A 2-1 win at Ibrox over the current champions “rangers” yesterday means that Ange Postecoglou has one hand firmly on the league trophy.
Six points ahead, with six games to play doesn’t make it certain that the phrase “current champions “rangers ” ” is about to become obselete, but let’s face it, it would take a collapse not seen since, er, last season, for the hoops not to bring the silverware home.
And the good thing is , we’ve had a year to tidy up it’s spiritual home while it’s been away.
And the manager has certainly made good use of the broom.
It looked a little bit like things weren’t going to go our way when Aaron Ramsey poked home a goal after just a couple of minutes to give our hosts an early lead, and Ibrox was rocking, as the combination of the home crowd making their noise added to the fragile infrastructure of the now crumbling stadium, but it went a little bit quieter when a shaken Celtic pulled themselves together and equalised through Tom Rogic, who , along with Calum MacGregor used his experience to rally the players.
Celtic grew into the game as their opponents seemed to lose their way a bit, their plan of scoring early not having the same effect on Celtic players as it did on them when Celtic scored early in the last fixture.
Showing character and maturity Celtic just stuck to their own plan and in doing that took the lead just before half time. Cameron Carter Vickers firing a low shot past Alan MacGregor to complete a first half comeback that will stick in the memory for a long, long time.
If it took character to take the lead, then that character was severely tested in the second half as “rangers ” fought to get back into the game, but although they have to be commended for their effort and their refusal to be beaten, in the end they just didn’t have the quality to breach a Celtic defence that stuck to it’s task and defended as though their very lives were at stake.
Joe Hart made an outstanding save, low to his left which was pretty much all he had to do as Cameron Carter Vickers and Carl Starfelt dealt with the balls into the box that Greg Taylor and Josip Juranovic couldn;t stop, and they did stop most of them.
When Taylor left the field due to cramp., Juranovic swapped to the left and Tony Ralston took over on the right. Such was the level of understanding in the back line, developed over the last few months, it made no difference.
It wasn’t desperate , last ditch “fling your body in the way ” stuff, it was cool, composed and organised.
For me, a sign that this team is going places, and it’s going there with a manager who knows how to manage and a squad who wants to learn.
In a difficult and hostile environment, the team grew up a bit yesterday, and it grew up together as a unit.
The starting eleven all did their bit, and when they couldn;t do any more, those who took their place , and not for the first time this season, did their bit as well, slotting seamlessly into the side and performing not only to the best of their ability, but wanting to perform well, which is rare among substitutes.
One thing the manager has made his players realise is that the intensity of our play requires 16 players to all be at their best, and this will be a crucial factor as the Angera begins in earnest.
And the three second half bookings, Ralston, Biton and Giakoumakis showed that the players are willing to indulge in the dark arts when needed were another indication of the closeness of this group.
We’re going places, and we’re going there pretty quickly.
Sadly, with every winner comes a loser, and that sadness is increased when that loser doesn’t seem to want to lose gracefully.
At the start of the second half, broken glass had to be removed from the six yard area of Joe Hart’s penalty box, as the locals began to vent their fury at their visitors.
An inexplicably stupid act, and completely unacceptable.
Yet not entirely out of character for a fanbase that revels in the notoriety they have gained over the last century or so.
And still some tried to apportion blame elsewhere, an indication of the part of their mentality that refuses to accept reality…
Surely “could have ” ?
And as for tarnishing their good name ? This one couldn’t even credit them with a capital letter, which as Diary readers know is one of the worst punishments that can be inflicted on anyone.
The refusal to accept responsibility is not uncommon among the hordes, there has always been an excuse, always an external factor that has contributed to their problems.
Of course, this isn’t helped by a media that tends to gloss over the more serious issues , such as when the Celtic physio required stitches as a bottle from the crowd made it’s way towards him…
Chris MacLaughlin of BBC Scotland reported it, as did the channel itself later in the evening, as…
Something else that seemed out of place yesterday was the Ibrox club’s determination to cling onto a now defunct brand, and with it the partnership within the walls of the two Glasgow rivals , is both flattering and disturbing at the same time.
