The difference between representation and reality was stark.
The hype from the stenographers was that this would be a pulsating derby match between two footballing giants.
In reality, it was a routine commute for Celtic and they didn’t move out of second gear.
Pedro’s boys had ONE attempt on goal throughout the mismatch and the two-nil scoreline flattered the Engine Room Subsidiary.
Of course, part of the problem is that the Fitba Fourth Estate insists on pretending that Celtic were playing Rangers.
Another deficiency in the narrative was the putative net spend by Sevco in the summer.
Figures like £9m are blithely quoted in the media.
This pish has a high-Level origin and now Pedro is entangled in what was spun during the last transfer window.
For the avoidance of doubt, the real figure is much lower.
However, at the time it made The People feel good on two fronts.
Firstly, if that type of money was available to rebuild the squad then the club must be in rude financial health.
Secondly, players costing X amount must, ipso facto, be an improvement on what the Admirable Warburton had brought in.
Yesterday the match served one function:
It allowed The People to sing about their favourite member of the KKK.
When tens of thousands of them are in full voice about Billy Fullerton then it is entirely appropriate to refer to them as “the klan”.
At the other end, there was some banner brilliance that answered the tifo of the home support.
Sadly, there was also criminality from the Broomloan Road stand.
There are a number of excellent reasons why throwing a flare onto a football field is illegal.
I hope the perpetrator is caught and brought before the courts.
Thankfully no one was injured by this act of criminal atavism.
Football is, after all, part of the entertainment business and to that end, Carlos Alberto Peña Rodríguez was unleashed.
Actually, no one really noticed.
Pedro decided to deploy Carlos in the hole.
Well, Ibrox isn’t looking that well these days…
In terms of take-home pay, he was easily one of the best-paid players on the park.
Although the reported transfer fee was fanciful his weekly drain on Sevco’s dwindling resources is real enough.
Scotland’s best-paid player, Bruno Alves, showed excellent positional sense by being in Madrid throughout the proceedings at Ibrox…
The match itself was really no contest and the only upset was that it was 0-0 at halftime.
In the second half Celtic restored order in the Fitba universe.
Tom Rogic benefited from some comedy defending and Celtic’s second goal was a thing of beauty.
It was crafted with a degree of guile and precision that Pedro’s boys could only gawp at in admiration.
For the avoidance of doubt, there is no “Old Firm” and yesterday was just another Saturday for Celtic.
That is a truth that the local media seem incapable of grasping.
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I see the zombies are getting their sashes in a twist over a pic of you with SrTrC. They love you Phil. As for Saturday, they’re shite and they know it.
Yes, Carlos Peña did play in the Hole.
But I don’t think he’ll play at Celtic Park. ; )
The early tackle on pedro was a straight red …..Carry On up edmiston drive ….ooohhh matron
“Just another Saturday”.
How perfectly apposite.
Chapeau # 1, Pedro decided to deploy Carlos in the hole.
Well, Ibrox isn’t looking that great these days….
Chapeau # 2, Scotland’s best-paid player, Bruno Alves, showed excellent positional sense by being in Madrid throughout yesterdays proceeding at Ibrox.
I’m sure it’s hasn’t slipped your eye…
I was taking a wee stroll through the Companies House website and I was rather amused to come across the benevolent Mr Park’s middle name…
If your not aware, I shan’t ruin your fun of finding out
It’s worth a squint…
??
Aye the flare incident let us down a bit but other than that it was what was expected, a win off a mid table side. Phil, when’s this cold shoulder biting??
No doubt the all-seeing cameras will have captured the image of the flare thrower…
Hell mend him/her.
Curious about the lack of information to date on arrests.
Home Team Rangers. Away Team Celtic
Possession
Home 37% Away 63%
Shots
Home 6. Away 18
Shots on Target
Home 1. Away 7
Corners
Home 2. Away 11
Fouls
Home 12. Away 11
Goals
Home 0. Away 2
Mismatch embarrassment. They will take denial comfort from SMSM that they are getting closer. But the statistics say differently.
It’ll be two 5-0 pumpings at Celtic Park this season.
If only the other Celtic 16 shots had gone in that would have been 18-0 to Celtic.
– just extending Waddell’s logic.
Absence of contrition.
Tenners for fivers.
Flute playing gazza.
Kanchelskis standing on the ball.
Woods taking penalty against Maltesers.
Gough’s hand pumping ’10 in a row’
Sleekit Sally’s smirks.
Bougherra’s wink.
Lafferty’s wink.
Dallas dealing with Mahé.
Manchester……..
Hoist by their own petard of entitlement.
