Whilst it was clear the players monds were on how to avoid the paparazzi during their upcoming Christmas night out, they still managed to grind out a 1-0 win against Hamilton who were not going to concede eight goals on this particular visit to Celtic Park.
Thats the thing when you play teams four times a season, they get the hang of it not how to beat you, but certainly how to make it difficult for you. so a wee bit of credit is due today to manager Brendan Rodgers who has started his Celtic career with an unprecedented noneteen game unbeaten domestic run.
Rodgers himself is playing that fact down, at least publicly, as he knows thatnone of it will matter if he doesn’t deliver two more trophies by the end of the season.
“It doesn’t hold any weight at this point,” “It is a good win and it is very nice. It is a great mark of the player’s concentration and how relentless they have been, their drive to keep going.
“Throughout most of this season, we have played at a very high level. In some games we haven’t and tonight was one of those games where we didn’t hit the heights, which is sometimes understandable with the number of games we are playing.
“I think that mental fitness is important. You think how many games this group has played and the level they have been playing at.
“The level they got to second half against Partick on Friday and having to recover. You want to play fast, free-flowing football but it is not always possible.
“If you can’t, can you still win and that shows the mark of the team. They still got through and got the end result.
“If you are going to succeed you need to have drive, desire and hunger. And we have shown that in bucketloads.”
But whatever way you look at it, whichever league you are playing in, forty three points out of forty five is outstanding, and with the other sides showing nowhere near this level of consistency, I reckon the league will be sewn up if Celtic win the next dozen games or so.
Last nights match, by all accounts, was a bit less than a classic, Rodgers did throw in a moan about the pitch being too slow, and he did have a point, as no one seems to have seen it move, but these games have to be won , and to win them is the mark of champions. I decided to watch Rillington Place instead, with an excellent performance by Tim Roth in the role of serial killer and all round fruit bat Reginald Christie.
I probably made the right choice as it took until the thirty -eighth minute for Leigh Grifiths to latch onto a Moussa Dembele lay off to score what turned out to be the only goal. The wonders of modern technology allowed me to see what has been termed a great show of team spirit as Dembele could well have scored himself, but my guess is that he didn’t think he would, so he gave it to Griffiths, who still had a bit of work to do before finding the net.
what ot did show , from several points of view, is that the pitch appeared cluttered and there was little space for the midfield to operate. Little credit is given to Hamilton in this theory, but it cannot be altogether discounted.
No matter. Griffiths was happy…
This is what it’s all about, @MDembele_10 so unselfish squaring the ball for me to score. Good 3 points. We go again Saturday! 
Dembele was pleased…
Serve @celticfc colours rather than selfishness, we call that team performance ! The club & fans first, still unbeaten 
#GreatToBeABhoys
and the general bonhomie was matched by someone at the club with an impish sense of humour and presumably access to round the clock police protection…
Whoever he was even posted a picture of what a roof should be like, no doubt to help anyone at any nearby stadia that have roofing problems…
All very childish, and no doubt even as I type this, the “rangers ” boss Mark Warburton is drafting a statement about no respect with fat controller James Traynor.
After my moan yesterday about only two home games at weekends in the next six weeks or so, I had to feel for alan, who replied reminding us of the plight of those overseas…
speaking of the fixtures, ma and my mates are coming over for the hearts game in jan, we have flights booked and hotels arranged and now there is rumours it is going to be switched to sunday. and our flights back are at two. fucked.
its fucking ridiculous. if we leave booking the flights too late, Michael o leary has our arses on a plate and it already costs us a fortune as is.
celtic SLO still cannot say for definite one way or another.
SPFL and sky are basterds.
you would normally think you were on safe ground with a home game, as they rarely get switched for tv, but again it shows either that either the club don’t give a toss now the money is in the bank, or the tv companies have bought their souls.
Or, as is more likely, both.
Aberdeen played Motherwell last night-as seen in this exclusive clip..
Well, for a few minutes or so. There was a problem with the floodlighting, and the game was abandoned as no one had ten bob for the meter. Or at least, it being Aberdeen, no one admitted to having ten bob and they certainly weren’t going to give it away if they had.
One fan in particular would have been more than a little disappointed..
We might be a bit shite at the moment, but I’m buzzing for tonight’s game at Pittodrie. Canna beat a midweek game under the floodlights!
so I figured we should chip in and get him something to cheer him up..
