Textbook away performance, Brand Britain

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I was a bit annoyed at BT’s halftime analysis which suggested Celtic were more than fortunate to be level at that stage.  Salzburg had just enjoyed their best 15 minute period of the game, but, from beginning to end, Celtic’s performance was a textbook lesson on how to play away from home in Europe.  We took our chances and drew our defensive line well in front of our box.  This is how it’s done.

Were you as comfortable as I was during the final minutes last night?

Having watched the performance against Aberdeen on Saturday, when we bossed the game but were penned back when, with two debutants and a returning Scott Brown in the team, the legs faded in the last 30 minutes, I expected the same to happen last night.

Instead, Scott’s goal arrived on 60 minutes, which infused Celtic legs with adrenalin.  This was the crucial moment of the game.  We conceded that fabulous goal from Soriano during the final 30 minutes, but this was also our best period of the game.  Wakaso (who is a player, b.t.w.) ran himself into the ground – literally.  Brown, Johansen, Izaguirre and Ambrose all covered enormous areas of the pitch.

Instead of going through turmoil in the closing stages, we saw Salzburg drop deep, acknowledging the clear danger they could concede for a third time.

The one obvious question is, how did we pick Craig Gordon up for free?

Brand Britain

Brand Britain is damaged. Last night’s vote was a high water mark for independence, so far, but the demographic breakdown suggests support for change is strongest among the young. If the three major UK parties have any intention of maintaining the status quo they need to indulge in considerable Nation Building.

The football business in Britain is in the hands of two closed-shop cartels, one in England and Wales [controlled by the affluent], and one in Scotland [controlled by the unambitious]. This arrangement has disenfranchised Scottish football and drains our economy of tens of millions of pounds per year. It is a clear manifestation of second class status for Scotland and our economy, which is unacceptable for anyone who considers the UK to be one nation.

Politicians with an interest in pushing the buttons of the people, should use this time to call this arrangement out for what it is.

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  1. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon ....The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    !!bada bing!!

     

     

    12:19 on 21 September, 2014

     

     

     

    well, we got the blame anyway for over 100 years ….. remember the shame game .?

  2. BCW @ 12.33

     

    To be fair,tis I who instigates that discussion, whether warranted or not lol.

     

    67 HH as always.

     

    BSR

     

    While your on may I just say how much I enjoy your asides. HH

     

    Is mo na cumann e

     

    Dun na n gall Abu

  3. bournesouprecipe

     

     

    We’ve been over their ultimate tactic “airbrushing” before. It is their last refuge.

     

     

    Barcelona1972 being another prime example of hiding the truth. Another is Manchester 2008. That was only 6 years ago………how often is it mentioned ? I fully expect the SMSM to be promoting the lie that Cardihun developed an amazing new attacking style to get them to that final lol.

     

     

    I’d agree entirely with your summation that we should remind them at each and every turn. Maybe we could name one of the stands something appropriate ?

  4. Jamesgang

     

     

    Just catching up and read about your mum – hope things go well for her and your family!

     

     

    HH

  5. 67heaven … i am neil lennon ….the angels are with wee oscar in heaven.. ibrox belongs to the creditors

     

     

    12:32 on 21 September, 2014

     

    hamiltontim

     

     

    12:18 on 21 September, 2014

     

     

    So am I ….. after their corrupt 9 and even more corrupt 3 in a row, they were found out and liquidated …… whilst the establishment are promoting the myth, we must retain our morals and continue to work at destroying the LIE

     

     

    ——-

     

     

    Agreed but we won’t destroy any lie by ‘shunning them’.

     

     

    The time has come to highlight all that’s is truly rotten about them.

  6. HT

     

     

    I done the Sacred Heart – Cowie at 10, where is this 10.30 one :-)

     

     

    Need to head, the Hoops to see

     

     

    Hail Hail

  7. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    I detest referees with their school teacher attutude to grown men, condescending clown, refs not teachers. 8))

  8. bournesouprecipe on

    BIG-CUP-WINNERS

     

     

    I like the sound of that last bit. We have had ” 125 years of unbroken history ” and one or two other bits and bobs, but I want the line clearly drawn in the sand for the new club’s supporters, who surrounds us in every day life, with petted lip.

