Author: wayofthecass

My review of the disappointing 0-0 draw with Hibs on Sunday was shelved upon learning yesterday about the sad passing of our beloved former manager and captain Billy McNeill.

Any sort of criticism of the team and talk of who should be in the hot seat next season paled into significance beside the loss of such a mythical and heroic figure to Celtic fans the world over.

Quite simply Billy McNeill was Celtic and always will be.

Born in Bellshill on March 2nd 1940 he was signed by Celtic from a local Junior side Blantyre Victoria on 20 August 1957 and so began a love affair with his boyhood heroes that would last the rest of his life.

Aged 18 he made his debut against Clyde on the 23rd of August 1958 at Celtic Park in a League Cup game in which Celtic triumphed 2-0 but incredibly it wouldn’t be until 1965 that he picked up his first piece of silverware when under the tutelage of new manager Jock Stein, Celtic, captained by Billy, defeated Dunfermline Athletic in front of a crowd of 109,000 at Hampden Park to claim the Scottish Cup. Billy himself headed the winner with only eight minutes to go and this heralded in the greatest period in the clubs history.

With Jock as manager and Billy as captain Celtic went onto capture an incredible nine consecutive Scottish League Championships, seven Scottish Cups, and six Scottish League Cups. That emphatic trophy haul though was trumped on a magical day in May 1967 when Billy held aloft the European Cup in Lisbon after captaining the team to an incredible and unexpected 2-1 win over Italian giants Iner Milan. He became the first British player to do so as well as being part of the first non-Latin team to win the competition which had since its inception been dominated by the powerhouses of Spain and Italy.

Nicknamed Cesar after the actor Cesar Romero – for the rather abstract reason that Romero played the getaway driver in the 1960 movie ‘Ocean’s 11′ and Billy was the only player at the club at the time to own a car – he was a tall and commanding central defender who was particularly effective in the air. Though Billy’s greatest talent was summed up by Jock Stein with the statement:

“What makes a great player? He’s the one who brings out the best in others. When I am saying that I’m talking about Billy McNeill.”

He left the club as a player after captaining us to another trophy and it was fitting it would come in a Scottish Cup final via a 3-1 win over Airdrie on May 3rd 1975. Both Paul Wilson (2) and Pat McCluskey got the goals that day in front of 75,000 fans but it was Billy who’s name everyone would sing as he pulled on the Hoops one last time.

Rather scandalously Billy only got 29 caps for Scotland though of course, he wasn’t the only Celtic player to be neglected by the national set-up at that time despite playing for the dominant domestic team as well as one of the top sides in Europe.

A one-club man as a player Billy took a few years out of the game after finishing with Celtic before returning in 1977 to briefly manage Clyde to a mid-table finish in the old Division Two. He then replaced the incumbent Scotland manager Ally MacLeod at Aberdeen at the beginning of the 1977/78 season and led the club to a second place finish, just two points behind champions Rangers. They also lost out in the Scottish Cup final 2-1 to Rangers but the foundations for success had been well and truly laid by Billy for his replacement Alex Ferguson who went onto lead the North East club to unprecedented glory from the late ’70s through to the mid-’80s.

Of course, there was only one job Billy would leave for and that was back at his beloved Parkhead after the legendary Jock Stein stepped down on the back of a poor campaign. In his first term as manager, Billy led Celtic back to the title as they defeated defending champions Rangers 4-2 at Celtic Park on the final day of the season despite Johnny Doyle being handed an early red card. The match will forever be known as ’10 Men Won the League’ and remains an iconic moment in the clubs history.

In his five years in the Celtic Park hot seat, Cesar won three league championships, one Scottish Cup and one League Cup despite being faced with not only the standard titanic Old Firm rivalry but ferocious competition from the emerging ‘New Firm’ under the guidance of legendary figures Alex Ferguson – his successor at Aberdeen – and Jim McLean at Dundee Utd.

He developed the precocious talents of Paul McStay and Charlie Nicholas and signed players of the calibre of Davie Provan, Murdo MacLeod and Brian McClair all of whom would make enormous contributions to the club.

Billy left after a fallout with the board mainly fueled by their lack of ambition and in particular the sale of Nicholas to Arsenal in 1983 and departed for down south where he took over at the ailing Manchester City who had just been relegated from the 1st Division. In his first season he guided them to 4th in the old Division 2, just one place outside of promotion, and in the second they did achieve third sport and with it a place back in the top flight.

After keeping them up Billy departed for another ailing giant Aston Villa but he proved unsuccessful in helping the Midlands club avoid relegation and left the English game for good after four years in 1987.

