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.
I took in our game on Sunday from the Dolphin pub in Partick, a good Celtic boozer if you have never been. The green and white sign with the ‘EST1888’ above the door should be a giveaway.
Anyway there with a few friends, I witnessed our match with league leaders Hearts at Murrayfield in front of a crowd of over 60,000.
Due to Hearts pretty incredible results since the start of the season – which has seen them win 13 from 16 matches with two draws and only one defeat – combined with our own patchy form since the start of the term this had been built up as a near 50/50 encounter with many favouring the Jam Tarts.
Indeed they had already defeated us 1-0 earlier in the season at Tynecastle and bounced back from their only defeat of the season so far against Rangers at Ibrox three weeks ago with wins at home versus Aberdeen and away to Dundee to maintain their spot at the top of the Premiership.
But the Celtic side that lost to Hearts back in early August has fairly ramped up the performances levels since then, especially in the past month, and with the capital side also without long-term injury absentees Christophe Berra, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu I was personally quite surprised at how close so many thought it was going to be.
Still, that meant that interest had peaked for it and led to not only a magnificent attendance at Murrayfield but also a large crowd in the pub which would be otherwise unusual for any normal national cup semi-final involving us and anybody but Rangers.
A packed our Murrayfield sees green smoke.
The first half was pretty scrappy stuff with Hearts veteran striker Steven MacLean grabbing all the headlines via standing a mile offside as he placed the ball into the Celtic net only for it to be flagged and also grabbing a handful of Eboue Kouassi’s testicles into the bargain. He’s since been cited for it and according to his ex-St. Johnstone teammate James McFadden on last nights Sportsound he’s known for it so I’d imagine he’s facing a ban. Then again Morelos got his red card rescinded for trying to volley Scott McKenna off the ball at Pittodrie earlier in the season so who knows.
Hearts talisman Steven Naismith also walked off early doors with a knee injury and you sort of suspected any chance they had of beating us walked with him.
That aside Scott Sinclair had an excellent effort saved by the Hearts keeper but by in large it was competitive but uninspiring stuff to such an extent the guy sitting beside me announced he’d had enough and staggered out leaving a full bottle of Peroni and an untouched whiskey chaser behind him. Outrageous.
In the second half, we got a spot-kick after Ryan Christie went down under a Ben Garrucio challenge – hardly a stonewaller but the type of incident which is given all the time these days – and Sinclair stepped up to smash it home. Then the Herts keeper Zdenek Zlamal tried to gather a speculative Rogic drive which escaped his grasp and trundled over the line before he clawed it clear. James Forrest was on hand though to bury it and put to bed any necessity for the linesman to make a call. And just in case there was any lingering doubt Ryan Christie capped off a fine few days in a Celtic jersey following on from strong display away in Leipzig on Thursday night as he buried a 25-yard piledriver past the despairing Zlamal on 72 mins.
Thereafter it was a bit of a turkey shoot as Celtic rained down wave after wave of attack on the Jambos goal but a combination of Zlamal atoning for his earlier error plus some last-ditch defending kept the score respectful. Though one of my mates was gutted as he had us to win either 4-0 or 3-1 with the bookies. A sore one indeed.
All in all, it was a professional performance and Celtic have now won 21 consecutive cup ties and have booked their place in their fifth consecutive cup final in doing so. The ‘Treble-Treble’ now really is on plus we also got to shut-up serial moaner Craig Levein who despite his pre-match defiance saw his side ultimately check out with a whimper.
Of course, this was all pretty much night and day compared to Thursday night’s display away in Germany where a toothless Celtic side limped to a 2-0 defeat to Red Bull Leipzig.
Having the suspended James Forrest back was undoubtedly a factor – as was the inferior opposition of course – but also returning was the imperious Tom Rogic and central defender Filipe Benkovic both of whom hadn’t made it for Thursday nights game. No one is really talking about it but personally, I’m a bit disappointed that Sunday was clearly given precedence over an away tie in Europe and one which I honestly think would have been very winnable against Leipzig’s second string if Rogic and Benkovic had been involved. The notion that they suddenly returned to full match fitness in the space of 64 hours is, of course, total bollocks.
