I remember getting annoyed at the grief Gordon Strachan took after David Fernandez inspired Dundee United to a draw at Celtic Park. It was disproportionate, despite the poor performance, and ignored the sporting reality that weaker teams can get it right and leave Celtic Park with a point. As well as a lot of credit for their efforts.
Positives first. Many things didn’t work for Celtic yesterday but James Forrest looked to be back to his best. There was only one occasion he didn’t get past the Killie fullback all day, and he recovered to dispossess two opponents and win the ball back.
For James, it’s all about fitness and confidence. Right now, he has both.
I looked at the clock: 3 minutes had gone, Jozo Simunovic was still on his feet. ‘We’re breaking new ground’, I thought. Kilmarnock defended their penalty area all day, so we were seldom troubled, but you and I have seen enough football to know that’s not the whole story. Jozo was immaculate, didn’t put a foot wrong, covered ground with pace and precision. Threw himself into tackles and won the ball.
The contrast with recent defensive performances could have scarcely been more marked.
Elsewhere it didn’t go so well. Tom Rogic and Nir Bitton were both inhibited. Stuart Armstrong prodded but seemed out of sync with his team-mates. Passes regularly found an opponent. From my seat, it looked like our movement and use of space was inefficient.
The last 30 minutes of the game saw Kilmarnock clear their lines and regroup under sustained pressure. During this period, I was confident the goal would come, it usually does. Maybe the extra dimension we hoped we’ve recruited in Carlton Cole, out ill yesterday, would have given our wing play more of a target.
Since writing on the subject on Friday night I’ve seen some of the sectarian abuse left on Facebook about our director, Ian Livingston, amid a diatribe against refugees and all sorts of people who are minorities in the UK.
Years ago I wrote that there are few values we can anchor the club to. Scotland is changing, as are peoples’ sense of identity, no more so than when it comes to religious identity. We can’t, nor should we, impose restrictions on who becomes a Celtic fan. Our demographic is largely left of centre, but a Lisbon Lion went on to become a Tory councillor, so there’s no political bar to supporting Celtic.
I also know an Ulster unionist, who for several years joined his family and friends as a Celtic season ticket holder. He was always made welcome, and didn’t find the celebration of Irish heritage at Celtic incompatible with his identity. As the generations pass, we’ll see more of this. People will care less about 20th century politics (not to mention 17th century) and your view on transubstantiation.
Our founding value is that we are open to all. You will find a welcome at Celtic irrespective of colour, race or religion, you don’t need to care about Scotland or Ireland, we have Poles, English, Norwegians, Americans, Aussies and many more. Few of them had an Irish grannie.
These values are under threat across Europe. We should take every opportunity to reinforce them.
I took some advice on whether to out those behind the racist abuse yesterday, but I’m glad Ian Livingston did so direct on the Affiliation site (and apologies for the direct quote appearing on a CQN article, I pulled it as soon as I saw it).
I was also challenged over the weekend for criticising the chairman’s right to use any available platform to call out racism. I don’t feel qualified to say that’s not allowed.
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just to go in a wee bit different direction.
marks out of 10, for all round contribution, to celtic.
and its my own made up ranking.
————–
v ajax.
Goalies
Bonner – 6 played a lot of games, was shite in all the big ones.
Latchford – 6 played a mid level of games, give us a wave was his best .
Defenders.
Danny , – 10, a true celtic great, in all respects. world class, how i wish he had made it to 88, he deserved that.
Sinclair, – 5 , great game against cruyff, rubbdge rest of time.
Moyes , – 4, a celtic non entity.
Aitken, – 6, controversial, but, great celtic minded man, lost us more big games than he won us, peaked at 19.
McAdam – 6 also, scorer of big goals in big games, crap defender though
Mark Reid – 6, , mr consistent, consistently average.
Midfield.
Paul McStay, – 10. maestor magic. he should have left, but mc stayed. how i wish he had made it to 98, and been part of stopping 10.
Tommy Burns, – 10. the definiton of faithful through and through.
McLeod, – 7 , for his hunskelpin and part of the stopping 10, a right pain in the arse nowadays.
Danny Crainie, – 3 , he had a wee spell, well done som
Michael Conroy, – 10, saint stephens legend. port juniors one season, beating bfdj the next.
Dom Sullivan – 5 , oh how my uncle duncan hated the poor dom, i grew up with him shouting at the “useless aberdeen reject”
Forwards.
John Halpin, – 3, one season wonder, he was there on the team sheet, scored against the original huns, that was it.
Provan, – 6, couple of great seasons, some great games, one career defining goal in the 85 final his brother roddy the proddy hated that he signed, nowadays, he doesnt half talk some shite.
