As expected, Celtic duly disposed of Dundee yesterday, and “rangers ” dropped points for the fourth successive time away from home at Dundee United.
As expected because earlier in the day, Scottish football’s wise old sage Hugh Keevins had written that it was :
Time to remember that Rangers are the reigning champions of the Premiership, and will return to the top of the table, for however long, after they have beaten Dundee United at Tannadice this afternoon.
Bookmakers around the country had waited for this moment, which allowed them to set the odds for the match, comfortable in the knowledge that whatever else happened, Keevins , who once claimed Artur Jorge had signed a contract to be Celtic manager and that John Spencer was a better bet than the unknown Lubomir Moravcik , would get it wrong again.
That left Celtic with a chance to go three points and a significant goal count ahead at the top of the table.
Georgios Giakoumakis showed why he was the top goalscorer in the Netherlands with three well taken goals, which secured the points after Dundee did what Bodo Glimt did and scored with what limited opportunities they had.
The scoreline suggested a close game, but in fact it wasn’t, and when Joe Hart remembers that a goalkeeper is supposed to organise his defence at set pieces, then surely that little glitch will be sorted.
A keeper , with his arms extended, should be able to outjump any forward and make at the very least contact with the ball.
Hart simply stands back and lets everyone else get dirty. Time for him to get his finger out and put a bit more effort in.
Referees made the headlines again yesterday, with one or two strange decisons. It may be down to the current media narrative in favour of VAR technology, it may be down to overwhelming analysis and pressure, or it may be that they are just inept, as this missed penalty offence from the Celtic game shows…
Not been a major outcry for VAR over this for some reason.
Weird. pic.twitter.com/0pIdSovRR7
— Tim Trivia (@TriviaTim) February 20, 2022
Is it really weird ?
Allegations , or the perception of bias, were strengthened when the referee, Gavin duncan, appeared to sport a tattoo not dissimilar to the five stars logo created by the Ibrox club/company to market their most succesful club in the world nonsense…
Of course, it could be completely irrelevant, and have nothing to do with football….but the perception of bias remains.
And just to clarify, there is no suggestion that underneath his shirt is another tattoo….
BBC sportscene didn’t even mention the incident in their post match musings, and along with BBC Sportsound have now adopted the mindset that the two Glasgow derbies will decide the title race, although by the time the next one rolls around it’ll all be academic, especially given the air of defeat surrounding not only the fans of the club across the river, but the players and management.
Gio van Bronckhurst was forced to hide behind a guitar plectrum to avoid the abuse from fans after the game….
In fact, the fans are going into meltdown, which in fairness will probably make them easier on the eye…
It started even before the Celtic game…
Oh, Ramsay…remember how they proclaimed his diety ?
The greatest signing ever in Scottish football ?
Then there’s the paranoia…
Some of them are taking it quite badly…
Since the break, Celtic have won 21 out of 21 points, “rangers ” have taken 12…
The win over Dortmund was, and will be , the high peak of their season, and given Dortmund, who clearly had their arses kicked after that game, responded with a 6-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach, so even the greatest ever win in Scottish football history ( as we were told ) probably won’t be enough…if Dortmund score early, Ibrox will begin to sound like it started raining holy water…
Which reminds me, the BBC Sportsound summariser caused havoc in the studio yesterday when he said that it was good to hear their fans in full voice after they equalised…there then followed an awkward silence as sound editors raced to broadcast static instead….
We may have reached the turning point in the league race, we may not have, but we have gained a little bit of breathing space on the one hand, and piled what will probably prove to be insurmountable pressure on an already fragile mentality at Ibrox.
Should Celtic overcome Bodo Glimt in Norway, which is unlikely but not impossible , and Dortmund reverse their defeat and progress, then the spat in Ukraine will pale into insignificance when compared to the rage across the river.
What we need for that to happen is for Hugh Keevins to confidently predict it won’t….
I can’t fucking wait.
Hugh Keevins is the prick’s prick.
I follow him on Twitter, just to tell him that every single day!
Pat, I’m like that with Douglas Ross.
I see he was at a soup kitchen in Glasgow? The same guy from the same party who voted against free school meals?
If I was at that soup kitchen I’d have removed him.
Who’s voting this comment doon ffs!!!
It’s surely obvious Owen. Who do we know, linked with Celtic, to be rabid Tories. Pick anyone of our Board and you’ll find, if not the culprit, but a a sympathiser.
Remember Celtic is a broad Church.
Then again it might be a certain individual whose nome de plume just happens to mimic the sound of a time piece.
I believe there may be historical, if not hysterical. Issues.
no tories though eh
Correct. I look forward to the day when the whole of Scotland can rejoice in being ‘Tory Free’.
There were 3 minuses when I posted that – obviously things have changed since!
Count yourself lucky it was just a flying visit Monti, we have the horrible barsteward as an MP!!
Morning Ralph,
Good to see you point out Joe Hart’s performance yesterday, Joe has been excellent overall since he signed and has played a massive part of where we are as a team today, that all said he does look suspect at cross balls and could/should come and collect these balls into the box.
I also noted Hatate adjusting his shin pad as the ball came in from the corner, that sort of nonsense doesn’t help.
Sort it out Ange.