Europe now does seem to now be firmly regarded as a pipe dream with domestic success being given the superior status based on decisions like that.
Anway we’re in another cup final on December 2nd so the question is who would we be playing?
That game, of course, took place later on that evening at Hampden Park where Steven Gerrard’s apparently rejuvenated Rangers would battle it out against Derek McInnes’s toiling Aberdeen.
Even with their only real striking options out for this one just about everyone I knew made the Govan side the clear favourites with most regarding it a mere formality.
It proved to be anything but as the Dons produced a classic smash and grab performance that ex-Rangers manager Walter Smith himself would have been proud of as the nephew of Barry Ferguson headed home the winner on 79 mins. He’s called Lewis Ferguson by the way and he won me a not unsubstantial amount of money as I found the long odds on the reds to be too tempting not to indulge.
Even with over 10 mins plus injury time remaining my money looked safe as the toothless light blues failed to breach a pretty rock solid Aberdeen defence and 1-0 is how it finished.
Stevie G congratulates Goldson on their loss.
So it’s Aberdeen in the final in five weeks. I must admit to being a tad disappointed as an Old Firm final would have been far more appetizing and despite undoubtedly impressive results at home and in Europe, the Stevie G project looks decidedly shaky anytime it’s taken out on the road with Sunday being a perfect example of that.
What with them out of the first domestic competition of the season combined with sitting only joint fifth in the league I wonder if rumours will now abound of an unsettled dressing room, player fallouts and acrimonious relationships between the manager and the board? Or is that only reserved for our manager? I think we all know the answer.
Oh, and what happened to that Richard Wilson’s tweet from Thursday evening which claimed that after Sunday was out the way there would be ramifications due to the performance and result on Thursday night? It’s Tuesday and still nothing. Maybe it will all kick off tomorrow. Or maybe it was all bullshit to start with.
A depleted Celtic side were easily dismissed by a more or less second string Red Bull Leipzig.
For 30 mins Celtic looked okay and Odsonne Edouard nearly even scored but thereafter it was the usual as we were battered senseless in the last 15 mins of the half conceding two goals and it could have been more.
In the second half, Celtic played to keep the score down looking passive and content with it staying at two-zip. Leipzig accommodated us by and large barring a Konrad Laimer run where he skinned half of our team whilst running from midfield before shooting just past the post and a moment when Augustin cracked a long-range shot off of the same stick.
Ntcham broke through on goal late and if he’d passed to his right to McGregor it was a certain goal but he went for glory and cannoned it off the keeper’s legs. Even if it had gone in there is little to no chance that we’d have equalised as the Germans would have just switched on again.
Right from the off all looked lost as we were without the suspended James Forrest, injured Scott Brown and in the days leading up to the match, Tom Rogic and Filipe Benkovic were also ruled out. Added to that Leigh Griffiths still isn’t available and Mikel Lustig was deemed not fit enough to start.
This meant starts for forgotten men Cristian Gamboa and Eboue Kouassi as well as the rarely seen Lewis Morgan and serial bench warmer Ryan Christie.
All that combined with our long-standing, pretty atrocious away record on the content meant that our chances were pretty much slim and none and slim had just left town.
Leipzig themselves were without their injured midfield playmaker Emil Forsberg as well as star striking duo Timo Werner and Yussuf Poulsen who were rested on the bench but still had far more firepower on the pitch.
Of course, we helped them with an awful attempt at a clearance from Kouassi resulting in a fresh air miss so bad it also confused Boyata whose own attempt also missed and it fell to Matheus Cunha who couldn’t believe how much time he had to control it and lash it home.
The second saw Marcelo Saracchi dart down the wing after a wild suicide sliding tackle from Gamboa was skipped over with ease and his resulting cross saw another woeful attempt by Kouassi to clear once again befuddle Boyata and resulted in Bruma lashing it home.
A familiar sight on the continent as our players trudge back to the centre circle after conceding another goal.
