{"id":9512,"date":"2016-08-08T08:28:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T07:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9512"},"modified":"2016-08-08T08:28:58","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T07:28:58","slug":"celtic-diary-monday-august-8-off-and-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9512","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Monday August 8: Off And Running"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And it appears we are all running in the same direction. Which is a pleasant change.<\/p>\n<p>Celtic rounded off the weekends Premiership-couldn&#8217;t they have thought of a better, more original name?-with a 2-1 win over at Tynecastle, despite the efforts of John Beaton, easily the Edinburgh sides best performer.<\/p>\n<p>Although he was listed as referee in the match programme, his efforts to give the Jambos a winning start cannot go unrecorded, especially the penalty that levelled the game and gave Hearts hope of coming away with something. Looks like referees will feature quite strongly in Knob of the Week nominations, so we might have to give them their very own award. Honest mistake of the Week, or something.<\/p>\n<p>There will no doubt be some tough competition.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, lets do that, and see who dominates as the season goes on. when the original Rangers died, circumstances would show that we weren&#8217;t paranoid enough, so lets be as paranoid as we can from the off as the new club arrives on the scene.<\/p>\n<p>So, John Beaton, congratulations, your award of a penalty for this wonderful little pirouette from Hearts&#8217;s Jamie Walker<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img.thesun.co.uk\/aidemitlum\/archive\/02957\/SUNGLASP_hearts_p_2957805al.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>makes you the winner of the inaugural Etims<\/p>\n<h2>Honest Mistake Of The Week.<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/keyassets.timeincuk.net\/inspirewp\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/05\/John-Beaton.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Shifty looking fellow, isn&#8217;t he ?<\/p>\n<p>Beaton is no stranger to controversy, and has been known to upset players before with his own interpretation of the rules&#8230;.as World coccer magazine explains..<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>Scottish referee John Beaton says that he would not be dissuaded from refereeing in Saudi Arabia again, despite overseeing a tumultuous league decider between Al Hilal and Al Nasr, which culminated in him being headbutted by one of the players.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>The match ended with Al Nasr winning 1-0 but their opponents reduced to eight men, with Beaton handing out the final card to Salem Al Dawsari for head-butting the referee.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>Beaton spoke to the Scottish FA, describing the match and in particular how he dealt with the intimdation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cIt\u2019s safe to say this kind of thing has never happened before and I\u2019m sure many referees have gone through entire careers without something like that to deal with,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cMore than anything, I\u2019m happy that I handled it the right way because it\u2019s something that comes as a complete surprise and you can\u2019t really prepare for an incident like that. The important thing in these situations is to keep calm, make the correct decision \u2013 which was to issue a red card \u2013 and then resume the match.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"col-xs-12 sidebar sidebar-inline sidebar-double sidebar-primary-inline\" style=\"color: #222222;\">\n<div class=\"row\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>Beaton revealed he and his fellow officials team were escorted off the pitch by extra security personnel, but he commended the Saudi authorities for the way in which they dealt with the situation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cIt sounds more dramatic than it was but we had about 10 security guards lead us off the pitch, all wearing standard-issue suits and ties and radios,\u201d he admitted.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cI have to say, though, that for all the tension during the game \u2013 and you have to factor in that this was effectively a title decider between two teams who have a history of intense rivalry \u2013 there were zero issues afterwards.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cThe Saudi Arabia Football Federation could not have done any more to make us feel safer on the way back to the hotel and then the airport.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>James Forrest opened the scoring for Celtic, winning the ball in his own half, laying it off to Calum MacGregor and then collecting a return before placing a curling shot beyond the Hearts keeper, and for much of the match, Celtic were in control. Well, oif you don&#8217;t count Beaton taking cotrol for a moment when he awarded a penalty that at best was soft, and at worst blatant cheating.<\/p>\n<p>It was certainly cheating from Walker, who suffered no contact at all from Keiran Tierney, who simply took the ball away, and given the referees view of the incident, one can only assume that Beaton isn&#8217;t capable of refereeing at this level, at least not until he spends a couple of days familiarising himself with the rules.