SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

I mentioned last week how important Sunday just gone was,and how it could have an important bearing on our entire season,based purely on it being the first of four particular matches in a fortnight. If we won it,which we did,it gave us the first trophy of the season. If we won the other three too,it sets us up very well indeed for the rest of the season to come. 

But taking a slightly longer view,if we look to the schedule for our matches over the next calendar month,there are some vital matches due in that period. First up is an away trip to St Mirren on league duty,a match important not only for the three points available there but also to right the wrong of our only domestic defeat this season,and the only one in regulation time at all since our defeat at Ibrox at the start of Ange’s reign. 

I think he has managed us for 78 matches,including 66 victories,7 draws and only 5 defeats,an incredible sign of consistency. In the next month,he has away league matches at St Mirren and Ross County,and home games to Hearts and Hibs,with a visit to Tynecastle in the cup. Win these,with the additional help of a wee breather for international duties along the way,and we go into our last eight league matches and a cup semi-final in a continued run of form and confidence sky high. 

Our lead then would still be at least nine points,and the game to follow is against our closest rivals,the foe malign. Win that too and the lead is at least twelve points with only 21 to play for. Is it too much to hope that we can win the league before the split? 

I think it probably is. Sunday will have had a demoralising effect on the huns,particularly the venomous fall-out from it. Rarely can their players have experienced such a vitriolic reaction from their own supporters,via their social media accounts and their columns in the national press. They have somewhat flaky foundations at the best of times,but the call from the stands just the other week to reaffirm their standards,foolishly demanding an improvement on their two trophies in eleven years,is likely to be just the start of a continuing rift. 

Their fans are born and raised to the entitlement that they believe is bestowed simply by supporting the team that they do. They rarely look below the surface for what that entitlement,that success that they have ingrained from birth,is a result of. The hand-shakes in high places,deals done behind closed doors,loans arranged sub-rose and frequently off the books. Not to mention a casual disregard for the actual laws of both the game and the nation when it comes to paying the players in the first place. 

No,no. Nothing must come between them and their birthright,the duty of all concerned to fill that trophy room and to maintain that sense of entitlement. Not even Jock’s decade and more of dominance could shake those core beliefs,nor the almost unbroken run of success since the arrival of Martin O’Neill at the start of the century. 

Neither ,of course,could administration,liquidation and being thrown out of the Scottish pyramid system. So is it too much to hope that those six matches to come will change that? Indeed it is. Their demands for the big hoose to stay open,for the big trophy cabinet to remain full,will be as loud as ever. In fact,the clamour in the stands,bars,social media,will only grow as their timeline of failure grows along with it.

So those five matches,plus the one on 8th April,won’t be a death knell for them-they’ve had plenty of them in their time!-no matter how much we may wish it to be so. But there will be another nail in their coffin for every good result we achieve,and for every disaster they suffer. And what’s not to like about that?

Two years ago,we had finally seen the back of Neil Lennon,and were facing the fag-end of a disastrous campaign with a rookie caretaker manager. We were chasing our next managerial target,who ultimately led us up the garden path. We landed a manager of whom few of the support were aware,or even knew he existed. And the journey since has been a revelation!

So,they can have their unfulfilled sense of entitlement. They’re welcome to it. When any success is never enough,they are doomed to their life as they live it. I’m quite happy with the pleasures I derive from being a Celtic supporter,especially the ones which are gloriously unexpected. 

And Ange has certainly delivered a few of them in his time,and all of them have been a pleasure. May there be many more of them to come. 

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Above article by BMCUWP