Celtic Diary Sunday March 2

 Leigh Griffiths tore the Inverness back line a new one today and he could have score six, such was Celtic’s overall dominance. We have bigger fish to fry, this was just a wee rehearsal for the League Cup Final in two weeks.

Thats the summary from Caleythistleonline, and I don’t think any of us would disagree with the first bit.

Celtic won 5-0 yesterday, at home ! Leigh Griffiths will take the headlines, deservedly so after a strikers performance bristling with attitude and aptitude not seen since a chap with a headband was on the scene.

Too early for comparisons ? Probably. But Griffiths works hard, and is a natural goalscorer, and we haven’t had one of them in a long, long time. There may be worries that he will self destruct at some point, but frankly that would just make him the perfect storm in my eyes.

Griffiths himself seemed quite pleased with his days work;

“When the fans heard there was interest in me they didn’t want me here but as long as I have the manager’s backing that’s good enough for me,” he said.

“But I am trying to prove everybody wrong and trying to score as many goals as I can and the first one was probably my best.

“I sclaffed it in but that the kind of goals I like to score. People normally associate me with long-range shots and trying to beat people but front post, that is where I want to be.

“That is what the manager wants, he wants a penalty box striker. He said that Gary Hooper (former Celtic striker) was one of the ones to emulate and if I was half as good as he was then he will be happy. ”

If he is out to prove people wrong, remind me to do a massive “Griffiths is shite ” article before every Champions League game next season.

Gordon Strachan has called him up for the Poland friendly as well, which rounded off a good day for the follically challenged free scoring forward, and suddenly Celtic fans have a new hero…. though there is a suspicion Lennon has had his eye on him for a while, as far back as this moment, when the Celtic gaffer asked Griffiths to check if anyone was listening…

Griffiths scored three yesterday, and kept the match ball. He’s gonna need a bigger house…

Kris Commons and Charlie Mulgrew completed the scoring, and it simply wouldn’t be fair not to mention Nir Bitton again. He, too, was superb, and although Neil Lennon has now said he won’t be changing the team until the league is won, to some observers-okay, probably just me – he already has.

Bitton is now first choice, Johansen is now first choice, Griffiths is now first choice and they all look settled. Darnell Fisher has proved he can be counted on. Anything else is a bonus as far as the first team is concerned.

It may have taken a while, but the signs are that Wilson , Wanyama , Ledley and Hooper have been not only replaced, but potentially upgraded.

Which is good news for us, but spare a thought for the German paralympic team. The games are just a couple of weeks away, and their best medal hope is still in a coma, so we should count our blessings.

Elsewhere in football, Alan Pardew, the manager of perennial sleeping giants Newcastle Utd, has been fined £100,000 for butting a Hull player yesterday, a surprise really, as Pardew has never been known to use his head in any situation previously-especially before he starts speaking. Its good news for David Meyler, though, now,  as people have heard of him.

And Sol Campbell reckons if he had been white , he would have been Englands captain for ten years ! Presumably under manager the management team of Paul Ince and John Barnes, who were also held back by the colour of their skin. Well, in their own minds, at least.

Barnes famously said he would have been given more time at Celtic as he almost sent us spinning back into oblivion had he been white, but the general consensus is that if he had been an Brother Walfrids great grand son , and a former  catholic priest who had raised money and awareness for the hunger strikers in 1981 whilst moonlighting in an Irish folk band with the trussed up body of Maurice Johnston back stage he’d have still struggled to get the extra week or two. Unfortunately for him, Henrik Larsson broke his leg-which was already weakened by the strain of carrying Barnes team, and he was gone….

And there was much rejoicing.

Hugo Rodagella is keen for Celtic to re-ignite their interest in bringing him to Glasgow, as his decision to move to Fulham has backfired. Lets hope that finding Leigh Griffiths doesn’t mean Lennon gets a new found confidence in picking strikers. Even more, lets hope he ignores Rodagella, who had his chance to join us last year.

English relegation battlers Manchester Utd have Fraser Forster on their list of things to do in the summer. Along with Virgil van Dijk. Davie Moyes has not settled in at Old Trafford, and has been reminded that Bobby Charlton is available if he needs help. Though the beleagured boss  will stick with Wayne Rooney for now.

Down in the lower leagues, Second Rangers manager Ally McCoist is considering  legal action against the Scotsman newspaper when they misquoted him on his aims for the new club;

The Scotsman printed this;

“There’s an incredible amount of work to be done before we’re back challenging in the top flight so it would be wrong to look too far ahead – although I appreciate you have to have short, medium and long term plans for the future. Of course, from a Rangers point of view it would hurt [if Celtic did ten] but I think, in the grand scheme of things, our concerns are very much the last 24 months and the next 24 months. We can’t forget what’s happened, we can’t let it happen again, and we have to keep rebuilding.”

The offending bit is here;

“our concerns are very much the last 24 months and the next 24 months ” when clearly the manager meant “hours ”

Though I love the bit about not forgetting what happened, seeing as how they have been in denial since the original club died and passed into liquidation.

So heres a reminder for him;

Another reminder of Fergus McCanns time at Celtic came from the pen of Andrew Smith, formerly of the Celtic View , in the Scosman, which is quite interesting;

mccann article

Paul McGugan was the man in the picture yesterday.

McGugan signed for Celtic from Eastercraigs Amateurs in April 1980. He made his first team debut at 19 years of age in a 3-2 win overHibernian on 28 April 1984.^[2]

However it would be over a year later – season 1985-86 – before he got a sustained run in the first team. That season McGugan made 21 league appearances for Celtic^[3] and played in both legs of their first round European Cup Winner’s Cup tie against Atlético Madrid.^[4][5] A highlight for McGugan that season was his goal on 1 January 1986 in a 2-0 win over Rangers at Parkhead.^[6] The season also saw McGugan win a league championship medal in dramatic fashion as Celtic crushed St Mirren 5-0 on the last day of the season as title rivals Hearts lost 2-0 away at Dundee.^[7]

McGugan also played regularly the following season, but the arrival of Billy McNeill as manager in the summer of 1987 saw him drop out of the first team. In October 1987 McNeill sold McGugan to Barnsley for £55,000.^[8]

McGugan spent three years in Yorkshire playing for Barnsley, including a memorable 4-0 win over Chelsea in the third round of the FA Cup in January 1989,^[9] before moving to Chesterfield in 1990.^[10] 

This ones a little more recent.