Home games against St Johnstone, Hearts and Aberdeen after facing Albion Rovers in Airdrie isn’t the most taxing period for a Celtic defender, but it would be churlish not to recognise Dedryck Boyata’s form.
The Belgian central defender has been assured and confident. His pace halted a sprightly Hearts attack and an ability to elevate his considerable bulk into the air produced the only goals against St Johnstone and Aberdeen. Without him our attempt on the world record for consecutive league wins may be over.
Is he the genuine article? Maybe. What we can say for sure is that he’s not the bomb-scare he was the previous two years.
It should be no surprise we missed so many chances last night, we were without four of this season’s top five goal-scorers – surely some kind of record?
Great for those who stepped forward when needed, Dedryck in particular, but I’ll be pleased to Leigh, or Moussa, or Tom, or Stuart back for St Johnstone on Sunday.
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Kitalba
You can feel the utter helplessness of both the journo and warbs, violins in the background.
That makes it even funnier for me:)
If ever a mob deserved it, its them.
Karma eh, can be painful:)
HH
We don’t do walking away vidjoe. Been a while since I seen. I can’t stop laughing. Each lyric is brilliantly child like . then the face pull emphasis. Then the orange band like shoulder rolls.
Hahahahaha.
Then check the comments
Hehehehr
Saint Stivs
Like something out of ‘Deliverance’
HH
The Green Man
Sophia’s choice.
Park Road
Tickets sorted for Leopardstown next week.
I will be in touch before you arrive
Celtic Mac
The Creature from the Black Lagoon:)
HH
Jobo Baldie on 2nd February 2017 10.30pm
No none of that makes sense. Celts are 25pts ahead of Sevco, we play them in game 28. When we horse them, they can only win 30pts, so it follows if the scabby dregs lose 3pts more than us before we play them, the game’s a bogey.
Aberdeen win everything? Is Ryan Christie that good?
Hope he is.
Kitalba, thats desparate stuff from the sevco manager.
Desparate and hilarious at the same time. I really hope the hun support dont get their way.
I think he deserves a new contract, increased wages to the level the fat gardener picked up, and a massive fat bonus for his failure.
Thats the way to run ra shevcko mob.
Ipad is a bit rubbish for typing but it tells me there’s only 200 comments before the blog’s three millionth.
Don’t we all hope The Donald hits the gong.
GLENDALYSTONSILS on 2ND FEBRUARY 2017 10:56 PM
MACJAY
13 out of 14 players last night from Ronny’s time.
And to think that chancer Brendan Rodgers is trying to take some of the credit.
Hmmmph!
=======================================================================
:-)
Joking apart .
Improving the performance of individual players was one of the immediate benefits of the arrival of big Jock.
Wee Jinky was effective but ill disciplined. Bobby Lennox underachieving . Stevie Chalmers missing sitters.
Perhaps the confidence factor played a part.
Course wee Bertie gave us the gallus factor.
And the toys lined up like backing singers. Hahahahaha
Macjay
We can at least agree on the benefits of having a good manager
Great days for the hoops…
Saint Stivs
One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest:)
HH
Neil Cameron The Herald
Rangers supporters deep down will know this. Unless Dave King, the owner changes his tact and makes a heavy investment, or someone outside of Ibrox invests, then it is almost impossible to see when Celtic won’t have it all their own way in Scottish football.
=============================================================================
” change tact ”
I can remember when the Herald was a quality newspaper.
Re when the league could be won:
It could be that Sevco ease up after they reach their target of 55 points, so Aberdeen would likely be our nearest competitors.
WHAT IS THE STARS on 2ND FEBRUARY 2017 11:48 PM
We deserve this.
After two years of purgatory.
We bloody deserve this.
Seriously couldn`t have imagined such a dramatic change in our fortunes in such a short time.
Kitalba
“The club is coming back. Let’s be clear. Senior supporters have come up to me and said, ‘the club’s never been like this before’. They’ve always been at the top. They are right.”
