John Greig said his biggest regret in football was being handed the European Cup Winners’ Cup trophy in a dressing room and not in front of fans. What should have been an iconic moment, with images forever displayed on walls, was little more than an afterthought.
Chances are, at some point today, you, me, Neil Lennon, Scott Brown and the rest of the players will receive a text message, “9 in a row, official”, we will do our best to celebrate the moment, but it should not have been like this. The occasion had the making of our most endearing memories as Celtic supporters, and for that, there is regret, we missed out. For once only, Scott Brown will know how John Greig felt.
Nine-in-a-row has been filled with fabulous memories created by some of the greatest ever Celtic teams. For me, it started as we followed the live within our means strategy I always held dear, while ominously acknowledging the threat of four-in-a-row from the spendaholics.
When we were three goals down at Rugby Park in October 2011 that threat felt all too real. Without a double from Anthony Stokes and a third from Charlie Mulgrew, or even Paul Heffernan’s open goal chance to win the game for the home side on 88 minutes, so much of what followed could have been different.
It took over eight years for that feeling of doom to return. Our domination was never in threat, but history was. 29 December 2019 will remain in Celtic fans’ memory for longer than it probably deserves. That was the date a feeling that we might be in trouble returned. We have every chance of winning our fourth consecutive treble and you would not be against us doing the same again next season, but although we didn’t know it at the time, the title destiny was out of our hands after the players left Celtic Park on the end of a 1-2 defeat.
A lot of CQN’ers who were here for the start of this run are no longer with us. I made an offhand comment to one of that number in 2012, saying, ‘Celtic will never lose another league title in your lifetime’. I regretted this, as it was meant as a flippant take on our comparative position in Scottish football, not on our own mortality. But here we are, growing older with Celtic’s dominance, if anything, more secure than ever. That flippant comment remains valid for an untold number of us.
You, your parents or your grandparents may have celebrated a European Cup win and nine-in-a-row first time around, but Celtic’s position in 1974, when we first won nine, was significantly weaker than it is today. Today, it feels like we are ready to kick on to another level.
When the news comes, remember the struggles of getting here, not just the hard years during the 90s, but the years of loss under ‘prudent’ [solvent]spending plans. As a Celtic supporter, you suffered the defeats, the lost trophies and their divisive consequences. You deserve your chance to celebrate nine-in-a-row and a crack at 10 next season.
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Is it time for Pilot yet 😀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
Aye but wit aboot Steven Fletcher
We won the League again fly the flag, fly the flag. :-D
Don’t go to Paradise!! How about a drive past to celebrate??
I was 3 the last time we achieved 9 in a row so my memories are as empty as John ‘Bomber’ Brown’s thesaurus. This one is much more vivid, obviously.
Congratulations to each & every contributor from pitch to terrace & all in between.
Magnifique.
🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀🏆🍀
I am celebrating with a Can of Coke, as I still cant bring myself to drink in the hoose……maybe wee Nicola will allow the Pubs to open for ” NINE Hours” ?
Somehow I doubt it…LOL
On a serious note….has there been ANY mention of an ” Asterisk” by the SPFL ?
HH
Hi Bhoys
Congratulations and love to all our fellow celts.
9 in a row again.
When the monkeys try to tell you it’s tainted just say.
Thankfully we done it without ebt’s cos the bribes for doncaster and dundee weren’t cheap.
KEEP THE FAITH 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
🙋♂️ Hi Fellow Celtic Fans!
Congratulations to our wonderful Club, Team, Manager, Captain, CEO and everyone else involved, and of course our amazing fans on Celtic being officially crowned as Champions of Scotland and Kings of Scottish Football! 😊 🍾🍻🎇
Special thoughts in my heart too for our dear departed loved ones who are cheering us on from above!
I have to hand it to the much-maligned SPFL for their dignified (sic) statement… When I read their ‘Season Curtailed’ headline I thought here we diplomatically and tactfully go, but NO, in one simple sentence they make it clear that Celtic are ‘crowned 👑 2019/20 Champions’ (i.e. KINGS of Scottish Football!) and that ‘Hearts have been relegated’ (Ye’ll have had yer tea Budge!) 😅
There is no equivocation or obfuscation in this statement, no asterixes, no fudging the issue, but the simple truth… Celtic are crowned 2019/20 Champions’! Well done to the SPFL for making it so simple for everyone in Scottish Football! 😊
Enjoy your day everyone!
