Whatever maligned Celtic during the recent dark days when they dropped points to Hamilton and Dundee has cleared up. Hearts made the very best of a chance in the opening minutes on Saturday but the response was swift and conclusive.
Patrick Roberts deservedly picked up the accolades for his goals but the contribution of Tom Rogic should not go unrecorded. In creating the second goal he demonstrated ball-winning skills and creativity, a priceless package for a midfield player. Let’s hope he’s over his head knock for tomorrow night.
Mention should also go to Stefan Johansen, who played the deep-lying midfield role until Rogic went off, when he moved into the advanced position. His blind flick onto Roberts at the third goal was sublime.
The most pertinent comment I heard on Saturday was “It’s good to have the goalkeeper making saves again”. Craig Gordon appears to have his confidence back, perhaps as a consequence of the defence performing better.
For most of the second half Celtic defended more deeply than we’ve seen throughout the league campaign. With a two goal advantage, Griffiths and Johansen were asked to run into space, while the rest of the midfield became compact. As a consequence, Hearts had plenty of the ball, and created a few half chances, but they never carved Celtic open.
Had we been that compact during the European qualifiers our season could have been different.
There’s a process I go through when we sign a new foreign player: do I add his name to the spellcheck or not? I decided long ago I wasn’t prepared to pollute my dictionary with the names of transient players. Derk Boerrigter’s name still appears with wavy lines below in my word processor three years after his arrival.
His name will go down in Celtic annuls alongside Rafael Scheidt. We spent millions on them, they both went down with innocuous injury moments after starting for Celtic and that was pretty much that. In his opening 30 minutes for Celtic, Derk produced evidence that there was a football player hiding inside his psyche, but he soon found the rigors of the professional game too challenging.
He leaves Scotland with millions in his bank account and with a lot of frustrated people at Lennoxtown.
Did you read during the week that the Association of Irish Celtic Supporters’ Clubs raised €500 for the Foundation’s Ability Counts Ireland Project? The Ability Counts Project offers children with Downs opportunities to develop motor skills and team-working through football and dance. This is one small frontline of all the fundraising, badges, buckets, zip wires and dinners Celtic fans participate in.
It’s an important part of the relationship thousands of us have as Celtic supporters.
Consider getting involved. The Foundation is holding a H.E.L.P. Pilgrimage on Bank Holiday Monday, 30 May. Participants will walk the 17 miles between St Mary’s, Calton, Barrowfield, the Jimmy Johnstone statue and gardens at Viewpark and back to Celtic Park.
A 17 mile walk is no small feat, but most feet are capable of it, so get involved here.
522 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 14
- »
eddieinkirkmichael
MARMARIS Celtic Bar’s Thanks.
JC2 from last thread,
pretty sure there’s a Marmaris bar called Parkhead, near the marina end of the bay. My bhoy spent a week there last year.
TALLYBHOY
Clever thinking,big man!
Next time I call you,I’ll tell you of a ruinous episode at my posh girlfriend’s house in Caterham for a family do on Easter Sunday 1996.
I warned them in advance,to be fair. But they insisted I turn up-you can watch the game in the front room.
No lie,it took about a dozen attempts before I relented and decided to turn up. Really nice people,after all.
Did I mention we were playing the huns in the semi-final and Donnelly in particular had his shoes on the wrong feet?
Naw?
Carnage. But then,they were warned,so not my fault. Much.
BMCUWPs,
Remember I told you both about this?
@ 1.25pm, Maybe you should sign for us?
http://www.independent.ie/regionals/droghedaindependent/localnotes/club-is-expelled-from-gaa-27111849.html
Till later.
Y NOT67 on 4TH APRIL 2016 1:14 PM
Well? We are living in a country where cheating is encouraged by our association leaders in football, so in a nutshell ? Aye the game up here is bent as an Arabs dagger.
– See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/rogic-defending-derk-ability-counts/#sthash.Uj9O438p.dpuf
Its not a new thing,been going on since we started.Probably much worse back then.
