Alright, let’s get one thing perfectly clear.

I wanted Neil Lennon, Peter Lawwell and probably even Hoopy the huddle hound sacked last Tuesday night as well.

But then I calmed the fuck down and looked at the issue rationally.

Post Dunfermline, I was coming back round to the idea of just ripping it up and starting again.

But then I calmed the fuck down and looked at things rationally.

Celtic lost one game. They struggled in the next one.

I think we can safely say there’s been a little bit of an over reaction.

There is a fairly obvious campaign , driven by the media, encouraged by the authorities , to stop Celtic winning the league this season. Anything that can be used to drive a wedge between support and club is being grasped frantically and utilised to its fullest extent.

We knew it would happen, and we’ve fell for it.

Hook , line and Sinclair. By the way, if Scott Sinclair isn’t getting a game, there will be a reason for it. It may be that he has refused a move and is being frozen out, but lets not jump to conclusions.

Thats just what they want us to do. And we’re doing it.

Celtic beat Dunfermline, and if you watch the players reactions at the goals, there was an insurmountable sense of relief. Same with the support, who didn’t leap over the hoardings to celebrate, there was no dancing on the disabled section and declarations of victory.

Just a sense that we’d got out of jail, should put it all behind us and move on.

However, the media do not want us to put it behind us and move on. They are stoking the fires of unrest in the hope that it becomes a full blown revolution, in exactly the same way they didn’t do when their favourite club cheated all and sundry before hurtling into oblivion.

Or, indeed, when a hasty sale of assets to avoid paying fiscal liabilities demanded investigation, they simply ignored it, declared it was the same club, and in that instance, we should all move on.

The Celtic support isn’t as gullible as their neighbours. We know when we’re being played.

We’re being played now.

Sure, we know that there are one or two problems right now as the manager changes the way the team is set up to mirror his own thoughts as opposed to those of hos predecessor, and it’s perhaps unfotunate that the wheels that were spinning so sweetly pre-Cluj appear to have stuck a bit, and as a result, the direction we’re going in has become maybe just a little unclear.

But just as quickly as the crisis began, it can be rectified. and that terrifies the SMSM, because they..and we..have already seen what this side is capable of.

And it’s early yet.

The negative spin is quite frightening, and I’m just as guilty as anyone else, to an extent.

Instead of being patient enough to allow Lennon to overcome what is surely a glitch, I’m of the mind that every game now could be his last.

And that’s ridiculous.

If you stand back and consider only the facts, then you will see it’s ridiculous as well.

Already, there is a genuine fear of the trip to Ibrox in a couple of weeks. Where exactly has that come from ?

We’ve had one duff game.

Even against Dunfermline it cannot be called duff-Celtic dominated the game, it was just difficult to get past the 9-1-0 formation the Pars had set up.

But Celtic did, it took a while, but they did, and the relief on the players faces told you not only of their effort, but, as Lennon said, of their character.

“Rangers ” will not set up like that at Ibrox. Although, like Dunfermline, it’s a big .big game for them. For us. its just another three points up for grabs. Despite the hype attached to it, nothing will be won or lost that day.

We need to calm the fuck down and let those who can get the train back on track do so.

By the way, Stockholm lost at home to lowly Kalmar at the weekend.

I’m quite sure the Swedish papers aren’t full of demands for their boss to get it sorted…

And i’m also fairly sure their fans aren’t screaming from the rooftops.

But supporters cannot be blamed for sometimes joining in with the doubts and the criticism. It’s not so long ago they whipped up similar antagonism against Fergus McCann, which resulted in the great man being booed at the unfurling of the flag that stopped the ten.

Never underestimate the power of the mainstream media, just look at the lies told during the Brexit campaign, and further back to the Scottish referendum to dissolve the union with England, which itself was described as an independence referendum. A union is different from a subjugation, although in practice thats what it turned out to be.

The mainstream media is more or less a loss making industry. The days of respected newspapers fighting for the truth are long gone. Now, it’s just a collection of stenographers copying and pasting news agancy releases, with clickbait opinion columns thrown in.

And it’s the columns that do the damage, as you will recall when John Beaton refereed the last game between “rangers ” and Celtic at Ibrox.

He Performed badly if you view the game as a neutral. To avoid criticism, the PR machine went into overdrive, as Andy Newport of the Press Association put it out that he’d had abusive text messages.

As we saw at the time, that metamorphosed into death threats that required police protection for his family.

Beaton was in charge of the Dunfermline game, and sure enough, he showed that at best he’s incompetent, and at worst he’s a cheat.

Under new rules, Celtic should have had a penalty after a Pars defender blocked a shot with his arm. It’s also worth noting that a player being substituted must leave the pitch at the nearest point. Eight times on Saturday, Beaton ignored that.

Maybe he’s not familiar with the new rules, which is a sign of incompetence, or maybe he was deliberately ignoring them, which is cheating. In fairness, he was equally bad for both sides, as he ignored the rule for both.

An insider tells us that is, in fact, the case. Beaton has promised to get up to speed with the new rules, just as soon as he understands the old ones….

so, another inept performance by Beaton, and guess what ?

Massive deflection from the media.

Again.

