Celtic v Southside Zombies-Preview
Morning,all.
And so it came to pass that the huns turn up at Celtic Park on the last weekend of the decade,their foetid breath warming our necks. Yet at the beginning of the decade,most of us knew that they were dead men walking and that it was only a matter of time before they were consigned to a long overdue black hole,never to darken our doorstep again.
Well,that didn’t quite work out the way that we expected,so I reckon we’ll just have to do it The Glasgow Celtic Way as usual. Beat them on the pitch while those watching around the world sing our own patented version of Jingle Bells. Or The Bells of Hell for the more imaginative of us.
I don’t think any of us will be surprised at the team selection tomorrow. Lenny has been signalling it for a good few weeks now. But he may well have a surprise or two up his sleeve,perhaps on how that selection actually lines up.
Who cares,I suppose-as long as we TURN up…
A great many of the support warned that they would be back,no matter what,while most of us put our faith in The Law of the Land. And should really have known better-but that is for another day. Sunday is all about the points. Winning those points and opening up a gap. Win,and the gap stretches to eight points,albeit they will have a game in hand.
However,I recall that we had a clear seven point advantage at the corresponding time in Gordon Strachan’s last season as manager. With fifty points from twenty matches and playing with the confidence of three titles in a row,a fourth looked to be a certainty. Rangers matched their fortythree point tally from the first twenty games with the same total in their last eighteen.
We took a paltry thirtytwo in that time and surrendered the title with a shameful whimper.
So win on Sunday and we are in the driving seat for sure,but there is no reason for complacency afterwards. Our history is littered with snatching inglorious defeat from the jaws of victory. Thankfully it is also littered with the opposite,and that is why the stadium is literally bedecked in the images of our past legends. Is there room there for a few more? Of course there is-every one of our current players is only a few months away from achieving legendary status by finishing off what those who came before started only one hundred months ago.
They know how important tomorrow is. And so does everyone else.
We have seen some shocking if typical inconsistency of performance from the refereeing brotherhood this season especially,of a level again not seen in nearly a decade. Expect that to continue while the fraternal heroes are still in with a shout. As an example,Brother McLean penalised the huns on ten occasions without showing a card while Kilmarnock received three cards for their eleven transgressions. Collum waited till late in the game to card a St Mirren player,and only awarded us six free kicks all day in the face of typically “robust” opposition.
Tomorrow will be no exception. Clancy often gets called an Uncle Tom,but I think that is being unfair. He is a Partick Thistle supporter,and like most fans of the other sides,hates us both with a passion. If it is in his interests to favour one team over the other-and we all know the inducements available through career enhancement-he will lose no sleep over it. The only people wanting us to win tomorrow will be supporters of Celtic,and if you don’t believe me,just take a look and cock an ear at the fervent hatred of otherwise neutral football supporters in the pub where you are watching the game. Listen to the commentary,read the reports.
We are on our own tomorrow. ‘Twas ever thus. It is a day for heroes and a day for legends to put down a marker for a spot on the giant mural around the stadium. A day to take everyone else out of the equation and let them know who is boss in these parts. It is no day for a shrinking violet,it is a day for Jolly Green Giants.
******
Above article by BMCUWP. Please send a match review for inclusion as Article of the Day on Monday. The more,the merrier. Usual address,
sentinelcelts@gmail.com
NAPSTERS,please follow the link.
https://sentinelcelts.com/2019/12/27/st-mirren-1-2-celtic-match-review/
IRISHBHOY
You watching the game in the Wimbledon Irish Centre?
AULDHEID
Shredded Duck as a Glasgow delicacy? Fantastic piece of writing,old son. My cap is doffed in your direction.
“Poatiheid” fae Woodsides the butchers in Kilwinning was the snack of choice for me and my Papa back then. Probably pay about £50 a throw for it now in fancy restaurants despite me not being able to lay hands on it since the 80s.
Tomorrow is all about which version of Celtic turns up. Hopefully we will see a Celtic team dominate an inferior opponent and thereby negate any influence the match officials may hope to impose. But just what version of Celtic will turn up? Will it be the the cavalier free flowing attacking team or the callow version that we witnessed in the league cup final? Albeit we did win the game. I will take any victory but one achieved the Glasgow Celtic way tastes all the sweeter. Put your boots on their necks and grind them into the ground Celtic – COME ON
BMCUWP,
No mate,never been in it,will probably stick my head in at some point in my life. I will be there,at Paradise,along with near on 60,000 other Tims giving it LALDY !
Two points on an excellent offering this morning,In my opinion the word Huns should ALWAYS begin with a capital “H”,their very own H block,if you will.
Also,could you elaborate slightly on the part where you wrote “A great many of the support warned that they would be back,no
matter what”
Was this a typo where you have erroneously omitted to insert the word “not” as I would then understand what you intend to convey,otherwise I’m slightly puzzled by what it means and if it reads true as it now stands,could you put some flesh on the bones for numpties like me who are too dim to comprehend simple English.
