Celtic triumphed in what could have been a tricky tie in Paisley yesterday thanks to goals from Calum MacGregor, who was due one, and James Forrest, who showed he can play on the left after all.
A late, deflected free kick from the buddies made the last minute and a half or so vaguely interesting, but in the end there wasn’t that much to worry about.
In fact, if it wasn’t for a diligent performance from Douglas Ross on Saint’s left flank in the second half, Celtic would have doubled their tally, but he was on hand to thwart Oddsone Edoaurd first with a superb waving of his flag after the Frenchman had timed his run to perfection, and showed remarkable close control to notch the third.
I missed the fourth one due to having to pop to the toilet, but I heard Ross raced onto the pitch and cleared a long ball before any Celt could get near it. Or something like that.
Actually, what happened was..
The 2nd “offside” – Ntcham has already passed the ball – it’s on its way to Edouard who is still level with last defender & there’s another out of shot on the left who is deeper still….
Ross, a dedicated follower of anyone but Celtic, may well have played his way into Steven Gerrards plans for the New Year, as the Ibrox boss looks to replace the ever less dependable Bobby Madden.
Ross, not surprisingly, in his daytime job, is a Conservative member of parliament, and is still, bewiklderingly, allowed a position of responsibility in his part time work.
By the way, he’s not the sexpest-that was Ross Thomson. This Ross is the one who shouted “Red card ! red card !” , which got a Celt sent off some time ago…
Peter Lawwell, when he gets round to watching the game, will probably complain privately to the SFA about Ross, receive a private reply, and privately decide that the matter is now closed.
There is, of course, the counter argument that Celtic would not have won ten consecutive trophies had there really been a conspiracy, but I think we can safely say, on the evidence of our own eyes, that although the gap in quality on the pitch has been enough to see us through, the trophies have not been lost due to a lack of effort on behalf on the men in black….
Manager Neil Lennon seemed pleased with yesterdays result, and thanked his backroom boys for guiding the team to yet another three points, reassuring them that he’ll just do the press conferences from now on…you’d be surprised what we hear….and so he dutifully did his part after the game…
“Today’s result is a great win. We could have made it a little more comfortable for ourselves, but their goalkeeper had a fantastic second half, to be fair, and some of the chances we created and some of the football was good as well.
“We were a bit slow getting our shots off at times, but we also scored two great goals on the counter-attack. I thought we looked dangerous all day, but I would like us to put a more flattering scoreline on the board – but in terms of the performance, it was good.”
Nice work if you can get it. He continued…
“Callum McGregor was brilliant all day again today. The run he made for the goal was fantastic, and the way he’s playing at the moment is to such a high standard. I’m delighted for Jamesy as well – I said to him before the game that he was due a goal and it was a brilliant goal. It was a great ball from Odsonne, James kept his composure, at pace, and finished it off brilliantly.
“I can’t criticise the players, they’ve just won their 11th game in-a-row in the league, which is fantastic form. The form we’re in, are we looking forward to Sunday? Why not? We know what’s at stake on Sunday, and we know if we win how much we’ll be in front. After that, the players can get a well-earned rest.
“From here, rest is our focus and then getting prepared for Sunday. We won’t listen to any outside noise, and we’ll fully-concentrate on one more big game of the year.”
In fact, he’ll make some noise of his own.
Already in his sights is Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack, who had ao go at Leigh Griffiths for stamping on Lewis Ferguson, after Derek McInnes claimed that Kris Ajer had winked at the Celtic bench when Sam Cosgrove was sent off.
The Dons chief tweeted..
“It’s absolutely embarrassing. I’m not having that at all. Kris is the victim in this and was on the end of a very heavy challenge.
“There was no feigning injury, there was no play acting. Kris is a model professional and I am not having someone from the Aberdeen board, or anyone else, talking about my players like that.
“First of all, it isn’t true. It’s a lie. Second of all, these things should be kept in house.
“I’m not happy. It’s embarrassing for him to basically lie about my player’s actions. For a chairman or owner to come out and say something like that, we’re not tolerating it.
“I wasn’t aware of the timing. I saw it and it made me very angry because we’ve been very balanced about things. For him to come out and attack one of my players like that, it’s naive to say the least.
“We have been very balanced on the whole issue and have tried to play it down, but when you see comments like that coming out from the Aberdeen chairman, we are not tolerating it as a club and I’m not as a manager.
“I’m hugely disappointed. It’s an attack on my player and he has done nothing wrong. The comments are absolutely disgraceful.”