May the Espanyolification continue……hopefully becoming UE Sant Andreufication!
Oh Happy Day.
Karma’sabitch CSC.
Well said Phil –
It’s almost as if Celtic were told not to get out of 2nd gear or risk an injury as there was a big European game coming up. Och surely that couldn’t happen when playing such a ‘big’ fixture. As other posters have said – we no longer watch these games from behind the sofa. The klan on the other hand will dread these games – that sofa thing, DFS as a sponsor ?
I know this comes over as ripping the pee out of Sevco but the klan will genuinely have to acknowledge that they are a mid table side and heading for yet another financial incident.
I didn’t watch it. Couldn’t be arsed.
I knew the invincibles, operating at CL Group stage level football, would cruise it.
The cheating performances by Rangers FC are long gone. The Reckoning is coming. But this Sevco IS Sevco, it is not Rangers no matter how hard the pathetic chumps in the SMSM peddle it.
“Celtic have gaping holes Rangers will exploit” ………. oh how I laughed.
I must defend Sevco here, and say that I honestly believe “going for 55” is becoming achievable.
Defeats in a row to Celtic, that is…
£brox holds no fear for us anymore. I always dreaded going there. I never, ever bet on that game. But, when I found we were evens on Betfair on Wednesday I put everything in my account on an away win (£56). First time I have ever bet on that match. That’s how much things have changed!
I see the ref was at his best again in stopping the flow when he could have played advantage,that’s twice now, naughty ref.
English is right to castigate Griffiths. Plenty legends in waiting playing in the team and even have songs about them. No need to stoop to crass behaviour when rattling in goals and doing your job is all it needs.
Why did Padre Pedro not include Dorrans , Jack , Windass etc in his starting eleven? Surely they would have made it even a wee bit closer ?
Oh wait a minute ………. Keep up the pressure Phil. HH
Mark @ 1.09 p.m.:
Whataboutery has a bad, bad reputation, quite rightly.
People who take fireworks into a football match are brainless criminals and deserve severe punishment.
I must admit that ever since I was a boy(not yesterday) I have always went into games against them with an equal measure of dread and excitement.
Excitement at the prospect of the game , and the rapture of winning , and dread of the truly awful feeling that comes with loosing to them. I always felt like this regardless of the form ,or who was in the ascendency, best squad etc .
Even during the game I took nothing for granted until the final whistle.
Not yesterday though , I knew there was no chance of defeat regardless of the ref or anything else. Standing watching what passes as a team for them, the full realisation that its not them came to me, because except for the numbers that pass through their gates they look like a team that has just struggled their way through the lower divisions . Which is exactly who they are ,that’s them and that is what we are now up against.
A mid table outfit with an outsize support ,of course they are the same ,or may be not ,because there were signs there yesterday after the second goal went in ,of a resigned acceptance of what was unfolding before them, they expected it , and they got it, a second gear performance from Celtic ,a stroll.
Pedro deflective elbow tactic ,no one gives him the elbow , I would expect it any time now Pedro your days are most certainly numbered ,a shame really , hes been a lark. be lucky Phil
If they had one iota of self realisation they would actually be quite Chuffed by their progress from the lower regions of Scottish fitba
See someone made a comment about Tom English cannot believe someone still reads his nonesense or listens to the BBC, I gave up on them when all the EBT stars were employed to spew pish about old firm and crap and the same club existence myth to earn their tax money. Boycott them or at least if you listen dont spread their crap, if you tweet to them give them the truth they hate it.
The fact there is no Old Firm is a simple truth that national media seem incapable of grasping.
May I also ask why one of the worst peddlers of misinformation and myths, Tom English, is paid by BBC Scotland for his opinions on TV and Radio. The shite he writes is bad enough but at least I don’t have to listen to it!
Pedro’s post match interview was a thing of beauty.
Frankly he went full Kevin Keegan and when you go full Keegan it will only end one way.
#prayforpedro
Phil,
I’ve never doubted you at all!
And yes, yesterday was just another Saturday for Celtic.
Therein lies the real truth of the matter for me. For the first 25mins of yesterday’s mismatch I was busy working on my car. This would never have happened when Rangers were alive, indeed, I would have been more likely to spend the first 25mins of an “Old Firm” game on the toilet.
That feeling is gone, we are now robbed of the existence of the “Old Firm” and everything good and bad that went with the fixture. The continuation myth will never be accepted by any supporters outside of Ibrox and Rugby Park, and yet the media continue to hold themselves up to ridicule for trying to say otherwise.