Take Care, keep safe, God Bless and Hail Hail! 😊
TB&F.
May 2011,
“This isn’t the end, is just the beginning.”
Neil Lennon
FAVOURITE UNCLE on 18TH MAY 2020 12:15 PM
OK thanks for allowing me that.
Fav Uncle gets 10!! It’s an omen I tells ya💚🍀
DAVID17 on 18TH MAY 2020 1:37 PM
May 2011,
“This isn’t the end, is just the beginning.”
Neil Lennon
____
I have that on my tea mug. Always a nice wee reminder of where we were.
Fantastic achievement, entertaining too :)
One of yer best ever blogs Paul.
Dinnae be too hard on yerself.
Celtic 9 in a row.
Here we go to the Crossmaglen.
Lilly Allen responds ))
http://youtu.be/dmF3Z100T7E
I don’t normally have a drink at this time of day so i’m not going to bother…..
Hail Hail and Congratulations to all at Celtic.Strange times however as our Archbishop says every Sunday ” these times will pass”.They will pass and we will celebrate our 9INAROW at the home of the Champions.During the dark days of the 1990’s I never though I would see this day.
Hail Hail and God bless.
Keep the Faith.
Do we get an asterix alongside our gold star? Well done the bhoys…did our talking on the park, again…
Just had the most teeth gritted congratulations from my pal, commonly known as RabtheHun but I am not telling you who he supports! Of course he let himself down by then launching into a tirade of absolute anguish about it not being fair, you don’t win a marathon if you don’t finish the race yadayada.
I just told him it was probably the sweetest victory we have ever enjoyed, queue absolute meltdown! Life in Timdon is so sweet.
GLASGOWBHOY on 18TH MAY 2020 1:05 PM
Don’t think I’ve ever won the league at lunch on a Monday before!! Congratulations Celtic, history makers yet again. And I liked Paul 67’s story too!
……………
Maybe not at lunch time…but when Celtic won the League with 10 men against the huns in 1979 by 4-2…it was a MONDAY evening game.
HH
Well done Celtic – Champions again.
I was here for the first nine, but will I be here for 10, 12, 15 or more?
I certainly hope so. Come on the Celts.
HH
Paul67
Congratulations to Neil Lennon and his Champions.
Inevitable that Celtic should continue to win the league in every year of Sevco’s existence, and despite the perennial losers and SMSM bluster, the SPL have stuck by the rules of the game and we completed nine in a row, just like our first nine from a level playing field.
If ever a league is to be dedicated to absent friends its this one
Hail Hail
God bless Neil Lennon
Well done Celtic, well deserved nine in a row.
All the sweeter as Sevco and their fans know that if they had beaten Hearts and Kilmarnock and not drawn with St Johnstone the SPFL might have said it was too close to call.
Now the close season starts, how I hate it!
When we are allowed to return to our beloved Celtic Park for the start of next season the flag should be
raised by a keyworker from the NHS/Social care workforce, who have done so much of the heavy lifting
during this pandemic.
“Celtic has a charitable purpose at its core and during these unprecedented times of crisis we felt it was crucial that we stood up and supported those in need. I am delighted to report that through Celtic FC Foundation we have now committed £450,000 to this effort.”
This makes me feel humble to be part of the worldwide Celtic family.
Scott Brown
@ScottBrown8
·
54m
History created lads 🍀🍀9 in a row 🏆 🎉🎉🎉🎉make sure we all celebrate
Celtic Football Club (from 🏡)
@CelticFC
· 1h
🏆9️⃣ THIS is how the league was won…
#9INAROW Champions for a reason! 👊
Our Way, Our Nine, Our Time. 🍀⚪
#StayHomeStaySafe
Chris Sutton
✔
@chris_sutton73
Well done to Neil Lennon and Celtic🍀 on 9 in a row. Thoroughly deserved 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏Serial Winners 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Not even close once again…
16.6K
12:23 – 18 May 2020
To any lurkin Huns…..
We dont care what the animals say, what the hell do we care….
Celtic have created History again ….so all you huns should dry your eyes, you couldnt keep pace with Celtic in 2020 …FACT !
Oh my Days…..Ya Dancer !
