Celtic survived Hibs and their fans as we secured a 2-0 win at Easter Road to make it an incredible 25 consecutive domestic cup wins and as well as 11 straight domestic wins on the bounce as we progressed to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.
Not much to talk about in the first half as it was pretty stagnant stuff but we got our act together in the second half as the game opened up a little. Still, it was difficult to see where a goal was going to come from until James Forrest took matters into his own hands and fired a bullet in on 62 mins that nearly ripped the net out and sent us on our way.
Hibs didn’t have much in the way of a response and we pushed on eventually getting our rewards when Edouard set-up captain Scott Brown who glided into the box and past the Hibs defence before rifling a thunderbolt in at close range to put the tie beyond doubt on 75 mins.
Goal machine!
The victory means Neil Lennon has gone 2-0 since his unexpected return to the hot seat at the club on Tuesday with both wins coming in his old stomping ground of Edinburgh.
Off the field, the Hibs fans showed far more resistance than their players as they unsuccessfully tried to pelt Scott Sinclair with a Buckfast bottle and later on a coin as he attempted to take corner kicks in the second half.
In the aftermath, Hibs tried to deflect attention by claiming there had been a bottle thrown by a Celtic fan too. Strange no TV or press cameras picked that up.
Of course, all of this is just a west coast of Scotland problem apparently. That’s the narrative that has been put forward anyway in the last few weeks. The kids in Leith, Dundee and up in Grampian are holier than though we’re told. Mmmmmm…….I wonder how they’ll spin this latest incidence?!
Michael Stewart will no doubt be calling for strict liability which is a total non-starter and easily abused anyway but I wonder if anyone will point out the fact that the game kicked off with an early Saturday evening start time? I tend to find that in our society that that’s when people tend to consume the most alcohol. Just a thought. Others will use it as further evidence that we shouldn’t sell alcohol within football stadiums which is also absurd as the problem is being caused by people bringing in alcohol and the type of stuff you’d never be able to buy in a football ground anyway.
The draw for the semis isn’t until Monday night on BBC after the final match of the round which is Partick Thistle vs Hearts at Firhill and with Rangers playing Aberdeen at Pittodrie tomorrow, as well as Dundee Utd visiting Inverness Caley, whoever we get at Hampden it’s bound to be interesting, to say the least. Isn’t it always.
Tomorrow, of course, Brendan Rodgers begins his reign of broken promises and empty soundbites with Leicester City away at Watford. He says one day he’d like to come back and maybe manage us again once all the fury over his departure has calmed down of course in about ten or so years. What is he like?! I think I speak for all of us by saying I hope he and his new team get resoundingly pumped tomorrow.
C’mon Watford.
As for Celtic our players now get a much deserved week-long rest before being back in action at home to Aberdeen next Saturday at Celtic Park. This should give us a chance to try and get Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie back to fitness as they are definitely being missed. I’m not Nir Bitton’s biggest critic and admire his persistence and professionalism but he and Brown do not for a creative midfield make.
Anyway, that was a good win with two excellent goals that I’ll definitely put up when they become available. It had banana skin written all over what with Hibs three game-winning run under new boss Paul Heckinbottom coming in, the fact that we hadn’t won on our last three visits there and the irony of Neil Lennon being back at his old club so soon after his quietly acrimonious departure in late January.
Job done and we still have a historic Treble Treble within our grasp which seemed like it could be derailed after the past weeks pretty stunning and upsetting events in regards to our former leader.
So ‘Neil Lennon: Celtic Manager’ the sequel kicked off last night and in some fashion.
Almost inevitably the follow up to the original which departed theatres back in the summer of 2014 was to get its big premiere at Tynecastle stadium, the very arena which has saw the Lurgan man pelted with a coin, assaulted by a fan who ran onto the touchline from the stands and where he has also recorded many a fine victory down the rough the years including a 7-0 Scottish Cup mauling back in December 2013.
Right from the get-go, the Jambos were in our faces with Jamie Brandon, in particular, kicking anything in green and white that crossed his path.
The Celtic fans continue to back the Bhoys.
Both sides had some decent passages of play and chances but it was Celtic who opened the lead with a wonderful break on 36 mins which saw Sinclair break down the left wing and feed it through to Burke who rather than go for goal himself passed it through to Forrest who placed it into an empty net due to Hearts keeper Zlamal’s attention being on big Oli instead.
