In the end, I suppose, they were robbed of the three points that their commitment and effort, if not perhaps the general flow of the game, deserved.
So Celtic claw back some pride and make the away game in Denmark look like being the match that will decide if they are to play in Europe after Christmas.
Two points from two home games, albeit one against the champions, is not much to show from...
Not an arsehole
Is Gordon Strachan right to be so annoyed that a besuited - and you would suggest slightly tipsy - Jambo called him an arsehole?
Surely he gets called much worse every week - often by his own fans. This weekend showed once again that supporters increasingly consider nothing about a player off bounds when it comes to shouting abuse. And fans visiting the citadel of bonhomie that...
We are but a heartbeat away from the new season. So time for some very unscientific predictions:
First managerial casualty:
Mixu. Almost certainly. If the rumours have an ounce of truth in them then a humping by Clyde could mean he's away before the start of the season. To be swiftly followed, I'd guess, by Rod Petrie.
Third place:
Dundee United. I've got a feeling that Craig Levein (man...
"It's incredulous that, despite our attempts to explain this rationally to other clubs, some of them refuse to accept our approach."
So says ex knitwear model and current Rangers chief executive Martin Bain about the reaction of the "tiny ten" about the Old Firm's decision to add a 5% handling charge on to the sale of away tickets for their fans.
First a small point of order: Mr Bain can be...
Do friendlies mean anything at all? Most managers would say they're a valuable way of gauging a team's readiness for the season ahead. If they win. If they lose they'll write them off as merely a fitness excercise.
So who knows if they do mean anything.
But three events in Scottish football show that friendlies can have a far from positive impact.
Example 1
Peterhead 4, Aberdeen 0
A full...
Aiden McGeady yesterday signed a new five year deal that will keep him at Celtic until after his 27th birthday.
After signing on the dotted line McGeady said: "I want to be remembered in the club's history rather than just a player who had a couple of good seasons and then jumped ship. The thought of being a legend is a bit far away just now, but that's what I'd like to be remembered as."
Good...
And that was that. The much hyped Judgement Day endeth. Against large, if not quite all, the odds the SPL helicopter has landed on the streets of Dundee. The streets of Aberdeen run with the tears of a hastily reworked treble dream that has crumbled into dust like that quadruple dream of only eight days ago.
The final battles were the story of the season. Celtic somehow know how to win....
How many times have fans wished that both sides of the Old Firm would lose? Well tonight they can. And that would be the fitting finale to an SPL that might have been exciting but has been low on quality.
Despite Rangers' Euro escapade. Despite Celtic's late fightback. Despite another final day reckoning there has been a dearth of quality about both teams this year.
So maybe if they were both...
Sir Walt leads the loyal masses
Good to hear that a convoy of Rangers fans set off from Ibrox today en route for their destiny in Manchester.
Not too many to go now before they equal the 3456099 Celtic fans who swam to Seville for the final in...
It is probably good that someone other than a Romanov has come out and questioned the standard - if not the integrity - of referees in Scotland.
One mistake is forgivable - two such serious errors suggest either incompetence or an official being influenced by external factors. If it is incompetence then McCurry and his linesman should pay the penalty and serve time outside the SPL. If they were...
Barry Ferguson's solitary goal was enough to seal victory for Rangers as they embarked on the run of games that will end in glory or disaster.
Another game that wasn't hugely pleasing on the eye - except perhaps for the watching Dick Advocaat - needed the captain's well taken goal to keep the pressure on Celtic. The lead at the top of the table has now been cut to four points with Rangers still...
Celtic fans are not falling over themselves to congratulate on their sterling efforts to improve Scotland's co-efficient. At least not if Che Timavara over at ETims online is to believed. His thesis on Rangers season reads like an insight into one man's clinical depression. At one point I feared this was turning into a suicide note but Che pulls back from being that drastic and promises to...
The best laid plans and all that.
So I've missed an entire year of Scottish football.
And what a year.
Rangers in a European final for the first time since 1901 and despite failing to score a goal in the whole tournament - only joking and who can knock them now?
Gretna in freefall. The fairytale turned into a nightmare (that cliche is copyright of anyone who has written about the story) as...
That Bet Lynch has signed for Rangers
A few snippets of (possibly untrue) gossip: Hibs' Shelton Martis is to rejoin Darlington after falling foul of John Collins following the player revolt at Easter Road. Greg Shields is also on his way with Michael Stewart hoping to start again in the English Premiership with old mate Roy Keane’s Sunderland: the two kept in touch after Stewart left...
In
Falkirk,
SPL Gossip,
Scottish Football Gossip,
Artur Boruc,
Michael Stewart,
Steve Sidwell,
Stephen Keller,
James Beattie,
John Sutton,
Shelton Martis,
Sunderland,
Roy Keane,
Hibs,
Celtic
Truth, Lies and Joseph Barton
What? Fat Pat? Signing for Aberdeen?