Furthermore, a knock on effect is the fact that, sadly, the elation of beating Rangers has also been taken from us. Whilst I was delighted with yesterday’s thrashing, ultimately, it is now on a par with beating E. Stirling, Forfar, Ayr etc. The soul feeling of something terrific is gone. Sevco mean absolutely nothing, they are One Direction claiming to be musical genius, they are Danny Dyer shouting he’s the greatest Shakespearean actor.
All they offer, and I suppose we should be grateful, is solid gold comedy. From their PR nonsense to the lunatic rantings of a total chancer of a manager, even allowing for English not being his first language, perspective and reality are the same in any language.
Their latest gibberish over recent days from Pedro pretending he has passion by accosting our player (where was 4th official)? to pre-match junk about how we’d treat the diving Buffoonalo is desperately embarrassing at best.
Had I had the misfortune to have been brought up as a Rangers supporter, I would now be feeling completely cheated and deceived over the David Murray years and would be furious with the man. I would also have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what is now poncing around in Ibrox, “fool me once”, and all that.
Are we getting close to “cold shoulder” time now? That should bring some entertainment.
What tales will Hans Christian Traynor weave now to calm the mob:
no lucrative Europea run
no SPFL title challenge
no sugar daddy
no more soft drectors offering soft loans
no audited accounts yet
no chance of Europe next year on current form
no manager (v soon)
no consequences of the cold shoulder felt yet
no Chairman (v soon)
no Judicial Review – yet
Hans Chistian must have a stonkin pipeline of pish waiting to gush forth to counter that lot.
No surrender…they have nothing else bar their bigitted sectarianism, despite half their team and manager being followers of the roman church.
CC…..”Pipeline of Pish”…..brilliant! Lol.
What makes it even funnier for me is …..
1) The hierarchy must know the PR isn’t working.
2) The clown responsible for it must know, despite his arrogance.
3) The hierarchy continue to pay for this nonsense.
It’s a bizzare feeling that they mean nothing yet I think I’ll miss them when they go.
As things stand the Dons will be 6 points ahead of Pedro’s men today.
A bad result at Hamilton on Friday could see Tavernier’s title chasers drop out of the top 6.
Not exactly what the Pedro experiment was expected to provide.
Tom English, the uncle when it comes to calling out fascist chanting, I fear.
Apparently, the match statistics ie possession, shots at goal, shots on target were exactly the same as in the 5-1 game at Ibrox last season. The only difference this time was Celtic’s conversion rate.
I noticed that and thought, “Foderingham has improved.”
I had to laugh at the interview Pedro gave the media about Bruno and his injury. He’s apparently at Ronaldo’s physio.
Not just any old physio Declan, but Ronaldo’s physio. The same physio Ronaldo uses. The same Ronaldo who plays for Portugal and Madrid, Real Madrid’s real physio who treats Ronaldo.
Big club timmy and dont you forget it.
Just read the Tom English column on the BBC website. He is very critical of Griffiths behaviour makes much (rightly) of the flare incident and makes absolutely no mention of the vile sectarian singing from the Sevco support.
Whatever happened to balanced reporting?
He also claims that Brown is dealt with leniently by officials, when the stats tell differently but that wouldn’t concern Tom, as his only doubt seems to be the official stats of the game “if they are to be believed”. Eh?
Espanyolification!! It’s not even a contest. Well said about the flare. Just stupid behaviour. It’s bad enough that travelling fans have to worry about the dodgy roof collapsing without having to avoid injury from one of their own.
Phil, I would have
thought the other acts of criminality, specifically missles being launched from the Copeland road would have been worthy of note….
Does not excuse the tits in our support.
Yes, you have to agree they stick to their word when they say “follow, follow”‘, one left and the rest followed, so much for not walking away… Reports are that the Paisley road was full of unhappy campers wondering where it all went wrong….
For me the re-enactment of check point Charlie by those hi-vis guardians of the goalposts really made it a comedy act on par with any Ealing classic…
It’s funny how rumours fly around when people are missing, and the latest is that Alves has kicked his last ball such is his injury and that he is only fit for gardening, time will tell…
Another hilarious example of what goes wrong when you believe the hype, and as for Pedro telling the “Blufallo”‘ (yes bluf) to be cool headed…Yes Pedro lost more than the game, his footing, his dignity, he lost the entire plot…
Meant to say Phil “Just Another Saturday” was not lost on me, very apt title and an excellent reminder of Mr Mc Kenzies 1975 classic staring one William Connolly …Or Billy to his audience…
I for one did not realise Pedro was on the park until he was subbed, the groundsman really needs to sort those holes if players are getting lost in them
Time for a Cerveza