Sorry if I appear to be a pedant but if there is a Typo it’s probably best rectified early.
As I said to Mags a few hours ago on the last thread,I will be quite busy most of the weekend but will be trying my “bestest” to,even if not enter the discussion,enjoy it anyway,much as I hope happens the same way tomorrow at Paradise.
Thanks in advance,re possible Typo.
C’mon The HOOPS !
Hail Hail.
Alfredo Morelos and the disgusting Rangers abuse his rivals will dish out to rile him up – Gary Ralston
If the Colombian striker was Scottish the Ibrox star would have a statue outside Hampden.
By Gary Ralston 06:00, 28 DEC 2019
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Alfredo Morelos can sleep easy as he heads into 2020 no matter the result at Celtic Park.
One Scotland, many cultures?
It’s unlikely the Colombian striker will be called up any time soon and asked to lend his endorsement to the Holyrood campaign.
Scottish football can be a brutal, tribal business, but the civic nationalism espoused by Nicola Sturgeon was long ago exposed as a fallacy when it comes to the Rangers frontman.
Too often, there’s an ugliness at the heart of the Scottish football support, which will be manifested in all its gory detail in tomorrow’s Old Firm clash.
That disgusting banner held up by Aberdeen fans at Pittodrie earlier this year, which crossed the line from naked hostility to blatant racism, represented a new low for the image of Scotland as a tolerant, welcoming nation.
That someone would go to the bother of funding a banner declaring, in Spanish, ‘Morelos, your mother is a mattress’ was shameful.
That a group of fans would hoist it high was even worse, before we even get started on those who tried to take a Silentnight into the subsequent Ibrox cup replay the following week.
The woman who was the victim of such reprehensible behaviour – her name is Marta by the way, not Mattress – spent her Christmas Eve with her husband, Alfredo senior, handing out gifts to disadvantaged kids in their home city.
Their boy – that despicable individual – funded 300 gifts for children in the Botaven neighbourhood of Cerete as part of his charity foundation and has rightly been feted for his sense of community, as well as his integrity and generosity.
Win, lose or draw, Morelos will climb off a plane from the UK on Monday and straight into a game he has organised to help raise funds for a host of educational causes around his home town.
If Morelos was Scottish they would be erecting statues to him outside Hampden and building an international team around him for seasons to come.
Put it this way, how many Scottish kids could leave their home at the age of 19 and fly halfway across the world without a support network in a bid to make it in the game?
That was the route Morelos took less than four years ago when he moved to Finland, determined to fulfil his dream of playing in the major leagues by using HJK Helsinki as a stepping stone.
Morelos grew up in such abject poverty he sold fruit from the side of the road with his father and it’s the same streetfighter instincts that will help him achieve his career ambition via Rangers, most likely at the end of this season.
In the meantime, he will continue to bully the life out of Scottish defenders, underlining a strength of character and a lack of fear, driven only by the desire to be the very best he can be.
Steven Gerrard admitted Morelos was again subject to wind-ups from opposition players, this time from Kilmarnock, who do everything they can to unnerve him.
They have gone as far as learning the rudiments of Spanish to badmouth him in his mother tongue, while abuse off the field has also become commonplace in the goldfish bowl of Glasgow.
Morelos has his faults and weaknesses – don’t we all – but his ability to bounce back time and again from adversity is the reason Stewart Robertson was correct to tag him a £20million player, at least.
It’s worth pointing out Morelos was rarely booked and never red-carded during his time in Finnish football, but that’s only because rival players are far too gentlemanly in that corner of northern Europe, surely?
What do you mean nice guys come last? The Finns have already qualified for Euro 2020 so maybe we should take a leaf from their book and focus on bringing out the best in ourselves, rather than the worst in others.
The cameras will follow his every move at Parkhead and every foul in which he is involved will be analysed to death in a bid to confirm a narrative of destruction on often spurious evidence.
He’ll be keen to show he has already gift wrapped all the presents he plans to this festive season.
BMCUWP
Best read again this morning but don’t get too big heided as you swat the pitiful competition aside. Exhibit one ma lud… See above you are the Celtic of sport journalism on Scottish fitba
Auldheid Irishbhoy ,
Hilarious on the previous thread. No other blog provides entertainment like that. Well for me anyhoo.
Thanks for taking the time gents
Mahe,
Nay footering aboot wi the blog today until efter the gem the morra!!
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/neil-lennon-basking-in-joy-of-being-celtic-manager-1.4125678?mode=amp
When I was young
I never needed anyone
And making love was just for fun
Those days are gone…..
