{"id":5868,"date":"2014-10-24T09:18:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T08:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5868"},"modified":"2014-10-24T09:18:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T08:18:48","slug":"celtic-diary-friday-october-24-top-of-the-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5868","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Friday October 24: Top Of The League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celtic made hard work<\/strong> of Astra Guirgui last night, but just when the support had given up -well, me, anyway, Stefan Scepovic suddenly remembered the ball should go between the sticks, and Stefan Johansen decided that with Kris commons not playing his only option was to shoot, the hoops moved two in front, and despite a lat consolation for the Romanians, it finished 2-1.<\/p>\n

so, after last nights games, the group table looks \u00a0 like this;<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

Celtic had most of the possession, at least whe they didn’t give it away, but astra had most of the first half chances. Craig Gordon made two excellent saves to keep them out, one with his chest from a thirty yard drive, the other with his foot a couple of minutes later. Again, he gets the man of the match award in europe, which is a little worrying, but its a team game, and as long as we have a man of the match, its a start.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Astras goal came from a handball which looped over the keeper, presumably because they had been unable to beat Gordon in a conventional manner.<\/p>\n

Three games in, seven points on the board, and qualification now seems possible. In a way, another home win, against Salzburg , should be enough to see us through, but something from Astra in two weks time would make it less, er, stressful.<\/p>\n

Because watching that game last night wasn’t easy<\/strong>. Too many passes went astray, and more often than is comfortable, or acceptable, the man in possession had no options available, and could frequently be seen making despairing hand gestures.<\/p>\n

Stefan Scepovic got himself into good positions, but the shock of someone passing or crossing \u00a0to him left meant he wasn’t ready when it happened, and so he missed a couple of sitters, and he looked a cert to be hooked. But Ronny Deila , himself growing in cinfidence if his players aren’t, kept him on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I saw the chances were coming. Stefan had two big chances before he scored but I am happy for him that he got the goal.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I know what a goal-scorer he is and he got the goal in the end.<\/em><\/p>\n

“He really wants to perform for this club.<\/em><\/p>\n

“He was very tense before the game, I could see it in him, and there was a big relief, of course, when he scored the goal, and it is not the last goal we will see from him.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We know what he has. He is always in front of goal and smelling chances. He will go on to score more goals.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On his sides chances of qualifying , the Norwegian said;<\/p>\n

“I am taking nothing for granted. It is a lot of hard work in Europe, with two away games to go, and there are some very even games. So we need to be at our best if we are to go through.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We gave Astra some chances in the first half with some bad passes and some stupid mistakes. We were too slow and took too many touches on the ball.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, its a results business, and so far in this group, we’re getting results.<\/p>\n

\"hanks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thats because someone has summed this season up better than I could, or anyone else has.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Step forward Binkabhoy, who put this in the replies to yesterdays Diary after watching the game. no mean feat, when you consider he probably still had his fingers jammed into his eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWatching Celtic these days is a bit like being at a works nite out (surrounded by friends and enemies) and your fairly drunk and lonely uncle wanders in and decides to tell all his embarrassing jokes and chat up the ladies and offer to \u2018sort\u2019 various problems for the lads\u2026 embarrassing as fuck, hurts a little too as you know what a great guy he is a a you\u2019ve spent some great times and he\u2019s helped you through some bad times\u2026 you love him to bits and he\u2019ll always be family \u2013 but right now you just want him to fuck off and sober up!\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Perfectly put.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It could be worse.<\/strong> you could be Oscar Pistorious. He’s been complaining that warders have been taking the piss out of him since his incarceration. apparently, every time he goes to the bathroom, someone shouts bang from outside the door.<\/p>\n

Its not all bad. Miranda Hart has decided not to make any more sitcoms after Christmas, which is the genuine christmas miracle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Yesterday<\/strong>, whilst taking a bit of a break from work, I glanced at twitter. Tommy Gemmell, it claimed, had passed away.<\/p>\n

Gemmell was a favourite of mine, his swashbuckling style epitomising the Celtic side of the late sixties and early seventies. He wasn’t the greatest left back in the world, but there was no telling him that.<\/p>\n

So, I was a wee bit sad all day. shortly before I got home for the game, after sitting in hours of traffic-alright ten to fifteen minutes- I decided to look for and read a couple of tributes to the man.<\/p>\n

Well, if you thought the comeback in Lisbon was good, Tam surpassed it yesterday. He’s not dead at all.<\/p>\n

\"gemmell\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Someone started it on twitter , and it just spread. The big man took it all in good spirit, and announced he was still alive, and wanted us to win the Europa League.<\/p>\n

The argument over a Living Wage at Celtic continued<\/strong>, with television now using it as another stick to beat the club with. With the Celtic AGM just a few weeks away its implemention is being discussed by media pundits in pretty much the same way that article 12, the one which wants \u00a0Rangers ( broadly speaking ) be held to account for their dodgy dealings before succumbing to the inevitable extinction, never was, and never will be.<\/p>\n

However, since the mediais often used to achieve an aim by others, theres no harm in using it to shame the club into remembering that club and company are not different. Either morally or legally.<\/p>\n

There will be a chance to sign a petition in favour of the Living Wage at the game on Sunday. If you haven’t already, do it then. Or you can do it online here<\/p>\n

petiton for the living wage<\/a><\/p>\n

And don’t forget the foodbank collection next week. The club, I mean. The support will remember and donate.<\/p>\n

The club must not ignore it this time. Well, the club won’t. The company might.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the differences between clubs and companies,<\/strong> it appears that the light is finally reaching those over at Ibrox. They are wondering if they have been re branded. From there, its just a short stumble to the realisation that they are ot being rebranded.<\/p>\n

They are, in fact, a new club.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wait till it dawns. There’ll be massive protests, weather permitting.<\/p>\n

And I’m going to release this as a t shirt. Well, if everyone else is ripping them off, its only fair I should get my cut.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Transfer speculation ?<\/strong> Aye, okay.<\/p>\n

Neil Lennon has denied interest in Kris Commons. Aye, okay.<\/p>\n

Virgil van Dijk is in “no rush” to leave Celtic. Aye , okay.<\/p>\n

Jason Denaayer says there is no chance he will stay at Celtic. Aye, okay.<\/p>\n

Good as he is, send him back this weekend. In fact, tonight.<\/p>\n

Celtic shirts don’t shrink to fit inferior players, and we certainly don’t lend them to anyone who fancies a game of football.<\/p>\n

If we lose van Dijk in the summer, as well as Denaayer, then we’d only have Efe Ambrose. Who isn’t going to hang around until then anyway, if its just to play second fiddle to a player who is \u00a0here as a favour to someone at Manchester City.<\/p>\n

That leaves O’connell and Mulgrew in the middle, Perhaps sooner than you think.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Ebola crisis continues<\/strong> with the news that not only the has the disease crossed national borders and even oceans, its also crashed through the time space continuum.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

Poor Peter Capaldi. He’d only just got the job.<\/p>\n

Yesterday we showed you the first ever picture of Celtic, taken at Millburn Park, Alexandria<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today, from Lisbon Lion on twitter, who will probably be looking to take out a restraining order on me, something a little more recent. whats happening here ?<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celtic made hard work of Astra Guirgui last night, but just when the support had given up -well, me, anyway, Stefan Scepovic suddenly remembered the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/top-of-the-league.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1wE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5873,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868\/revisions\/5873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}