Celtic Diary Monday May 5: A Good Day Out.

Enjoyable.

Thats the general consensus of opinion after Celtic outlined the difference between first and second in the Premier division with a 5-2 win over Aberdeen.

Scott Brown scored twice, before realising what he’d done, Kris Commons took his tally to thirty for the season, and Anthony Stokes got his twentieth , which took the tally for the three front men to fifty seven, which if you substitute Hooper for Griffiths , is exactly what the front three finished on last year.

But theres still a couple of games to go…..

Manager Neil Lennon was impressed with his team, who put in arguably the performance of the season;

“It was five and it could have been a lot more, we are playing very well at the minute and are providing plenty of entertainment as well.

“We just want to finish the season strongly and we are doing that, along with putting a marker down to the rest of the teams to show we have a very good team here.

“We want to get stronger and we have done so as the second half of the season has progressed. I’ve been really pleased with the players that have come in and we are starting to look a good side.”

And he pretended not to be surprised that Scott Brown scored a couple, doubling his tally for the season at a stroke;

“He’s got that in his game,” he said. “We are always encouraging him to shoot more. I thought he had a fantastic game and is a player coming into his peak and is at the top of his game. He really drove the team on.” 

And although theres still no sign of that contract extension, he saved special praise for Kris Commons, who has helped us to forget all about Gary Hooper;

“We do use the formation to accommodate Kris as best we can,” he said. “He’s better centrally, we feel, than on the wing.

“He’s far more productive in a central position because he can open teams up with a pass or change a game with the finishing power he has got. He has really delivered for us in that position.

“It’s incredible for a player who is not an out-and-out centre forward,” continued the manager.

“There is creativity in the way he plays his movement off the ball is fantastic and you always fancy him to score when he gets into those situations. It’s been a hell of as season for him, absolutely tremendous.”

 The day began on Saturday with the opening of the “Celtic Way”, and even the most traditionalist of our support had to admit that the new causeway looks superb.

Billy McNeill and chairman Iain Bankier performed the ceremony, because the club figured that everyone knows Big Billy, so that would mean they work out that Iain Bankier was the other guy, because most of us don’t know what he looks like.

The walkway features  a 7.5metre club crest, made of Scottish whinstone quarried in Kilsyth, which was polished before having the detail grit-blasted into the stone, said the Daily Record, in case anyone was wondering.

A supporters’ meeting area in the shape of a four-leaf clover edged with cobbles is also part of the project. The 150-metre shrub-lined avenue runs from London Road to the stadium’s main entrance.

More than 200 workmen and women hand-laid 300,000 paving bricks during its construction.

Club chief executive Peter Lawwell said: “We feel it has transformed Celtic Park and provided a stunning new public realm area for the benefit of our supporters.

“This fresh and modern development is hugely positive for the club – and for the continued regeneration of the east end of Glasgow.”

 With neighbours like Celtic have , however, there was always a real fear that the cub would never be allowed to have anything nice, but thanks to the Green Brigade and their relentless self publicity campaign, in the form of little stickers you can put on your school books to annoy the teachers, our own support beat them to it.

Sure they are only stickers, and if it rains they might wash off.

Sure its only a bit of trash around the fence, but someone will pick it up.

Sure all their Christmas presents were normally broken by Boxing Day….

 They might claim, and in fact they have, that it wasn’t them, and they have no control over who they sell them to, and they night even claim that it was the support of another club who did it.

 But you know what, thats par for the course for them.

They only do good things, and if something backfires, then it was “hangers on “.

 Those of us who live outwith Glasgow spend a lot of time persuading those who have a sneaky liking for Celtic to join us for a game. It helps to keep it affordable for the rest of us, and there is a huge amount of pride in taking them to Celtic Park.

 Yeah, we like to show it off. Which wasn’t really something we could do pre-1994. In those days, though we loved the old ground, non-Celts looked down their nose a wee bit at us.

 The new ground changed all that, and the new causeway will change it further. It looks fantastic at night, and already theres a few wee goosebumps at the prospect of a game against Real Madrid, or  Liverpool-more about that in a minute – under the lights on a chill autumn evening…

 So quite who thought that putting stickers all over the place was a good idea is beyond me.