HH
I am as happy on this championship day as any other, its just wonderful.
now to win that cup.
Greg Taylor
✔
@GregGregtaylor
Never forget your first 😍😍😍🏆🏆🏆 hope everyone’s enjoying there day💚 #9
11 years old at the end of the last 9iar, having a few beers today for this one
Paul67
A very restrained, almost downbeat, dedication to our 9iar.
I texted something similar to your sentiments, expressing gratitude for the fans who raised us to love Celtic, the club, and to value what we had. We have lost a couple of genrations in travelling from the initial 9iar to this one, but we have also gained a couple of generations who have little or no memory of the original 9iar teams. I think they are allowed to celebrate this without so much of a backward look.
And next year, all who are fit enough to last the journey, will, I hope, get to see a first that we can all enjoy to the full. One that will be celebrated on the field with no denial of completion, and while the Repeat 9iar teams have not been of the same quality nor faced the strength of opposition that the Lisbon era teams managed, they will have a record all to themselves and one that nobody in Scotland has seen before.
You referenced the Killie game and its impact on this run but there were many moments throughout the 9iar run, especially at the end of 2019, where fans abandoned hope that this was going to happen.
I think, therefore, that all of us who kept faith in this remarkable squad with the identifiable mark of winners, demonstrated in the number of late goals scored to procure wins or snatch draws, are entitled to just a wee bit more than a slightly downbeat reaction.
In that spirit, I will start with the polite refrain of your father’s, your own mentor, and shout:-
STAND UP FOR THE CHAMPIONS
and, in a slightly less generous, but, nevertheless, heartfelt sentiment and possibly copyright of Tony Donnelly, formerly of this parish
GIRFUY lurking huns
How’s that for downbeat.
Was at Brockville in ‘74 with ma da and big sister, never thought I would see it again. Congratulations to all the Celtic family😁😁🍀🍀
Well done Neil Lennon and the team , Coaches, backroom staff , the board .
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I read the news today , oh bhoys .
The Celtic have just won the league
Tell all the Huns, that you know ,
That makes it 9 flags in a row.
ho ho ho off we go, 9 in a row, bye bye rangers
Eddy Grady
@EddyGrady
·
25m
@ETimsNet
https://twitter.com/i/status/1262364007584890880
🤣
Unfortunately we are now entering the Close Season, a period the Huns historically do well in :)
I was put on to this site by a friend when it had only being going for a few months. For a few years I was an occsional poster but have really posted very little in the last few years. I am, however, lurking every day.
When I started reading the site Paul was selling G.o.D and I, like many others I’m sure were not convinced that G.o.D was real. However, here we are at (another) 9-in-a-row. My 19y.o., 16y.o., 14y.o. sons can only ever remember the league being won by Celtic (this being the 15th title since 2001).
I suppose G.o.d is real after all. Nobody was really sure what G.o.D looked like but as we near a 4th consecutive treble G.o.D seems pretty all pervasive.
G.o.D. certainly makes me a happy Bhoy!
I remember being convinced we would get 10 back in 1974-75 (when i was 11 years old) as it was all I had known. I was pretty devestated when it got away from us. I’m so looking forward to 10 ( and 11 and 12 and….). Maybe G.o.D will last forever……..
Congratulation Celtic and all my fellow CQNrs. Have fun.
The Guardian’s Euan Murray swalling his normal bile and acting like a journalist for once, producing a well balanced article about the new 9-in-a-row Champions.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/18/celtic-scottish-title-triumph-not-diminished-by-cold-climax
God Bless yer Bro bsr.
Thank You Neil.
The picture Saints Stivs posted of Neil at Ibrox was a happy Family.
We are truly Blessed to have this dude as our Manager.
Difficult times but we shall prevail.
DONTBRATTBAKKINANGER on 18TH MAY 2020 2:00 PM
When we are allowed to return to our beloved Celtic Park for the start of next season the flag should be
raised by a keyworker from the NHS/Social care workforce, who have done so much of the heavy lifting
during this pandemic.
Great call Hail Hail
CELTIC DAWN on 18TH MAY 2020 2:13 PM
Unfortunately we are now entering the Close Season, a period the Huns historically do well in :)
Excellent banter! (Or ……..Pistol Pete MUST do better this time round).
Ave Ave