On 44 mins the aforementioned Brandon got a straight red for an outrageous aerial clattering of Toljan and with that it looked all over bar the shouting.
But a suicidal pass from our keeper Scott Bain in the second half led to Ajer giving away a penalty which was converted by Oliver Bozanic.
It looked like it would be two points dropped and the heat really on as Rangers were pounding hapless Dundee 4-0 at Ibrox but a nicely dinked ball by Scott Brown from outside the box deep into injury time evaded the head of John Souttar and fell kindly for the ‘Eiffel Rifle’ Odsonne Edouard and he buried it accordingly.
It was kind of surreal seeing Neil Lennon leaping around in joy over at the touchline and you’d be forgiven for thinking he had a DeLorean parked outside so retro was the whole picture but hopefully, this is a sight we become accustomed to over the next few months that being Lenny celebrating.
Guess who’s back……?
We needed that win last night after the events that had transpired only 24hrs before with the sudden departure of our manager to a mid-table club down south but Neil Lennon really needed it. If we’d dropped any points then the press would have been surrounding him like harbour sharks.
There was some irony in that it was the slow build up play from the back which Brendan Rodgers had been so insistent on during his time at the club which almost undid us.
Lennon now has a chance to get onto the training pitch and implement some of his own ideas which I hope will include ditching this mentality that Brendan introduced of the ball having to be constantly recycled at the back and any direct routes to goal being called off limits no matter what the circumstances or the opposition.
The victory means we retain our eights points lead at the top of the table with ten games left.
Anything other than a win last night would have given encouragement to our rivals – of which there is only really one left now in the title race – and would have fed into the narrative that we were a club in crisis and imploding from the inside.
Not just the win but the nature of it were important almost beyond words and this was a great way for Neil Lennon to reacquaint himself with both the players and the fans. The outpouring of joy amongst the faithful and from the team was universal.
Of course off the field much is being made about ‘sectarian chanting’ from our end and another idiot throwing a coin. Strange that they don’t mention the ‘pedo’ chants from the honourable Hearts fans or the other bile that usually emanates from the stands at Tynecastle which is trumped only by the hymn sheet at Ibrox in its venom. Yes, let’s all just pretend this a west coast of Scotland problem shall we?! Total and utter nonsense.
Anyway, now move onto another vital game – let’s face it they are all vital at this point in the season – against Hibs in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup on Saturday evening at Easter Road. Our hosts are a team that our new manager – well newish anyway – knows well as he was managing them up to only four weeks ago.
They themselves are going through a purple patch under their new manager, the unfortunately titled Paul Heckingbottom, and have won three games on the spin including a 2-1 win last night at McDiarmid Park against St.Johnstone where they came from a goal down and a sending off to take the three points.
It isn’t going to be easy. Certain players in the Hibs team will have something to prove to their ex-manager with Florian Kamberi, who was the alleged instigator of the supposed player revolt against Lennon at Easter Road, in particular, likely to be going the extra mile.
But the Treble Treble is within our grasp and at the helm, we have a man who lives and breathes the club and clearly has some idea of what he’s doing considering he had a 70% win ratio from 227 games the last time he was in charge so let’s continue to pull behind him and onto victory.
Probably the most deflated I’ve felt since we were eliminated by our beloved Govan neighbours at the semi-final stage of the Scottish Cup back in April 2016.
In some ways, this feels even worse. Sort of like discovering that, that old antique your dad has been harbouring in the attic for years is actually worth sod all or that your winning scratch card is a fake.
Or perhaps more accurately that your bird who you thought you were in love with and was in love with you has been having it off behind your back with some guy she met on a night out down south the whole time.
That’s what it was like to discover that the man who claimed he was in his dream job had actually found a dreamier one and that all of the things he’d said over the years about his love for the club and his ongoing commitment were all just words. All said just to keep us sweet and onside while his eyes wondered elsewhere. I guess this is how the first Mrs Rodgers felt.
Brendan of course rather unceremoniously left us yesterday afternoon drawing to an end a highly successful – domestically anyway – 33 months in charge.