These “senior supporters” couldn’t have been around pre-Souness when they only won 3 titles in 22 seasons. I was born in 1960 and can only recall the year they stopped big Jocks 9 in a row run and their 2 trebles under Jock Wallace.
They will do well to win 3 in the next 22 years!
When can we win the league
Personally I think Celtic should stick on 67 points and see if anyone can catch them
It would be nice to be champions 50 years after 67 on 67 points
Bit like sevco going for 55
Now of course it would mean putting out the youth team for the next 15 games…obviously if anyone gets too close we might have to unleash Dembele and Sinclair for a game or two….
Then again the bloody youth team would probably keep the winning run ( or is it a slump) going
Oh such decisions to have to make
“their first season back in the Premiership since the club was placed into liquidation in 2012”
——–
Do you give him credit for saying the club was liquidated or groan at the use of the word “back”?
“I’m reading in the paper Celtic are on a record-breaking run. If they won four games less, they would be 13 ahead. If we had won one of our games it would be 10.
The man has flipped.
Gary
He shouldnt read the papers
Pity about the demise of succulent lamb journalism
Gary67
I guess he has never heard the wisdom of the glaswegian philosopher who stated “if ma auntie had haw maws she’d be ma uncle”
Big Dedryk’s goal ~ if you have not seen it…….worth watching again if you have!
http://streamable.com/pukfb
Kinda reminded me of the winner against Dunfermline in the SC Final of 1965………and the rest was history!
Have a look……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwnQfpepUME
GARYGILLESPIESHAMSTRING on 3RD FEBRUARY 2017 12:41 AM
Gary67
I guess he has never heard the wisdom of the glaswegian philosopher who stated “if ma auntie had haw maws she’d be ma uncle”
=================================================================
I was so tempted to use the same analogy using a ” trumpism ”
:-)
HBOS manager and other City financiers jailed over £245m loans scam
Rupert Neate The Guardian:
Lynden Scourfield (right) with David Mills (centre) and Michael Bancroft – all three have been jailed.
Disgraced HBOS manager Lynden Scourfield (right) with consultant David Mills (centre), and Michael Bancroft – all three were convicted of fraud and corruption. Photograph: Thames Valley Police
A group of bankers who ran an “utterly corrupt scheme” that left hundreds of small business owners “cheated, defeated and penniless” have been sentenced to almost 50 years in jail.
Lynden Scourfield, a former senior HBOS manager, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after the judge found he had “sold your soul, for sex, for luxury trips with and without your wife – for bling and for swag”.
Scourfield, 54, was jailed on Thursday after pleading guilty to the extensive scheme that drained the bank and small businesses of around £245m and left hundreds of people in severe financial difficulties.
Judge Beddoe described Scourfield as an “utterly corrupt bank manager” who, driven by “rapacious greed”, had “got his tentacles into the businesses of ordinary and honest people and ripped them apart without a thought for those affected”.
Five of Scourfield’s partners in the multi-year scheme – the proceeds of which were spent on lavish parties, superyachts and sex parties – were also sentenced, bringing the total jail time to 47-and-half-years.
Consultant David Mills, Scourfield’s business associate, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for his role in the extensive fraud. Mills arranged holidays and orgies for Scourfield in return for being introduced to HBOS’ clients, Southwark crown court heard.
Sentencing Scourfield, Beddoe said: “I do not know when or how David Mills got his hold on you, but that he did. He is the devil to whom you sold your soul, for sex, for luxury trips with and without your wife – for bling and for swag.”
During the four-month trial, one woman giving evidence said she worked at a pornographic magazine company under Scourfield’s portfolio and was asked to arrange girls to come to parties for the “posh twat banker friends”. A sex worker told the court that Scourfield resembled the actor Danny DeVito.
A diary entry from one of the sex workers read: “Met guys, me, Amber and Suzie. Chinese meal. Then drinks at flat and quick shag. Easy £1,500.”