At the start of the decade I began reading the Rangers Tax Case blog. Could hardly believe all the revelations. It was a wonderful site. My first line manager was a hun and I took great delight in keeping him up to date with the trouble his club were in. He refused to believe it and mocked me. I will never forget breaking the news to him on Valentines Day 2012. His face dropped, mouth wide open and he turned a ghastly shade of pale. Happy days! 🙂
Scott Skippy McDonald was the hardest working + best player in green and black today (even still a better touch-and-go than Bayo or Griff) while Gary ‘two fat ladies’ Hooper again scored with the head only for it to be ruled offside. If I had to choose for an ageing but industrious in-touch poacher, it’d be Scotty Mac over Mr Defoe or Hoops any day.
Boom.
Twists picks a 33/1 winner.
Bobby 4/1 winner.
Me 10/11 winner.
Twists, I hope you lumped on.
JNP
Was on at 40/1 then 33/1
Well done Buddy.
I put a £1 on at 33s. I’m delighted.
Only because I was watching.
I’m a bit of a mess today, I fell out the bed in the middle of the night and hit the corner of the bedside table, then scraped my face against the corner of the open drawer.
Honestly I’m black and blue, you would think Tyson Fury had punched me.
Remember I don’t even touch alcohol, it’s another curse of my illness, that spacial awareness can be reduced.
JNP
Bloody hell mate that’s not so good.
I hope you feel better soon.
If it’s not too personal ( or you don’t wish to discuss it please just say) but what is the condition you suffer with ?
Twists.
Thanks, it’s not too personal, I’m quite open about it.
It’s called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome/ Mastocytosis.
It means my cells attack me from within and I can be allergic to everything, depending on what the cells decide.
This is not only food, but smells, temperature changes of 10 degrees or more, exercise and many more.
I was having anaphylaxis shocks frequently, finally a very clever professor, at The Beatson, discovered what was up with me.
I now take shit loads of medicine,but all this does is suppresses the cells, there is no cure, but thankfully not terminal. so the attacks are not quite as noticeable as often, as I’m still being attacked daily,the downside is the suppressing causes fatigue, but that’s the lesser of two evils.
The American and Canadians have websites that are useful to me, very little here.
If you are ever bored Google it, it’s truly a fascinating illness, if you didn’t suffer from it. ?
JNP
I’ll definitely google it. Never heard of that before. Obviously I’m delighted to hear it’s not a terminal illness and is manageable ( to some extent) through drugs.
As I say I hope your traumatic night wears off soon bud.
Your neighbours will be thinking you’ve been on the booze ?.
Nags
Hate to add to your woes but it appears your horse lost out in a photo , by the shortest of distances. A nose!
Thanks Twists.
Gosh, I’ve just checked it, mines has lost it in the Stewards Room.
It won by a nose, then was placed second.
I had a tenner on it, at Evs, thankfully Skybet pay both results and I’ve been paid out.
I realise it’s a loser for your competition.
Thanks for your concern.
Not just footballers who spout drivel.
Commentator at half time as players trudge off says Brighton who are 1-0 up could have been further ahead if they had scored another then counters that with Bournemouth could have been on level terms if shots had not been blocked.
No shit Sherlock.
One area of our play that needs to improve is our spacing.
Far to often the distance from our defenders to forwards is huge leaving our midfield with to large an area to cover.
With Brown’s habit of chasing and McGregor’s poor defensive ability it gives limited opponents to much time on the ball.
In the Ibrox encounter we compacted the space and the huns did not have the skill to create and their only hope was diving for free kicks so they could get ball into our box.
The league cup final we did the opposite and stretched the field allowing their limited players time and space.
They for the most part are well organized journeymen so keeping a compact shape makes it difficult for them to create anything.
I expect the ref to help them overcome some of their limitations but the skill gap between the two teams should see us prevail if our coaches get it right.
JNP, Sorry to hear about that buddy. I just hope the medication keeps a lid on it.
A good read Mick, we’ve had our ups and downs in the past against the deid team, let’s hope we put the reincarnation in its place tomorrow.???
Tell yer da Pat I was asking for him… Some man. ???????
Hi guys, ,
Some great reading and cracking article Bobby.
I’ll make sure this quiz is ready to rock at 8pm West Belfast time.
Jnp,, would CBD help? Sounds rough.
Well done Twists. Although if that was a tip you should have texted me 😉
Hail Hail
Big Packy and Jim hope things are tip top with you both.
I spent last night getting to the bottom of why France folded so quickly in WW2 if anyone is interested.
Are we just forgetting/ignoring the lessons of the last eight years?
The legal system didn’t fail Celtic fans. The system would have worked, if it had been used. What failed were Celtic who didn’t avail itself of the legal system, because it was in on the scam, and Celtic fans, who were okay with being scammed.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=e6Ijsirqmso A Decade of Dominance 2010-2020 ?