I think some of the posters on here are well under 30.Same with the referees.Many react as if this also a new thing.I remember Gordon,Mc Currie,Tait.I even remember Wharton.Could make this current mob look like Alter boys.
For me it makes it all the sweeter to hump them.
NATKNOW on 4TH APRIL 2016 12:32 PM
“Whatever maligned Celtic during the recent dark days when they dropped points to Hamilton and Dundee has cleared up. Hearts made the very best of a chance in the opening minutes on Saturday but the response was swift and conclusive.”
One thing that caught my eye about Saturday’s game was the possession stats. Hearts apparently had most of it. At Celtic Park. This is a reversal of the usual situation where Celtic have great possession but seem unable to break down dogged defences. When I’m watching those kinds of games I often think “Just give them the ball” – my logic being that the opposition will need to do something with it, commit themselves and made the kind of mistake that allows us to capitalise.
Am I wrong?
——
One of the many reasons I enjoyed Saturday was because the minis came to try to win.
By fair means and often by (state sanctioned) foul.
But – either or both – it meant we weren’t facing the 1-5-5 lineup that most teams play at Celtic Park.
HH jamesgang
JC2 r bar in Marmaris is called The Parkhead bar I think
BMCUW .
Caterham .
Occasionally had a beer in the Caterham Arms in the late 60s ..–bombed by the PIRA a few years after.
And on a similar theme, if God spares me I’m away with Mrs Baldie to Cala de Mijas (just south of Fuengirola) on Thursday for a week. Any venues for next Saturday’s Motherwell game, in case my wee Kodi box doesn’t work with the apartment’s wi-fi….? ;-)
Bono, Bottles and Bloody Cheatin’
It’s time to confess the Rapid Vienna debacle was my fault entirely. There I’ve said it and I already feel better. No, I didn’t throw that cursed controlled container instead I didn’t go to the match choosing a U2 gig at the Barrowlands over my beloved Celtic. Like many Celtic fans I stupidly feel my thoughts, prayers and actions affect Celtic results much like they used to affect the deid club’s results. Let’s face it who historically tuned into one of their games hearing they were struggling only to see the ball nestle in the opposition’s net a few seconds later. Curses!
The 7th of November 1984 was a huge night in Glasgow’s east-end: 48, 813 true Tims-the stand was all ticket- were at Celtic Park to see if we could overturn a 3-1 deficit from the first league. A perfect Celtic nerve-wracking scenario was set up. Glory or despair?
Meanwhile I was among 2,100 hot and sticky U2 fans in the packed east-end concert venue listening to a 19 set playlist that nearly blew the roof off the ole place. A guest appearance by Charlie Burchill from Simple Minds momentarily eased my Celtic guilt as I thought well if Charlie chose the gig…but we were both wrong. Despite the raw energy and brilliance of Bono and his boys my mind was drifting to Celtic park and a quick exit at the end of the last song ’40,’ as I recall, brought the good news from some old Bhoys in the corner of a momentarily quiet Bairds Bar: ‘Cellic won 3 nuthin’ son…’
Delight and relief…I could enjoy my underage pint. Before I could ask who scored the goals and wallow in what had turned out to be a momentous night, the same old Bhoy said: ‘There was a bit of bother though, a bottle got flung fae The Jungle but it missed…’ A shaft of doubt went through me caused by these few words with no firsthand knowledge of what really happened and I already feared the worst. I was back to blaming myself.