<\/p>\n<p>Another way of looking at the incident came from Sky tv pundit Neil McCann, who curiously didn;t hound Walker the way he-and others-hounded Derk Boerrigter for a similar instance of simulation last year&#8230; he claimed that Walker was expecting contact, which is why he went down. When questioned further, and asked to explain what the fuck he was talking about, McCann went into default mode, and began drooling uncontrollably&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cI though Joey Barton had an excellent game,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\"><em>\u201cHe grew into the match and was crucial in Rangers equaliser. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s up to full speed just yet, but Rangers need this type of player with drive and aggression. He dictated the play.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\">Celtics captain Scott Brown was a little more forthright&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is brilliant how well he dives. He is really good at that. He should have been in Rio.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt was a dive. Cheat. What else can you say?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe referee came out at half-time and said he got it completely wrong. He made the decision, he hasn\u2019t seen it and the linesman\u2019s not puts his flag up.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt was always a hard game when you come here, a great atmosphere and you expect a hard challenge like they gave us.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey tried to play football and mix it up, as well. Hearts are great at that, but sometimes there is no place in football for cheats and that\u2019s been a couple of times here now.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Walker attempted to justify himself&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI knocked the ball on and I\u2019ve seen him (Kieran Tierney) coming out the corner of my eye and felt contact, so I went down. At the end of the day, I am not the referee, I don\u2019t give the decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>At least have the balls to admit it.<\/p>\n<p>Kenny Clark, a former referee available for after dinner speaking and quotes on any subject you like, defended his soul mate..<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cJohn Beaton apologised to Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers for the penalty he awarded Hearts yesterday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cCredit to the referee for doing that and admitting he made the wrong call but the Jambos\u2019 Jamie Walker is the one who should be saying sorry.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cBy the looks of it, he went down without any contact and should be ashamed of himself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cPeople talk about referees needing help \u2014 more mics, more TV cameras, more replays.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Yet what about help from the players? When you see Walker\u2019s antics yesterday, what chance does a referee have?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cBeaton had one angle of the incident and made a judgement call. He felt there was contact and he gave a penalty.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cAfter the benefit of several replays, there is general agreement that Walker wasn\u2019t touched.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"color: #000000;\">He was standing around ten feet from the incident, and he had a clear view of it. There can be no excuses.<\/p>\n<p>Anyhoo, now thats out in the open, we await with interest the decision from the beaks regarding a two game ban for cheating&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net\/cardfight\/images\/f\/f4\/A-Third-of-Leads-Are-Not-Getting-Called-Back-skeleton-waiting-image.jpg\/revision\/latest?cb=20151204065950\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #222222;\">\n<p>Hearts enjoyed a period of relative ascendency, but with only a few minutes left, Leigh Griffiths ran almost the full length of the pitch, and was still accelerating when he cut the ball across to allow substitute Scott Sinclair to score his first goal for Celtic, just hours after putting pen to paper on a deal with the club.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1576606.main_image.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Which, happily, allows me an excuse to promote the portfolio of his wife Helen Flanagan, who will need to find work north of the border as well.<\/p>\n<p>See, I&#8217;m doing my bit.<\/p>\n<p>When sinclair scored, he almost became the second member of Celtic&#8217;s staff to be assaulted by a Hearts fan, as this chap took a swing at him as he ran past him&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CpR7I9RWcAA6yPv.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m certain Hearts are already looking for him, and will be taking his season book off him.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the general consensus from the media seems to be that Celtic didn&#8217;t play well. That we were maybe a little fortunate to come away with all three points.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Gordon , now beginning to get used to seeing familiar faces around him, played better as the game went on. sure, he made an arse of a cross that Tony Watt should have done better from, but he also made a few good saves.<\/p>\n<p>Kolo Toure, who has that wonderful knack of being in the right place at the right time, has taken charge of the defence, and looks like he&#8217;s been there forever.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Brown played like he used to, and perhaps now some of the pressure is off him to perform, then he will continue to perform at this level.<\/p>\n<p>James Forrest had his best game in months, and its like signing \u00a0a new player, to quote some halfwit or other from the radio, but for me, the spirit of the side was summed up with Griffiths late run to feed Scott Sinclair for the winner.