Within weeks of this though he was back at Celtic just in time to take charge of his beloved Bhoys in advance of the centenary 1987/88 campaign.

This was, of course, a vital season for Celtic with not only the 100 year anniversary but also reviving the clubs fortunes after a disappointing trophyless ’86/87 campaign and faced with a revitalised Rangers spending big under the management of Graeme Souness.

Billy drafted in Billy Stark, Mick McCarthy, Andy Walker, Joe Miller, Chris Morris and Frank McAvennie and Celtic had a magnificent season that saw them win the league by 10 points suffering only three defeats in a mammoth 44 game league campaign, not losing a game to Rangers in the process.

This was all topped off by an incredible Scottish Cup triumph with Celtic leaving it late in both the semi-final against Hearts and then the final itself against Dundee Utd via last gasp 2-1 victories to secure a dramatic and legendary double marking the clubs centenary in style.

Despite stopping Rangers winning the treble with a 1-0 win against them in the 1989 Scottish Cup final at Hampden Billy’s final years in charge saw diminishing returns as Rangers and even Aberdeen spent big and left Celtic trailing.

My earliest memory of being at Celtic Park was seeing the players hold aloft the league trophy in 1988 after defeating Dundee but the first match that really got my attention as a kid was the 1990 Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen. Celtic lost 9-8 on penalties that day at Hampden and the drama of it all gripped me. I departed Hampden finally ‘getting it’ so to speak in regards to what all this meant to people. Hearing Billy’s pained words over the radio in the post-match interview as my dad drove us both up the road on a fine sunny day gave me an insight even back then at such a young age as to his passion for the club. Billy was a supporter first and foremost just like us and Celtic truly was in his blood.

The following season was another disappointing one with a third consecutive poor league campaign (3rd,5th & 3rd) as Rangers took all three titles as well as suffering more misery at Hampden as we fell 2-1 to our Glasgow rivals in the League Cup final – again I was there for that one – and then we came unstuck in the Scottish Cup semi-final. The competition had proven to be the clubs salvation in the previous two campaigns and there was the highlight of eliminating Rangers at the quarter-final stage 2-0 in the ‘St. Patrick’s Day Massacre’ which saw three Rangers players red-carded. However, after a disappointing goalless semi-final draw, Celtic were downed 4-2 by Motherwell in the replay despite being ahead twice in the encounter.

Rumours circulated almost immediately about Billy’s future in the hot seat and even though we went onto win the final four matches of the league campaign Cesar was relieved of his duties in May 1991. Billy remained angry for years after about how it had all been handled by the then chief executive, the controversial and pugnacious Terry Cassidy.

It was only right that such a bitter taste be relieved by appointing him official club ambassador in 2009 and then unveiling a statue in his honour in 2015.

In 2010 Billy was diagnosed with dementia and progressively retreated from public life. He officially revealed his illness two years ago with his health visibly diminished.

Last September Celtic bid farewell to another great son in Jim Brogan who I was lucky enough to know personally and who was also afflicted by a dementia-related illness. It’s a terrible disease that scrapes away at an individual’s identity. Thankfully Billy like Jim was surrounded by his family at the end and his suffering is now at an end.

Whilst the statue close to the stadium will forever stand testament to his glory for me its the memories of Billy McNeill that will prevail. The footage of him angrily demanding the players to ‘get back’ in the aftermath of the late winning goal in the infamous 1980 cup final against Rangers. His passionate and vivacious celebrations after the cup final wins in 1988 and 1989. The shrug of the shoulders after the top of the Scottish Cup came off when Billy held it aloft in his final game in 1975.

But of course, all are put in the shade by that iconic moment when lions roared and he lifted the European Cup in 1967 and quite literally became immortal. Etched in the memories of every Celtic supporter the world over.

Rest in peace Billy McNeill. He played 789 games for Celtic, scored 37 goals and managed us for 455 games winning 31 major honours overall.

Hail Cesar……our greatest ever captain and servant.

‘If ever a man was made for a specific club, it was Billy McNeill and Glasgow Celtic…. His heart was always at Parkhead.’ Peter Swales (Chairman of Man City 1989)

 

 

Celtic cruised into their third straight Scottish Cup final and a chance to claim a historic Treble-Treble via a pretty comfortable 3-0 humbling of Aberdeen in an eventful encounter at Hampden.

