LEIGH GRIFFITHS last night admitted he dug under-fire boss Ronny Deila out of a hole with a last-minute winner for 10-man Celtic .

The striker, who hadn’t played in five weeks after a calf injury, was taken aback to be brought on at half-time against Partick as the Hoops toiled to end a two-month run without a home win.

After losing Nir Bitton to a red card with 22 minutes left, the game looked set to end scoreless, threatening to stretch their winless streak at Parkhead to five since Halloween.

But as the frustration grew around the ground, he paid the manager back for his gamble with his 20th goal of the season with just 30 seconds left to open up a three-point gap on Aberdeen at the top .

And Griffiths admitted: “He probably needed it.

“I never saw the gaffer celebrating. I was just concentrating on myself but he was the one breathing a huge sigh of relief because we hadn’t won here since Halloween when we beat Aberdeen.

“So we had to get the monkey off our back.”  

Of course, there is another way of telling the story….

Battling Celts secure the points with late winner.

or we could try

Dodgy Ref fails to save Jags. 

or even

Supersub Leigh back on song 

or maybe

Deilas Celtic prove they can fight. 

You get the point. Because when the game was over, Celtic had won. Despite a few honest mistakes, and despite not being at the top of their game, they beat a resilient Partick Thistle, who had lost only one of their previous ten games, by knuckling down and getting on with it.

During the game, it would have been hard to take anything positive from the match, but the mark of a good side is to win playing badly, and okay, it might not be the Celtic Way , immortalised in song if not actually in reality, but it did prove that there are some in the team who have that little extra that is needed to win on days like yesterday.

With multi media access to the games these days, the smallest mistake can become a crisis. In the old days before satellite tv, players could get away with the occasional off day, but these days they are expected to be world class not only in every game, but in every minute of that game.

We maybe weren’t direct enough, and were maybe a little indecisive and ponderous in the final third, but the plyers didn’t chuck it, amnd just like we used to do, secured a late winner that could prove to be the turning point of the season. At least in attitude on the park.

Goalscorer Griffiths said afterwards;

“There was relief inside the stadium and it was a release when the goal went in,”

“Games at home you’re always expected to win comfortably but we know what Thistle are about. They went to Aberdeen and battled during the week and got a decent point and I think they tried to do the same here.

“All credit to them, they came here, had a game-plan and played well but I kept saying to the boys, ‘Keep going, we’re going to get one more chance.’ Thankfully it fell to my feet and I managed to tuck it away.

“If you can’t play with pressure from the home fans you shouldn’t be at a club like this. The players can handle it. We’ve got big-game players like myself, Kris Commons, Nadir Ciftci, whoever is playing to create chances.

“If it’s 5-0 or 1-0, as long as we get three points and stay top of the league that’s all that matters.”  

 “I had only trained yesterday. I had done some hard stuff on the bike on Thursday so I was a bit surprised when the gaffer said: ‘You’re going on, get ready.’

“Thankfully it paid off. It feels like I’ve been out for three months, never mind three weeks.” 

Hang on, maybe the headline should have been.

Ronny’s Gamble Pays Dividends 

And he deserves praise for changing things, especially as it could have gone wrong.

Tell you what does matter, and thats the referees performance. Shamefully one sided, and I’d like to clarify something. There is no suggestion that the men in the middle are in any way being influenced by the authorities to, er, make it difficult for Celtic to get this treble.

Nah.

This lot don’t need any outside influence.

We know they are at it. That doesn’t need any clarification, but while the team isn’t playing well, any complaints of that nature will be seen as churlish, which is why I didn’t mention the refereeing at the Motherwell game, which was unsurprisingly leniant to the Fir Park cloggers.

As it was yesterday, and it really wasn’t surprising when Nir Biton was sent off for jumping too high. actually, it was a surprise. I expected Stefan Johansen to be expelled for running too fast, or Craig Gordon to get punished for handball.