Below are some pictures from the day:
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Initially, this article was about our 4-1 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park on Sunday where we maintained our 8 points lead at the top of the table in a game that saw the visitors score a highly contentious goal when they refused to honour the unwritten rule of passing the ball back to you once it has been put of play for an injury.
It was all much ado about nothing in any case as we scored two goals either side of it – one an absolute peach of a free kick from Odsonne Edouard – but then the news started to filter through that the game was afoot over at the Celtic training ground on Monday afternoon. Instead of churning that out I thought I’d wait to see how events transpired hoping of course that it was all smoke and no fire. Let’s be honest as all the rumours started intensifying yesterday young James Scott’s ill-advised decision to take advantage of the throw in situation on Sunday which seemed oh so important at the time had rather paled into significance when it became obvious that Sunday might actually have been our manager’s last game in charge.
I awoke this morning to hale of What’s App activity. It had the same kind of feeling as when the Mojo story broke back in ’89. That being that something unthinkably bad was happening.
Some sources were diving right in and announcing his departure as confirmed whilst the BBC and others held the line insisting it was still only at the discussion stage. The latter, of course, led to an outbreak of mass denial on Twitter. Countless messages read that there surely was nothing in this and that indeed it was just anti-Celtic desperate journalism at its worst.
However, even a clock gets it right twice a day and yesterday the press was on the money right down to the second. Our beloved Brendan, the man who masterminded ‘The Invincibles Season’ and the famed ‘Double Treble’ was for the offski and he wasn’t even hanging around to say goodbye.
Rumours had been circulating for some time that he was being targeted by Leicester City with their manager Claude Puel’s jacket hanging on a shaky peg for months now. But surely not to them? Not to a club who are mid-table, safely above relegation but way off any potential European places and out of the domestic cups so with literally nothing to play for?
The kind of support Brendan got at Celtic.
But in his day and age money talks and bullshit walks and the English Premiership side have the money so Brendan did the walking.
Of their financial power, there is no doubt. Last season we broke our turnover record as we surged to ÂŁ101.5 million thanks in the main to Champions League revenues but despite finishing only just above the relegation zone in their league the Midlands side made the Champions League quarter-finals and with that plus their usual English Premier League cash bonanza they hit ÂŁ176 million in total turnover for the year.
That affords them the ability to pay fees and wages that we can only dream about and this appears to be the main reason that our once beloved leader has abandoned us.
That’s what it is by the way. It’s abandonment. Not just leaving us for pastures new but all out, pure, unadulterated abandonment. What the hell else could you call it when you do it on the eve of a vital league game and with a historic Treble Treble on the cards and only two and half months of the season to go?
The timing of bad news is never good but at least do it at a time when it makes sense. If Brendan had achieved the aforementioned trio of trebles goal then he could have departed into the sunset with his head held high and all our best wishes this summer.
But to do it now just smacks of both arrogance and most hurtfully indifference.
Yes, the board and in particular, serial panto villain Peter Lawwell will take a lot of flack with once again the debacle that was last summer’s transfer window coming in for renewed withering analysis but today’s decision and the stunningly awful timing of it is all on Brendan.
For him to be wearing the Leicester City tie and stiltedly reading out scripted pish from an autocue where he confirmed how much of an honour it was to be managing them and even going as far as to offer up his life in his pursuit of their success was as absurd as it was stomach-churningly hollow. Yeah, Brendan, you’ll give it ‘everything’………….until something else comes along.
The kind of support he’ll get at Leicester.Â
When Chris Sutton seemed to pretty brazenly insist he thought Rodgers was off at the weekend I laughed. Yeah, Chris, I seem to remember you predicting the Rangers signings of Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis had pushed the title race in their favour. That was obviously pish and so was this. The only thing is it wasn’t. The second prediction anyway.
Once again we are reminded that nothing lasts forever in football and that unfortunately our geographic proximity to England in this day and age often works against us. With the exposure and TV money on offer down there dwarfing what we can get up here it means that even blatantly smaller clubs whos stadiums are half Celtic Park’s size such as Leicester can come and pinch our most prized talents from top to bottom. Back at the turn of the century, it was quite literally the other way around.
