Celtic Diary Monday September 24

Celtic climbed up to third in the Premier League table with a 2-0 win over Dundee at Celtic Park. Former keeper Rab Douglas , now playing with the Dens Park side, saved a Scott Brown penalty, but another Mestalla style performance would have been required to keep the Celts out. Although it was only two, it could have and should have been, well, at least three.

Manager Neil Lennon admitted that the missed chances are “a concern”, but went on; “What isn’t a concern is the chances we are creating because we are doing that on numerous occasions in games-but I would like to see us start putting a few more away. We lacked a little quality at times in the final third but the build up play was pretty good and defensively we looked pretty comfortable allafternnoon. ” Summing up, he just said it was a good performance and three points, which is what he wanted.

The game was always going to be a wee bit flat after Wednesdays exertions, but the players certainly had a go. With Motherwell dropping points, those three Celtic gained could be crucial come May. Oh alright, i was just trying to make it sound exciting.

Any win after a champions League game is worth double points, anyway.

At risk of sounding like former pundit Derek johnstone-I think he’s a former pundit, surely no-one has been daft enough to hire him-some one is going to get a pasting-or as he once said -right doing-when it all clicks, but to be honest, someone gets a proper thrashing every now and then every season. (note, a thrashing in this context refers to a heavy defeat on the football field, and not a night out with your local conservative mp.)

Another former Celtic keeper has been in the news this weekend, with Polish loony Artur boruc joining English Premier league side Southampton,  which he will find different from his days with Celtic and fiorentina. Still, he has defenders of quality in front of him, such as Jos hooiveld and Danny Fox, the latter apparently played for Celtic as well, but was only here for one half of a season so we never really saw the best of him. Or perhaps we did….

He plays for Scotland, at football, surprisingly, since he is neither Scottish or a footballer. Good luck , Artur. You are going to need it.

With our own new signing Lassad Niouiou looking the part on Saturday, his fellow new forward Miku has admitted he has been surprised, but delighted , with the intensity of playing for Celtic. The inquest after the St. johnstone defeat, and the atmosphere at the benfica game has left him screaming for more, so at least the attitude is there. Strange how that paragraph follows one on Danny Fox.

Next up are Raith Rovers tomorrow night in the League cup, and although a big crowd is not expected, a big cheer for Turnbull Hutton is. The Raith chairman , of course, was one of the men who helped to make sure that the phoenix Rangers club would start life in division three, instead of being parachuted into the first Division.

These plans to gerrymander the Newco into a higher division, if they accepted their guilt after years of cheating may yet backfire on the compliant Football Associations. Draft documents outlining these proposals have been “leaked ” to the press, just in time, to help the media spin their story about Rangers having being punished enough.

Despite, er, Rangers not existing anymore, and the Newco having no links to them at all. Except the same staff, management, brand name, premises and customers. All of which will come back to haunt them when BDO, the liquidators, and HMRC finally get round to asking for their bit.

The Newco, of course, is still frantically trying to raise a stock market flotation, and owner and part time comedian Charles Green is over in the USA raising awareness for his club. apparently, Adidas, the German sportswear manufacturer will be making their shirts and become involved in the marketing of what their spokesman, according to Fellow Newco owner Imran Ahmed, is the “biggest club on their books”

Except, obviously, Milan, Bayern Munich , Real Madrid, Lyon, Chelsea etc…

JJB, who also went into business with Rangers, will be appointing administrators this week, and the hunt to find anyone  still selling MacEwans Lager has now entered its tenth year….

Good luck, Charlie, if I was you i’d be asking for help from those guys who paid to remove Craig Whytes google history.

Ally McCoist, the cheery chunky chap who has been charged with getting the club back to the top, has admitted its tough, and its starting to wear him down. Fortunately, as he is quite portly, it’ll take a while to wear him down. but gone is the cheerful and defiant stance he took at the start of the season. Reality is biting, and it has a lot to sink its teeth into.

Fridays teaser was answered correctly by honeybhoy, who remembered? that it was Leslie Johnston, snapped up from Clyde for £12,000 in 1948. Today, who was the first player that Celtic received a seven figure fee for?

Now, we’ve had the holy Poet in the diary before, and continuing in that vein, here is a wee poem , sent in by Gedbhoy, which should raise a smile or two.