The jury also heard how, apart from funding the evening entertainments, Mills also applied to have a second card on his American Express account, which was issued under Scourfield’s name.
Also sentenced were Michael Bancroft, 73, who was jailed for 10 years; Mark Dobson, 56, for four-and-a-half years; and John Cartwright, 72, for three-and-a-half years for their various roles in the fraud between 2003 and 2007.
Mills’s wife Alison, 51, also played a major role in the corruption and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years. The Mills owned a £2m superyacht called Powder Monkey which the prosecution said was funded by the elaborate fraud scheme.
Some of the victims lost their companies, livelihoods and even their homes as a result of the scam.
Paul and Nikki Turner, from Cambridge, were ignored for years when they tried to report what was going on after their publishing company, Zenith, was run into the ground in the scam.
“They defrauded us, denied for 10 years that the fraud had happened, ignored the debt from the fraud and tried to evict us 22 times in order to cover up the fraud,” Mrs Turner said.
“It’s a huge success for us that the trial has gone on. The other victims have gone through terrible things, they have gone through the loss of businesses and lost homes. Other people lost everything, including marriages broken up, because of this.”
The courtroom was packed with victims and their supporters, who erupted into applause and cheers when the sentences were passed.
Beddoe said Scourfield had not shown a “shred of remorse” for ruining the lives of the employers and employees of those companies. He said the scheme “ripped apart those businesses without a thought for the lives and livelihoods of those affected in order to satisfy their rapacious desire for money and the trappings of wealth”.
He added: “People haven’t just lost money but in some instances their homes, family and friends. People who could have expected to be comfortable in retirement were left cheated, defeated and penniless.”
Mills lavished the Scourfields with clothes, jewellery, luxury hotel stays, business-class flights and expensive meals at an oyster bar and a cheesecake restaurant. His wife invited Dobson and the Scourfields to go on trips to Ascot, while Mills, Bancroft, Scourfield and their wives holidayed together in Barbados to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Many of the victims said they were going to continue to press Lloyds Banking Group, which took over HBOS during the 2008 banking crisis, for compensation, claiming that the bank knew about the wrongdoing earlier and failed to investigate properly. The bank denied this.
Lloyds said it would review individual customers cases and may pay out some relief. “Whilst we have fully reviewed customer concerns raised previously, we will review any new concerns on a case-by-case basis taking into account any relevant new information from the trial,” the bank said.
The case reached court following a six-year investigation by Thames Valley Police.
Stephen Rowland, specialist prosecutor from the CPS specialist fraud division, said: “Many people have had their lives ruined by the corrupt behaviour of Lynden Scourfield, David Mills and their associates. Scourfield worked in a section of his bank which was supposed to help struggling businesses but instead, motivated by greed, he went about stripping them of their assets.”
Mills was convicted of conspiracy to corrupt, four counts of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property, and his wife of conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
Scourfield pleaded guilty before the trial of conspiracy to corrupt, four counts of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime. Bancroft was convicted of conspiracy to corrupt, three counts of fraudulent trading and one of conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
Cartwright, from Hyde, Cheshire, was convicted of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property, while Dobson, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
Scotland’s Forgotten History
The sinking of the HM Iolaire in 1919 was the worst peacetime disaster in British history. James Irvine Robertson looks at what happened on that fateful day.
It was Hogmanay 1919, a few weeks after the armistice which ended the most terrible war in human history. Virtually every family in Britain had lost a son, a brother or a cousin. On the Isle of Lewis people were waiting for their men to come home.
Out of a population of 30,000, 6,200 young men had volunteered to fight for King and Country; many had been fishermen and joined the Royal Navy. More than a thousand of the sons of the Isle of Lewis and Harris had died during the four years of the conflict, a higher casualty rate than anywhere else in the country. And now those exhausting, tragic years were over and the islanders were ready to try to celebrate the first new year of peace.