Frank McGarvey, – 6, couple of great seasons, some great games, one career defining goal in the 85 final. loved him for his april 2nd 1980 debut hun skelpin goal
Nicholas – 6. should have been a celtic great, the young champange charlie was something special, a real hunskelper, we only had him 3 real seasons and he buggered off. never forget the ibrox shows he was superb, he broke my heart, but Choccy replaced him. so i forgot him quickly enough. i was just sitting here thinking about
George McLuskey.- 8. A Celt, some great moments, some hun skelpin goals and the riot cup final defelctive winner, he is still there today, in body and soul.
just to get it off my chest.
WITS,
Have you no been watching ?
Timaloy29 and other bawbags
There are quite a few others that demand conformity, it’s all the Syrians fault, they are supposedly genocidal but on you. Read UK and NATO press, why would that be. .
Nothing to do with new nuclear trident eh.
Night night n god bless
Don’t let the devil make you think god brings misery.
If you have a problem let me help
I love you
If I can afford it I will, seriously, I love you.
i tell what,see if any of you want to be politicians or ones that want to change the world and play god,please leave this site
And the winner is………….
Little Vlad Putin………..
With NOW ……..
Two warm water ports.
Herbo, thank you, hopefully Sinky is doing well.
I was told in his last season with us, he had really debilitating health condition in his hips, but still continued to play.
twitter is in meltdown that there is an emergency board meeting after the celtic trust announcement, and that lawell has invited jinty to meet tony d in the brazen head,
Signing in and signing out after 10 minutes. Seems like this is just an evening for name calling and patronising abuse. Canamalar – take a good look at yourself in the mirror, shake yourself down and start again in the morning.
Scepovic comes on as a sub for Getafe,commentator says he’s at his 14th club ,he’s only about 24 ffs
Dallas
It’s been a good while since I’ve seen him but he was in good form the last time I was in maybe about a year ago. Very unassuming guy. Gentleman.
Too much talk about other’s faiths on CQN.
Neilbhoy,
Let’s both do that, and see who wakes up in the morning without making excuses at a mirror.
I will, will you ?
And the runner up to K.G.B. Vlad is………..
His fraternal Stasi sister…………….
Angela” Red Flag” MERKEL for her pivotal role in the dismantling of the E.C.
Said Vlad………………..
That`ll serve ye`z right for yer sanctions.
Meanwhile ,in a land not far away (for ICBMs )
Obama slumbers.
St Stivs
She’d take him to the cleaners in jig time :-)
St Stiv’s, I listened to Graham Hunter’s podcast with Charlie Niicholas, last night.
I was wanting to see if my downbeat opinion of Charlie would be changed by listening to it.
The good bit,his praise of Danny as a person as a player .
Bad bit ,he says he is more passionate about the club , Arsenal, who ruined his career than any other club he played for. He even admitted it was a mistake joining them.
Then a few minutes later said he was a huge Celtic fan but doesn’t like the way the cub is run
I did agree with him when he says the way some of our former players were treated by the club after they left could be better. He mentioned Tommy Callaghan and Denis Conaghan but did not go into any great detail why he mentioned them .
My opinion of him is not as low as it was as he holds Danny in such high esteem but his over the top criticism of us previously and not sticking up for us more, still sticks in my craw.
Canamalar I really hope your mirror is made of strong stuff. You are a sanctimonious, patronising troll. If you are a Celtic fan then I despair. Night night all.
A thoughtful report on the AGM
http://celticunderground.net/celtic-agm-couldve-been-better/
Yer sanctions have in the main been ignored, the result of the forced economic limitations has been that Russia has got the lowest deficit in the world.
Another year and what ? Economic sanctions have been a joke especially those imposed by bankrupt clowns, it like rangers telling everyone in Scotland they will suffer if they don’t support rangers.
Next year Russia will be the strongest economy in the world with the least per capita debt, and Britain will be babbling shite about our Saudi friends leading the moral campaign.
Mrs TET went out with a young Charlie Nicholas when they were both 17, she fecked him off cos he was a big headed twat, and he never wore socks, her words, she is still good friends with his Mrs.
Sleep well Timland
I imagine the blog will be all peace and love in a few hours, TD will ensure there is perfect harmony.
HH
Canamalar – 10:05 pm
“Good shout, can you remember when he told us Christians when it was Kosher to eat bacon sandwiches ?”
Yep, when Jesus said:
“10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[a] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Matthew 15:10-20
Neilbhoy,
Just about everybody here knows I’m a Celtic supporter, my mirror knows its limits, what/who are you ?
Sanctimonious is a big word, did someone pay you to look it up, good night.
Lubo..,
Thanks you bring light to me.
