Year of the diddy teams stalking Celtic
One or two of us mocked another team for struggling against Second and Third division sides this season. All good sporting fun but from the lofty heights of the Champions League knockout stages you need to make sure you can overcome a team who are treading water in the third tier of Scottish football.
Arbroath were good value for their draw at Celtic Park earlier this month. It would be wrong to say their late equaliser was coming, as they never threatened during the previous 86 minutes, but they were thoroughly well organised and apart from a bizarre own goal would have reached the 87th minute on level terms.
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Our eclectic collection of African, Mediterranean and metropolitan players will have little experience of the biting Arctic wind that will blow in off the Angus coast tonight, just a few yards from Gayfield Park, whereas the part-timers from Arbroath will be very much at home. This, my friends in Celtic, is what they call the Romance of the Cup.
Don’t be comforted by the wins over Barca and Spartak, they guarantee nothing. One more lacklustre performance and dreams of Celtic’s fourth treble will be kippered. 2012 has been the year of the little man, the “diddy teams”, as a wild Rover coined them in the summer. There is one remaining superpower in our sport and every game they play is a cup final for someone.
Get Up for the Cup, Celtic.