Celtic Dairy Sunday September 22

A little bit of a lie in this morning, after yesterdays adventure, and I awoke a little later with the sun streaming through the window, and the temperature already in the high teens.

And the view from my window couldn’t be more different.

Which reminds me, I must invite the new neighbours around for coffee.

Celtic went to within one goal at the top of the league with a 2-1 win over St. Johnstone, which combined with Aberdeens 1-0 victory over Inverness means that at least until tonight, theres a bit of daylight between the top two and the chasing pack.

Teemu Pukki continued his excellent start in the hoops with a well taken goal, and when Charlie Mulgrew added to it in the 26th minute, it seemed the Perth side , wearing red and black stripes to try to intimidate Celtic, were going to take a hammering.

However, when Adam Matthews didn’t re-appear after the break, and the promising Ambrose -van Dijk partnership was re shuffled to move Charlie Mulgrew to the back, Saints clawed their way back into it. Well, kicked their way back into it, and it was no surprise when on 76 minutes they pulled one back, which sparked an all out assault on Fraser Forster as he lay on top of the ball inside his own goal.

Nervousness in the crowd soon spread to the pitch, and only the post and an excellent Forster stop saved the points for Celtic, who must have had any watching Barcelona spies in stitches.

Perhaps a guy behind me in 412 summed it up best when his voice rang loud and clear;

” Celtic, this is fucking rubbish ”

Or perhaps it was that Barcelona spy.

Before the stramash of the last twenty minutes, the game looked to be just a routine work out after  the goals went in, and if I had one criticism at this stage it would have been when Samaras entered the fray, it would have been nice for the other players, especially Fraser Forster, to remember that we had another winger in Derk Boerrigter, who spent a lot of the time isolated out right, presumably bored out of his skull.

Charlie Mulgrew won the man of the match, which appears just to be done on a who’s turn is it next basis, as he didn’t do much to deserve it, goal apart, and to my mind-which isn’t what you would call a sure fire indicator- he is now just being shoe horned into the team simply for the sake of it. My man of the match was the wee boy whos dad won the paradise windfall, as he slid along the turf on the way back to his seat, before pretending to take a corner.

Nir Bitton made his home debut, and looked strong and composed, while Teemu Pukki looked like he might well become the new star striker, and if he does, you can be assured that the management will tell us he was the main target all summer.

Anthony Stokes was his usual bustling self, but when a couple of shots went wayward, you get the feeling he’ll be told off for it. In fact, when Amido Balde came on with a couple of  minutes left, he handed a note to Stokes, which the Irishman crumpled up and threw to the floor.

We have been given the note, and it is surprising what it reveals about the relationship between manager and player;

As i may have nmentioned in the very early edition of the diary yesterday, seven of us leapt into the tarrier carrier and headed up for the game. Arriving in Glasgow at around 11am , largely because the driver insisted on holding a vote amongst his passengers as to whether or not they wanted to stop at the services for a pee, and by the time he had finished waffling, the services were only visible in the rear view mirror.

And you should have heard them moaning. Look, its not like anyone lost a kidney or anything. Well, not this time, anyway.

One thing that gave me something to think about on the trip was the multi culturalism of the travellers-three Scots, One English, One Irish and two Zimbabwean. One of which stepped in literally at the last minute-hence the dash south to Stafford, when one lad dropped out, who , being Welsh, would have taken the tally to five nationalities amongst the seven occupants.

More food for thought, when you consider that all the Scots have to do to gain independence from the English overlord, all they have to do is vote yes, and when you consider what the Irish and Zimbabweans have been through..

Spare a thought for the Englishman, though. He’s stuck with London and whatever policies those idiots come up with.

One amusing incident yesterday-yes, only one, it was a long day- saw a passer by asked if he would take a picture of the seven of us, well, two actually, the first refused, prompting a shout of  “Your clubs deid ” from an unknown member. The second was a typical Glasgow youngster, who took the photo without a qualm, although we all were posing as though we were about to start a hundred metres dash,in case he decided to leg it with the new phone.  Thing is, in our rather less than tip top condition, most of us would have collapsed before we’d got to the other side of the road, and I’d forgotten to bring a defibrillator.

Todays big game sees Motherwell travel to Tannadice, which means that Sky Sports will cover instead the continuing rise of new club Second Rangers as they attempt to cleanse the spirit of the toxic entity that died last year.

See if their news channel had spent half as much time covering the unfolding scandal at the old club then they might not have folded after all. Speaking of scandals, there has been a flurry of rumours from the darkside, which usually means they are deflecting from something again. apparently Mark Dingwall and Chris Graham, the public face of the Ibrox support, have both been banned from the ground. Oh, and anyone who defames the club either verbally or orally will be getting a lawyers letter, which is great news for the ink industry.

Their application for re-admittance to the civilised world continues with a trip to the little town of Forfar today, and the whole show is live on the Animal channel.

Actually its on SS3, which is a sports channel, the SS in this instance standing for Sky Sports, and not any other organisation that may or may not be associated with the somewhat right wing support of the new club.

This organisation, defined by its terrifying SS insignia, and created by a person who was notoriously racist and bigoted,  went on to cruelly affect the lives of millions;

This afternoons game was actually advertised at half time during the satellite channels coverage of the Milan Celtic game, though why they figured anyone watching that top class fixture would be interested in a third tier tussle between two kick and rush teams is beyond me. Or, the idea that anyone interested in watching Second Rangers would be able to sit through a champions league game featuring the team they still think are their main rivals is equally baffling.

Reminds me of the time that Celtic released the design classic Peoples away top back in the nineties, and on a visit to a sports superstore in Stafford, I asked the bright young fellow behind the bar if he had the new Celtic away top. He replied that they hadn’t, but they did have the Rangers one.

Its truly amazing that people like him are allowed out without adult supervision.

I won’t be watching the football this afternoon. I’m off to Chester, where my eldest son starts university next month. He’s away to get the keys for his student accommodation , where he will be living alongside other students, including young ladies of possible dubious morals. I do worry about him being corrupted by women who may be so loose that bits are falling off them, and don’t want him to be led astray by girls who only want to abuse him. I mean, you hear all sorts of tales..

Perhaps I’d better stay with him for a few weeks.

Yesterday , Greyfriars Bobby, the original hun dog, and Murdock, the howling mad character from tvs the A Team led us to Bobby Murdoch, who some might claim was the finest midfielder ever to wear a Celtic shirt .

Now, as someone pointed out, these quizzes are getting too easy-couldn’t believe how quickly yesterdays was solved- so today, its a little more cryptic.