You see, Tom Boyd has disgraced himself…not Beaton, who has proved yet again he’s not fit to carry the whistle, but Boyd, who pointed out Beaton’s “mistake “, and added another truism after…

during the Celtic TV broadcast of the game, thanks to VideoCelts, we can consider the conversation between Tom Boyd and Gerry McDade, as the incident surrounding the penalty claim is discussed…

Gerry McDade, Celtic TV: That looks like handball

Tom Boyd: Ah referee, he’s got to give it, it’s a penalty

GM: Is he giving it?

TB: No he’s not, he’s bottled out of it

GM: A strong challenge coming in, Scully on Jullien, it looked like handball, we’ll need to get a look at that one again Tom. Let’s have a look at it again, Christie swings it across, challenge comes in, a clash between the two players

TB: That’s a penalty, it’s a penalty kick. His arms are up, in an unnatural position, it’s a stonewall penalty and once again Celtic denied by a decision by the referee, the referee has bottled that.

GM: That is the best save of the afternoon, I say that with all due respect to Ryan Scully who has been in excellent form for Dunfermline this afternoon, that should have been a penalty to Celtic 12 minutes into extra-time

TB: That is an absolutely scandalous decision by John Beaton, we’ve seen that before on many occasions

GM: Coley coming in, unquestionably a handball

TB: It’s unquestionably a penalty as well, a handball, that was a stonewall penalty kick as clear a penalty kick. In the light of day he is putting his hand towards the ball, heading towards goal.What does John Beaton not know about the new rules. If he doesn’t know that that should be a penalty he should not be in the middle of the park refereeing a football game.

CTV: You heard it from Tom Boyd, telling it as it is

TB: Probably welcome down his pub tonight, again

Boyd, playing to a paying audience of Celtic supporters, merely said what we are all thinking. In his role as summariser, he summarised it pretty accurately as far as i can see.

Let.s examine what he said, and put it into context…

It’s unquestionably a penalty as well, a handball, that was a stonewall penalty kick as clear a penalty kick. In the light of day he is putting his hand towards the ball, heading towards goal.What does John Beaton not know about the new rules. If he doesn’t know that that should be a penalty he should not be in the middle of the park refereeing a football game. 

There’s no argument from me on that one. It was a penalty.

And if he doesn’t know the rules, he shouldn’t be a referee. It’s right there in the job description. Referee wanted. Must know the rules of Association football.

that, however, seems to have escaped our media. They, instead, are concentrating on this bit.

TB: Probably welcome down his pub tonight, again 

That would be this pub, where Beaton enjoyed the company of some people who were rather pleased that he didn;t appear to know the rules of Association football at ibrox either…

Tom Boyd simply told the truth…as he saw it.

But that gave the media a chance to deflect from their best hope of “rangers ” winning a trophy for the first time in their short history…

Celtic ambassador or embarrassment? Tom Boyd’s John Beaton outburst has dangerous connotations – Keith Jackson

Here we go again…remember…

…Which is precisely why the heart sunk just a little bit on Saturday afternoon when Tom Boyd appeared to make a rallying cry to the most combustible elements in Celtic’s support, live on the club’s own online TV channel.

As part of his co-commentator duties during the Betfred Cup win over Dunfermline, he took it upon himself to launch into a hugely regrettable and wholly vitriolic attack on match official John Beaton after the ref had failed to award Celtic with a fairly blatant looking penalty kick.

That Boyd had every right to feel unhappy about the decision is not really up for debate. The newly drafted handball rules made this one a stone-waller and, therefore, a bad one for Beaton and his assistant to miss.

You’ll note that Jackson doesn’t dwell on this. Beaton, again, shows a dazzling level of incompetency, but the real story, according to the hack, is…

But, by going one step further than the situation required, Boyd predictably pandered to the lowest common denominator.

“Probably be welcomed down his pub the night again,” bemoaned Boyd with heavy hint of snide.

To be clear, what Boyd means is that Beaton is a Rangers supporter who goes out of his way to disadvantage Celtic in return for the adulation of his Rangers supporting pals.

Those words almost conjured an image of Beaton and his mates bowling around their local like characters from T2 Trainspotting and Boyd should be fully aware of the damaging and dangerous connotations which come with his comments.

But the media, it seems, are completely unaware of the damaging and dangerous connotations of complicity where this man Beaton is concerned.

As they did with the story of Rangers and their eventual collapse, and the desperation to bring them back and pretend nothing has happened, the media are afraid to confront the truth, to apportion blame where it is deserved.

And look how that ended up.

This on the day when Tangled Up In blue, Stephen O’Donnells work on that particular scandal is published, which does the work that of the hacks had done way back when , the whole fiasco might well have been avoided.

Coincidence ? Possibly.

That is the same media that is fuelling talk of a crisis at Celtic, but we’re on to them this time. They’re pushing us too far with their bullshit.

There is one way to hurt them, though.

Get behind the team, and show them what we are capable of on and off the pitch.

Let them know that we aren’t as gullible as some I could mention, and that quite simply , we have had enough.

Don’t buy their papers, don’t even react to their clickbait. Turn off the radio phone ins and above all, cancel Sky TV .

Fuck the lot of them, I know whose side I’m on.

And when they push us, we push back.

Yesterday, we had this couple of charmers, epitomising the inbuilt hatred of their kind…