HH
Agree with your comments. Hart has been brilliant but is prone to the odd howler and doesn’t take cross balls that should be keepers ball all day long. Hatate has looked like a lost bhoy in the last couple of games. We need to sort out defending set plays before it REALLY costs us
Absolutely
And Alex Rae was heard to have said ” We are the Pete Tong “
Are SPL supporters ever happy? Hart has been leaking goals ever since a fan run up to him with a mobile so he could hold the phone while posing for a pic with Jota, the players are panicking everytime they have the option of a back pass, sevco think the world is against them, Celtic just love late goal winners, Julian, whose height might win a header or two is benched, Starfelt saw the Dundee lot kicking and stamping on everything in Green, so sorted it, (love it) this years greatest ever team in Europe have a moose for a forward and ignorant fans who follow an extict philosophy that ended a hundred years ago when their adversaries learnt to shoot back, except for Gandhi, who learnt to ignore them and take no notice when they demanded anything, and will the Holy Water after a very, very embarrassed yellow wall get going, desolve the sevco fans? Are they zombies or vampires? 6 points down to 3 points clear, and Ange’s master plan comes to fruitition. ‘Play like a tourist for a few months Giorgos until Keevins gets them carried away, then show ’em what you got!’ Boom! Still a ways to go, Bhoys, but we are getting warm! HH!
Utter nonsense!
All meant in humour, some will get it. HH!
When the bears say their board is operating “financial prudence” you know they’re talking bolloxology
” Then there’s the paranoia” funniest link I’ve read since the last funny comment on E Tim’s.
One of the reasons I check in – to laugh or smile.
That’s a liberty comparing tiny toaty Giof@nny von Bratwurst with a genuine heroic icon in Tyrion Lannister.
If Tyrion was in charge of the sevs they wouldn’t have been conned into signing Gordon Ramsey and Ahma Dildo.
A Lannister always pays his debts, so no chance of him fitting in at the Crumble Dome.
Lannister’s do pump their sisters though
Fair few ifs and buts today which reminds me to buy shaving foam for my Aunty. A two goal home loss to relegation fodder #1 is of concern and our long-standing frailties at the set piece cross ball are unresolved. Ange must have some answers here, oh for some lump of a lad that’s big, gleikit and doesn’t mind stewed tea. Meanwhile here’s how the English Aunty covers a hat trick in the Hoops “his desire to get on the end of things never wanes no matter how wayward his finishing can be.” Only in Scotland.
the talk of “…..deal with cross balls, get buy guys in” is just lazy. what about just setting up properly. Like whose idea was it to set a high defensive line for a deep McGinn cross (that’s punished up when he was at Aberdeen) with the result that our defenders are running back towards goal with their attackers just looking for any connection for an easy goal, whilst our defenders have to contort themselves to get on a defensive header that doesn’t inadvertently head towards our goal. Is is so difficult to just set a defensive line with our backs to goal. No special defenders needed for that.
How long has this being going on for? Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results is the definition of madness. So either the personnel or the coaching has to change.
The Athletic has an article on this:
Analysing Celtic’s set-piece struggles: Lack of aggression, zonal marking and Hart not commanding his six-yard box
Its behind a paywall but think you can read a certain amount of free articles before you need to pay.
Analysing Celtic’s set-piece struggles: Lack of aggression, zonal marking and Hart not commanding his six-yard box – The Athletic
The pain and the everyone is agin us mentality oozes through that pile of doodoo that is a care and retirement home for the ex EBT mob and cohorts. They rant about penalties not being given, and cheer on a rabid mob whose song sheet yesterday included the ‘Famine’ song ‘No Surrender’ and the ‘Billy Boys’. Sport sound and Sportscene as close to Blue Porn as it gets,, but you enjoy their pain.
Dundee yesterday tried to bully and Harry Celtic, their only two shots were goals, but the team ground out a result even although the boys in black did everything to stop them.
As for the red tops they are full of scum lovers, Keevins being a prime example as he dribbles his senile garbage.
Things are beginning to smell at the Crumbledome and they are turning on one another, note Slippy is beginning to have issues in Engerlandshire.
HH
I’d read about how the Sevco supporters turn on their own when there’s a result that go’s against them, but I can’t stop laughing about how they are turning against “Madhun” over his refereeing of the Dundee United vThems game yesterday. Here’s a referee who has Done more than any other referee in Scotland to aid “Them’s” particularly when refereeing Celtic matches and now after one game they’re calling him a Celtic supporter and a “The” Rangers hater, as Ralph Malph among many others have often said Sevco’s supporters are completely deluded. I’m just hoping and praying that they lose a couple of games, starting Thursday during the the next 11 games, drawing a couple wouldn’t go amiss either. Hail. Hail!!!!!
Just noticed while browsing through the comments a mention of Mike and Monti, what’s happened to Mike? He used to comment on here regularly, hope everything is OK with him, surely he’s not taken himself off this blog because of the Green Machine. It will be a sad day that this site will have lost a good long time contributor to, shall we say an(ahem) enthusiastic anti-vaxer like Green Machine who has single handedly got shut of good contributors to this site. Where is he BTW? not noticed his inanitiws on here for a while. Noticed that Monti is popping up on ACSOM and CQN now and again has he forsaken the site? Hail Hail!!!!!
I concur. Miss mike and jimmybee and many others.
I appreciate Ralph and Desi can’t police every comment but too much tolerance was shown to Green Machine and his off-topic, off-the-wall rants which has chased a lot of posters away.
Cheers Owen, I’ve seen a few posts from Monti as I have said earlier on Acsom etc, but to have lost good posters like Mike and a few others due to an anti – vaxer who is urgently in need of medical and psychiatric help is stretching tolerance and liberty too far. Desi and Ralph should have closed him/her down months ago. Just as a matter of interest as Green Machine has seemed to have disappeared off here there’s Park The Bus appeared on CQN, they can’t be the same eccentric can they? Hail Hail!!!!
No mention in/on the SMSA’s/BBC sportscene regarding the sevco’s fans party songs following their equaliser on the 76th minute? Or did they start sing their party songs in response to Aribo blessing himself after scoring?
I suppose Mark McGhee got the job for Alex Rae at Reading ?
Condolences to Reading FC. Jelly and Ice-cream to the rest of us.
Cash flow problems sevco FC ? Guess what ? Liquidity works.