster, Kelvin, Izzy) and to confirm which were clear failures( Murphy, Juarez, Bangura). He would have given promising youngsters hope of a Celtic future by giving them a smattering of games (Watt, McGeoch) but not over exposing them in a season when we would have dropped points and where less seasoned pros might get picked on before they were ready. He would have reckoned himself secure enough in the affections of Celtic fans for what he has come through, to risk all of this knowing that they would stay faithful through and through.
Boy, was he wrong?
What pleasure can it possibly give Celtic fans to win the league by larger and larger amounts? the most memorable titles in my memory were the hard fought ones. I could not tell you who holds the largest SPL winning margin. I can tell you I do not believe it is the best ever Scottish team (hope it was not the Lions now).
I can tell you that our European achievement this year is not as good as 67, 70, or 72.
I think it is as good as 2007, 2008, 1980 and 1974.
I think it is a superior achievement to 2003, though we venerate that because we were a success starved club. We celebrate 2003 in a way that 1970 is not celebrated and I understand the context for that, but as a measure of European progress, it is a lesser achievement, though a far greater gathering point for our community, than this year’s success.
We have heard a lot about our glory days and, in part, they were glory days because we were young and fit and foolish. The teams from 1974 through to 2003 achieved nothing like as much as this recent period. It was us who were better then not our team.
On the park, this has been a glorious season. maybe in time, it will come to be recognised as such. We are on to only our 2nd title in a row. We will probably mange 3 in a row but I don’t want to start singing about it until we wrap up number 2 and celebrate that one properly.
Off the park, in stark contrast, we are in a sorry way. Continuing to take part in competitions organised by a corrupt administrative body. I will continue to concentrate my moaning at that target and keep Celtic managers and players out of my firing line.
It’s all about choices. And those choices will be guided by your expectations.”
Celtic First @ 11 08 .
” what happened to media in Iceland when its citizens reclaimed their country so admirably ”
Don’t think there was any great change . Iceland has a constitution which guarantees media freedom . Icelandic law is big on protecting journalists and their sources .
Interesting thing about the ” Icelandic Revolution ” is how little it was /is reported in the media outside Iceland. Mmmmm. Don’t want to spread that disease !
voguepunter
Only date we could get. Lots of babies being baptised in the parish at the moment. Doesn’t bother me but a few of my mates have bought tickets but gave them away to attend but they were hoping to catch the game in the boozer when we went for the drink up later.
Can’t be helped. It’s only one game. I’m sure we will get to the final and they can all enjoy that day in the sun at Hampden.
LB
It doesn’t matter where you are in the world.
You are entitled to have an opinion and express it.
Some Celts tell others to shut others up because they hold a different opinion.
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to be wrong. Which many of you are.
Before I gave up the fags I used to think “How will I ever get through a holiday, a night out, a cup of coffee etc … without one. ”
Last year I was a bit like that about the Rangers games.
Turned out that in both cases it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
I have the occasional twinge when I’m having a drink and smell a cigarette.
Thankfully I’m never exposed to the stench of the huns to re-ignite that craving for a giein thim a doin.
Trophbhoy if he’s retired and likely to be playing mainly during standard working hours, look at what’s available.
I know a guy in his eighties who just turns up and plays whoever else turns up. He plays just about every day. He’s met a lot of people that way, and doesn’t have to drive as much as he otherwise would.
Slippy bleedin’ roof!
For some strange reason the office above wouldn’t let me build a table/chair structure in their workplace. Health and Safety gone mad.
Before I nearly skitted off it I’m sure I saw Charlie on all fours repainting the white lines with his quiff.
According to Rangers interim results:-
Going concern
The Directors have, at the time of approving the condensed set of financial statements, a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus they continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial Information.
——————————–
According to this would a new license be granted and season tickets allowed to be sold when there is only a reasonable expectation they will continue into the foreseeable future?
Does the full audited accounts have to be produced by the end of April, by which time this may have changed?
Where would this leave Dunfermline & Hearts, I wouldn’t imagine that the have a clean bill of health as a going concern, would the SFA have to do checks before they were granted a license for next year?
Would they be carrying out an offence if they continued trading while insolvent?
Don’t know how true this may be of Hearts but it would appear to be true of Dunfermline.
Parkheadcumsalford
Re: Charlie Mulgrew
It’s a nothing story from discredited media which has provoked an over-the-top reaction from some people on here.
I’m not sure how the ‘media are beating us with’ anything. Celtic are on the way to two-in-a-row, in the Scottish Cup semi-final, and have made upwards of £25m after reaching the last 16 of the Champions League.
The media are simply trying to give Sevco, a team which plays in the Ramsdens Cup, a status way beyond their standing. Who cares? It really isn’t that important.
One week they don’t want to be in the SPL and are promising to leave the country, the next week they want fast-tracked to the SPL – Sevco are a bottom-tier outfit in every respect. They are where they belong.
voguepunter
10:58 on
12 March, 2013
starry
Kev’s puter…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAghB2-Ks5I
————————————————————————–
Voguepunter – interesting how Kev’s ‘puter called him a “knob” at the very end of the instruction sequence – as in “use rewind…”
Is this a very early example of “machine learning” I ask myself…
NTASSOOLLA 1133
From your last line,I’m guessing it’s a pitch-and-putt course?
Jaiket,offski…..