Now whether or not it was just to wind up the visiting Celtic fans, and it seems rather a lot of effort to do that, for the club/company to use their own facilities to promote a brand that involves their on the day rivals is inexplicable, hinting that the event is a showpiece of two equally important clubs.
Two who need each other to survive.
While Celtic don;t need anyone else, something that may yet not have become apparent to our board, they clearly do.
It could have been a message to the organisers of the Sydney Super Cup, as reports claim their refusal to use the term was one of the reasons their club had pulled out of the tournament, even though, as we saw last week, they have used it in promotional pieces.
This idea they have to be a part of something, and be attached to something has not quite caught on with their fans, who stepped even lower with a largely unreported display ……
There is quite simply no reasoning that can be acceptable behind this display.
There is, however, an awful lot of explaining to do, and legal issues arising from that picture.
The implications behind their statement, publicly displayed , may yet find a place in the courtroom for either the Ibrox entity or the organisers.
That’s one thing, but what possible motive can they have to raise this issue at a game ?
Support for victims ? Raising awareness of the wider problem within the game ?
No.
It’s all about that hope that keeping the issue in the public eye will increase any financial penalties that Celtic incur from a civil case that is about to go through the courts.
Thats what keeps them going.
The hope that such penalties will be enough to bankrupt the club.
There really is something fundamentally wrong with them.
They cling desperately to the Old Firm brand, in which they are very much the junior partner, yet highlight the most shameful incidents in the recent history of both clubs, in the hope it will destroy the brand.
Some things never change…
Happily though, the end is near.
If they don;t make the UCL group stages next season, they will crash and burn.
In fact, yesterdays result went a long way to making sure that Second Rangers are heading the same way as their predecessors ..as one eloquently put it…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1510620168975749131
And from social media, the 4th Official gives us his match report….
We won’t miss them….
First they pulled out of the Sydney tournament, then they pulled out of the title race.
Next, they’ll pull out of their very existence.
The last caption competition ..the winner is
Salad Queen
By the look of the guy on the right, it must be wire brish and dettol time
The Aaron Ramsey line sort of backfired…
Today , what is his pal saying to him ?
Absolutely delicious pic.twitter.com/kwtv9BmSdd
— C.G (@garland_conor) April 3, 2022
Caption: Aye right ye are Gordon fookin Ramsey, I like my steak well done not with the blood pi$$ing oot it.
Don’t give me that it’s done, its done p!sh, why did you throw my Buckie bottle ya roaster.
Caption Competition – Its not fair son, the first game this season we never got a penalty.
.
Caption – the child with tears in his eyes – honestly mate a wis oot fishing the other day and caught wan “THIS BIG” but before I could land it goat aff!
Broken glass( to maim players), proscribed songs sung, banners relating to an on-going court case and member of staff assaulted in a cowardly fashion.Thats Dignity FC for you.
Surely some sanctions (close the MAIN STAND for remainder ofseason )are in order with or without strict liability.
The citizens of Sydney have won a watch….pity for those who live in Glasgow !
If you watch the unique angle footage just after Celtic score the 2nd there’s a fat orc about to come on the park towards the Celtic players only to be grabbed around the neck by another orc,presumably only one among the klan with half a brain.
Would have loved to see the wee waste of skin squaring up to Carter Vickers.
Actually if you watch it, he has a half hearted attempt at getting his leg over the wall and one of the other orcs saves him from even more embarrassment. Simply vermin.
and the Copeland for the bottles at Hart’s goal and the Broomloan for bottles flung at Tim fans and, while we’re at it, the Centenary (or whatever its called these days), as it was full of Huns being Hunnish, no doubt.
Caption …
Yep it was a horsing, but I’m telling you it’s not dun , it’s friesian
Caption: we’ve bottled it!