With Lennon now in charge of handling the press, watch out for a comment about how glad he is that Celtic are at home this weekend, as the players are not overly happy with the state of the pitches around the country, and someone has to say something sooner or later.
The transfer rumour pages are already up and running for the mainstream media, and as they have to fill them, look out for some red faces come the end of January.
Celtic have gone into lockdown, with hot even the mamager aware of who is likely to come in. As we know, Lawwell is in charge of that side of things, but the mamager is allowed to make the occasional reccommendation.
He wants Wanyama, Lawwell doesn’t, as the main man has been on a remit since 2003 to cut costs and wages, and has been suitably rewarded for doing so…who can forget when he was elevated to his current position in 2003, and the famous reaction of the then manager Martin O’Neill ?
Who said ;
“Celtic had better get used to living life in the slow lane ”
Which, as I recall, came as a bit of a surprise to a support that had just seen the club in a European final, and were expecting the team to kick on from that particularly solid base…
Anyway, Leigh Griffiths may well be worried about all the talk of new strikers, as the manager may well talk him up in public, but it looks increasingly likely that he will go out on loan to recharge his batteries, or even be sold in a cut price deal or swap , as there are some who feel a fresh start is just what he needs…
“rangers ” kept up the pressure at the top of the league, relatively speaking, and it was that man Alfredo Morelos who dug them out of a hole yesterday with a late winner against Kilmarnock.
Captain James Tavernier, still searching for his first major trophy after four years as on pitch leader, tweeted…
showing a sense of humour, but he quickly deleted that and replaced it with..
It’s from Olivier Giroud. It says stop pestering me you thick Scouse bastard
Today…
“Think he was Columbian … missed every time.”
Caption : ‘Things have never been the same since that face-painting gig at Ibrox.’
BTW, what ever happened to this :
And yesterday SFA chief exec Maxwell said: “I would expect that to come back to the board in the not too distant future.
It [going to CAS] is still under consideration. We’ll come back on that’s in due course. I wouldn’t want to put a timescale on it . . . but I don’t think we would let it go for ever.”
He will be waiting on Peter Lawwell giving him the go ahead once what is stopping him comes out.
The Alan Macgregor she said no stall.
Caption: Celtic unveil toilet facilities for Huns for the “big” Derby game on Sunday….
Caption: Arlene Foster’s former chauffeur gets a new job firing into pigs.
I never ever watch them, the telly gets switched of every time the mankies appear, even for their many cheer leaders. But they have improved, why could they not? when they have spent some serious cash on new players, my pleasure, deep pleasure comes in humping them and their expectations, of course the business men within and outside the club are very happy that their could be a challenge, money is money and that is how they get that cat like satisfaction at the money cream. but the biggest threat to our expectations is the men in blue-black-yellow, Ross is a known bigot, Collum well he’s just useless and the next clown to appear is Clancy, how do the SFA. get it sooo wrong? I think of Maxwell, Doncaster as a pair of perrs, clowns juggling those spinning plates, waiting till they start to slow down, then spinning, spinning them up again, waiting until the next crash. It must be difficult trying to keep a lid on the secret agreement, Res.12, is that the next set of plate’s slowing down? And then there is putrid Petrie, the 2011 licence approver in chief, his every pore excretes selfishness and greed, where do they get them from? Hmmm.
the biggest threat to our expectations is quality where is matters. We need another front man (possibly 2) a centre half a left back and browns replacement. And lets no be forgetting a goalkeeper!
Caption
charles green demands that sevco get catapulted into the spl
They say that cheats never win, but in football they can have a greater degree of success, its hard to win when so many SFA. employees pull out all the stops to stop you and are quite blatant about it. But we turn up, we win, simple as that. It still doesn’t sit right with me that we have to have 2-3 players having to play out of there best, most recognised positions to fit one man into the team. Clancy the clown, coming to a park near you soon. Maxwell, Doncaster and putrid Petrie, what chance does an honest game have with those three. Doncaster the “move on” specialist, Maxwell the invisible man and putrid Petrie the 2011 chairman of the SFA. licencing committee- Wooft.
I am concerned if the coach really believes what he is saying. The team is not playing well…individual players are. As a result, we are winning.
Sunday will be a real test and we cannot afford to get the tactics wrong.
Rebus
In the context of a tight race and given the punishing schedule we’re playing well to win 10 games in a row and keep ahead.
One more win and then they can recharge the batteries and hit the ground running with improved performances, as we normally do after the break.
From The Celtic Graves Society:
Celtic and charity.