     

     

    I expect subtlety so as not to inflame, is the very least we should accept from our club.

  9. Gary Mackay Steven is a fraction of the player James Forrest is.

     

     

    We did miss a trick with the utd left back that went to Hull City, Armstrong. He is a player

  10. 11 arrests now after the fascist rally in the Square.; councilors meeting with police today. Social media playing a role in identifying the main culprits. Forget England and six county stories the main idiots were from the East End and the brave one who attacked the young girl with the saltire is from Baillieston.

  11. Som mes que un club on

    Scroll by if no interestin Horses. A response to the Wigmore Hall controversy in yesterday’s Mirror and Record.

     

     

    #####################

     

    SATURDAY’S Daily Mirror devoted the top half of its front page to a picture of a vet holding a gun to the head of Wigmore Hall immediately before shooting him at Doncaster racecourse last week. The accompanying headline read “Shot in the head. . . a tragic end for a £1.3m champion.”

     

     

    On pages four and five there was a double-page spread with more images and an accompanying article that was notably more balanced and less sensational in tone than the use of the emotionally charged photographs, which were accompanied by captions reading “Brutal death: Wigmore Hall is destroyed on racecourse” and “Vet with gun at stricken horse’s head”.

     

     

    And, of course, 90 per cent of readers won’t bother with the words – they will just look at the pictures.

     

     

    Somewhat surprisingly there was no cross reference saying: ‘Today’s Racing: See Our Eight-Page Pullout.’

     

     

    Were the photos upsetting? Yes, of course, they were. The death of a horse is always a cause for sadness. And there is something raw and almost Dickensian in the spectacle of a gun being held to a horse’s head. But Wigmore Hall’s end was swift and humane, with the procedure punctiliously carried out.

     

     

    Truth be told a lot of horses put down on course are given a lethal injection. But a shot to the head is faster and more humane. The only priority when you have a horse with an untreatable injury is the speed with which the animal is despatched. That is why you have vets in cars, and at a meeting like the Cheltenham Festival there are teams of vets spread at strategic points round the course.

     

     

    Any details about the death of a horse may be distressing – for which I apologise – but we should not shrink from facing up to them.

     

     

    Clinically, a horse is dead the second the bullet enters the brain. Injecting them can be a more lengthy procedure. A needle has to be inserted into a vein and horses are not always still, whether standing or on the ground. The chemicals used are potentially life-threatening for the vet who is employing them and the recommendation for a drug such as the commonly used Somulose is that the injection should be administered over a period of ten to 15 seconds.

     

     

    And often, in the interests of public safety, horses may be given a fast-acting tranquilliser before either being shot or given a lethal injection.

     

     

    Having been injected, a standing horse will take the best part of 30 seconds to fall to the ground unconscious. This is followed by the cessation of the respiratory function and early cardiac arrest. It will take between one and two minutes until the horse is clinically dead.

     

     

    Tellingly, even seasoned vets will admit that the process can be very upsetting.

     

     

    In yesterday’s Mirror article the accusatory point that racing regards horses “as disposable commodities” and inflicts an indefensible number of deaths came in the quotes from Animal Aid spokesman Dene Stansall and its director Andrew Tyler.

     

     

    Curiously enough, Animal Aid has become subtly less inflammatory in its public protestations of late, although that does not prevent them peddling whopping generalisations with scant basis in truth.

     

     

    Thus its assertion that “Poor Wigmore Hall was one of a huge number or racehorses destroyed each year.”

     

     

    How huge? The fact is that in 2013 there was a total of 196 equine fatalities on course from 91,146 runners. With around 14,000 horses in training the percentage who lost their lives was 0.2, and this maintains a downward trend over the last 15 years.

     

     

    Yet Animal Aid says: “Our own research indicates that one in 42 horses starting the jump racing season will be dead by the end of it.”

     

     

    Believe me, if that were true I would be every bit as disturbed by it as Animal Aid. But it is transparently not the case.

     

     

    We live in a nation of animal lovers – look at the way £1 million was raised virtually overnight after the recent fire in a Manchester dogs’ home. Virtually all of us will have taken an animal to the vet to be put down and, while I would never describe that as being tragic, it can be deeply upsetting.