What shouldn’t be forgotten is how well Celtic played on the night. The goals were scored by McClair, McLeod and Burns and it was the last scorer the cynical Rapid players targeted for some ‘revenge’ shortly after his goal. Kiensat believed his goalie had been fouled prior to Tommy’s goal and his retribution was to punch the Celtic man on the back of the head a few minutes later as Burns raced into the box. The referee did send the player off but unbelievably didn’t award Celtic a penalty. This utterly confusing decision was a microcosm of what was to come. Celtic Park was still in rapture from the goal when this cowardly act took place and bedlam ensued. The Rapid keeper joined in and he booted Tommy. The referee then lost the plot and spent an inordinate amount of time discussing everything that had happened with his linesman; during this feverish period the Rapid captain wanted to take his team off the park only to be dissuaded from this action by a UEFA officials. Meanwhile the referee was still swapping strudel recipes with his linesman. The game finally restarted and no-one could have predicted what happened next. A clown in the Jungle decided to recycle his glass bottle on the pitch. Luckily it missed everyone but the Rapid player Weinhofer decided to play ‘best man fall’ and rolled around as if he’d been hit by a wayward William Tell arrow. Mr Magoo could see he wasn’t hit but it still doesn’t excuse bottle bhoy. Rapid went into full let’s cheat and save the tie mode. Weinhofer was wrapped in swathes of bandages but a Celtic first aider and the linesman both later said they could see no sign of an injury. Celtic’s Peter Grant would also miss a late penalty and for the exhausted crowd and players the final whistle could not come quickly enough. It was a crazy ending to a crazy night but it was to continue for a while yet off and, subsequently and disappointingly, on the park too.
My ears took about two days to recover from the gig but that didn’t matter as I pored over newspaper reports and strained to listen to Sports bulletins on Clyde for any update on what was happening. The bad feelings persisted. It turns out that Rapid lived up to their name and put in a protest as soon as they could. A few say this was done immediately on their return to Vienna but other sources say Rapid officials were seen leaving a Brigton drinking den known to house a dodgy telex machine. The huns were hurting that night as they had beaten Inter 3-1 at Ibrokes but lost out 3-4 on aggregate. Shame that.
As a fan of Shakespeare I much prefer his tragedies to his comedies but the aftermath of our tie quickly turned into a farce as a bungling UEFA made the SFA look like a slick firm of Philadelphia lawyers. Their goalie would claim he was hit by a ‘small object’ and Rapid had evidence of a second bottle. All that was missing was the grassy knoll.
Here’s a very short summary of what happened next courtesy of CelticWiki:
• Rapid telexed a protest to UEFA before they arrived back in Vienna.
• After a UEFA inquiry the result stands, Celtic are fined £4000 for bottles thrown and Rapid fined £5000 for Kienast’s behaviour.
• However Rapid appeal and UEFA double their fine to £10,000 – however they order a replay of the game to be played 100 miles from Celtic Park.
• Celtic choose Old Trafford for the venue on December 12th.
It should be noted that Ernie Walker, the Press both North and South of the border and various foreign correspondents were vocal in their support of our case but despite the blatant cheating and video evidence available we were off to Old Trafford.
As U2 sang at number 2 on their Barrowlands playlist ‘I Will Follow’ and we certainly did in our tens of thousands. I went on a bus from Buchanan Street to Manchester with my two mates from the gig. This was part of our penance for missing the first game. The omens weren’t good as the driver stopped the bus twice on the journey south and the police boarded around Carlisle. Let’s just say the underbelly of our support had decided no-one was going to have a quiet journey south even if you were a pensioner or a kid. Definitely bad omens.
The crowd inside Old Trafford was 51,100. We were in the stand across from the main stand. Everyone was pumped up, too pumped up as it turned out. Celtic exploded into attack but couldn’t get the all important early goal and the cheats classically hit us on the break. The team’s early energy deflated and this horrible day and night went from bad to worse. Two fans assaulted Rapid players and I could see our European hopes for years ahead crumble before my tear filled eyes. It was all too emotional for players and fans alike and we were now the bad guys. Cheats had won and U2 were nothing to do with it. We later trudged to Manchester city centre regretting our decision to wear only shirt sleeve Celtic tops for the day trip in December. Obviously we missed our bus; slept huddled in a bus shelter for a few hours and caught the early bus to Glasgow. Walking the short distance from the bus station to Queen Street we appeared to attract the attention of many followers of another Glasgow team. In the main we ignored them.
No wonder we enjoy the good times.
We beat Hibs 0-1 at Easter Road three days later courtesy of a Johnston goal. This was the day Cammy Frazer gave his own fans the v sign at Ibrox, little did we know what Maurice would do to us in the future. Everton beat Rapid in the final and I’ve had a soft spot for the Toffees ever since. They displayed banners in support of Celtic but watching that final was sore despite the Everton victory.