On new years day, 1889, the parishes of the east end, under the auspicies of the conference of the Saint Vincent De Paul Society, treated the children of the parishes to dinner, with 230 in attendance at St. Mary’s. After the dinner, songs and entertainment were provided with Doctor John Conway on the piano, with John Glass and James McKay also in attendance. After the children’s entertainment, the Saint Vincent De Paul Society held a little party at which members of Celtic Football Club were present, with Father Van Der Hyde presiding over “an hour of mirth”.
This was a fitting gesture by the Saint Vincent De Paul, to show their appreciation towards Celtic and it underlined their thanks in particular for the funds raised by the club towards the Society in order to maintain the Dinner Tables, in particular at the two matches over the New Year.
Credit where credit is due, for Celtic’s, huge charitable donation over the festive period. The match with the Corinthians who also donated their share of the whole proceeds of the game nearly £400.00 towards the dinner tables.
WOW, in appreciation of this remarkable gesture and that wasn’t a single gesture but it began the charitable donations that continues with the Celtic Foundation.
Caption:
Dave King denies budget constraints have affected quality of new star striker targets.
Tibet,richly varied language from most eared.
Quantitative system of classification.
They`re.
Beats firing shots into a civil rights march!
I think if you put down your action man for a minute & google ‘ children murdered by the british army during the troubles ‘ you’ll find your colleagues are leading that particular crime count.
and find you condoning the other count
do you refer to your cock as “your action man”.
No….but your wife does
awe no son, whits you and yer maw been up tae
British army weren’t innocents, they, along with their loyalist friends, were joined at the hip in murder.
Mike Bassett^
Pïsh!
whit age ur you hen
rangers ur deid so wer do sevco sit in them all time league tables
The tide of honest mistakes flows down the river Kelvin, drops into the river Clyde at the Yorkhill basin (afternoon Yoker) before it rushes down river towards Govan. It stops off in Govan where it discharges its cargo, then bobbles downwind just like a jobby after passing Ipox. N.B. No mankies get washed in the river Clyde, washed down it perhaps. Zombie killer coming to a place near you this Sunday.
I’d love to volley that Dougie Ross in the balls!
Caption: Sevco….you’ll float too…..
The Douglas Ross Hall, a private hospital dedicated to de-radical’ing the stereotype bigot.
our midfield right now is weak, because they only have eddy up front. The hunz have exposed this in the previous 3 matches now. We need to sacrifice a winger for a midfield player or Griff and get hayes back in at LB. The winners of Sundays match will take the title.
Aye ok hun boy
Our midfield isn’t weak, our wingers are a source of skill and talent AND we will have a fully fit Odsonne from the start, its the huns that should be worried AND we will be the winners AND winners of this seasons league title.
naw. goalie MOTM in the cup final. thank fuck for morelos.
Goodwingers but one per game is enough. btw morgan is minging as is ntcham (slow and cannae tackle).
So is playing macgregor at left back. Lennon still copied it. Any other mistakes coming along you can tell us about..?
Story going around that the sfa have banned Morelos for the 29th. But don’t worry Celtic are appealing the decision
Caption
bt hundit Alex Rae, man’s the stall at rangersfest
Trust the players, trust the manager.
Treble, treble winners.
Who always raise’s our game to win, despite the SMSM, despite the naysayers, despite the T.V. comics, despite the Mibs best attempts.
League Cup winners,
5 points clear at the top.
Seen off, Rennes, Clugi and who TF is Lazio?
13 games unbeaten,
Sevco who is Sevco? (naebody).
sevco made us look like a bunch of kunts at hampden.
Still won though Eh!
Not when we were parading the cup around and celebrating with the players. I know who looked like Kunts them. Must have really sickened you
it did, that was one of the worst performances I have ever witnessed against them. if you want us to play like that against them on Sunday, you must be wan o they dobbers
“Us”?
Fuck off ya monkey hun fuck
is it true they tie sheep to lamposts in broxburn and call them sports centers?
Close…it’s your wife that’s tied to a lamp post & it’s called an ‘ help yourselves as usual centre ‘
look son me and yer maw need tae talk
Caption:Peter Lawwell prepares to take action on res12.
The elephant in the room regarding the criticism of our players is the manager can’t do anything other than speak about it.
The real defence of our club needs to come from the board and, unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.
Caption: Family fun at Larkhall orange day
Caption: I’m stickman, I’m stickman ya clowny bastard.
More-or-less in top secret training with a new method for the anticipated penalty in Sunday’s match.
Hi Peter, just making a list of my New Years resolutions, what’s yours? Just the 12 then?
Res.12 coming back to the table sometime soon.
Persistence is the key. Resistance is futile.