As for Brendan himself, he was dominant domestically. He won seven consecutive trophies and gained a colossal 24 straight wins in domestic cup competitions. In the league, he suffered only 8 defeats from 103 matches which is quite incredible. He also only lost one of thirteen Old Firm games. But let’s be honest……who was he up against? Mark Warburton, Graeme Murty (twice) and Pedro Caixinha?? Hardly stellar tacticians. As for Europe, he achieved only 16 wins in 42 games with 8 draws, 18 defeats and 63 goals conceded. Yes, he brought us back into the group stages of the money-spinning Champions League but once there he stubbornly refused to adapt to our far more harsh surroundings and as a result, we endured some of the most degrading nights ever as Celtic supporters.
Let’s not forget that some of his predecessors such as Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon were also faced against opposition with superior resources on the continent and emerged with somewhat miraculous results by comparison. Whilst under those two scalps such as AC Milan, Benfica (twice), Manchester Utd, Ajax and of course Barcelona were taken and legendary nights were born instead under Brendan the ‘big scalps’ were Astana, Be’er Sheva, Anderlecht, Leipzig and Rosenborg, the latter on multiple occasions. Hardly in the same bracket.
In Europe, there’s little doubt he was a failure but yes domestically an overwhelming success.
He leaves with both my disappointment and mutual indifference. Personally, I hope he never darkens our door again and it’s too late now to insult us with the flattery of undying love and regret that it ended the way it has.
Ah, it really does feel like only yesterday or thereabouts that we were unveiling him on a bright Friday afternoon in May 2016. This was our response to the Rangers calamity the month before and what a response it was. It put the shitters up them so much they quite literally ‘Hibsed’ the Scottish Cup final the very next day to Hibs.
I was actually travelling down south to work in the north of England over that weekend when the announcement came through just as I was pulling into Leeds train station. As I boarded my connecting train to Dearne Valley some local oaf sitting close by announced to his mates “Why is he going up there?” with puzzled arrogance. “Because we’re Celtic!” I thought to myself with a big smile on my face.
Alas, how things change………………..
Lenny will be in the dugout until the summer. Though it’s highly likely he’ll spend much of it in the stand. I’m underwhelmed but he gets all of my support. He goes straight back into the lion’s den against Hearts tomorrow evening in what should be, to say the least, an interesting occasion. Suddenly tomorrow night is huge with only 11 games to go in the title race. After that, it’s onto his former club Hibs – whom he left in a blaze of unspoken acrimony last month – at the weekend in a vital Scottish Cup quarter-final.
This is testing time for all of us but at least we’re well and truly in the driving seat.
As for the big story, in summation…..goodbye Brendan, it was quite a ride but in the end, you discarded us with about as much empathy as a piss head at a music festival does to an empty beer can so ultimately good riddance.
Celtic exited Europe last night with a 1-0 defeat to Valencia in the Mestalla.
There was little surprise. Few if any held out any genuine hope of our progression last night after a pretty disastrous 2-0 home defeat at Celtic park eight days ago.
But in fairness, we did gain a fair amount of redemption for our disappointing performance in the home leg. Last night we approached the game with some belief, quite a lot of it actually and a plan. Unlike the first tie, we showed we are a capable passing team with decent game management and for most of the first half controlled the ball and looked the more likely to score. On 37 mins though Jeremy Toljan got his second yellow card and any flickering hopes of an unlikely comeback were more or less extinguished. We came under the cosh for the rest of the half and it took some fine saves from Scott Bain, who is now really starting to look the real deal, to prevent our hosts from scoring and the floodgates from opening.
Bain looks the part.
In the second half, Bain again was called into action though we began to grow into it again and Kristofer Ajer miscued a header from a freekick into the box that could have put us right back in it and the cat really amongst the pigeons. Alas, it went high, wide and handsome.
Substitute Kevin Gaimero tapped in the only goal on 70 minutes and that was that but we kept battling to the end determined to make sure we didn’t fall to an undeserved heavy defeat and when the whistle went we departed the continental stage at the Last 32 round with our heads held high.
