You and I have seen some special Celtic teams. For me, the double winning team in 1977, the Centenary team and, of course, the Martin O’Neill team, were without doubt above anything we’ve had since the 60s.
I am in no way disparaging Gordon Strachan’s remarkable achievement of twice reaching the knock out stages of the Champions League. This was down to Gordon’s superior ability as a manager; the wee man didn’t have a squad to compare to the others on the list.
By contrast, this team, in its embryonic state, finished fourth in the Champions League group, but that was then. Now, they are within touching distance of winning an undefeated treble. This is the finest Celtic team I’ve seen.
The ’77 team wasn’t so much a team as a support act for Kenny Dalglish. A season later, without King Kenny, they finished fifth, without even a Uefa Cup spot as compensation.
It was sheer force of Billy McNeill’s personality which drove the Centenary team on, but they returned for preseason without their elixir.
It was like going to school watching Martin O’Neill’s team. We learned so much about the game that we’d never seen at Celtic. This was a guy who knew how to get results. But without another King, we discovered that team too was built on a single foundation.
There are no Kings in this Celtic team. They are a team in the true sense of the word. Last night, without Dembele, Armstrong, Tierney, Lustig, Simunovic and Sinclair they rolled around the Firhill surface like a machine from the 22nd century.
It was breathtaking. This is the greatest Celtic team since the one which walked off the Hampden pitch in front of 136,000 fans in 1970.
I saw a preview of the BBC documentary film, Glasgow 1967: The Lisbon Lions, which airs across the UK on Wednesday 24th May. It was heartfelt, entertaining and inspiring. I intended to review it today, but I was so annoyed at the coverage some in the media gave it, I thought I better step back to do the job justice.
They had some of the Lions, of course, and some wives too, but they sat a microphone in front of a few of our more experienced CQN’ers Some of the best things you have read on this site come to life on the screen. We’ll talk about it again next week.
Stunned and humbled at the support for the marathon, which takes place on Sunday morning, to benefit the Celtic Foundation. I just don’t know what to say. There are spectacular donations (here) there – a simple thank you does not seem appropriate, but I know every donation, large or small, means someone has taken the trouble to spend hard earned money.
It is appreciated, thank you.
If you’d like to get an historic week off to a unique start I hear there’s a projector screening of the original live broadcast and whole 90 minutes from Lisbon in a Govan warehouse tonight (Friday, 19th), it’ll run from around 6.30 till 9. If interested drop an email to cqnopen@gmail.com
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Love the wee story about the fans putting a hat round for the pilot.
Happy birthday Mrs Corkcelt, now let the man enjoy his European trips to paradise next year again☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️
Very impressed by Irvine CSC last night
Good set up and very well run club
Well done Raymond and the bhoys
I noticed Hills had us at 2/9 to win today earlier in the week, I thought that was extremely generous. Now we’re into 2/11, they must have taken a few quid. Actual odds must be around 1/16.
A Hoopy Birthday to Mrs corkcelt..
Goals for Shay.. good luck to all…jobo and c.r.c. thanks for the organization.
Up the Hoops …
Enjoy the day tims
Back in Glasgow great vibe as usual, have a great day C’Mon The HOOPS!!
Happy birthday MRS CORKCELT and many hoopy returns.
===
Time to make tracks,Paradise here I come.
COME ON YOU BHOYS IN GREEN!
Haven’t read Hugh McIlvanney’s latest about the Lions but just to be aware of it does my heart good. What he wrote for the Observer immediately after the Game itself is my all time favourite article about Celtic. Wonderful writing.
Corky: Breithlá sona to 51%.
And just for you, I’m going to support the Rebels, as well as the Rhebels today.
Don’t tell WITS though:-)
Hoopy Birthday Mrs. Corkcelt, have a hooptastic day.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Bhoys and Ghirls, you all have a hooptastic day, whether your going, watching or listening enjoy your day…I’m off to “The Office”, a bit of business to attend to before heading to Paradise.
Until we meet again…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Happy birthday to your missus Corkcelt.
Hope you both have a great day and it all falls nicely into place for you!
Tommy Boyd and Jim Craig on their way up the Clyde to Celtic Park with the championship trophy. Hh
Quick recce of pub, 3X prices of other pubs, typical Irish bar :)
On the choo choo heading West.
It’s a wee reminder of the old football special with carriages full of Tims.
MWD
Canamalar
So you are being asked to pay 15p a pint.
MWD
MIKE IN TORONTO
Five asides, Brisbane, about 5 years ago. (Very competitive league)
Our team was called Black. (Real Madrid away, I know)
Playing against a team called ‘Pavement’. Total FUDS, uber thugs.
They had a player who looked like Waghorn. Chief animal. No. 1 slug.
He was evil. Nasty, nasty evil. His purpose in life was to inflict pain.
I get it in my head that it was time to put this particular pup in his place.
Me and him, we are chasing down a ball, there was nobody else in our space; in my head I have no intention of playing the ball. I got evil. I’m focused on putting this plank into the wall and hopefully teaching him a lesson in life.