Right from the get-go, Celtic looked pretty rampant and even central defender Jozo Simunovic had the freedom of Hampden to roam forward at the Aberdeen defence before executing a shot that was touched just past by Dons keeper Joe Lewis. From the resultant corner, the big Croat should have scored as the ball fell to his feet just yards out but he knocked it wide. Very much a centre backs finish.

Aberdeen were shorn of winger Niall McGinn with a season-ending injury in the lead up to the game and that coupled with the loss of captain Graeme Shinnie through suspension as well as Gary Mackay-Steven also being crocked meant they were always going to struggle.

However, their tactics were pretty pathetic. They sat deep, showed little to no ambition to venture up the park and seemed to envision holding out for 90 minutes plus extra time and eventually trying to take the game to penalties.

Added to that they deployed their usual hammer throwing approach of kicking anything that moved all day.

Dominic Ball was yellow carded after persistent fouling – though the press ignored that and it just said it was a soft yellow – and then got a second one for sticking the nut on Ryan Christie. In fairness, it was a head clash but he was never going to win the ball and completely wiped Christie out. The young midfielder was stretchered off and will now be sidelined with facial damage until the end of the season.

Not long after James Forrest scored a howitzer after leaving Max Lowe for dead and sending one flying into the top left-hand corner which is his 16th goal of a fine campaign. He’s now only one off his total for last season.

And he should have had another one minutes later but Lewis saved well with his legs.

Into the second half and it was all one-way traffic with Celtic pushing for a second. They should have had the opportunity when Lewis Ferguson wrestled Odsonne Edouard to the ground in the box but this was ignored however not long after substitute Mikey Devlin upended ex-Aberdeen star Jonny Hayes and this time we did get the decision.

Edouard stepped up and duly converted on the half-hour mark to put the game to bed.

Ferguson then got his marching orders for an outrageous two-footed tackle on Rogic seven minutes later and from the resulting free-kick, a deflection off the wall eventually fell to Rogic who buried it from outside the box to put the icing on the cake.

In the fallout, Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes took all of the attention after being the victim of apparent ‘sectarian abuse’ in response to which he signalled to the Celtic fans resulting in him being sent to the stands.

The post-match really was a master class in deflection by McInnes. The ‘dirty orange bastard’ chants that were aimed at him, of course, are unnecessary, stupid and going by some threads I’ve read from Rangers fans in regards to McInnes, not even particularly relevant. This is a guy who declined to manage them not so long ago let’s not forget. But as much as I can understand the Aberdeen manager taking umbrage to such chants I find it strange that he never found them much of an issue when his home support aimed an identical chorus at Rangers manager Steven Gerrard on multiple occasions this season. I guess that’ll be because it’s only a west coast of Scotland problem.

They resultant furore also allowed him to escape any sort of scrutiny for his abject tactics and his team’s quite frankly awful display. He claimed the Ball sending off had a massive impact on the game which is nonsense as it ignores the fact that Celtic were all over them, and should have been well ahead even before James Forrest did break the deadlock.  Ball being on the pitch would have made no difference to Forrest scoring either. 

He also completely sidestepped the Ferguson tackle which was awful two-footed lunge and a blatant attempt to seriously injure a Celtic player. Even the player himself knew it.

There was only one team in it yesterday and the facts are that Aberdeen just didn’t show up. The closest they have ever come to beating us in one of these recent big Hampden games was in 2016 final. They had a real go that day against an excellent Celtic side and nearly pulled it off. But since then have opted to try and sit in, defend, stifle and kick us into submission. It’s never even come close to working with heavy defeats and multiple red cards being its ultimate achievement.

Anyway, we now move onto the cup final on May 25th which, as long as we tie the league up in between time, will give us an opportunity to capture an unprecedented Treble Treble and seventeenth trophy in nine seasons.

Oh and after some prematch scepticism based on Lenny’s previous record at Hampden, I have to say this was an excellent performance and easily the best since his return. Yes, the opposition was poor but we got stuck into them from the first whistle and it reminded me of his two previous semi-finals against them back in his first full season in charge when we trounced them 4-1 and 4-0 respectively.

Hearts won their semi-final by overpowering Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-0 on the Saturday. The scoreline flattered them though as the men from the Highlands could easily have had two goals with the crossbar and linesman’s flag coming to the Tynecastle sides aid. But they got the win and reduced the pressure on manager Craig Levins’s shoulders in doing so.

That’s now one to saviour as there should be a raucous atmosphere and could be a helluva day. Outside of our beloved neighbours from Govan I can’t imagine better opposition to do it against.

 

On Sunday Celtic play Aberdeen in another semi-final, our seventh in a row to be precise.