Many a Celtic team has collapsed after losing an early goal at Ibrox. The fact we were on level terms within 4 mins knocked them and taking the lead just before HT was a killer. We showed character and determination as well as putting in a few robust challenges (we were bullied by the Huns last year) However, I don’t think we were great yesterday, in fact I lost count of the number of times we gave the ball away easily, our passing was generally poor and (not for the first time) in the second half of games we seemed unable to get out.
I agree this Celtic team under Ange is going places but needs more quality, we need to be able to take more care of the ball, particularly in Europe.
Regarding the OLD FIRM messages all over the place, it really is embarrassing, they are desperate.
Agreed that we struggled to pass accurately, certainly in first half, and big players such as Jota, Jura and Reo had off days.
Given that and the early goal against and still came out on top deservedly then it show a lot of promise for the future, as you don’t usually get anything when the number of big players don’t play well.
CCV, Calmac and Daizen (does he ever stop?) immense.
A shout-out to Starfelt as well, a poor 1st half, looked completely lost ‘rabbit in the headlight’ performance but 2nd half defended brilliantly and, if the Huns had another 90 mins, I doubt they would have scored against him and the others.
Know what i cant get my head around? Using up all their advertising space to be bunny boilers about the old firm. Not like they need the money.
Feels like a late decision following their sydney statement. They must have had advertising contracts signed? All very strange.
Caption……..
Wee hun just received a text message from his sister, who’s also happens to be his mum, that his Da, who’s also his brother, has been arrested outside £1brox having committed some kind of depraved union with a fellow bear, who also happens to be his uncles aunties long departed Granda.
My head hurts.
It’s meant to…hahaha!
It was a Chelsea supporter! Lol
Caption: Ahm sorry Billy but all sausage rolls fae the free buffet are finished do you want something else? That’s sh*t! The cream scone, the cream scone!
That was one of the longest games I’ve ever endured. If there’s no retrospective action on the coins, glass, bottles and songs from the police and SPFL we shouldn’t have any of them at CP.
I bounced outa bed this morning and off for an early haircut with a huge immovable smile. I’m better if I don’t drink when we’re playing the new huns and had not a drop yesterday. Terrific Diary Ralph, covered most of the relevant stuff from yesterday with some add-ons. I thought CCV was outstanding yesterday and Starfelt and him are getting better together. Josip had a game to forget (all at sea for their goal) but he still works hard and is normally very reliable. For me, Maeda is a terrific signing, might turn out the best of our Japanese imports. He works his socks off, covers all over the park and he’s really strong on the ball. More to come too, I think. I realise why I despise that scum the way I do; they’re everything from the gutter down to the deepest sewers and I’d just love to see them gone forever. They have no saving grace whatsoever, not the original version nor the new one. There fans? Whoever coined “same fans, different shite” nailed it. We must now put pressure on our Board to visibly and noisily withdraw from the Old Firm bollox.
Let them stand alone and be shown up for what they are, SCUM.
Now let me get back to smiling…..it’s impossible when thinking of ‘them’.
Two of the worst, recent outbreaks of Covid-***SARS-2 erupted in the Govan area of Glasgow yesterday. The 1st was around 12.43 PM, and the 2nd was all day afterwards. ***Sick, Angry, Rangers Supporters doing what they do best.
Ian Archer labelled them accurately all those years ago as shown in Ralph’s Diary “a permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace. This country would be a better place if Rangers did not exist” Well said Ian Archer.
I see the farcical “Awaiting for approval” virus is still with us! Come on lads, get it TF!
A couple of points after yesterday’s game the SPFL must address urgently and decisively. Mick Stewart asked on Sportscene how anyone could have got a bottle into the game. Having seen pictures of how many bottles were being collected they must challenge Sevco as to what is going on with the stewarding at that pit.
Secondly we didn’t cover ourselves in glory as a fan base or as individual players when the Dallas incident happened no matter how bad we felt he dealt with the game itself. Over 20 years ago Celtic accepted a £45,000 fine for that from the SPL. If the SPFL and SFA do nothing about yesterday Nicholson MUST act quickly to call them out publicly for the double standards which have gone on far too long. Yesterday’s events are an open goal to attack the governing bodies if penalties are not swift and severe.