Many of their menfolk were due to return to the island to join the festivities. Some, particularly sailors still busy clearing mines, had been granted leave; others were discharged from the Forces and returning for good. The mail steamer SS Shiela was docked at the railhead at Kyle of Lochalsh ready to ship them the 100 or so miles past the island of Skye and across the Minch to Stornoway, the main town and port of Lewis, where many of their relatives were gathered to welcome them.
It soon became clear that more men were waiting for passage than could be accommodated on the Shiela, and therefore HM Yacht Iolaire was ordered from Stornoway to Kyle to be pressed into service as a ferry. This was a wooden, 634-ton luxury steam yacht built in 1881 for the Duke of Westminster and requisitioned by the Admiralty for anti-submarine work and patrolling. The Gaelic name means ‘sea eagle.’ Some 500 soldiers and civilians boarded the Shiela; the sailors, about 285 men, were packed onto the Iolaire. Its captain, Commander Mason, seemed unconcerned although there was life-saving equipment for nomore than 80 souls.
The two ships left Kyle of Lochalsh to voyage to Lewis at about 9.30pm on the 31st December. There was a fresh breeze from the south and weather conditions deteriorated as the journey progressed. The Iolaire, scheduled to arrive first, was not the handiest of vessels, nor had its crew ever tried to run the 700 yard-wide passage into the port by night. Probably the result of a miscalculation of the strength of the southerly wind and confusion over the lights to guide vessels into the harbour entrance, the ship piled into the rocks at about 2am. Called the Beasts of Holm and awash at high tide, these rocks were just east of the safe channel. No more than 10 yards from the slick, rocky shoreline, the ship was hit by a wave, throwing it further onto the rocks and over onto its starboard side.
One of the survivors who had been travelling in the warmth of the chart room, forced open the door and later reported what he saw. ‘The lighthouse flashed its blessed beam – on mountainous waves relentlessly lashing against towering cliffs with narrow ledges and jagged crags. The waves descended in a mighty cataract into the boiling and spuming depths below.’ Fifty men jumped into the icy water and drowned immediately. Two lifeboats were filled and launched, but at once these were swamped and vanished. The ship broke its back. Aboiler exploded and the wreck began to slide backwards into deeper water.
One man, John F Macleod from Ness in the north of the island, grabbed a rope and managed to battle through the maelstrom and gain a footing on the rocks. He pulled a heavier line across, secured it to an outcrop and some 40 men were able to use this to haul themselves to safety. He was later awarded the Carnegie Hero Fund Medal and Certificate ‘in recognition of heroic endeavour to save human life.’ Twenty year-old Donald Morrison climbed the mizzen mast towards the stern of the ship and clung on. Two other men clambered up the foremast. It snapped and they were swept away. Donald was found alive at 10am the following morning, still with his arms round the spar. No rescue was mounted in time to do any good. News of the disaster was brought to Stornoway by survivors who walked the three or four miles into the town.
No accurate figure was recorded of those who boarded the Iolaire at Kyle of Lochalsh, consequently no accurate figure of casualties was possible. The Captain and officers were killed, so the two inquiries were unable to establish a definitive cause of the tragedy.
Bodies were washed ashore for days afterwards; some found at the top of the beach lying against the wall of the burial ground where they would eventually be interred. Boats went out every morning to search for them, returning to face the silent crowds of friends and relatives who had walked to Stornoway from villages across the island to carry their dead home, but the bodies of a third of those lost were never recovered.
The best estimate of the dead was 205, only 79 survived. It was the worst peacetime disaster in British waters in maritime history.
In the close-knit communities of Lewis and Harris, the calamity personally affected every family. After the trauma of the island’s wartime losses, the effects of this final tragedy were devastating. The local newspaper used the phrase ‘grief unutterable,’ and thereafter the catastrophe was indeed scarcely ever spoken of. Its scars went too deep. It is considered one of the contributing causes of the mass emigrations that left the island in the years after the war.
A memorial commemorating those lost on the Iolaire was raised in 1960. It stands on the outskirts of Stornoway at Holm Point, overlooking the innocuous-looking rocks that cost so many lives.