It really was comical stuff. Kouassi had a blinder in just how bad he was though incredibly John Hartson labelled him as one of our better players at halftime. I actually kept an eye on him and he was passive throughout with his shoulders dipped and looked lost. Basically a carbon copy of his display earlier in the season against Hearts.
Boyata was also awful in the centre of defence. In the second half, he needlessly gave the ball away on numerous occasions, something he’s well known for, and was left in the wake of the rampaging Laimer when he nearly scored which saw a pretty pathetic attempt by Boyata to stop him.
That aside just about everyone in a Celtic jersey struggled with McGregor, in particular, going missing for much of the game.
It’s really all we’ve come to expect away in Europe under Brendan. Nothing changes tactically and his record now reads 4 wins from 19 away games with 10 defeats and an incredible 38 goals conceded.
We can’t keep a clean sheet away from home against anything resembling quality from the continent and outside of Edouard don’t to appear to have much of a goal threat on the road either.
The loss of some of our best players was definitely a factor and was felt sorely but it somewhat negated by Leipzig resting so many of their top performers yet still looking streets ahead.
The mistakes at the back happen time and again and the players brought in are clearly not good enough. Not only that but most are also Brendan’s signings.
Tactically we are way too open and the moment we concede panic sets in and our shape collapses.
Leipzig visit Glasgow in a fortnight and it literally is a must-win game. If we lose and Salzburg win in Norway as expected then we are out. That’s right we’ll be out with two games still to go from Europe’s second-tier competition. That’s the same competition where Rangers have gone unbeaten in 11 straight games so there really are no excuses.
Inevitably in the fallout, more rumours have surfaced about Brendan’s relationship with the board which seems to be par for the course after we record a negative result.
One of the main fuels to the fire was this tweet by BBC correspondent and self-confessed Rangers fanatic Richard Wilson:
If there’s any truth in this then next week should be interesting. I mean what else could ‘serious upheaval’ mean other than heads rolling and whose heads would they be?
Thes semi-final of the League Cup on Sunday against Hearts now takes on even more importance as a negative result will likely lead to further rumours of things coming to a head.
There seems to be an attitude prevalent amongst Celtic fans that Sunday was the priority which I found a bit incredible considering Europe is where we want to be but maybe shows the mentality that has crept in in recent years. That being that Europe is perceived as a pipe dream where making any significant progress is fanciable and we are almost willing fodder for the big clubs.
Anyway onto Hampden we go and on and off the pitch I think we can expect some fireworks in the coming days. Should be interesting at least.
Another international match under Alex McLeish and another defeat.
The reason I bother with these international reviews is because our players generally feature pretty significantly in proceedings.
For this one, Kieran Tierney was allowed to drop out due to a ‘loading issue’ which is bullshit football ‘tech-speak’ for him being tired due to the number of games he’s played so far this season.
No doubt Brendan’s been on the phone and requested that he be rested as opposed to being played out of position in a pointless friendly.
Leigh Griffiths, of course, hasn’t featured in the last two internationals now as he tries to improve his fitness. Of course, we know the real reason is that he can’t stand Big Eck and his banal ongoing decision to choose Johnny Russell and Steven Naismith up front ahead of him.
Craig Gordon was back in after being fairly dropped for the on form Allan McGregor and also back in the line-up was James Forrest, ludicrously not started against Israel after scoring four times for us the weekend before, and ex-Celt Stuart Armstrong. Callum McGregor also got his latest cap. Jack Hendry also got a start which was purely due to Charlie Mulgrew and John Souttar being unavailable.
On the whole, it was much better performance though ultimately another bad result as the ruthless Portuguese punished every error from Scotland, proving that even without the scandal-plagued Ronaldo why they are rated number seven in the world rankings.
Just another day at the office.
Portugal’s goals came in the following order:
Hélder Costa (43′minutes),
Macedo Lopes (74′minutes),
Tué Na Bangna (84′minutes)
Costa’s was a tap-in after an Andy Robertson mistake but the other two were fabulous goals. A great header from Lopes after a floated cross to the edge of the box and a peach from Banga just inside the box subsequent to skinning Graeme Shinnie.