This means that its still 1 Celtic and 2 “rangers ” at the top of the league, and for the new club, the proof they are doing things right came on the back page of the Sun this morning…
Wonderkid Billy Gilmour is wanted by chelsea, but not until June, which is fortunate for the paper as it means everyone will have forgotten all about this story, designed purely to take attention away from the fact that Celtic won, and don’t look like losing any time soon.
It also deflects from the fact that there’s a transfer window about to open, and the Ibrox club have no money to spend, and are unlikely to raise any as no one seems to be interested in their players, largely because they aren’t very good.
The paper also runs with the possibility of a return to Dundee United for Nadir Ciftci, which would probably suit everyone, The Turk isn;t going to get a game for Celtic, and he needs to be playing football somewhere, if only to get himself noticed and away from the stagnation that has settled around his career.
Although, if as expected, a too big to turn down offer comes in for Dembele, he might still be needed here.
With the champions League qualifiers a priority, key players may well be given a break before the season ends, and so he might get his chance to impress then.
In other news, the SFA will investigate the allegations of child abuse within the game, and we await the details of exactly how we’re going to do this with no confidence whatsoever. surely it would be better to hand the whole affair over to the police ?
News also emerged , via the BBC, who will be delighted to find their employees weren’t the only ones indulging in these vile acts, that somewhere in the region of 2,500 coaches in Scotland have never had their criminal records checked…
The SFA have surpassed themselves this time.
About 2,500 coaches are working in youth football in Scotland without having full background checks, BBC Scotland can reveal.
Of the 15,385 coaches registered with the Scottish Youth Football Association (SYFA), 2,500 have not had Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) clearance.
The PVG checks are carried by Disclosure Scotland and search databases including criminal records.
The SYFA has now announced plans to tighten up procedures.
The organisation said any registered official who is participating in an 11-a side programme and has not submitted a current PVG application form by 28 February 2017 will be placed under an automatic precautionary suspension.
It comes amid a burgeoning child sex abuse in football scandal, which has led to the Scottish Football Association announcing it will establish an independent reviewof the “processes and procedures” in place both currently and historically in Scottish football.
About 4,000 PVG applications are processed every year by the SYFA, taking an average of 8-10 weeks to process at a total annual cost of between £25,000 to £30,000.
The SYFA told the BBC there were around 90 PVGs waiting to be processed, which means there are around 2,400 coaches who have not even begun the application process yet.
Any official who has not yet completed the PVG process is classed as a provisional member and is not permitted to have unrestricted access to players.
For a person to become a fully affiliated youth coach they have to undergo a series of background checks including previous clubs and reference checks.
It is the individual club’s responsibility to register the coach, and have them fill out the relevant forms to be PVG cleared.
‘Automatic suspension’
Every month the SYFA sends reminders to Scotlands 41 youth football leagues to alert them to the numbers of coaches who remain to be PVG cleared.
The SYFA said that it planned to tighten up procedures.
In a statement, it said: “We have written to all league secretaries informing them that any registered official who is participating in an 11-a side programme and has not submitted a current PVG application form by 28 February 2017 will be placed under an automatic precautionary suspension.
“This may result in their team’s fixtures being suspended until the team is fully compliant.
“In addition, teams participating in small-sided games programmes must ensure their officials are fully PVG compliant before the start of the season in March 2017. Failure to do so will preclude their participation in matches.”
You would have thought that the first thing to be checked about anyone who works with children is if they are suitable to be allowed to.
But then again, when did the SFA and common sense ever see their paths cross ?
The only way to deal with this is to turn the files over to the police, and hold a government enquiry into the scandal. Whatever happens, the SFa must not be allowed to investigate their own. They have form for getting the result they want, and quite simply, they cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
As Tom Minogue points out on twitter..
Tom MinogueAre the SFA fit & proper to hold inquiry into child abuse? SFA DirectorJulian Danskin was jailed for it! Masons help Brothers in distress.
And theres still no sign of a victims hotline, where they can arrange for counselling or comfort.
An independent and entirely confidential hotline, manned by professionals and not one that can be used to warn offenders that they have been reported.
Where this issue is concerned, the priority must be with making the vistims feel secure and safe enough to come forward so that they can get the help they need, and those who are guilty can be punished.
And those who can, must make sure it never happens again.
Yesterday we put this picture up for discussion and comment…
and the top comment was this…
We were gonna park the Bus, but the way that Celtic forward line are playing, we decided that wasn’t big enough.
today, cast your eyes over this, and tell us what you think you see…