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing had gone the strikers way previously, he had missed a few chances, but he never stopped working, never stopped running, and somehow , at that late stage of the game, found the extra bit of pace to get past the Hearts defenders to cross.<\/p>\n<p>Significantly, we have around four, maybe even five or six candidates for man of the match, and a good case could be made for them all.<\/p>\n<p>all this talk of winning and not playing well is nonsense. Celtic played very well yesterday, and if that is a sign of things to come, then I might just put a shiny pound on that elusive treble, which of course counts now as &#8220;rangers &#8221; are back&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stayingupbeat.com\/uploads\/images\/divers\/laughter.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the &#8220;rangers &#8220;, it didn&#8217;t go so well for them as they drew 1-1 at home with Hamilton. I didn;t see the game, and didn&#8217;t even know the result until later in the evening, but it wasn&#8217;t unexpected, \u00a0but it was a surprise to see that the BBC actually have a full page analysing his contribution to the match;<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"story-headline gel-trafalgar-bold \" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #252525;\">Joey Barton: Analysis of Rangers midfielder&#8217;s Scottish league debut<\/h1>\n<p>Kolo Toure, who has achieved considerably more in the game, didn&#8217;t get that sort of attention for his league debut. Why would this journeyman merit such elevated status ?<\/p>\n<p>Oddly enough, the minute by minute report missed this incident out&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/m1.joe.co.uk\/YToyOntzOjQ6ImRhdGEiO3M6MTcxOiJhOjM6e3M6MzoidXJsIjtzOjEwOToiaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLWpvZWNvdWsubWF4aW11bW1lZGlhLmllLnMzLmFtYXpvbmF3cy5jb20vd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRzLzIwMTYvMDgvMDYxNDQ5MTYvYmFydG9uLTEwMjR4NTk5LmpwZyI7czo1OiJ3aWR0aCI7aTo2NDc7czo2OiJoZWlnaHQiO2k6MzQwO30iO3M6NDoiaGFzaCI7czo0MDoiOWJlMGVkODlmNTc5NTkyMjkzZjE1MGEwYjQ4NjcyMmJkMDRiNTMzMiI7fQ==\/barton-1024x599.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>where he was nutmegged by the guy \u00a0Crawford, who from more objective accounts, dominated the midfield.<\/p>\n<p>What was it Barton said about Scottish football ?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/m2.sportsjoe.ie\/YToyOntzOjQ6ImRhdGEiO3M6MTU5OiJhOjM6e3M6MzoidXJsIjtzOjk4OiJodHRwOi8vbWVkaWEtc3BvcnRzam9lLm1heGltdW1tZWRpYS5pZS5zMy5hbWF6b25hd3MuY29tL3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy8yMDE2LzA1LzI4MDk1MDQyL3NzLmpwZyI7czo1OiJ3aWR0aCI7aTo2NDc7czo2OiJoZWlnaHQiO2k6MzQwO30iO3M6NDoiaGFzaCI7czo0MDoiY2IyYjQ0MTliZGY4MTEwNmEyYTU2ZDVjNzNhYTM1MDRmZjk3ZTZmNyI7fQ==\/ss.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next up for him is a trip to Dundee, and Paul Hartleys side currently top the league after their demoliiton of Ross County.<\/p>\n<p>Hartley will be relishing the game, probably a lot more than any of his opponents;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CpR2EmJWgAAImd8.jpg:large\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Celtics next game is at home to Motherwell in the League cup, and then its off to Limerick for the final ICC game with Inter Milan before resuming the batttle for a Champions League place.<\/p>\n<p>A repeat of the scoreline from the last game of last season would be nice&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>The basis of a good side, with great spirit is emerging under Brendan Rodgers. Late goals are once again becoming a feture of the game, and there is a little bit of steel in the side now. Once upon a time, the players would have folded under adversity, but thats not happening any more.<\/p>\n<p>The does seem to be a real reason for optimism&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/football\/2016\/05\/23\/98907182_Brendan-Rodgers-large_trans++FOwWQbRVLuO2nhyzJnbauQ1Yf6jQwSHMXnwIEQ-eymk.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Well, take what he said about Scott Sinclair, and his \u00a0prolonged move to Celtic;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<\/span><a style=\"color: #141414;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/aston-villa-fc\" data-content-type=\"section-topic\" data-type=\"inline\" data-action=\"aston-villa-fc\" data-word-count=\"2\" data-track=\"false\">Aston Villa<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0didn\u2019t really want to lose the player, but Scott made it clear he wanted to leave.<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Why ?<\/p>\n<p>To play for Rodgers again. Who must be doing something right&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CopGuLWWIAEzZmK.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/talksport.com\/sites\/default\/files\/field\/image\/201607\/rodgers4.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Well, you never know.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One thing i do know is that this is not from the files over at Police Scotland, or is it ?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CpUcW-2XYAA2QQI.jpg:large\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And it appears we are all running in the same direction. Which is a pleasant change. Celtic rounded off the weekends Premiership-couldn&#8217;t they have thought&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9513,"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\/2016\/08\/CpRB1UnWcAAiMt_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2tq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512"}],"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=9512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9514,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512\/revisions\/9514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}