 If you lived next door to them, and got a new car, these little bastards and their mentality would drag a key along it. Even if gave them a lift to the pub on a Friday.

 But thats not going to be allowed to spoil   what was a fantastic day.

 The legends were out in force to open the new approach, Billy McNeill, Bertie Auld-who it seems has been drinking that potion Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep took to keep them forever young ( until they fell down the stairs ) in the film Death Becomes Her.

 They all turned up, showing that while the club is stepping into the future, its more than happy to take the past along with it.

 We still look upon these guys as heroes, we still see them as a major part of the club, and its always good to remind them of how we feel about them.

 At half time, someone got the chance to tell the support how they feel about them.

 Liverpool supporters, twenty five years on from the Hillsborough tragedy, took time to thank Celtic fans for their support in the immediate period after the disaster.

 Of all the tributes received, of all the words written and spoken over the years, this was the far and away the one that put the biggest lump in the throat.

 An over enthusiastic steward had words-fairly strong words, it seems, with a supporter who ran on to the pitch to give the Liverpool fans a scarf, which is evidence alone that the club needs to re-assess the stewarding at the ground for next season.

But again, it wasn’t going to spoil the day.

 Because football is about fans, and not all of them want to kick each others heads in.

Its also about retaining a link with living history, such as the players who opened the new avenue, and today we’d like to wish a happy birthday to Hugh Doherty, the oldest living Celt who turns 93 today.

 He was invited to Celtic Park for talks after a trial game on September 1 , 1939, but with Germany deciding to step up its policy of forming an early European union, he had to wait until 1946 before finally wearing the hoops.

 Theres an interview with him here, taken from the official site.

Hugh Doherty

And here he is, wearing not only  the hoops, but possibly the best away kit of all time

Meanwhile, back to the present day, and the club held its own awards ceremony last night, and Neil Lennon still didn’t get the manager of the year gong.

You can probably tell this bit is from the official site;

 But,  Kris Commons  lifted the Player of the Year trophy. The award is voted for by the fans and sponsored by McEwan Fraser Legal, and just 24 hours after reaching the 30-goal mark with a double in the 5-2 victory over Aberdeen, Commons was acclaimed as Celtic’s Player of the Year.

The Players’ Player of the Year award, sponsored by The Kitchen Depot, was a close-run contest, with Fraser Forster and Virgil van Dijk sharing the award after all the players’ votes had been counted up.

It was a tough choice for supporters to choose their Goal of the Season, sponsored by Magners. The Champions have scored so many great goals this season, and are continuing to do so, but a shortlist of 10 was finally agreed upon. And from that, it was Kris Commons with his second award of the night who won for his brilliant strike against Shakhter Karagandy last August in the UEFA Champions League qualifier, a goal which helped Celtic reach the group stages of the competition for the second season in a row.

And with an impressive 30 goals to his name this season, Commons also lifted the Top Goalscorer of the Season, sponsored by Ladbrokes.

It’s been a good season for Celtic’s Youth Academy, with a number of young players promoted to Neil Lennon’s first-team squad. Darnell Fisher, who ahs made 13 first-team appearances this season, was named Young Player of the Year, the award sponsored by MEV Group.

And Liam Henderson, who has just broke into the top team in the pat couple of months lifted a new award, the Academy Player of the Year, which is sponsored by Scottish Dentistry.

And the Special Recognition Award, sponsored by Light, was presented to Celtic’s Great Wall – Fraser Forster. The goalkeeper has had an outstanding season, breaking the Scottish league clean sheet record which has stood for over 40 years.

Special Recognition award ? He’s the easiest one of the lot to recognise…

Todays a bank holiday, and this feel good diary doesn’t need any passages from the dark side, we’ll mention them tomorrow, instead.

Especially the bit where Ally Mccoist claims that his side didn’t get any bonuses for winning the Third Division, claiming his players weren’t bothered…

Wonder if he’ll go public on any automatic wage increases for them after they move up a division…..

Manchester United were the opposition when Ciallian Sheridan and Ben Hutchison were up front, but further research intot he game, the 1-1 when Scott MacDonald scored, is conflicting, and i’m not sure they were on the pitch at the same time.

I’m more sure about this one though. He definitely played for Celtic, but can you remember who he is ?