I didn’t see U2 again for a few years but when they played Celtic Park in August 1993 it seemed a good fit. Now a stadium band with a 22 set playlist, stunning backdrops and ‘big heads’ it was good but I preferred the Barrowlands. ‘I Will Follow’ was number 11 now and I had a quiet chuckle at the memories. Celtic Park and our beloved club were in for some big changes too and it wouldn’t be too long before some of our own Pride was restored; Europe would take a little longer.
Hail Hail
CLOGHERCELT
Sure will,and I’ll mail my Dad about it too.
Good morning all Tims from the Republic of Texas in the Panhandle. Stayed over in a charming small town by the name of Canyon.
A lovely unassuming people here, with a large sprinkling of Scottish and Irish surnames on local businesses.
I’ll be hiking in the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest of its kind in the US after the timeless Grand Canyon.
I’ll be hiking a four mile loop wearing my Hoops, taking in the comparable Rock formations.
The weather here is stunning: clear, bright, with a lingering chill in the air.
After the hike its a five hour drive to Santa Fe, New Mexico for four days.
P.S. There would be a certain legal beagle of this dear Parish drooling over the selection of cowboy boots in the general store…
Jobo
If the big man disnae spare you what the hell will we do for the weather???
HH jamesgang
SOUTH OF TUNIS
I didn’t know that,thanks.
There was a huge barracks in the town back in the day,so possibly explains the target. Without excusing it,of course.
It might also explain a certain degree of enmity when I walked in there nearly every time wi a Celtic top on.
I foolishly thought they were just jealous at me nicking one of their local honeys!
RC
Brilliant….
You are not at fault, I blame the EIS for going on strike and cancelling our school bus trip to the game
All kidding aside, we should have played it at pittodrie, the bored (sic) back then were thinking about the attendance, I am more than sure pittodrie was an option
Jobo
Harp bar
Today is of course the feast of St Isidore of Seville, friend of the humble bee
The Order of St. Isidore of Seville is a chivalric order formed on January 1, 2000. An international organisation, the order aims to honour Saint Isidore as patron saint of the Internet, alongside promoting Christian chivalry online.
[Not to be confused with St Isidore of Madrid ‘the labourer’, patron saint of farmers.
Now I am exiled in Shangri Lite I usually go to Sunday mass at St Isidore’s in Biggar]
Did you not think the balance and energy was better once Rogic went off?
He does some great things Rogic but, for me, he plays too far up the park and we’re often left short in midfield.
Cheers Gerry.
I think the venue ridiculously had to be at least 150 miles from Celtic Park. Debacle.
HH
JAMESGANG on 4TH APRIL 2016 1:43 PM
One of the many reasons I enjoyed Saturday was because the minis came to try to win.
By fair means and often by (state sanctioned) foul.
But – either or both – it meant we weren’t facing the 1-5-5 lineup that most teams play at Celtic Park.
HH jamesgang
———————————————————————————-
Exactly. It ended up being a good game to watch. No doubt that was partly because the minis had a go. I wonder if we gave the opposition (in the SPFL anyway) more of the ball then we would find it easier to break them down. Just because they would lose it eventually while attacking and their players would be higher up the pitch. Maybe even as far as the halfway line…
Roy C
A good read
I queued overnight for U2 tickets and didn’t get – they played two nights and tickets were done in minutes. I don’t think I’d Q for ole Bono now….
My memory was that Kienast punched TB, was shown red and we got a pen.
I vividly recall thinking during the delay caused by the rammy that it would be good to score a 4th in case of any repercussions. I thought it bad that the pen was left to the then-rookie Grant.
A horrible time and made worse by RV going all the way to the final where as you say they finally got their deserved comeuppance.
squire danaher
Cheers pal. Was some gig but no contest now for me :)
Rogic still hasn’t signed a new deal has he?
Off in the summer.
MUSTERS
Yes I can see your point -also Biton came on for Rogic and played well I thought . Gave some added composure to the mid-field and fed the forwards with some nice passes.
