Celtic Diary Wednesday July 16: Better Late Than Never. Maybe.

So, when its £2.25 a pint, the hoops are on the telly, and some journalist is abusing Angela Haggerty for having the balls ( so to speak ) to point out to the braying orcs that their club is dead, then it might explain why it took a little longer to make my way home from work last night.

Celtic recorded a nervy 1-0 win over Reykjavik last night, Calum MacGregor wheeching the ball into the net after dancing past a couple of defenders, which means that theres now a better than fifty fifty chance of making some progress in Europe.

Reykjavik looked and played like St. Mirren, but to be fair to Celtic, we at least tried to lower ourselves to make a game of it. Kris Commons was lively, but a little rusty, Mikael Lustig was rusty, but a little lively, and , to be honest, I was glad the games out of the way, and I’m thinking that maybe the players are looking at it that way as well.

Next week, the return is at Murrayfield, and I might even make the trip up there, but to be honest, to my way of thinking, this is a horrible tie, and although its good to see football back, I could probably live without it.

Manager Ronny Deila was pleased enough, and he said afterwards;

“The performance was good and our defence had no chances made against them. We won the ball back as soon as we lost it and there was a good tempo in what we did in defence.

“Offensively, in the first half, it was too much sideways, we couldn’t get through them. Second half we got more penetrating passes and runs and then we opened them and got chances.

“We should be more effective but some days it’s like this and in the end it was nice to score, and I’m also very happy for Callum who got his first competitive goal and has been very good in pre-season.”

The manager added: “I think he did well. There’s a lot to improve but he is calm on the ball and he has a good understanding of the game.

“He’s quick and I want him to be more direct in his play and get more links with the full back so we can get Emilio through on the sides.”  

So, on the one hand he’s telling the players to carry on as before, and then he moans about it being too much sideways. Surely if he had seen any of our games last season, on video-or dvd, as they call it these days-then he would have expected that ?

 Or, perhaps he told them not to do it, and they did it anyway.

 Jackie Charlton, when manager of Ireland, did a wee experiment during one game. He gave each player a word to remember, and at half time, he -unbeknown to them- would ask them what the word was.

 None of them could remember it, and Charltons argument was that there could be all the preparation in the world, but footballers are thick as the proverbial pig droppings, and will just spend an hour and a half chasing the ball no mater what you tell them.

 I think thats what happened last night. But, we won 1-0, so the other proverb, about not giving a flying feck at a rolling doughnut, springs to mind.

 And at £2.25 a pint, its the same proverb.

 But , whilst at that particular hostelry, in order to dissuade hordes of attractive young women from asking for my phone number-it must work, no-ones asked me yet-I had a wee swatch at twitter, and it appears that Ronnie Mackay, who writes for the Sun, a popular down market tabloid, famous for girls with large chests and a brazen nationalistic attitude, has been whipping up a wee bit of angst against Angela Haggerty, who edited Phil MacGiollabhains  book ” “Downfall. ” the story of how Rangers killed themselves .

 Now, on line bullying isn’t particularly scary, but when a member of the fourth estate tries to whip up a campaign against someone, then its at best irresponsible, and at worst, deserving of a proper kicking on the car park before and a visit the day after to steal the security cameras.

 It all goes back to whenh the bold Angela went on the telly and pointed out that Rnagers, 1872, were in fact dead. Which is a bit like saying the yellow thing in the sky is the sun, and it provides light and warmth.

 Well, the newspaper that is named after the celestial object priovides none of its namesakes benefits, and Ronie Mackay, a journalist ( well, when I say journalist.. ) wasn’t overly happy with someone on the telly pointing out something that his paper had largely igored for a couple of years.

 He then tweted that she was a ” known Rangers hater “, before furiously back pedalling and saying that was used to be an Aberdeen fan, or whatever team it was that sprung into his mind while he was typing. And that he never saod that anyway…

He’s a journalist for the Sun. I wouldn’t believe him if he told me it was raining.

 Now, I couldn’t care less who he supports, and I couldn’t care less about who he picks on when he’s sitting at his keyboard. But calling out others to do his bullying for him ?

And then telling us he isn’t a Rangers fan, when “SFA Out “, on his ( or hers ) twitter timeline around 2012, seems to show otherwise…

Roy Greenslade of the Guardian covers the story here, meaning  he’ll be needing someone to check his mail before long….Seriously, the sooner that lot realise their club is dead, the sooner we can allow them a chance to rejoin civilisation.

journalist-safety-rangers

 Anyway, on to the Etims word puzzle for today, and all you have to do is re-arrange the following words into a well known phrase or saying;

 “The guy from Sun    needs   a whack  on head the with a stick big. “

First prize is a years subscription to the paper, second prize is two years, and third prize is a job there.

 Oh, and if anyone asks me if I wrote that, I’ll just say I used to support Morton.

 Right, sorry its a bit short today, a little less humorous than usual, but I only just got up and I need to go to work,

And I believe that pub does £2. 25 a pint every day…..

 That was Packy Bonnar in the photo yesterday, and he probably won’t want to be reminded of his exciting time at Celtic, when training seemed to consist of catching a ball whilst wearing underpants.

 Todays picture is more of a caption competition. Whats going on in this guys mind ?