Celtic delighted as Mikey Johnston signs new five-year deal
By: Paul Cuddihy on 28 Dec, 2019 15:33
CELTIC are delighted to announce that Mikey Johnston has signed a new five-year deal that will see him remain at the club until at least the summer of 2025.
Mikey is another successful graduate of the Celtic Youth Academy, having come through the ranks at the club, and he has made 45 first-team appearances to date, scoring 11 goals.
Now 20-years-old, he made his debut on May 6, 2017, playing for nearly an hour in a 4-1 home win over St Johnstone, while his first goal came just over a year ago, when he netted in a 3-0 win at Celtic Park over Motherwell on December 19. He followed that up with two goals in Celtic’s next game – a 3-0 home win over Dundee.
And on the final day of last season, he scored both goals in a 2-1 home win against Hearts on the day when the team lifted the Premiership trophy in recognition of their eighth league title in a row.
This season, he has scored six goals for Celtic, including the first competitive goal of the campaign in a 3-1 away win over FK Sarajevo, while he also netted the team’s first goal of the current Premiership season, opening the scoring against St Johnstone in a 7-0 Flag Day win at Paradise.
Having returned to the first-team squad following an injury lay-off, Mikey has made a great impact in recent months, scoring in the 3-1 Europa League win over Rennes and following that up with a strike against Ross County in Dingwall to give Neil Lennon’s side a 4-1 victory.
An exclusive interview with Mikey Johnston will follow shortly on the official Celtic website.
JimmynotPaul
Fantastic news about a brilliant young talent.
He has the potential to be world class.
HH
Sorry to hear about your illness.
Fan.
Thanks for kind words.
I’ve been living with it for over 4 years now.
It becomes the norm, after a while, except days like today. My neighbour wants to phone the domestic abuse line. ??
Epi pens, at the ready and off we go, is my normal mantra.
I don’t dare eat out now, though, through time, I worked out things that I can usually get away with.
Anything high in histamines and anti inflammatories are definitely out.
A wee funny, before they diagnosed me, they done all sorts of tests and even injected a bit of Caramel Wafer biscuit into me, as I had been eating one and had a full on anaphylactic shock.
Anyway turns out it was my own mast cells.
Back to Mikey, I’m delighted.
JNP, Just jumped on quickly to say all the very best, mate. Your illness is a new one on me. Will get educated when I get a minute ? Take care, pal.
HH
JNP
Like others on here, I knew you were having some problems, but honestly didn’t appreciate how tough it was for you. I hope the New Year brings you some relief.
Just finished touching up the quiz and I must say I’m happy with her.
Hope everyone joins in now, ,,
Freezing here. I guess I should be grateful global warming hasn’t completely had it’s way yet.
Hail Hail
Evening bhoys n ghirls.
JNP
I hope things get better for you, take care
HH
…………………………………………………………..
How the eff is that not a red card for the West Ham keeper, crazy decision
JimmynotPaul
Your epi pen at the ready caught my attention.
Since rumors of an American takeover of the NHS would like to give an example of the workings of the strictly for profit USA system that has no interest in health or care unless there are huge profits to me made.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/08/fda-approves-generic-version-of-mylans-600-epipens-but-the-price-is-tbd/
Fan.
It’s outrageous, taking advantage of the sick, like that.
Clearly profit before people.
It’s only a matter of time before U.K. goes down that route.
The NHS slogan in a few years is gonna be “Can’t pay…You die”
The Exiled Tim
But think of the positives as with all those benefit savings they can give even bigger tax cuts to the wealthy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-merseyside-38457928?
Now that’s a man I admire Shame Declan McManus turned out to be a prick
Awe Naw
The man has my admiration.
Hopefully Mikey Johnston gets a game tomorrow. He’ll be champing at the bit!
Mahe, with the greatest respect, I would ask for a show of hands for the quiz. The blog is dead at the moment as far as I see. Might be better saving your work for another time mate. I’m not very good myself, just join in to make up the numbers.
Jim , I wouldnt dream of ignoring your wisdom. I totally see what you mean and believe tomorrows clash has most minds occupied. Its best ready and stored away to be unleashed at a more convenient time shall we agree?
Hail Hail
Mahe, I think the resultant posts are the answer 🙁 I was sorely tempted to go on to CQN and give it a mention because I remember how your quizzes were popular on there back in the day. But I felt it would be a bit cheeky! I know how much work you put into it, so would rather see it used better at some time in the future.
Mahe
I agree with Jim, I was just going to ask if there was a quiz tonight, me thinks it needs to be pushed more, I have seen one post about it, it would be a shame to waste all your good work, after the new year when there is little football possibly.
HH
Lads,not too often I agree wi Jim as he usually talks too much sense. But he’s surpassed himself today.
Good shout,mucker.
And there was me watching Celebrity Mastermind to get in shape for the quiz…..