     

     

    And, of course, racing people and the racing public form astonishingly strong bonds with horses. Part of our admiration for the thoroughbred – an animal bred to run and compete – is that we know there are risks involved in racing them. And we strike a bargain with them – not a devil’s pact – that they should be looked after with kindness, care and every conceivable attention to their wellbeing.

     

     

    Animal Aid’s Tyler dismissed racing’s “protestations about how horses are cherished and treated as princes”. But that is, almost without exception, exactly how they are treated.

     

     

    It’s all about human beings doing the right thing by animals. And the racing world, by and large, is passionately committed to doing the right thing.

     

     

    Inevitably there are occasions when we are troubled by the prices paid. But the sport’s conscience should remain clear.

     

     

    ‘Racing people and the racing public form astonishingly strong bonds with horses. Part of our admiration for the thoroughbred – an animal bred to run and compete – is that we know there are risks involved in racing them’

     

     

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  12. TBJ says Wee Oscar Knox is in heaven with the angels on

    Fojut was signed on a pre contract but did his cruciate ligament in his last game in Poland so contract was cancelled

  13. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Roy Croppie

     

    vg, im in a wee semi, wont take you long to do mine then…

  14. TBJ says Wee Oscar Knox is in heaven with the angels on

    BT

     

     

    Last night Sipsini was bragging about his big purple chopper … Today you have a wee semi .

     

     

    Wtf … It’s better than the yes /. No debate I suppose

  15. blantyretim is praying for the knox family

     

     

    12:53 on 21 September, 2014

     

    I detest referees with their school teacher attutude to grown men, condescending clown, refs not teachers. 8))

     

     

    ——

     

     

    Get the coffee made lazy arse :-)

     

     

    Right, off to celebrate my culture.

     

     

    UTLR

  16. is it true that ronny delia has said that he

     

    cant wait to play them

     

    if it is true as i dont buy any of the rags

     

    then i will cut him some slack as he only

     

    has been here 6mths but from someone

     

    who has been here 70 yrs ,i hope they

     

    are never near celtic park again.

     

    ronny should go and talk to the casualty

     

    depts and paramedics.

     

    it would also do him no harm to speak to

     

    the families of young celtic fans murdered

     

    for simply wearing the scarf of the team

     

    they support.

     

    last friday is just an example of what awaits

     

    the first encounter.

     

    then i suppose mr lawell would be happy as

     

    it will add a couple of million to the spreadsheet

  17. eddieinkirkmichael on

    On the bus going to game. Hoping for a bit of a goal fest and a out an out attacking display.

  18. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    Anyone know who the one thousand six hundred and ninetieth poster was ?

     

    Surely must be a hun

     

     

    Off to the match, Mon the Hoops

     

     

    HH

  19. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    21051979

     

     

    It was fredcolon,

     

    lennybhoy tried to trick me into it but I was to good for him..8))

     

     

    2 0 utd, Dow

  20. Good Afternoon All,

     

     

    First time poster, long time reader and reasons for deciding to take the opportunity to engage in the conversations that keep me enertained and informed are various including more time on my hands!

     

     

    Can anyone enlighten me as to the difficulty in registering a user name that was rejected numerous times

     

    for containing illegal characters?!

     

     

    In deference to my all time hero and in remembrance of my favourite chant from the slopes of the Jungle when a boy, I tried ‘There’s Only One King Billy That’s McNeill’ in different guises and forms in an attempt to register but to no avail. I thought maybe the ‘King Billy’ bit was an illegal character (understandable!), but even changing it to just ‘King’ didn’t work.

     

     

    Had to therefore opt for another easier name in respect of my 2nd greatest ever Celt, and without any KOK

     

    reference just in case! Disappointed couldn’t get my name but on the plus side the constant attempts to register and do the infuriating wee sums adding numbers to prove you aren’t a robot (never understood that as robots are programmed to be clever and hardly think 3 + ? = 5 is hardly going to blow their circuit board), has improved my maths to the extent I might apply for Countdown on grounds other than to ogle

     

    close up the Goddess that is Reilly’s legs!

     

     

    Anyway look forward to the odd posting and contributing to this wonderful site, 4-0 The Bhoys today.

     

     

    Hail, Hail.