Good comment. If ever there was a perfect time to publicly and visibly take ourselves OUT of the Old Firm garbage and consign it to hell where it belongs it’s NOW! It’s supposed to be jointly owned (the OF ‘brand’) but it’s of no use to just one side, and we don’t want to be ‘branded’ with ‘them’ as two cheeks of the same arse. Call it out and them out now.
HH
Agree to a large extent. For me the negatives far outweigh the positives. Celtic might make a few extra quid allowing Sky or whoever bleat on about the OF in their adverts or perhaps even more importantly brands that advertise at premium cost before, during and after the OF game or El Classico etc. However it’s far too easy when there is trouble and bad press to attach their stink to us and too many times the media are only too eager to do it.
feck me . your right s(hun). its done. fkn brill video.feel the pain.lol
Caption:
“Don’t shout at me, Ah wiz aimin’ fur Postecoglou Ah’m tellin’ ye”
Forget the SPFL or any other so-called governing body. They admitted themselves that their place wasn
t safe for Chris Sutton to enter.Football stadiums are workplaces and any workplace that isnt safe for anyone entering, far less the players themselves, then it should be
closed by the local authority until such times as it is made into a safe
working environment.
Celtic should refuse to enter their cursed hole until safety is guaranteed.
I wonder what their insurers think about this: provided, of course, they are actually insured.
Excellent day all round yesterday, a rare comeback win after an early set back showing the mettle of the manager and team.
When we battered them early in February they stayed battered and lived up to our esteemed captain’s description of them.
The difference between the reactions to adversity was night and day.
re Old Firm branding, completely weird after capitulating to the hordes that they want nothing to do with us, was this their board’s 2 fingers to their own fans?
re “We don’t throw bottles we throw cans” I assume that bottle in Hart’s goal was flung intact (and probably full of pish) but then broke as it smashed off the bar, post or stanchion.
Caption “The problem is, Billy junior, 50,000 of us being here to upset the delicate sensibilities of Tavpen and the rest. Last season without us they smashed the league so I say ‘No Huns at Ibrox!'”
I saw a tweet, seemingly from an orc nearby the perpetrator that the bottle was smashed in the stand then thrown into the goalmouth. If so, even worse. The message also pointed out the seat number for the lame brain that did the deed.
Equivalence. The Old Firm started as a caustic statement about what happens when sporting ideals are trounced by business, morphed into Scottish journalistic shorthand for equivalence, and justified never singling out one group of fans’ behaviour as “they are all the same.” Then one side decided on a very risky strategy. On derby days only have 700 Celtic fans. Oh dear. The equivalence arguement gets a boot in the peas. And when mass disorder has been threatened to the point that you withdraw from Ange’s homecoming tour what is a thick PR to do? Plaster the dump in OF branding. And then you get a boot in the gub as the world sees the trash that are. And equivalence after Manchester, George Square et al gets a bullet to the brain. Shame on you Sturgeon if you aspire to be a leader that squares up to Putin you should be able to say the word “Rangers.” We are not half of anything.
All well and good, but when we’ve got a board of directors cozying up to and enabling the scum in Govan, your ire would be better directed toward them.
And now I’m Port Power. No henkes I’m pretty clear about my view and Sturg&on has an issue she and her administration needs to address. The Or&nge Order and the Uls*er mob in the north of Ireland has a target on an indi Scotland. She’s crapping pi’s*ing off the Scottish ‘rangers-leaning’ vote who are sympathetic to the SN* – don’t laugh there’s plenty, but as a leader, and far more influential than any Celtic board member she needs to name and shame and not bottle it behind the OF excuse. It’s not worthy of her and it’s riven with underclass sentiment.
Certainly don’t disagree.
Uch fuck off with the moderation have a fuckin forum or don’t I’ve seen slabbering pish here routinely ffs and 2 Tims trying to have a sensible chat can’t.
Henkes did my best you can read my response when the the new improved rangers are a thing.
Cheers m8.