So we are powering it, I drop my shoulder and veer to my right with malice.
And he’d stopped and I couldn’t and I hit the wall. Tore my arm right out of the socket. But being a Glasgow bhoy
I refused to come off. For about 20 seconds.
Faux nonchalant I tried to give him the global ‘you’re a wanker’ gesture. It did not work. My arm was down at my knee. It took almost 2 years to fix my shoulder. After those two years we played them again.
I got him. I got him good. I never confessed my crime to my priest. I’ll do my time in purgatory gladly.
Morning all , couldn’t sleep all night , then started thinking about the game today and whether Kris Commons will get a cameo or not so came up with this , not for everyone I know but a Hunskelper supreme deserves a big thank you IMO. For Kris , Lisa and (Lola ,RIP ) (candle in the wind ) Goodbye Lola’s dad , on this your curtain call , you had the guts to go for goal , whenever you had the ball , Goodbye Lola’s mum , you seemed to get us from the start , I hope you know you have a place, in all our Celtic hearts . And it seems to me you live your life’s with the ethos of our club , always helping those less fortunate , with all your love , and I would just like to thank you , for all the joy and more , my memories will always be , of all the goals you scored .
At a christening today so missing history being made. Have a good one. I will be thinking of you.
Celtic man still ruling the Champions League interceptions chart despite playing only 6 games
After what was another exhilarating run up to the Champions League final, Real Madrid are all set to face Juventus in a historic bid to defend their Champions League crown.
But while all eyes will be on the epic showdown on the 4th of June, a rather interesting stat has been doing the rounds on social media, one that all Celtic fans will love.
Despite Celtic failing to progress past the group stages, Celtic skipper Scott Brown still incredibly leads the charts in terms of interceptions made.
Brown made a total of 30 interceptions despite only playing six times in the Champions League. Quite some feat there from the fiery Bhoys captain.
Good luck to Paul67 who should be leading the Scottish Marathon at the moment. Hope he makes it to CP for the celebrations. Hh
Good morning all
I really should get my original moniker back but beyond me today as according to my Word Press Profile I am still Jimbo67.
I have become something of an amateur Statto as this season has progressed – I even have glasses, a dressing goonie and a 1972/3 edition of Rothman’s Football Yearbook- and I suppose this being both 50 years since Lisbon and my own 50th season it was always going to be a special season though I think Mr Rodgers and his team have also had rather a lot to do with it turning out so well.
This going a season unbeaten has fascinated me because we have not done it for so long – I had not realised quite how long though until I donned the gown and consulted that dog eared old book- but I had known we never did it any of my years going though I think we only had one defeat in 3 or four seasons and in 2003/4 we did win the league without losing but lost two games after clinching the title early. I also remember Rangers losing to Aberdeen to lose their unbeaten status and hand us the league 49 years ago. That was the first day the radio made me deliriously happy .
I know people say the opposition we face is weak- but other than the new Rangers being obviously much worse than the Original Financial Steroid Enhanced Rangers I am not sure that the teams we have played this season are any worse than most of those we faced in MON’s time whilst in the 9-I-A-R era we played the likes of Dumbarton, Arbroath, Stirling Albion, Cowdenbeath, East Fife and Clyde some of whose players were part-timers. Obviously our team has still to prove itself on the bigger stages in the way that Big Jock’s, MON”s, WGS’ and to an extent NFL’s did but domestically I think we have been a joy to watch in a consistent way that we have not in 40 years.
It has looked easy- we have been behind in only 4 games and came back to win all of them by playing the right way. We have had one or two breaks from refs – at ICT in September our opponents could and probably should have been awarded a penalty at 1-1 whilst at McDiarmid Park we got lucky with our equaliser- and had one or two stinkers against us as well but mostly we have looked almost serene and just far too good. Big McLeish made a bit of an erse of it the other day with his ’embarrassment’ remark not because he was wrong to say how feeble the rest of the league currently is but because he failed to sincerely acknowledge how good Celtic has been.
I’ll look back on this season fondly however the next two games go- though if there is to be a banana skin make it today please- and the memories of some of the best games I have been at in a long time. The Man City match at Celtic Park was an authentic classic and the games at Fir Park and McDiarmid were thrilling whilst the football played in recent matches with ‘Rangers’ , St Johnstone and Thistle has been beautiful to watch, But my favourite part of the season was November -December time. I know we lost to Barca – slightly unfortunately I thought- in that period and that in some of the games we ground out the results but it was during that period we began to look untouchable as well- there is perhaps something slightly masochistic in preferring the satisfaction of a hard fought win in dreich weather to showoff wins when its warm but it is when it is not so easy that the strength of a team is built,
Anyway I have wasted enough of your time – Paradise is calling. Enjoy your day folks
Jimbo67
Just had my picture taken with 4 American priests returning from Fatima – probably cleared out when they heard Torontony was heading up there today – anyhow, picture is for my mother who always accused me of keeping dodgy company :-)
Bowed our heads and said a prayer for her in the middle of Lisbon airport. They were each given a medal of St Jude which I have amassed over the years when they were slipped into my pocket by my mother.