Giddy with signing Scotland international Brian Kerr (three caps, as you ask) John Collins is going to swoop for Chelsea’s Belgian ‘keeper Yves Makaba-Makalamby. Try putting that on the back of your shirt. All is not bright on Mr Collins’ horizon though. Michael Stewart is ready to spill the beans on the whole sorry...
Life with Les Battersby didn't prepare Gordon Strachan for Glasgow
You’ve won the league and you’re staring down the barrel of a double. You’d think Celtic fans would be jumping with glee at the moment. But now someone has put a stick in the spokes of their bicycle of joy. Ex-Celtic player Charlie Nicholas has had the temerity to suggest that Neil Lennon won’t go down in the history...
Rangers Steven Lennon on Scotland Duty
Old Firm games always matter or so I’ve been told – often quite forcibly by Old Firm supporters. Celtic fans might well be willing to argue with that today after their team’s annihilation in the Scottish Youth Cup final yesterday. But how the Rangers fans will revel in the irony that a young man named Lennon scored a hat-trick against the old...
Goodbye then Mr Lennon. It’s been, well fun isn’t really the correct word is it? Compelling? Possibly. Entertaining? At times perhaps. Because let’s be honest Neil Lennon and Scottish football have been a combustible mix. The good stuff: five SPL titles, three (possibly four) Scottish Cups, two League Cups, qualification from the Champion’s League group stages and a UEFA Cup Final....
Celtic playing host to AC Milan in front of one of the most passionate and atmospheric stadiums in Europe should be a meeting of two footballing aristocrats. Instead, as Celtic woke up to the realities of life at the top table of the Champion’s League, this was an enthralling clash between the aristocrats of Milan and the artisans of Glasgow. That Celtic are still very much in the tie,...
It seems like I’ve been away for almost as long as Vladimir Romanov. But, now that he’s back with a bang, it’s time to shake off the blogging lethargy. Below are some excerpts from Vlad’s interview in Russia that began the storm that’s currently engulfing the Scottish game. When you took over you declared that Hearts would in a few months be mounting a real challenge to Rangers and Celtic...
The key phrase from the interview with Romanov (carried in Russian football magazine Futbol) was: “Celtic and Rangers? Even Kaunas are a match for them on the pitch. The thing is they've turned football into a type of show business with their underhand games. They buy off players and referees.” At this point what might have been another Vlad rant turned into something much bigger. Speaking to...
………….and then it came. He undoubtedly brings something new to the Scottish game. And today Vlad gave us a lesson in how to dig yourself out of a hole with all guns blazing. Excuse the mangled metaphors but the Romanov statement on Hearts’ official website was spectacular. Here it is in full as it appeared (along with the illustration above) Read Vlad’s Back Part Four for my attempt to make...
A novel feeling, watching a European draw in December and seeing two Scottish clubs come out. Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv should hold no fears for Rangers. True, another trip to Israel might not be everyone’s choice but the Ibrox side should be looking to progress from what is a pretty favourable draw. And no that’s not an endorsement of the increasingly prevalent view that Rangers will be...
If, in our world of sporting cliché, there can ever be a meaningless Old Firm match surely this Sunday’s encounter is a contender. Whatever the result, Sunday is unlikely to tell us anything we don’t already know. Celtic will still be unreachable at the top of the league: a Rangers win won’t change that. A victory for Paul Le Guen’s men will merely be further evidence of Celtic’s...
"I'm doing well for myself, I'm scoring goals and what more can I ask for?
"At the moment, I don't see why I would go back to Arsenal unless Arsene Wenger says that I am in the first team or first team squad then I am better playing regularly here.
"I'm in regular contact with Liam Brady and I think Falkirk are in talks with Arsenal about me but there is still four weeks left on my deal here...
Something of shock move for Sir Alex Ferguson today as he signs up Henrik Larsson on loan.
It will, of course, leave some Celtic fans scratching their heads about why the golden boy wasn’t persuaded to stay at Parkhead. And why the Scottish league leaders couldn’t have made more serious attempts to get him back in the summer.
For United fans it might be greeted with no little bemusement. But...
Has Kevin Thomson realised that the nonsense he helped create around Hibs last week was over the top?
After the ridicule he found heaped on him following his farcical Daily Record ‘column’ last Tuesday, today he was in a more conciliatory mood.
No mention of his mummy and his yearning to free her from the chains of wage slavery.
Rather positive talk about winning silverware and fighting for...
It will be remarkable if Gordon Strachan resists the temptation to say ‘I told you so’ after his Celtic side stole a most unlikely victory over Manchester United last night.
Over a year ago it seemed as if the Parkhead faithful would never accept Strachan, the wee east coast scrapper with the big mouth, as a replacement for the sainted Martin O’Neill.
Of course that was after Strachan had...
