Theres not a lot else to say about what turned out to be a run of the mill game where Celtic did just enough to secure the points as Scott Brown rounded off a terrific week for him when he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win up at Dundee. Brown now goes into a weeks break, where he will avoid kebab shops and more than likely pre book a taxi to take him home if he decides to pop out for a mineral water and a salad sandwich.

His manager, Brendan Rodgers is delighted with Brown, who has improved beyond recognition under the former Liverpool boss;

“It’s great for me and it’s sad for Scotland.

“But I look at him on Wednesday night and this is a guy who’s playing against some of the top midfielders in the world, and against one of the top teams in Europe, and he dominated the midfield. 

“Not only that, but against a team that really press the game well, his ability to pass the ball was there as well.

“He’s highly gifted technically, tactically he has really impressed me, physically you can see he’s super-strong and super-fit, and he’s a tough guy mentally.

“He deserves all the credit he gets, he’s a wonderful captain for me and I still think he can improve. 

“He’s a better player than I thought, though. From the outside looking in i always saw him as that one who could run and sometimes players are like that, they get labelled with something and if they are told it often enough, then they think they just run.

“But he can play football. I think he has a wonderful touch and he has a wonderful awareness, he can play short, he can play long and he has a calmness in his finish. 

“He could have played in one of the top Premier League teams, absolutely no question, and trebled the money he gets at Celtic, but thankfully for me he has been here.

“Money isn’t what it is all about for Scott Brown. Happiness is playing for a club that adores him, a support that loves him and where he enjoys his football.

“I don’t know what he was like before but i see a player who is really, really high in confidence and playing at the very top of his game and I think he will get better.” 

Last season, many of us, including me, thought that his best days were behind him. It appears to have turned out that his best may yet be to come..

Taysides only top level side put in what could diplomatically be called a robust and enthusiastic performance, and Celtic have to be congratulated for seeing the game out, another improvement on earlier games where points have been dropped.

The game was refereed by Andrew Dallas which meant it was always going to be difficult, and the whistler, who has risen through the refereeing ranks quite quickly to his natural adaptability to the job, given his father was Hugh Dallas, the bigoted former head of refereeing who spent his spare time sending emails linking religious leaders with child abuse.

Dallas Junior was at the centre of a controversial decision yesterday, where Celtic and anyone watching felt the hoops should have had a penalty, except Stephen Craigan, who used to play for Kickers Motherwell, and doesn’t fully understand what a foul is.

We don’t even need to look at the incident to make our minds up that the referee got it wrong, but I suppose in the interest of fair play , we should.

Tough one to call.

As for Stephen Craigan, he ended up being the victim of the rough edge of Chris Suttons tongue, which would throw up a few interesting videos should you search for it on google.

Though perhaps he got worse than that.

From balls.i.e

‘I’m Embarrassed For You’: More Chris Sutton Magic As He

Burns Stephen Craigan On BT

BT have certainly stepped up a notch in their bid to win viewers from Sky TV, and it appears that the Murdoch empire are already holdong crisis talks to compete.

With Neil McCann, David Tanner and others on the payroll, I have an idea that may help, and with oil prices currently falling, now is the time to implement it.

As for Sutton, he’s certainly making a name for himself, but then again, the first Scottish pundit to tell anything close to the truth was always going to.

Long may it last.

Elsewhere , the league continued to settle the way most thought it would, with wins for the top four and even a record breaking top flight victory for newly formed and newly promoted “rangers “, who won 2-0 at home to Partick, and recorded their biggest ever win at this level.

There was more good news for the new club as a glance at the table shows they have nearly scored as many goals as they have conceded, no mean feat during their difficult debut season.

 In other news, English football suffered another massive blow to its credibility as yet another scandal was exposed about the sordid lives of football managers.

 

The newspaper behind the expose’, which frankly has as much credibility as any other rag, claims its lawyers are working flat out to try to get permission to publish the manager involved’s name, and lets be honest, their lawyers are probably quite experienced chaps.

Quite a few Celtic fans have received an email from Manchester city, who have spotted an anomoly in ticket sales for one of theirchampions League home games, in that its nearly sold out.

They soon got to the bottom of it, and took action;

You’d have thought they’d be glad of the extra few bob, but then you remember that this is a club that long ago ditched the idea of bothering with a support.

Video football games have been all the rage for a few years now, and they’ve come a long way since the famous, and still most enjoyable Binatone football that I played as a kid;

It had state of the art graphics and was guaranteed to get the adrenaline flowing, almost reaching fever pitch as  as you stormed towards that match winning fifteenth goal.

These days , of course, the players have evolved from rectangular lumps-in the games, at least, and now resemble the players themselves.

Sometimes.

Heres a couple attempts at Tom Rogic.. the first almost certainly done when Rogic was in the grip of a muscle wasting disease that also shrank his skull.

Progress ?

You can’t beat a ball at your feet, no  matter how exciting and realistic the game looks.

Yesterdays caption pic, an example of true sporting ability from the 1927 tour de france-or so I had been led to believe..

turns out it was really…