In truth, we didn’t create much in the way of clear cut chances. Oliver Burke was deployed up front by himself in the first half and though his pace hurt the Spaniards his lack of a first touch certainly didn’t. Jonny Hayes had a good far post chance but scooped his effort over the bar. In the second half, James Forrest was inexplicably moved into the middle as the lone striker whilst Odsonne Edouard and Timothy Weah looked on from the bench most likely perplexed. Why French Eddy wasn’t deployed from the start with Burke out wide in his natural position only Brendan knows but a combination of lacking faith in his own convictions as well as just overrating Burke’s abilities as a finisher are the leading candidates.
Personally, I thought it was a missed opportunity last night. Valencia looked a little bereft and the home fans were on their back pretty quickly. Our passing game was much sharper with Mcgregor and Brown in particular far better than they had been at Celtic Park. With an actual striker on who knows but I guess that’s neither here nor there because Toljan getting his marching orders pretty much torpedoed our hopes anyway. The German full-back was naive but at the same time, it was the sort of sending off you get against bigger name opposition on the continent that you just know the ref wouldn’t give against them. He wasn’t shy to flash yellow cards at us all night whilst giving out warnings to the men in white shirts for identical fouls. But it’s always been that way in Europe and will never change.
No chance he’s doing that to the number 5 in white.
Looking back we’ve played a mammoth 16 games in European competition this season. That’s far more than the nine we played to win the European Cup in 1967 or even the 15 we played in the 2002/2003 season when we reached the UEFA Cup final after a Champions League play-off defeat. So the most in one season in our history. Of those 16 ties, we won seven, drew three and lost six. A mixed bag.
The highlight was undoubtedly the 2-1 home win against RB Leipzig at Celtic Park on a night where we defeated a team who have been sitting in fourth spot in the Bundesliga all season.
The lows were…….well take your pick basically. The Champions League elimination to Athens, drawing away in Suduva, being bowled over so easily away to Salzburg and in Leipzig or the anticlimactic displays at home to Salzburg and Valencia.
Scottish football as a whole has also seen its stock risen with the Scottish league’s coefficient rising from 25 to 20 due to this season displays. A draw last night would have actually nudged Scotland slightly ahead of Serbia in 19th spot so, on the whole, it’s been a beneficial season for everyone with not just Celtic actually delivering some points for once.
Brendan’s European record still isn’t great. 16 wins from 40 games with six draws and 18 losses isn’t horrific but could and should be better. With only 12 wins from 32 European ties Neil Lennon’s record was actually worse but his win column included the victory over Barcelona and also saw us progress to the Champions League Last 16 with a Scottish record for a club from these shores in the Champions League of 10 points, something which is unlikely to be repeated any time soon if at all.
Gordan Strachan’s also wasn’t great either with only eight wins from 26 but those were, of course, the days when we hardly played any qualifiers and, as a result, minnows, and were generally straight in with the big boys. He also took us to glory nights against Manchester Utd (1-0), AC Milan (2-1), Benfica (3-0), Donetsk (2-1) and back to back Champions League Last 16 qualifications which once again will unlikely happen in the foreseeable future.
He is of course way off Martin ONeill’s ledger which includes an incredible 26 wins in European competition from 53 European ties and had far too many glory nights to mention with the greatest of his achievements being leading us to our first major European final in 33 years.
Anyway, this seasons is done and playing in Europe after Christmas is no mean feat. That’s only the eight-time we’ve done it in the past 39 years which should put our European expectations into some kind of perspective. That and the fact that Kevin Gaimero who came on as a sub to score against us last night has won the competition we were playing in an incredible four times which shows you what we are up against.
Onwards and upwards domestically starting with a revitalised Motherwell on Sunday.
It’s not ideal to be writing two post-match reviews several days late but alas I’ve been floored by a virus so have been bed bound up until today.
I didn’t fancy writing anything in the wake of the Valencia defeat anyway. Negatively abounded online and in Celtic cyberspace in particular. Ultimately it’s the sort of performance on big European nights that we’ve become accustomed to not just under Brendan but over the past six years full stop. I plan to write a preview tomorrow of the second leg anyway so will touch more on that there.
On the night itself, our passing was poor, our movement lacked conviction and after a good opening ten minutes spell we lost our way and allowed our opponents to grow into the game and ultimately take over. As a result, they scored in each half via strikes from Cheryshev and Sobrino with both goals totally preventable and born out of unnecessary mistakes on our part. That aside Scott Brown struggled badly but in fairness so did the whole team. Even the ever dependable Callum McGregor had an off night something you can rarely say about the 25-year-old. We were well beaten by a team who had extra quality but who also did the basics right.
