Celtic Diary Tuesday April 30

The picture above is a scene from last nights carnage at Firhill as Sevco u-17s won their first Glasgow Cup with a 3-2 win over Celtic. First, not 48th  as reported by SSN.

As you can see from the picture, a supporter is passing a broken seat down to the front, so it doesn’t hurt anyone.

“Fans ripped up seats, ” claims the article,  “threw flares and invaded the pitch during a kids Old Firm match last night.”

Objective reporting at its best.

“Trouble flared even before the game as fans of both hurled abuse at each other” At a football match? Really? Almost never happens

“Tensions then escalated inside the stadium as supporters threw flares and smoke bombs.”

“Cops and stewards looked on as supporters sang secterian songs and spat abuse.” Yes, you can see the hatred clearly on those faces above.

“There were young boys set on by grown men in masks ”

Then the voice of sanity-predictably from a Rangers supporter;

“For a youth game to end up like this is embarrassing and shameful.”

Hardly unexpected, there were fisticuffs and namecallings at last nights Youth Cup final. Hardly unexpected, the blame is shared equally between two sets of supporters.

The BBC described it as “unrest”, The Daily Mail described it as “hostile “-no “Hurrah for the Blueshirts,” but you felt that was what he meant, though, and the Larkhall Flute called it “A  rampage of drunken bead rattlers kidnapping kids and beating up old women on their way to pour abuse on the victims of the Ibrox Disaster.”

Hardly anyone mentioned the two Sevco fans who invaded the pitch, no-one mentioned the Union Bears arriving mob handed, and flares thrown at Celtic players was completely missed. Like the flare did, actually.

Anyone still want the “return” of the senior fixture?

For Celtic fans, it was a chance to see the youth team in action, and perhaps give them a bit of support in the face of a predictably large Sevco support, pandering back to the times when they had big games against big clubs.

Sifting through social media and various forums this morning, it looks like there was a wee bit of bother, and it was followed by a dreadful game, where the atmosphere of hate clearly got to the youngsters. Oh, and our Under 17 side has adopted company policy of shipping three poor goals to the opposition. At least its consistent.

Whats more sinister, and certainly more worrying for the game in Scotland, is this scene from the game, overlooked by all the MSM;

That handshake  confirms just how close these two are, and adds bite to the line at the end of the Record report which said that Rangers and the SFA were unavailable for comment. Well, here they are at the game. Did they see anything?

Where have we seen that handshake before?

Draw your own conclusions.

We are all still in the dark over Neil Lennons “chat ” with referee after the Motherwell game, but reading between the lines, I’m starting to think that that actually is all it was, unless its against the rules to use a phone when you are on a touchline ban.

The Belfast Telegraph hints at an argument between the two in the tunnel after the game, with Lennon questioning the penalty decision . But then the paper did claim Lennon is on “tender hooks” (sic) then I’ll treat it with a pinch of silt. (also sic, sic of  shitey newspapers)

The Daily Express reckon he’s facing a cup final ban, which with their standard of reporting is as good as a verification of my theory, and then when they go on to say that Southampton will sign Wanyama, Hooper and Forster you realise that this paper couldn’t even be trusted to get the date right.

Kenny Shiels seems to be enjoying his tete-a-tete with Neil Lennon;

“Neil takes life too serious and he has to lighten up. He is at a really good club. They need to be represented by dignity and class” he said, in a Traynoresque application for any jobs going down Ibrox way.

Its not worth recording the rest of his statement, because its of an equal standard, and shows, well, the dignity and class of the man.

Celtic will face Second Division German side Union Berlin in a July 12 friendly to celebrate the opening of the new stand at Die Alte Forsterei stadium, named after the goalie who will give them a three goal start in the game.

Built with the help of fans, its a big occasion for the Germans. Chief  Dirk  Zingler (surely a former star of the European Adult Movie industry) said;

“This will be an unforgatteble event and a big thank you to all of those who have supported us over the years.”

General manager Nico Schaefer, a far more sensible name, said;

“Such an occasion has to be celebrated with a worthy opponent, I am more than delighted to have attracted an absolute top club. The atmosphere in the stadium will be incredible.”

Thats nice.

Liamatronebhoy saw the clue in the most cryptic of odd one outs to date-Lennon is the only one who worked for a PLC. He’s far too clever for this site.

Now, a picture quiz for a change. What are these two talking about?