Roy Croppie
Great stuff – do you mind if I post this as a magazine article?
On the U2 concert that night – I went to game then walked to Barrowlands for the concert. It was quite a night!
Great read Roy.
A couple of people asked me in Dublin about Commemorative Coins of the 1916 Rising. There are more issued by the Central Bank today, For your info.
https://www.centralbank.ie/paycurr/collector/Pages/Coinsets.aspx
You can get them from The Central Bank here, if still available. There were apparently queues to get them in Dublin earlier today.
WC
Thank you, go ahead flattered tbh. Hh
CLOGHER
Appreciate that. Hh
Watching the bbc 4 programme just now. V good.
Cloghercelt@2.45pm
Thanks for info ‘re Commemorative Coins. Put my order in in time due to your post. Cheers for that. HH
———-
Two Great Games Over The Weekend..
Watch them LIVE on TrumpJet 1….
While Wee Ivanka & The Wean Took Over The Controls.
Jam Tarts….Crumbled Underfoot..!
And Leicester…
What A Phenomenon !
Deserve to be the “Peoples’ Champions”
Southampton Played Like It Was Their FA Cup-Final….
End-to-End Stuff….
And Played In The Correct Spirit…
With Full Commitment…
Yet With Barely A Foul…
And Certainly No NASTY Fouls…
Leics play clean football….
And other teams reciprocate…
Mebbies that’s how they’ve managed to go through a Full Season…
With such a Small Squad…
And few Serious Injuries…
Only 1-0…Like Many of Leics Recent Wins….
But A COMFORTABLE 1-0 Win….
Where We Felt the Lichties Could Go Up The Other End And Score Again…
If They Had To….
Wanyama was bypassed by Mahrez,Vardy & Albrighton….
Frazer Forster Pulled Off Three Magnificent Saves
One BETTER than Gordon Banks against Brazil.
To Keep The Scores Down…
This Leicester Squad was assembled on a Shoe-String Budget…
Barely Larger than that paid out of Oor Irish Raj’s Biscuit Tin…
Yet they play like Liverpool & Notts Forrest….
When they dominated the European Cup..
Last Saturday, Leicester’s Chinese Owner was Handing Out Free Beers,Donuts,& Tunnocks Teacakes…
To all the fans at the Game…
Because it was his 80th Birthday…
Can you imagine Peter & The Twa Iains…
Doin’ Anything Similar….?
Nope..!
Not even a Stale Pitta Bread….
From Their Larkhall Kebab Shop.
———-
Natknow @ 2.21
Your reply highlights the important difference between having the ball and having a desire to take it across the halfway line!
Most teams who come to CP don’t want to do the latter en masse. Though that said its still been a worry how many goals we’ve lost. But thought our centre half partnership looked a good deal better on Saturday.
HH jamesgang
Jobo re the game against them I watch Celtic games in Harmons Bar in Elviria which is a wee bit South of you. My advice would be get in touch with Auldheid, he stays in Benalmadena – couple of train stops from you. You will have some great craic with him. Whatever enjoy. Hail Hail Hebcelt
Does Dave King own a Panama hat? Answers on a £20 note to…..
Weebobbycollins
Does Dave own anything ?
Chelsea players in for a big shock when Antonio Conte takes over in the summer.
Shape up or ship out.
A totally driven individual who will not tolerate any slacking and demands complete and total effort.
HH!!
You’re right Gerry, if he does have a Panama hat, then he probably nicked it from a hat stand on his way out of a courtroom somewhere…
Rerun of the Celtic v Hearts game for those who don’t have Sky ect.
http://www.footballorgin.com/spfl-2015-2016-celtic-v-hearts-watch-online-full-match-replay-02-04-2016/
Tallybhoy
Your description of Conte the manager reminds me of Conte the player,
If you don’t mind me asking is Inzaghi getting the Lazio job a shock ?
jamesgang, I though centre defence did well on sat, with exception of their goal. I was surprised when someone said Lenny was scathing of them at half time. Away to watch game and see if he did say that.