Stevie Naismith posted a consultation at the death resulting from a beautiful back-heel from another ex-Celt Gary Mackay-Steven which set him up for a tap-in.
Scott McKenna had missed a stick-on opportunity to equalise earlier with a diving header that went inches past.
All of the Celtic players did okay with the exception being Jack Hendry who continues to look way out of his depth when faced with any opposition remotely resembling quality.
For McLeish, the 4-4-2 formation with an actual left back playing in position worked better and with the recalls of Forrest and Armstrong there was a lot more vibrancy to the team but the same old errors continue to be punished. Rather like Celtic in Europe Scotland look completely incapable of keeping the back door shut for 90 mins.
Anyway, Big Eck staggers onto the doubleheader with Albania and Israel next month after this sorry weekend brought his record to two wins and six losses. Willie Miller remained optimistic that his friend could pull it off in the Sportscene studios last night obviously completely oblivious to what has occurred so far under his former central defensive partner.
In the past few months over in America, I noticed that chat show darling Ellen De Generis has rolled out George W Bush like he’s some old cuddly darling grandad of American politics.
This is, of course, an attempt to use the political elite to have a go at Donald Trump’s presidency. Like we need George W to tell us how much of a shit show that all is.
In amongst all the fawning over the ‘good ol’ president’ everyone conveniently forgets of course that Mr Bush and his UK cronies took us all into an illegal war in Iraq which cost the death of hundreds of thousands and created the legacy of Isis and complete destabilisation in the middle east. And all based on a huge lie as confirmed in the Chilcoat report which has also been conveniently forgotten about.
It’s funny how easily and selectively people forget.
In the past few days, it appears George Peat has emerged from his crypt.
Good old George eh?
He was president of the SFA during that glorious period for Scottish football between 2007-2011 just in case you forgot.
Right before he did his latest interview with BBC’s Sportsound which was broadcast via their podcast on Monday I swear I could hear the Adams Family theme playing in the background as we once again got a glimpse of Scottish football’s very own Uncle Fester.
As the interview unfolded George wheezed out all the old dust that had accumulated in his lungs over the past seven years and then wiped off some of the cobwebs from his SFA / bowling club blazer to give us his earth-shattering insights into the state of Scottish football.
George being ‘ironic’.
To sum up the highlights………he negotiated a big SFA TV contract with Sky before he left his role the money from which has not been used satisfactorily – if at all, the current SFA are incompetent, he threw Gordon Smith – his appointment as SFA chief executive – under the bus and then claimed a prominent Scottish club chairman had contacted him requesting the SFA didn’t help Rangers as the 2007/08 season reached its climax.
That last one in particular really stuck in his throat apparently.
George wouldn’t identify the chairman directly of course. Instead, he relied on winks, nudges and general innuendo.
But then Goegoe once said that he was the “kind of guy if someone asks me a question, I will give them an answer”.
That is until the question is: “So who is the chairman you are making these rather serious allegations against?”
In this instance, the reply is: “I’m not saying but you can guess.”
Yeah, the thing is that isn’t an answer George. But then George always was a coward.
Originally an accountant by profession he spent 22 years on the board of Airdrieonians FC. They, of course, were liquidated due to financial mismanagement.
“Then the club went out of business. And the ultimate irony is that far from being held responsible for a club going to the wall, Peat pulled another club’s blazer on at Stenhousemuir, kept his privileges with the SFA and went on to become the top man in the game.” – ex-Airdrie defender Chris Honor, Daily Record, 12/06/2011.
George doesn’t talk much about his time at Airdrie. I wonder why.
Many years back I remember writing an article for the Celtic Underground. It related to George’s handling of Neil Lennon’s six-match ban which had just been handed down at the time.
Here’ an insert:
“Perhaps Celtic should devote more time to their own responsibilities and discipline than questioning others.” George Peat.