I’m waiting on a flight to Edinburgh and hope to return to Lisbon on Tuesday.
Right, C’mon the Celts….Right intae this mob.
Hows the weather forecast for today?.
Have a fantastic time everyone,please let it be a fine day,weatherwise.
Just cant wait.Stomach going.No breakfast.
Liste Not teven same tannoy system blaring out about some runners
Sure I head get the finger ooot Paul67 :-)
Good luck to all those Celtic foundation runners at the Stirling marathon
Me – I heading to listen to that new fancy sound system in the North Stand blaring
Hail Hail
From CQN magazine.
“By avoiding defeat today and winning the Scottish Cup on Saturday, Rodgers will go one further by delivering an INVINCIBLE TREBLE. Neither Jock Stein or Martin O’Neill got close to that remarkable achievement in domestic football.”
*****
I would have thought that losing only 2 domestic games all season (Big Jock, ’66-’67),and 1 that mattered (Martin), 2 being lost a month after the league had been secured in the miracle 36 point turnaround season of 2000-01, could be judged as both having come close to the “remarkable achievement.”.
Not in terms of looking at a calendar, of course.
Celtic, Celtic thats the team for me,
Celtic, Celtic on to victory,
They’re the finest team in Scotland, I’m sure you will agree,
We’ll never give up till we’ve won the cup and the Scottish football league
They come from bonnie Scotland, they come from county Cork,
They come from dear old Donegal and even from New York,
From every street in Glasgow they proudly make their way,
To a place called dear old paradise and this is what they say.
Celtic, Celtic thats the team for me,
Celtic, Celtic on to victory,
They’re the finest team in Scotland, I’m sure you will agree,
We’ll never give up till we’ve won the cup and the Scottish football league.
There’s Fallon, Young and Gemmell who proudly wear the green,
There’s Clark, McNeill and Kennedy the best there;s ever been,
Jim Johnstone, Murdoch, Chalmers, John Divers and John Hughes,
And sixty thousand Celtic fans who proudly shout the news.
Celtic, Celtic thats the team for me,
Celtic, Celtic on to victory,
They’re the finest team in Scotland, I’m sure you will agree,
We’ll never give up till we’ve won the cup and the Scottish football league.
Repeat to Fade or sing six times CSC
Have a great day everyone. These are the best of times. Hh
Heading off to Paradise soon. Excited!
This is how it feels to be Celtic. Champions again as you know…..
HH
CRC
As well as all the action at paradise today , Celtic are also in a cup final at 4pm , its being shown live on bbc alba , so COME ON YOU GHIRLS IN GREEN , its a big ask but a victory will make today even more special , so good luck ladies :-)
GORDON64 on 21ST MAY 2017 9:47 AM
Tommy Boyd and Jim Craig on their way up the Clyde to Celtic Park with the championship trophy. Hh
Should pass thousands of Munters then.Glibby has had them”Up the river”for so long they could rename them Showboat FC.
Sunrise for Six
BEATBHOY on 21ST MAY 2017 10:12 AM,
Winning the Treble,whilst going undefeated will be a stand alone achievement.Only bettered by 1967.
All sorts of records could be broken today.Who knows where this could lead.
No one standing at Fir Park in 1966,had any inkling of what was to follow.
Live for the day,revel in it.The past stands alone.
History beckons today.
Just do it
PLEASE.
I’m on my way to 403 tap deck in my lucky Jock Stein t-shirt. ( other garments will also be worn dont panic)
H.H
Not missed a home game all season league and cups, first time in a while for me, usually miss the odd one or 2 for some stupid reason or other.
I remember missing the first game of the season a few yrs ago because my bloody guinea pig (hoopy) broke his back leg on the morning of the game , and i had to take him to the vets changed his name to Hoppy afterwards.
Turkeybhoy
Apart from the little matter of the Treble not yet having been won this season, it was the article that was looking to the past in an attempt to draw comparisons. I disagree, in terms of the remarkable amount of games undefeated in the treble seasons of Jock and Martin, that they didn’t come close.
And when you consider the standard of opposition, well, their achievements were all the more remarkable.
Dundee, 2000-01. “Giorgi Nemzadze is one of Dundee’s many players with Serie A ( yeah, that’s right, lady, Serie A) experience”
Mrs. Corkcelt says thanks to all for the Birthday wishes and says “Shur they’re a Grand Ol’ Team” well she didn’t use those exact words but she did say Up the Celts.
Mrs Winning Captains is out cheering on the marathon runners as the approach the 9 miles mark in Dunblane.
Paul has just past through running well. If he hurries up he might make the game!
This is the day Bhoys and Ghirls, enjoy yourselves wherever you are in the world.
Great Times.
Worldwide CSC
About to head off nice and early for the last visit to Celtic Park for 2016-17. Hope to see as many of you as possible at the ole CQN Corner. Hopefully some of the ole Original Gazebo Gang might drift to the left a bit too.
Hail Hail and, for ths last time this season, it’s Doors to Automatic…..