Celtic Diary Monday September 30

Efe Ambrose , speaking candidly, has decided that Barcelona will be out for revenge when they line up at Celtic Park tomorrow night.

“We know it will be even more ­difficult and dangerous for us, because it will be like payback for them,” the 24-year-old defender said. “A year ago, beating them was unbelievable – so few people imagined that we could beat them. I believe this time Barcelona will be coming full force to Celtic Park to get something out of the game but, at the same time, we are also going to step it up.

“We know all eyes are on us to see if our victory last year was some kind of fluke or just down to luck. We have to prove that we can do it again at Celtic Park. We are not just playing for ourselves, we are playing for 60,000 fans who are the best in the world.

“Beating them last season was one of the best results in my career. It put us into the European limelight. It puts us onto the highest stage and we’ve been full in view of Europe since then. That game changed everything about how some people looked at Celtic.”

This new outbreak of common sense wasn’t unique to the big Nigerian. Georgios Samaras got in on the act;

“You cannot compare the two games and [say] that because we won against Kilmarnock, confidence will be high. Confidence is always high.

“We always believe in the ourselves and our team. We don’t need to beat Kilmarnock 5-2 to go and be competitive against Barcelona.

“I feel good within myself. I don’t need any confidence. I believe in myself every hour and every day.

“I know exactly what I can do for this team and to help my team-mates win games.”

He added: “We will go and enjoy it. We were a bit unlucky in that game against AC Milan, we didn’t take our chances. I don’t think we will have so many chances against Barcelona so we need to be more clinical.

“If we have the chance, we need to put it in the back of the net if we want something good from the game, like we did last year. We have to stay focused, try to minimise our mistakes and try to play to our strengths.”

There seems to be a deep rooted determination in these two players, which , added to a high level of concentration might just be enough to get a result tomorrow. Anything less than a win and it will be Celtic v Ajax for third, unless the Dutch side and Milan register a draw in the groups other game.

Milan have a couple of players returning from injury, and will take heart from a 1-0 win over Sampdoria at the weekend. Which was only their second of the season.

Ajax, however, rattled in six goals without reply at home to Go Ahead Eagles, and all the goals came in the second half.

Champions League campaigns always have a touch of the roller coaster ride about them, and it looks like this one will be no different. Its time for a wee bit of the exhilaration associated with the fairground ride now, though. I’ve already had enough of this sensation.

The good news is that Lionel Messi won’t feature. His hamstring will keep him out for three weeks, and although the Catalans have plenty of talent at their disposal to replace him, theres no denying they are a different, and less capable, side without him.

He is their talisman, as was proved in the latter stages of the competition last time around, but the question is, can they adapt ?

French referee Stephane Lannoy will take charge of the game, and as soon as I saw the words “French ” and “referee ” in that sentence a whole headful of memories came back, but thankfully, they weren’t followed by ” Claude ” and ” Colombo “, who has a special place in our hearts, somewhere alongside Rudi Weinhofer and Peter Lovenkrands. Lannoy has never refereed a Celtic match before, and so far the most interesting or controversial thing he has done is book Mario Balotelli in the 2012 Euro semi final between Italy and Germany for taking his shirt off when he scored. Tony Watt will no doubt be relieved he isn’t playing tomorrow.

James Forrest might be ready for the game, but Joe Ledley won’t. Forrest can offer pace, but lacks the defensive nous of Adam Matthews, but with Matthews picking up a stomach bug, and doing a one direction style upchuck during Saturdays game, there is a doubt hanging over the Welshman.

Elsewhere, the Armed Forces Day, held over at Ibrox during the game against Stenhousemuir has raised a few eyebrows. Despite the head of Forces in Scotland saying that the new club wouldn’t be allowed to introduce the military as an entertainment show after last years circus, it all happened again on Saturday.

Predictably , the press have largely ignored the event, as it seems to have got a little out of hand, with members of her majestys army not quite behaving as they should, and bringing accusations of  disrepute on the Army, in particular.

George Galloway, the maverick politician, has asked the question on twitter;

” won’t Alex Salmond comment on the hate-fest of sectarian bigotry yesterday or the Defence Sec on the participation of uniformed soldiers ? ”

More significantly, writer and grown up journalist  Roy Greenslade, on the Guardians website has taken an interest;

” It will be interesting to see if any newspaper covers the fact that members of Britain’s armed forces appeared to join in with Scottish football fans as they sang sectarian songs at a match yesterday. Initial reports suggest not.

Some 400 uniformed soldiers, seamen and air force personnel attended an armed forces day at Ibrox, the Rangers ground. After a formal march and band music, a group of soldiers (they were in khaki) were filmed dancing, clapping and singing along with the crowd.

Although it is difficult to make out the exact words on the video posted on YouTube, people have identified sectarian songs and chants celebrating the death of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Rival Celtic fans were quick to point to songs that are supposed to be banned from all Scottish football grounds under a new law passed by the Scottish parliament.

One commenter to the YouTube site wrote of it being a “disgusting vile and tawdry spectacle”. Another wrote: “Shocking stuff. I hope this vid is forwarded to the footballing and army authorities.”

Two media reports about the events that have been published – onehere on the STV site and another here on the Daily Record site – make no reference to the soldiers’ antics.

The STV report mentioned that an army band “entertained fans” and quoted Major General Nick Eeles, general officer commanding Scotland, as saying it was hoped to make it into an annual event.

The Record did write that “the match-day experience began in dramatic circumstances” but only because two marines “abseiled down the Govan stand ahead of kick-off, before delivering the match ball to the referee.”

How odd that both outlets missed the story? Or do their reporters think soldiers chanting jingoistic sectarian songs in unison with football fans is unworthy of comment?

Incidentally, Saturday was not the official armed forces celebration day in Britain (that falls in the close season). The club, with the full approval of the military, decided to stage its own separate event. ”

Richard Wilson, one of the MSMs noted publicity men for the stricken club, had this to say, which isn’t entirely unexpected;

” Passions are running high but they come out in positive ways, too, and the wonderfully chaotic half-time parade in honour of the armed forces was quite something to witness. Around 400 servicemen and women marched into the ground in perfect order behind a massed pipe band. But the minute they set foot on the hallowed turf all semblance of order dissolved.

Squaddies were bouncing up and down on the trackside with the spotty adolescents of the Union Bears fans group, RAF pilots were queuing up for photos beside the substitutes as well as Broxi Bear, and there were a couple of Navy men you would swear were trying to get up the tunnel. ”

Wonderfully chaotic ? Some might have described it as “disgusting offensive sectarian behaviour” -me, for instance. Too much to ask the likes of Wilson to do this though, as it isn’t in his remit to criticise those over at the Bigotdome.

There are numerous photos and videos circulating the web of the shameful scenes down Govan way, but for the diary I think one is enough, and it gives a fairly good idea of what was going on. This one could run and run.

Seems a bit of an extreme way of diverting attention from the fact that the accounts are due out today….

We’ve been sent a sneak preview of those all important papers, and a glimpse of how they will explain it to their supporters and shareholders

Wonder what time Charles Green will appear to compare balance sheets with Peter Lawwell ?

Yesterday, old Jock from the Greyfriars Bobby story, and a German beer stein gave us the number one Celtic legend Jock Stein.

How about these body parts-what do you get if you put them together ?