We need to keep an eye on this, and as a club put a wee bit pressure on them, because they will keep doing it.

The press won’t do it, they are far too interested in keeping attention away from the latest scam at Ibrox, where Dave kong has apparently raised the money to pay off the debt to Mike Ashley, suspiciously soon after he went to Park Gardens to, er, say hello, hello.

Scottish football is teetering on the edge again, just four years after it was supposed to crash and burn.

The press are terrified of it, the supporters aren’t being told whats going on.

After all, denial seemed to work when the old basket of assets was sold, and miraculously re-emerged as the same club.

I managed to get through to the SFA and arranged a meeting to talk about this, and asked them for a statement.

Elsewhere, Gordon Waddell of the Sunday Mail sort of deserves a bit of praise for his article today where he points out that the Ibrox support do indeed sing unacceptable songs.

And he complains that asking the clubs to do anything about it, without actually apportioning blame to the one that is most guilty, is pointless.

Gordon Waddell: Notion of clubs helping cops with their enquiries into sectarian singing is laughable

HAPPY New Year, everyone. Here’s to a rip-roaring 1691… Sorry… we’re in 20what? Who knew, eh? 

Wow, I wish I’d thought of that 1691 line. Oh, wait…

This extract, however, is spot on, and I’d like to be the first to offer Gordon a substantial discount on new windows…

Anyone who thought we’d left the cesspool of sectarianism behind has sadly been forced to review their optimism settings after the Rangers-Hibs game.

Sure, we’ve had cloth-eared people trying to play it down, saying it never happened and we were duped into hearing what we were apparently 
desperate to hear.

We’ve had social media’s always-offended cranking it up at every turn.

And yes, there are guys in the media who refuse to write about it because they don’t see the point.

They’re either culturally inured to it or they don’t think it’ll ever change. 

And I bet he’s sitting by himself in the Record canteen from now on as well.

Although he could have put this bit a wee bit better.

The problem, as ever, is what you do about it. When no-one knows what the actual crime is, how is it possible to establish the punishment?

I’ve thought of a word for the crime.

Racism.

Which is illegal anyway.

Happy to help.

The article, to be fair, is probably the first one to not only call out the peepil for their community singing, but also to call out the media for ignoring it, and even ask why they are ignoring it.

That in itself is worthy of recognition., but then unerneath the article there are one or two comments that are, well, bollocks.

Including this belter, which is the fallback option every time that lot disgraces themselves.

” Apartheid schooling and brainwashing young minds ( “give me the child, see the man ..” -Joseph Loyalla RC Jesuit ) (Who ?- Ralph Malph.) as in all forms of religious fundamentalism leads to ignorance , separation, bitterness, hate, and a culture of them and us. 

Happily, he has also illustrated where this culture begins. Perhaps unwittingly.

It is not about social inclusion and togetherness but tribalism in its worst form. Stereotypes are frowned upon but so many in society conform to them. 

No shit .

Children should be given freedom to choose and not be subject to adult mores. Faith schools need to be strictly regulated ( look at the situation down south with unregulated muslim schools and the hate culure and propaganda they are developing.) 

I live in a city with a high Islamic population. There aren’t any faith schools I am aware of, and I’m sure if there was any “situation ” I’d be aware of it .. And those pesky Asians seem to use schools to learn, the same as most people. Except,  presumably , the author of this rant.

And we will see the results of that soon enough. 

These schools, and Roman Catholic ones must not be state funded, but politicians will not go near this issue..

Probably because its illegal to deny religious freedom

but ignore it to the detriment of society as a whole. As an atheist I resent that I have had to fund this kind of schooling. 

Can I reassure this chap that his few quid in taxes also goes on other things.

Anyway, in a new feature to the Diary, we are going to award him the Fuckwit Of The Week award.

If he gets in touch, he can claim his prize. A t shirt which you can find in the Etims store

and now, the missing words round…

Rangers director Paul Murray: We can raid ***** ********* and turn

******* **** into football fanatics.