Celtic Diary Wednesday April 6: The Mourning After

Oh dear.

Its all gone a bit pear shaped again, hasn’t it ?

Celtic drew 0-0 with Dundee last night and were lucky to get nil. when Colin Kazim Richards comes on to strengthen the attack, the only one left out of the three, count them, strikers bought to help Leigh Griffiths you know that you’re in trouble.

There’s little point in discussing the game, it’s best forgotten.

But its worth remembering that Rogic apart, that was the same team that started against Hearts, and they replicated the distinctly uninspiring first twenty minutes or so against Hearts. This time they forgot to step up a gear.

Why?

Well, put simply, there doesn’t seem to be the hunger for five in a row, maybe its because they feel they haven’t achieved much, given the media angle that its not really a proper league and all that nonsense. To my mind its because the  focus is on ten, in much the same way as the focus was on the Champions League, then the Europa League, then the treble, and finally the double.

If there is a lesson to be learned, its that the club should concentrate on whatever game is being played on that day. Maybe stop the talk of ten in a row, or anything else for that matter. The problem is that there will be no major plaudits handed out for getting to five, whereas if the team make an arse of it…

Now that the dust has settled, Celtic are still five points in front with six games to go. Its not the worst situation to be in, but its going to require a lot more effort to make sure the gap doesn’t get any smaller.

Manager Ronny Deila was philosophical;

“We’re still in a good position. We have to make ourselves ready for Motherwell on Saturday and work really hard to get the three points there.

“It’s always disappointing to lose points but there are a lot of games left and we just have to keep on going.

“Of course we have the key in our hands. Everything is up to ourselves.”

Before the game, there weren’t many games left, he had said..and we just needed to keep winning. 

“It’s a little bit disappointing,”

“We should have created more clear-cut chances The last pass and the effectiveness when we first had the ball was not good enough.

“Defensively we played quite well. They had a couple of chances but we had a good goalkeeper in Craig.

“We maybe could have got the ball to Patrick more but, having said that, there was one player standing up his a**e all the time. We should have exploited the space he was creating for us, though.

“Football is about emotions and, when you don’t get the victory, the fans get irritated and sad – that’s something I understand.”

What he doesn’t appear to understand is that there is a predicatability to what Celtic will do when on the ball that is easy for other sides to combat. Wingers cut in, midfielders run down blind alleys and no-one will roll their sleeves up and get stuck in if the going gets tough.

For the opposition, all they have to do is make life difficult for Celtic, and the players heads go down.

This is where once upon a time the captain and senior professionals would step up to the plate.

And for whatever reason, that is not happening.

A few weeks ago it appeared that Deila was going to go with the expereinced guys to get the side over the line.

It’s not happening.

It’s easy for supporters to suggest alternatives, and we can all claim to be better managers, and all claim that we’d win the league if we were in charge, but of course, thats not how it happens in the real world.

Right now there is an attitude problem on the park, and maybe it is time to make a few changes, and knock a few out of their comfort zone.

There may be an enforced change as Danish defender Erik Sviatchenko appeared to pull his hamstring, and will have a scan today. Another defender injured. Just what we need for the run in.

What we don’t need, however, is the knee jerk reaction that followed the last poor set of results. There’s still a job to be done.

Elsewhere, you may have noticed that Second Rangers completed their journey to the top league with a win over Dumbarton, and you have to hand it to them, they’ve done well to get this far in such a short space of time.

From the media frenzy accompanying this, and we’ll ignore the obvious dismissal of the facts from some quarters, for now at least, and congratulate them on what they have achieved.

They’ve made the first division a better place..

They’re not back, of course, they’ve never been here, but look who is…

Worryingly, at least for now, there does seem to be a media campaign -well, an upsurge in the existing campaign-that everything is right in the world again.

Maybe in ten days or so, we can remind them that they are nowhere near the force they think they are. But then again, they’ve proved they can ignore facts for the last four years…

Andy Halliday, one of the key components of the Warburton Wunderteam, may want to lessen his medication..

“We’ve got to be challenging for the title; it’s as simple as that.

“And that’s not me being arrogant or disrespectful to Celtic at all, they have won four in a row and going for another title, but you can’t be at a club [like Rangers] and be happy with second.”

Incredibly , bookmakers Ladbrokes have already installed the Ibrox club as second favourites to win the league. 

That’s to win it, not to remain solvent throughout it.

The nonsense will continue, probably right up until after the semi final when reality for them kicks in, but I guess if i were to ut myself in the brogues of one of their supporters, the decent ones , that is, I’d be pleased. football is about fans, i suppose, and if they’re comfortable with the way things are over there, thats up to them. but for me, this is as accurate a way of describing events as any…

Or this..

But you have to wonder at what goes on in some of their minds…

For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

Secondly we have learned that no matter how hopeless your situation may be how great the forces of darkness be against you. Trust in the word of God in the Bible and that belief in Jesus and Jesus alone Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”. Salvation is exclusive. Jesus is the only way

We can draw parallels and comfort from Rangers plight to that of the white robe multitude waiting for the second coming of Christ

Thirdly go out and immerse yourself in a true Protestant church look around not an ecumenical one that is all to willing to walk over the bodies of Calvin,Luther , Zwingli, Tyndale, Knox etc etc and kiss the ring of the Anti-Christ in Rome and Humble yourself in front of our lord God.

And finally what have I learned?

Well I have went from the start of this Journey Agnostic i.e without knowledge to 100% Gnostic of Our Lord Gods Jesus’ love and that you are the way, the truth, and the life and no man cometh unto the Father, but by YOU.

In four years of relentless attacks by those who wished to not just destroy our club but our very country itself on anything deemed to be British and Protestant in Scotland. Their hatred only my reignited and strengthened my love with our lord God and my love for everything that is British and Protestant.

I want to thank the Lord for saving a wretch like me and giving me the strength and courage to take these anti-Protestant anti-British Bheasts on despite intimidation, threats on my life and the life of my family all aided by the help of a few Judases (you know who you are! I hope you enjoyed your 30 pieces of silver)

Now let us pray

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. 

Amen 

Thats from one of their blogs, perhaps one of their more extreme blogs, but its an indication of their mentality.

It would have been better if that club had been fully removed. By glossing over the facts, the more , er, deluded among them have been allowed to become even more deluded, and thats going to create a major problem before Christmas is here.

Stewrat ( you know what, I’ll leave that typo in there ) Regan famously commented on the unrest that would follow their death. As ever , when we are dealing with a virulent disease, it comes back even worse if you don’t deal with it the first time.

Miserable ?

Yup.

But we can fix that. Can’t we???

I’ve just seen a French world War Two rifle for sale. Looks okay, actually. Never been fired and only dropped once.

Nope, didn’t work.

I was at the doctors yesterday, and he wrote me a prescritpion for dailysex. Showed it to the wife, and she tells me I have dyslexia.

Basque Celt gave me a much needed chuckle yesterday with this one, clinching the caption competition, this  a clear winner.

and today, we have this brooding picture from 1888….