SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

I was down the pub on Saturday with a few friends,watching the game from Dingwall. There were one or two other Celtic supporters and even a Hibs fan-aye,really!-but no sign of any Rangers fans. Not too many of them in Swindon anyway,in my experience,and sadly one less following the untimely death of a good friend,Graham.

Anyway,suffice to say that when Ross County went in front we raised a loud cheer. Got asked to keep it down a bit,as a matter of fact. But that was NOTHING compared to the raucous roar heard when County equalised!

I’m surprised they didn’t hear it in Dingwall!!!

Anyway,that was enough for me for the day,fresh off a nightshift. Off home to watch us scud Dundee Utd. Of course,I expected a difficult game as United are no pushovers. International call-ups,injuries and playing previously injured players back into the side,as well as possibly having an eye on Wednesday night,led to a very unfamiliar line-up. And with two of our attacking players having far from their best game,and a midfield that struggled to find any creativity,we really struggled.

To be fair,Jamesie has not been at his best since his long injury lay off while G-Mak has struggled with injury,etc,and is still playing himself into contention for a place in the team. Reo suffered perhaps from the failure of those around him,while Bitton was as expected. Scales and Forrest on the left struggled together as to a lesser extent did Ralston and Abada on the right.

In short,nothing was going right. And just as I’m trying to figure out where I can find a cat to kick,Jota burst explosively down the right and hit an inch-perfect cross into the box. Abada took a great first touch and fairly hammered it into the net-and my roar on its own was louder than the one in the pub about two and a half hours earlier!

From going six points behind on Boxing Day,which really hurt our title ambitions,we are now only two points behind. That is a terrific turnaround in a month,and in trying circumstances. And while we have the momentum and the form going into Wednesday night,a wiser man than I once said that “Only a fool would forecast the outcome of an O** F*** game”

So I won’t! If for no other reason than that ATHINGOFBEAUTY would pulverise me…

But-what if we DO win? Top of the league for the first time this season,and against all the odds,given the mess that AP inherited? Aye,it would only be by a point,a very slender lead indeed. But Hearts visit Ibrox at the weekend while we are away to Motherwell. I’m never one for taking things for granted,but those two fixtures could be every bit as key to the title race as Wednesday night is.

The first thing we have to do is to win on Wednesday. To make sure that the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune pass idly by,fired as they might be by someone or other with an insolence of office. We can’t allow any decisions by Madden to upset our momentum,inhibit our game plan or neuter our confidence. We can’t get put off our game by getting involved in a kicking match,we have to go out there to play our own game and to hell with the opposition-all fourteen of them!

There will be other big games ahead this season though,and to use an unavoidable cliché,we need to treat every one of them like a cup final-but without the luxury of extra time or a replay. We need to treat every game with the same urgency as we will tomorrow night. Because it isn’t only the league table which is currently against us,or the officials,or teams raising their game. We have another problem with the schedule. As the table stands at the minute,our third round of matches against EVERYONE in the top six will be away from home,while TRIFCo will be at home to each of them. Which means that they will play at least two of them three times at home while we will play at least two of them three times away!

Now,I doubt that this is deliberate. It would take some doing for someone at the SPFL to accurately forecast the top six,although mine would only be out by the inclusion of Dundee Utd for Motherwell. But the fact that it has happened absolutely stinks! And I might do an article soon on a way to avoid it,or at least to be consistent and stick to a formula.

Meanwhile,I’ll hit you all with another cliché. That we will take it one game at a time.

Starting tomorrow.

Above article by BMCUWP