The reward is an obvious one, a place in the Scottish Cup final and the chance to be 90 mins away from delivering an unprecedented ‘Treble-Treble’ winner.

In the semis, we meet Derek McInnes’s Aberdeen. They’ve struggled in the league this season sitting joint third on 58 points and with only five games to go they are way off the 73 points total they accrued last season which secured them a fourth consecutive second-place finish.

However, they have been far better in the cups than in last terms campaign having already reached the League Cup final which they lost 1-0 to us in a tight and uneventful game where we just eked out the victory thanks to a Ryan Christie goal.

In their last semi-final, they caused somewhat of shock by downing Rangers 1-0 thanks to a Lewis Ferguson headed winner and have also since eliminated the light blues from this competition via a surprise 2-0 win at Ibrox in the quarter-final replay after a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie.

At home, this season they have been uncharacteristically poor with only eight wins from seventeen but on the road have won nine from sixteen with only four losses.

Their danger man is striker Sam Cosgrove who cost peanuts from Carlisle Utd last season but has bagged 20 goals in all competitions this term, sixteen of them in the league whilst at the back, they also have the much sought after Scotland internationalist – not that that is anything to shout about at the moment – defender Scott McKenna who we ourselves have been linked to. Both are only 22 years old.

Dons captain Graeme Shinnie is suspended for the game meaning the Celtic midfield can worry less about having their ankles and shins kicked all afternoon.

The last time we met was on league duty at Celtic Park on March 9th and the visiting Dons kept it tight and frustrated Celtic to a 0-0 draw in Neil Lennon’s first home match in charge of his second tenure as boss.

Previous to that we had won all three encounters – two in the league and the aforementioned League Cup final – but all were close with two 1-0 wins and a dramatic 4-3 victory at Pittodrie on Boxing Day.

The last time Neil Lennon’s Celtic came up against Derek McInnes Dons in the cup things didn’t go too well.  They beat us 1-0 at Celtic Park in the 5th round back in 2014.

After taking a ninth-minute lead through Anthony Stokes Celtic looked to be on easy street but the men from the granite city turned it around via goals from Russell Anderson and Peter Pawlett. All three have since long departed Scottish football.

It was a shocking defeat at the time and our second early cup elimination of the season after being stunned 1-0 at home in the 3rd round of the League Cup by minnows Greenock Morton. Those losses coupled with disappointing Champions League results contributed to Neil Lennon’s decision to leave the club that summer. At one point we had actually gone unbeaten all season in the league until we fell in late February to, you guessed it, Aberdeen.  That occurred only two and a half weeks after they had put us out of the cup.

But that was a long time ago and there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then. He who we don’t like to name ie: Brendan has come and gone and in his time we won 24 straight cup competition games and five back to back cups as a result.

Aberdeen came close to derailing that and the invincibles season when they pushed us close in the magnificent 2016 Scottish Cup final but we prevailed a the death thanks to Tom Rogic and the rest is history.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t give them much chance at all on Sunday but then we get to the predicament of Neil Lennon’s Hampden record. You see under him the last time we only won two of nine available domestic cups. In that time we went to Hampden on eleven occasions and lost five of them and most of the losses came to some really esteemed names including Ross County, Kilmarnock, Hearts and St Mirren. The performances against County and St.Mirren were particularly atrocious and were really low moments for the club. Overall three of those Hampden losses were in semis and in all of them we were overwhelming favourites.

In his time at Hibs Lenny also took the Easter Road side to two cup semis at the national stadium. He lost both, the first of which was to Sunday’s opponents in this very competition almost three years to the day.

So that doesn’t make for good reading and feeds into the theory that Lenny might just not have it in him to get us over the line for the treble-treble based on his previous record in cups.

So it’s safe to say that Sunday is huge for him. If he wins it and then gets the league wrapped up then I think it’s a near certainty that the club will likely confirm him as the permanent replacement to Brendan in the lead up to the cup final. That makes sense in regards to a big PR moment and morale boost in advance of such a big day. But none of that will happen if he loses on Sunday. I don’t know if it will completely bring down the curtain completely on his chances of getting it permanently but it certainly won’t help and a win at Ibrox in the league will then likely be his last possible hope of salvation.

I’m sure he’s well aware of all of this as are the players and we can only hope they deal with the pressure accordingly.

As stated before, I have mixed feeling about Neil getting the job permanently. I don’t see it as progressive at all and considering the credentials of our last manager for me it’s a pretty resounding downgrade.