Tolsta Suffered Severely
The population of the island at that time was approximately 30,000 – 6,200 of whom served in some capacity during the Great War i.e. one in five of the island’s population. More than 1,000 of these volunteers were killed during service.
Duncan Macdonald, Schoolhouse, North Tolsta writing in the Loyal Lewis Roll of Honour 1914-18 states, “The population of Tolsta at the last Census was 853 (400 males and 453 females). The number of Tolsta men on active service was 231, equivalent to 27% of the total and 58% of the males. This record is hard to beat even in Loyal Lewis”.
Tolsta also held another record. The Campbell brothers of 54 North Tolsta held a record in that seven members of their family served during the war. Their mother was given the choice of keeping one of the brothers at home but she could not choose between them – and so all seven went to war. They were: Torcuil Mòr, Murdo (Crùbaidh), Kenneth (Peatair), John (Horrigan), Angus (Schlang), Donald (Sùill) and John (Dodds). Kenneth was lost in the Iolaire.
kitalba on 3rd February 2017 12:52 am
Ah Kit you’re just sore that some our beloved corporations are being singled out. As long as they can prove that they had no dubious chromosomic ancestry or attended public education Im sure a bailout would have been in order.
MARGARET MCGILL:
They obviously were not up to date with their Lodge Dues. I’m sure there will be a few with sweaty brows this day.
Amazing how quickly it (Scotland’s Shame) was all forgiven and forgotten.
kitalba on 3rd February 2017 1:42 am
Same entitlement mentality as Warburton but on a more gargantuan scale.
Lets hope Murray Mints ends up in jail.
Craig Whyte is chickenfeed compared to these guys
Kit
looks like old ozzy turnbull may have ended a phone call with the leader of the free world in a rather abrupt way today possibly referring to his cognitive abilities.
Seems Australia has 1500 afghan and Iraqi refugee family members on its papua new Guinea holding center that are considered traitors for cooperating with the US. Seems Australia took them under good faith and now Turnbull wants to send them on to the US. However, Trump thinks they’re terrorists. End of phone call.
Mags.
Maybe Trump is no mug.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-23/manus-island-asylum-seeker-charged-with-raping-local-woman/820
Fall of the house of David
MURRAY International Holdings Limited, the firm that owned Rangers, was crippled by debt and ended up owing the bank £200 million. The Record CRAIG ROBERTSON
A MULTI-MILLION pound business empire built up by former Rangers owner Sir David Murray is now officially dead.
At a meeting in the offices of an accountancy firm in Glasgow, Murray International Holdings Limited – the firm that owned the football club – were buried.
Documents published by Companies House outline how joint liquidators John Reid and William Dawson, of Deloittes, put the final nail into the coffin of Murray’s group, which was crippled by debts and ended up owing £200 million to the bank.
The liquidators described their final meeting with creditors – mainly the Lloyds Banking Group – as “purely a formality”.
A statement released on behalf of Murray, 64, said the bank were the only creditors and that he lost equity in the company through his shareholding.
It said: “The annual liquidation meeting of the company was held in mid-March.
“At that meeting, the motion was passed that as all matters had been finalised, the company would move to dissolution which, effectively, is it ceasing to exist. This happens automatically three months after such a meeting.
“We can confirm there were no ordinary creditors other than the bank, who were also substantial shareholders with Sir David Murray. Both lost their equity.”
After being asked about new firm Murray Capital, the statement outlined the firm “is a completely stand-alone entity and for the avoidance of any doubt, all transactions were done on a completely professional independently valued arm’s length basis”.
The formal liquidation of MIH means Murray can leave the bank debt burden behind and focus on his new venture, which returned pre-tax profits of £13.6million after buying assets from the old company.
Along with his two sons – David D Murray, 42, and Keith Murray, 39 – and a fourth director, Craig McDermid, he set up Murray Capital Group.
Accounts for the defunct MIH show the Murray family bought the majority of a property company, Murray Estates, for £13.9million in 2014. That business is now owned by Murray Capital Group while another firm, Murray Metals, was also acquired from MIH before it closed down.
