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Celtic Diary Monday March 18

And a belated Happy St. Patricks day to you all, well those of you who have eyes that can still see this morning.

This weekend saw Celtic clinch a 4-3 comeback win with a 94th minute winner, a cracking cup final, and a former Dunfermline manager admitting that he was offered the job by the owner of another club.

Armageddon may well have to wait a while after a cracking weekend of footbal in Scotland, even Sportscene was a little more upbeat than usual.

After taking the lead virtually straight from the kick off, Celtic proceeded to lose three goals before rattling in three of their own to take full points at home to Aberdeen. Pick of the bunch was the ” Sam Missile “overhead kick from Greek forward and talisman Georgios Samaras at the death, which prompted scenes of joy in the bstands similar to Tony Watts winner against Barcelona.

The game had everything, excitement, goals controversy, and you have to feel for those who came in late, and left at 3-1 down, -there were a few-and missed all the good bits.

Manager Neil Lennon seemed to enjoy it.

“It was absolutely brilliant. People were accusing the players or criticising the players for complacency and not showing enough desire. But when the fourth goal went in I think you could see what it meant to them and what it meant to the supporters. It was like the good old days. I know we have got a few defensive problems to sort out. we keep giving aay cheap goals but our desire to win the game was fantastic. I’ve been waiting on this team to do that for a while and they showed me that today.”

James Forrest is injured again, and won’t be joining the Scotland game, while Fraser Forster is off to join the England squad, and with any luck he’ll get a game, and scupper their chances.

Although the game was probably, well in the end, the most enjoyable domestic match of the season, the keeper shipped another three goals, and frankly he doesn’t seem to give a toss.

The League Cup final saw St. Mirren beat Hearts in an open, enjoyable game, mainly because Hearts lost, and medals for Graeme Carey, Jim Goodwin , Paul MacGowan and David van Zanten, all of whom have been with Celtic-Carey is on loan over there-which is always good.

Pre match saw a Green Brigade protest against heavy handed policing, which was marred by heavy handed policing-the lads had a copper each to look after them-which has prompted an MSP to ask questions…

This picture gives you an idea of how ridiculous the police are becoming, and there are numerous stories of arrests being made for walking on the cracks in the pavement and other serious offences. Celtic will meet the chief of police this week, and something has to give

police 2

This process, known as “kettling”, is a modern way to control crowds, involving a complete lack of common sense. Thirteen were arrested, according to STV, and no doubt they all fell down the stairs.

Here we see the police helping to ensure the safety of those at the march

police 3

The police chief was unavailable for comment this morning when I rang, presumably because he was practising his goosestep in the car park.

Jimmy Calderwood, now out of work because of what we all thought was a lack of talent, revealed on Radio Scotlands Off the Ball programme that he was offerd the managers job at Dunfermline with a view to going to Rangers after by none other than David Murray, who seems to have a few skeletons in his cupboard.

So, we can expect the MSM to get to the bottom of this one.

Lets give them a hint, because you do get the feeling they can be kind of slow sometimes.

Rangers have already gone bust, Hearts could follow them, and Dunfermline are on the edge. David Murray, Campbell Ogilvie, Gavin Masterton, Bank of Scotland. See if they can spot the link. No wonder Fergus McCann closed his account over there.

When it became certain that Rangers would cease to be, we all expected them to go kicking and screaming and dragging as much of Scottish football down with them. Looks like these two will go, and nobody is chasing the links, and digging into the background.

In fact, the BBC advised the pars to go down the newco route, and most others want the new Rangers into the SPL.

What a wonderful. open and transparent country.

Never mind, back to the football. The honest version, that is.

The Holy Poet sends us this appraisal of match winner Georgios Samamras;

Georgios Samaras.

 

He’ll terrorise defences like no other player can

But frustrating is the best word to describe our talisman

It’s no wonder Tims have got no hair, they’ve all but pulled it out

He’ll lead us on a merry dance then lead us on a rout!

Does he know what he’s doing as he skates across our ground,

Defying all logistics he always takes the long way round

But one moment of his brilliance, one glimmer of his skill,

His flair and gliding movements leaves them standing still

Ghosting past defenders leaving chaos in his wake

And the bearded one with flowing hair says it wasn’t a mistake!

The crowd have grown to love him but fickle are our fans

And how he plays from game to game, it seems he’s in God’s hands

His winning goals are legendary though he says he should score more

But he keeps these for the biggest games just to hear the loudest roars.

Some say he looks like Jesus, some say he’s in disguise

But Gorgeous George, our talisman, belongs in Paradise

So many times he’s saved us, the big man makes us proud

And it’s no wonder Sami’s face is on, The Holy Turin Shroud!

 On Friday we asked about Aberdeens claim to fame during the O’Neill years, and a number of you correctly said they stopped the record run, taking a 1-1 draw from Celtic Park.

International football is back this week. hurrah. Who scored a couple for Scotland at Celtic Park some years ago, back when Scotland had a half chance of qualifying….

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11 years ago

kevin gallacher.

Andy
11 years ago

That would be Kevin (grandson of Patsy) Gallacher vs Austria in 1997

San MIguel
11 years ago

Kevin Gallcher – was in a club in Clydebank back in the eighties- it was his stag night and his mates put him up on their shoulders and carried him round the club with a hoops top on and one of those tin foil scottish cup cut outs that you used to see back in the day.

He should have played for us !!

Greenjedi
11 years ago

Is that the same Kevin Gallacher who wanted Blacburn Rovers to beat us in 2002?

Tony P
11 years ago

Is it just me or does kris Commons look like a rotund fan who has leapt from the crowd to celebrate with Sammy?

diegoinhoops
11 years ago

We re bein a wee bit harsh on big Herman Forster lately IMO, so outfield players are allowed a dip in form but GK aint, not to mention the ever changing 2 CB combo in front of him (as we all know the 2cb and GK form a 3 within the defence, success of which depends on communcation and positioning ie playing together a lot). But he’s the 2/3rd best keeper availible to England so he’s definatly useless.

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