The fact that we’ve really struggled performance wise since his return with a plethora of last minute goals being required to seal points and Rangers being all over us with ten men for half an hour at Celtic Park plus limply dropping points to Livingston last weekend hasn’t done much to change that perception.

I saw one fans poll during the week which indicated that 80% of respondents weren’t too excited about him getting the job for next season and the following day several bookmakers installed Belgium national team coach Roberto Martinez as the new favourite to get the job.

Is all of this in anticipation of a potential disaster come Sunday afternoon? Or just misplaced pessimism and a knee jerk reaction to one bad result?

I guess we shall see.

No matter who is in the manager’s chair though I like all of us just want Celtic to win and to keep the good times rolling.

 

 

Celtic dominated in every permanent yesterday but failed to make it count as they were held to a goalless draw by the always dependably strong and resolute Livingston.

With an incredible 73% possession and 18 efforts on goal, 11 of which were on target, it was a frustrating day with the chilly temperatures, overcast sky and constant drizzle proving an apt backdrop to proceedings.

In the first half, Livi’s keeper Liam Kelly showed why so many have tipped him for international honours as he made an outstanding save from James Forrest and then denied the returning Tom Rogic twice. In amongst all that Livi attacker, Dolly Menga also made Scott Bain, in the home goal, work.

Things got even more frustrating in the second half as Edouard was also denied and then right at the death substitute Oli Burke fluffed his lines when he knocked it wide with the goal at his mercy after an uncustomary error from Kelly.

The result means that no matter how thing play out at Fir Park later today between Motherwell and Rangers, Celtic cannot win the title this weekend despite going 14 points clear and instead will have to wait for a whole fortnight until they are next in league action away at Hibs when the title party will be back on.

There are no guarantees though as the Hibees are in pretty stellar form at the moment. Since the arrival of their new manager and Neil Lennon’s replacement Paul Heckingbottom, they have gone eight games undefeated in the league with six wins.

Just yesterday they further galvanised themselves via a 2-1 win at Edinburgh rivals Hearts. This was their first win at Tynecastle in six years as they came back from a goal down via a spectacular double from Irishman Daryl Horgan. The result simultaneously puts immense pressure on Hearts boss Craig Levein ahead of next weekends Scottish Cup semi-final for the Jambos with Inverness Caley Thistle.

Hibs meanwhile go on a two-week break to prepare for us.

Elsewhere Aberdeen comfortably won at Dundee as Sam Cosgrove bagged a double to take him to 20 goals for the season – making him worth about £10-15 million in Alfredo Morelos Monopoly money – and Kilmarnock easily swatted aside St.Jounstone 2-0 as both sides remain neck and neck in 3rd / 4th spots on 58 points.

Hamilton Accies and St.Mirren shared the spoils via a 1-1 draw in a relegation six-pointer with things starting to look ominous for Dundee who are now rooted to the bottom three points behind the Buddies and seven behind the Accies.

Anyway, the match tomorrow will complete the set and could see Rangers cut the gap to a mere 11 points or Motherwell climb to the top of the now confirmed bottom six so plenty to play for. Not that you’d think that when you read that sentence back.

As for a rather harsh critique of our own fortunes……….well…………I remain unconvinced by keeping on Lenny in the hot seat.

That’s six games under him in the league with four wins and two draws and only seven goals scored as we continue to look like a team who huff and puff a lot but don’t put teams to the sword. Indeed of the four games we have won every one has required a late goal to pull it out fo the fire. Today he played three at the back against a Livi team sitting deep and deploying one loan striker who was pretty much cut off throughout proceedings. Try and fathom that one?

Next week always was huge for him but is even more so considering we aren’t playing well and on the back of passing up a chance to secure the title.

His record at Hampden is pretty shocking with five defeats from eleven previous appearances under him last time, three of which were semi-finals, plus he also lost twice there as manager of Hibs with no wins.

Derek Mcinnes will be buoyed by the fact the last time he came to Glasgow for a semifinal he outsmarted Stevie Gerrard – not that that is particularly hard to do based on some of his recent statements about lions, performance and blame – and also by the fact he got a 0-0 draw against us at Celtic Park when we last met them a month ago.

He’ll fancy his chances of getting Lenny’s number far more than he did against Brendan and expect a physical encounter which will likely require patience and lots of it.

For Neil Lennon it’s vital. I personally think his job depends on it. Being that I’m not sold on him as the man to take us forward long term in a strangely perverse way it might not be the worst thing in the world if we fall to the Dons next weekend………..but who the hell am I kidding?!

Of course, I want the treble-treble and a big day out in the sun in late May.