My mouth is a sinner :)
But I seriously will hold that thought, no promises I will use it wisely
We’re after Jozo’s pal and Souttar according to currant bun
https://mobile.twitter.com/scotsunsport/status/668927671498313729/photo/1
Dallas
Best thing about the game was Charlie’s goal followed by NTV’s Average Joe Miller doing the aeroplane style celebration down the terracing.
Let’s hope we give that mob another going over on Thurdsday. I don’t like them much.
Baw baws time
Night night n hail hail timdom
Canamalar
Good man yersel! G’night and Hail Hail
Herbo, In the footage from that game, Joe sticks out a mile with his bright yellow shirt on.
We both come from Drumchapel but I did not know him but had saw him about the Drum. I saw him before the game and he looked like he had had a great time in the build up to the game.
I finally got to meet him , as we have a few mutual acquaintances , around twenty five years ago. He’s a really good guy .
He’s a friend of mine. I’m from the ghetto myself ;-)
Don’t worry about ISIS, interesting title when going into things.
Apollo is another term. Dragon is another, all names, names for what exactly?
Satan = Chaos.
The more that Christianity is removed, in the Middle East especially, the Worse this World will become, it really isn’t rocket Salad.
Celtic will hopefully have Young hungry lads playing on Thursday, desperate to do exactly what the Manager wants from his players, I’ve came to the conclusion a lot of players, established, can’t.
Celtic are definitely right to Live within their means and try and Build a Team from our own Academy. It is likely to mean a couple of years of not beating Barca.
I was reading Platini payment of £1.3m nine years late for a verbal contract, and had a wee look at Graeme Souness history;
Manager of Galatasaray 1995-96 when Tugay Kerimoglu was a player, Tugay moves to Rangers at 30yrs of age in 2000 to Rangers for an undisclosed fee (must be a small fee, or The Swoop Fee would’ve been all over the Red Rags), then Souness buys him for Blackburn for £1.3m five weeks after activating his £30k tax free ‘loan’ Rangers EBT now known to be illegal 10 years after leaving Rangers. Then there was Barry Ferguson, signed by Souness in 2003 for …..£7.5M! Ffs was GS afraid he’d be asked to pay back his loan? Then in 2005 he’s back at Ibrox on an EBT signed for £4.5M, nice profit Rangers.
This is worse than Platini, surely?
Herbo, where did you stay?
I lived across the road from St Laurence’s church on Kinfauns Drive.
Dallas
From Peel Glen, came brave young men. :-)
Herbo, a nice link. Ha ha
I rarely ventured up the hill or by Airgold Drive , where Danny grew up., when I was younger.
It’s nice to get a fellow Drum tim on the blog.
I’m offskithis time . Sleep well all
Gnight chief. Hail Hail.
Bhaltic Bhoy
November 23, 2015 at 5:44 pm
The absolutely Jaw Dropping revelation that Mike Ashley is prepared to spend 100 MILLION of Their Majesty’s finest pounds litigating against Sevco is ‘Old News’ to you?!
From where did you read that particularly stupefying little nugget before today, before you saw this post?
In the Daily Record? Evening Times ..? The Daily Howl ..?
The reason Ashley is prepared to go to these unheard-of lengths is clearly because his legal people are 100% CERTAIN that their numerous cases against King et al are rock solid and, naturally, the ill-begotten club that thinks it’s Rangers will be hit with the bill for all of these legal expenses, and a whole lot more besides, when MA and his diligent counsel walk triumphantly smiling from the court.
Yourself apart, I reckon any Celtic fan reading this will be positively HOOTING with schadenfreudian delight, and any Sevco fan who knows how to interpret the message will be spending the rest of the winter trying to recover their bowels from the bog bowl.
Because this, my friend, is the ultimate coup de grace, the final, killer blow that will put them, at long suffering last, out of their desperate, flailing, misery.
Their pain and confusion, however, might remain for quite some time after, maybe up to around 4 years, given how ‘unexpected’ this news has been to those, and they are many, who chose to ignore the sirens …
Some religions believe that the spirits of the dead linger on a while after a sudden, shocking, death, something they could not have seen coming, and, in fact, those concerned might not even know that they’re dead, until some greater power either redeems them or deserts them.
Whcih sounds uncannily familiar around this ‘club’, no ..?
Nice one, Phil!
We welcome the case!
My last night in Glasgow last Summer I was introduced to Joe Miller….
“I admired your work from a distance” says I.
My mother said to me later… “Who was that you admired from a distance”
“Someone I always wanted to be maw”
Player!!!
Awe Lord. St Sixtus, St Benedict’s, and St Pius. …. Great days.
How the world has changed for better and for worse.