Those assets, along with the sale of a stake in a bus and coach builder, have allowed the Murray family’s new firm to become a major success.
The final MIH liquidation document said the sale of those assets to Murray’s new firm, and other asset sales, were “utilised to part-repay the bank loan facility”.
But the £13.9million paid for Murray Estates only took off a small chunk off the bank loan and overdraft which, in the last set of accounts for MIH in 2013, was £350million.
In 2009, MIH were at their peak and Murray was one of Scotland’s richest men with an estimated personal wealth of £500million.
The success of his metals, mining and property businesses – along with the support of the bank – secured huge profits and allowed him to fund lavish spending at Rangers.
But the financial crisis in 2009 led to a crippling downturn in business, leaving MIH deep in debt to Lloyds.
That crisis forced Murray to strip down, restructure and sell off parts of his empire to try to bring down the debt. He then came under pressure to let Rangers loose from under the wing of MIH.
Pre-recession, the company employed about 3000 people and said last year that they had “secured continued employment” for more than 95 per cent of workers.
One of the final blows for MIH was the company’s departure from their prestigious base in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square.
MIH’s reputation has also been damaged by the ongoing saga over Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) payments, which saw Rangers employees given tax-free loans. They helped the club recruit a string of high-calibre players.
Murray benefited to the tune of £6.3million from EBTs which are at the centre of a long-running legal dispute between Rangers’ oldco liquidators and the taxman.
The Supreme Court are expected to issue a final ruling on the case this year.
Murray was among a group of 63 players and 24 members of staff who received payouts from EBTs.
Names on the list including former managers Graeme Souness and Alex McLeish and players Barry Ferguson and Nacho Novo. Many Rangers fans are still angry over Murray’s sale of the club to Craig Whyte in 2011. Less than a year later, Rangers were in administration and then into liquidation.
At that time, Murray said he was “bitterly disappointed at the outcome of the administration and saddened at the ongoing uncertainty”.
But Craig Houston, of fans group the Sons of Struth, said some supporters will never forgive Murray for the events which unfolded after he sold the club.
He said: “There are different schools of thought on David Murray: People who remember nine-in-a-row and can’t see past that or those who will never forgive him for selling to Whyte and blame him solely for that sale.”
Writing in the most recent accounts for MIH dated June 30, 2013, Murray said: “Looking back, we continue to profoundly regret selling our majority shareholding in Rangers to Craig Whyte.”
Don’t forget Gavin Masterton Maggie.
MARGARET MCGILL:
Australia is Australia Mags, it is not perfect, where is.
Trump may be many things but he is not boring. I just pray that he does not ignite a huge war; or any war for that matter.
MACJAY:
There is a flip side to your link…
there are many, many, refugees who are themselves victims of rape, awaiting, peacefully and patiently, for processing to ever conclude, in our holding fields.
Kit..,
I see the Ukranian fascists are trying their best to drag him into continuing USA support for its coup, by breaking the ceasefire and Minsk agreement. Personally I think they are in for a shock.
It is so Wonderful.
When you feel you are being Ridiculed for Believing so much, that a Delinquent (I had no idea) in School, has his ears Open so much. He is a Rangers Dude, and telling him anything is like saying it to the Daily whatever Newspaper.
Wow, HE has Amazed me over the last few days about his willingness to listen – He has a kid due on the 12th of July. Mental stuff I know. He hasn’t been Baptised and He and his Mrs dinnae intend to Baptize their kid.
Baptism it is SO Fundamental to Christianity in my View. John was Beheaded – It Seperates the Head from the Body.
The WORD – It is Amazing – We are not in it because we are in the WORLD, trapped – no way with the Master Locksmith Yeshua, Jesus the Almighty.
Anyway, I have planted a wee seed.
Amazing, He actually thinks Warbiola is a good Coach, I Agree with him.
I don’t want to see the new Club go down the route of the Old Club.