Caption: Prince Andrew awaits the stars n stripes ice cream van.
Caption: Prince Andrew waits for Epstein to pick him up from Pizza….cough….express.
Does Pizza express have CCTV btw?
Evening Micheal,
Was Santa good tae ye?
If Bayo
s to come from the bench,put him down for a goal.Celts 4-1.
1: Kids 2 ring pool and no pump to be found.
2: 2 brothers-in-law and myself blow-up said pool.
3: 3 heads in the well emptying Christmas grub.
4: All kids dip their toes in and head inside for Santas play station.
5: 3 men in a 2 ring pool gettin`stonkered…How was your Christmas?
Merry Troppo Christmas. Roll on Hogmanay.
Caption:
You want me to what? Put my hat on?
Evening Port,
How are you sir?
Caption: Oscar Pistorius does the Broony 🙂
Caption: Kincora halloween party gets into full swing.
Guest appearance by MI5.
Monti,G
day.s.Best time of the year for the wee one
To you and yours and all,I raise a glass.
Lenny
s to sign left footers.to Aussieland.Brown and Forrest are comin
Where
s my poster of Miss Harl you were meant to get me?I canny crack one off over Pedros bhoy,Gerry McCulloch.
We`re only a pair of boots in the boot away.
🙂
We do well on odd year return.
Correct choice,eff the Huns.
Monti,would you forgive Pedro if he had 2 Popes sitting down the front playin
Ker plunk!Greenock Bhoy to play.
The weight class there or anywhere?
Give the 22yo a taste.
Neils surrounded?
Have two sides ever had to sub their keepers in the one game?
After the Buddy game,watch James Forrest run a muck.
He did enjoy his goal.
Was that in? Those that stream
ll know what I mean.The Tic that misses a cycle of contraction.
There seems to be a lot of times the ball rolls along the backside of the keepers net.
Hunsll play ugly like The Screen Actors Guild want rid of High definition.
Is the GB allowed in?
Korporal Kettle Kord punishment?
Beautiful Sunday.
Enjoy.
Port,
It’s been a few quiet weeks for our James, he won’t be quiet on sunday though.
James
s a poofter left winger though Monti.d have a habit of playing Elhamed with his close control.A game of donnies?
I
Young Jeremie didn
t think twice and got on with it.Have they coached that out of him?Forget all, were fine?
We need a defensive coach to upset their hairstyles.
Back line has been useless for years.
They
re the ones that see the game infront of them.Forest should
ve kicked Jullien up the backside when he wanted to.Rip your chest,ill rip you a new one.
“I
m not playing behind him." Fraser Forster.Shy is fallin up the line.
You
re the keeper. Its doesnt matter whos infront of you in the box.Even your own get in the way.
See this with a player standing in amongst your own keeper,don`t stand in the middle,step off and read the ball and cover the back post.
If the ball hits your surroundings,flight of the a ball is a easy requirement. It is!
an*
Lenny, tell them to knock the jaw off of McGregor.
Maybe they
ll make him work.Kris off of the back of his 50 pence heidll get his own.
Subsequently they auld fae they private company into a public limited company shall sit in veneration.
sevco look it up now FC.
The last voice i heard was the name Bobby Sands,
It’s good to hear Mandelas voice ringing through our land
RIP BOBBY
Religion does not bother you.
Though he told a Woman on the corner he deserved.
He shat with his pal.
He did know why.
They`re the better.
I cried.
Scrape and don
t let it in the tank.s fixing your fuel pump when his Mum is explaining what I did wrong.Your Boy
I can drop the can but they wont let me.
Engineers can`t see.
Bless the boy that towed.
Caption:
Do you know you`re to play for us.
Yank and Canadian Podcast? How many have watched?
Thee orr.
Where
s the sweary boxinyank?There
s my words though,moved.Dont listen to the groppers of.Did Scott McDonald score hoppy/hoopy and get caved in in the first row from his own support?
Of course.
Neil,can I head off for a pee?
Nae a season ticket holder Charlie.
Too long, open the curtains.
Not this game though Charlie but when we take 8 off of them at Hampden put that whistler in your two hands please. If no, sell his teeth.
fingers in a car door sevco.
They say you
re but 5 against?To know,though,to know.
Hows the DJ?
Poofter right footers,the use of – particularly.
The lime line cost the Scottish Sight of the temple football.
Bleached red white and bloo cake hole.
Even though,though.
Shush ttthe “Rraaannggerrrss” are coming.
Quivers down my back bone. The Cha, Cha, Cha,
He’s me Mammy’s Da, a member of the Ra, Ra, Ra.