Are you being serious George? What like how you dragged your heals over Hugh Dallas’s sacking, relegated Dougie McDonald to 4thofficial status for a few weeks after he’d admitted to doctoring post-match reports and how no investigation was conducted into the circumstances surrounding the resignation of assistant referee Steven Craven amid claims that the head of referee’s (the aforementioned Hugh Dallas) bullied and intimated Scottish referee’s and asked him to lie in his post-match report in regards to the previously mentioned incident involving McDonald? – Celtic Underground, 13/01/2011.
Apparently, the events above didn’t stick in George’s throat too much.
But a chairman having the temerity to request that he was “not to help Rangers in any way” did.
The thing is George that you were the president of the SFA. You could have moved the cup final – which would have seen Rangers’s opponents in said cup final Queen of the South go without a competitive game for four weeks in the lead up to it by the way but I guess that’s life eh? – but being that you had no involvement with the SPL at the time you couldn’t have done anything to reschedule their league games. Nothing at all in fact.
The SPL, under the leadership of Lex Gold did, in fact, extend the league season by four days, with the final games played on Thursday 22 May, instead of the previous Sunday.
So to sum up George has decided to conjure up a ten-year-old issue for nobodies benefit but his own. You see George always did love the attention.
“He’s now trying to portray the SFA changes as some kind of victory for him. Yet he doesn’t see the irony that his stewardship contributed to the game needing a total overhaul. All that tells me is he never loved the game – he just loved the power.” ex-Airdrie defender Chris Honor, Daily Record, 12/06/2011.
George’s selective memory doesn’t stop there. He also has a dig at the current SFA leadership for the way they handled the failed Michael O’Neill appointment. Yeah George, because your appointment history was just bang on, wasn’t it? Let me see. First, you appointed George Burley and then it was Craig Levein. Both were unmitigated disasters but why dwell on that when you can have a dig at the current men in power?
No love loss.
Then there’s also his recollections of Gordon Smith’s time at the SFA. Smith has persistently claimed that his decision making power was limited when the chief executive of the SFA.
So, does he regret taking the job?
“No, I think I was right to.” Adding in his experience in business, he thought he was well-qualified. “If I hadn’t taken it, I think I would have regretted not having a go. The one regret I have, what I didn’t check beforehand, was the scenario regarding how much control you actually have as chief exec.”
Does he mean how little?
“Well, an awful lot – nearly everything goes to committees or the board. I mean, I was able to offer my opinion on certain matters, and I was happy that a lot of things were accepted, but if I’d known about the procedures I might have thought: if I’m going to do this job properly I’d like to have a bigger say. I didn’t get the final say.”– Gordon Smith, The Scotsman, 02/10/2010
George though remembers it different of course.
“I thought it would do Scottish football good to get a football man in. Unfortunately, it didn’t come off because Gordon lacked the business experience………”
How much power does that man actually have?
“He has a lot of power. At the end of the day, a lot of the decisions have to go to the board. But if the chief executive strongly recommends something, nine times out of ten the board will approve it. It’s only if something unforeseen happens that the board would turn down a recommendation.” – George Peat, BBC Sportsound, 17/09/2018.
George also claims that Hampden needs an overhaul. The thing is George it needed the same overhaul ie: bringing the stands closer to the pitch, back in 2007-2011 too but you did sod all about it.
He also takes credit for securing the Sky TV deal before his departure. Though the sum part of George’s involvement was signing off on the offer that Sky had made the SFA. Any delusions by George that he was a tough mediator locked in a room all night with hard-nosed negotiators from Sky’s London office trying to get the best deal for Scottish football are utter fantasy. I believe the meeting went something like this:
“Come in George. Sorry for the delay.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I was just admiring your marble staircase and how it reminded me of ……..”
“Okay so sign here please.”
“Eh, yeah. I mean everything looks in order. Can I…..”
“Just sign it George.”
George glances eagerly at the large oak table in the middle of the room on which a buffet lunch has been laid out.
“Yeah, sure. Are the sandwiches and mineral water free?”
Anyway, George has grabbed the headlines once again in a sad attempt to live out former glories.
He’ll be relevant for a few days and then it’ll all calm down.
Rangers will make some noises about it but there’s little they can do because, as they are often keen to point out, this is really a matter for the ‘old club’.
....Always A Tim! 