BTW,folks,the end of the previous article hosts the CQN CHELTENHAM NAPS competition.
All seven races!!!!!!
Thanks battered bunnet. I was thinking cathkin as he lives in rutherglen . Will do as you say and check out others though.
Has Charlie Mulgrew resigned yet? What a stooshie about nothing, I mean its not as if he will have the final say is it. Now if Dermot Desmond came out and said we’re mssing them then we really would have something to complain about.
BMCUW I was wondering who would be first to chip in with a driving joke.
Entirely off topic so I would appreciate advice from those in the know.
The Raffertys, young and not so young, will be spending a few days in Derry en route to a wedding in Donegal next month.
Now the last time I was there was to see the mighty Belfast Reds throwaway a 2-0 lead in a pre-eason friendly, nearly 35 years ago (and apart from our coach stopping in the middle of a Loyalist band parade on the Cityside, drinking in the Bogside Inn and the distinct lack of peelers and Brits in Free Derry, I know nothing of the town).
So are there any decent places to eat in the evening?
Appreciated in advance.
LIVI BHOY.whhat are you calling the baby.it might have same name as next POPE.
Trophbhoy -An off peak membership might be a bit cheaper,as BB said most courses have waived joining fees.EK Golf Club is pretty good and the restaurant is good too.
Whilst I’m passing, Kojo last night telling us that the reason we dont want sevco back in the SPL is because we are frightened of the competition. How much of a misread is that? Kojo, think you’ve gone and done it now, your credibility has been holed well below the waterline, normally I take your posts on face value but that one – wow – way off the mark.
FAVOURITE UNCLE
Wee man already has a name. He is 7 months old. With Christmas and then lent this is really the first chance we have got to get him baptised. Mrs LB had a C section so just after he was born was not possible. It’s a costly old business too catering for over 100 greedy bassa’s after the chapel!
LB
The Moon Bhoys
He seeketh reaction. And I can’t talk cos I replied to him.
And now I’m kinda doing it again.
WillINeverLearn?CSC
Last saloon still working only 59 so a good few years in him yet. I was mainly concerned about what it takes to get into said clubs . Some i have enquired about want to know his background and ask that he plays a few rounds with members.
Trophybhoy – make sure you dont get him a membership with a club that is so popular he canny get a game. Or a club with a clique type membership that openly discriminates against new members. A quiet club desperate for new members would be his best bet, imo.
I will never miss them.
A few weeks back I attended a charity “old firm legends” game at Airdrie’s stadium. I believe the legends in attendance were Frank McAvennie & Chick Charnley (?) and Andy Goram & Charlie Miller. I would suggest the attendance was around the 1k mark with a 50/50 split of fans. Approx. 50% of the attendees were children, some who attended with their pals and others attending with dad/parents/grandparents etc.
By the mid-way point of the first half Celtic were 2 goals up, and around this point, the atmosphere seemed to turn somewhat poisonous. I suddenly became aware of the ‘gers “fans” around me, who would spout out the most vile and foul language imaginable at anyone in a Celtic shirt and also the linesman who (in line with me and the spouting bears) correctly flagged for offside. All this in clear earshot of many children in the vicinity.
On the field there were 4 or 5 crude tackles on Chick within the first 5 or so minutes of the game (who incidentally controlled the middle of the park, despite his ever increasing waistline!)
I for one, will never miss “them” and the bile, hatred and everything else that is associated with them in whatever form they chose to take. If Celtic ever play Sevco or any other incarnation of “them” ever again, it will be too soon.
TMB I’m still wary of the refs and governing bodies. Where the huns and us are are concerned, they are definitely part of the competition.
celtic_first
11:16 on
12 March, 2013
Yes, and it’s coming to all of them, as Tigertim alludes to above …….. And I just can’t get enough…
LIVIBHOY.good luck and may GOD BLESS him.hope he grows up to play for CELTIC.try JEZKI and COUNTRYWIDE FLAME at cheltenham ,might help pay for the lot.
jjp-on
11:57 on 12 March, 2013
That’s it in a nutshell…..and I will never attend ANY game they are involved in
Trophyboy they do have to keep the criminal fraternity out.
I’m not suggesting your dad is some kind of hoodlum.
Try to keep an open mind. We do know that some clubs don’t want Catholics.
Celts I know up the road all have found a club to suit them.
Golf clubs in general are struggling. Last time I read average of members was about 53.
Down here the Japanese couldn’t gain entry about 25 yrs ago. So they bought land and built their own courses. They imported semi mature trees from Holland, and within a decade their courses were the envy of many. Still, I don’t see them hosting The Open or the Ryder Cup any time soon.
Imagine our ‘colts’ humped the Sevco first team in the lower leagues…
Scottish Football League clubs have been asked to indicate by the close of play on Tuesday their preference for the composition of proposed reconstructed divisions.
With a format of two top tiers of 12 clubs, which split into three leagues of eight mid-season, on the table for the upper end, it has been left to SFL sides to determine the make-up of the lower end of the structure.
Clubs have been asked to state whether they would prefer a third tier of 18 clubs, or the continuation of two bottom leagues of 10.
The latter plan would see two new teams invited into the new league setup, with the possibility remaining of two clubs being asked to enter “Colt” sides into the league.
JJP-ON I hope you appreciate that what I’m saying is I thought I would miss them.
“average age of members”