All that being said at European level we just can’t afford to not have players the calibre of Tierney, Rogic, Benkovic as well as Ntcham and Griffiths available to us. The first three would be automatic starters and the other two would be at the very least be in contention to start and even if they didn’t would be quality options to bring on from the bench.
Anyway, it’s done and Thursday gives us a chance, however unlikely, to redeem ourselves. Like I’ve said I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
Valencia makes it two.
As for Sunday well it wasn’t the best performance but we got the job done and in doing so go eight points clear at the top.
Killie haven’t lost to us at Rugby Park since Steve Clarke’s arrival – indeed they’ve beaten us on each of our last two visits – and up until recently were even considered title challengers so strong has their season-long form been. They are hard working, determined and well organised. They are also capable of some decent passing movements in tight situations which they really don’t get credit for. In players like Jordan Jones and Eamonn Brophy, they have genuine attacking threats who come at you with pace.
In the early exchanges, we dominated though created little in the way of clear cut chances and then as the match progressed Killie did what they do and began to ease into the game and created opportunities of their own.
In the second half Kirk Broadfoot went in rashly on Brown with the type of challenge refs just don’t stand for these days – well most refs anyway – and got himself a straight red. It didn’t really change the momentum of the game though as Kilmarnock were already pretty adept at sitting in and frustrating. We struggled to create much as we often do when faced up with defensively minded teams down in numbers. It was kind of playing out just like it did against AEK Athens in the home tie of our Champions League 3rd qualifying round match against them at Celtic Park back in August where despite our numerical advantage when they had a man sent off we basically refused to adapt, kept recycling the ball and passing it around in front of them and refused to improvise. Then veteran defender Alex Bruce came on, we won a corner, it fell to Boyata who headed it down to Scott Brown who was just inside the box and launched one – which may have been row Z bound – and Bruce threw himself at it, with the result being it deflected off of his outstretched arm and into the net.
Broonie went delirious and after pondering it for a second decided to run into the fans who invaded the pitch and the Scottish press prepared to mount their moral collective high horse. Nobody got hurt though, it all appeared to be pretty good-natured and Brown paid the price with a second yellow and red card which actually saw us having to hold out for the last few mins.
All’s well that ends well.
But hold out we did and what with Rangers being held to a surprising 0-0 draw against St.Johnstone – who we had decided to let out of our pockets for the afternoon – at Ibrox we stretched our lead at the top to eight points with all teams in the league having played 26 games.
Kris Boyd got pinged with a coin whilst warming up for which there is no excuse and he was decent enough not to make a big deal of it during the match at least. He’s been pretty vocal about it since and there’s no point in trying to deflect here. We are quick to point the finger when other clubs fans do it and our players or staff are affected so have to hold ourselves to the same standard. Late afternoon or early evening games always have that extra potential for stupidity from the stands due to the increased likelihood of prematch drinking and continued actions such as these bury any arguments to allow alcohol sales into Scottish football stadiums for the first time.
Anyway, we now have a healthy lead up at the top. That plus we’be now gone eight domestic games without conceding a goal, scoring 22 and winning every one. We also got to see Bayo for the first time and first impressions are he looks pretty composed but we will, of course, need to see a helluva lot more.
On Sunday after our Europa League campaign is likely finished we will face a very much inform Motherwell team at Celtic Park. Like us, they have won their last six consecutive league matches and have young players like Jake Hastie, Allan Campbell and David Turnbull on fire. Whilst we are looking to tie up our eight consecutive league title they are rampaging towards an unlikely top six league finish with the gap on sixth-placed St.Johnstone now down to only two points – it was 13 points only four weeks ago -and their free-flowing style should make for an entertaining match. After that, we’re at Tynecastle to play Hearts midweek which is always a pretty raucous and competitive affair. Get through these two and the schedule gets a little kinder for us and less so for our closest rivals. So basically what I’m saying is win these next two league matches and we can only really throw it away.
Anyway, it’s been a mixed bag these last five days. Hopefully, the next eight are full of positives and my cold goes away.
....Always A Tim! 