When really good teams play badly they still find a way to win.
Lesser teams can play to their best and still not get it over the line.
For the avoidance of doubt, Celtic are a really good team and Sevco aren’t.
Privately Mr Gerrard will know that.
The Sevco manager is on record stating that a lack of silverware at the basket of assets continues to be a source of pain for the Ibrox klanbase.
Consequently, they’re still in pain tonight the poor dears.
Of course, it is a bit of a stretch to feel sorry for people who think that An Gorta Mór was a giggling matter.
Only Mr Gerrard will now know if he thinks he has wandered into the wrong movie.
The same horror show that gave walk-on parts to the Admirable Warburton and Poor Pedro.
As a player, Mr Stevie won cups at Liverpool including the one that Rangers died trying to secure.
Now, I will leave it to the putative experts in the Stenography Corps give you their expert opinion on the watch you have just watched today.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do not claim to have any special knowledge base on o jogo bonito.
I’m not au fait with the subtle distinctions between a Deep Pressing Forward and a False Nine.
Formations and systems leave me baffled.
However, I do know what liquidation means.
In the run-up to this final the official Orwellian narrative is that Celtic would be playing the club they last met in this fixture a decade ago.
That is quite a trick for a club formed in 2012.
Therefore, I think it is fair to say that this isn’t the result that the Stenography Corps wanted.
The pages would already have been made up.
The headlines would have screamed that “Rangers are back!”
C P Scott the legendary editor of the Manchester Guardian once famously observed:
“Comment is free, but facts are sacred”.
It isn’t a matter of opinion that Rangers died in 2012 when the CVA was rejected by the creditors.
This cup final defeat is undoubtedly a crushing psychological blow to Mr Gerrard’s charges.
If you don’t believe me then watch young Master Tavernier immediately after their defeat to Celtic:
“I’m devasted! Really devasted!”
At one-nil down, they had a penalty and a man advantage.
It was the time for strong nerves to be in evidence.
The sort of ice-cool focus that a striker worth, oh say, £40m has in abundance.
It remains to be seen how long that depression will linger over the Sevco squad.
Conversely, Celtic know that they can fail to turn up and still leave with the cup.
Therefore, this is probably a timely juncture for your humble correspondent to depart for the Word Mines.
A manuscript deadline is starting to hove into view and there’s still some heavy lifting to do.
So, in my absence think fondly of me in self-imposed isolation inhabiting an entirely imaginary world of fictitious characters and breathless plotlines.
However, I will not invent anything as creative as the yarn spun today at Hampden.
The chaps in the press box were telling the world that Celtic were playing Rangers.
Today the Hoops beat Sevco.
Rangers died in 2012.
Have a great week!
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Do not believe it, SG is a stronger manager than that.
He is building a half decent side and we should take notice. We got lucky on Sunday real lucky. Time to prize open the old biscuit tin to secure 9IR
Big Pete’s jacket Is surely beginning to shake on that peg.
We should be looking at our own problems not the opposition nonsense
Quick footnote
When did a yard shrink to 10cm ?
Answers on a postcard to Mr.English at BBC
Sports desk. This clown thinks the Celtic goal was a yard offside.
I agree. I know that ‘you make your own luck’, but we’re running it far too tight. If it wasn’t for things going our way by the tightest of margins, we could have dropped 2 points against Hamilton and lost a cup final. So yeah, we need to recognise that things are running with very slim margins for error and start getting things sorted.
A truer word was rarely spoken. The team playing yesterday were not Rangers, of 1872. Celtic were at the absolute lower end of their talents and Sevco couldn’t capitalise. The team selection was wrong and nobody looked comfortable. And we won. Arfield and Morelos both risked a red (I actually though Morelos would have been 2 yellows..I’m not buying the deliberate nature of his achiles raking on Jullien)- Arfield’s tackle in the post penalty scramble one of the worst I’ve seen, 2 feet off the ground and going in purely with intent to hurt. All ignored or missed by the officials. The stenography corps don’t mention this though. And still we won. Yes, we need to strengthen our front line in January and yes we need to be better motivated on the 29h but we failed to turn up and yet we have the cup.
Against Sevco’s ancestors I watched time and again as Celtic dominated and failed to score only for them to get a dodgy goal following a foul/a dive/a handball or for our equalisers to be incorrectly called offside. The same klanbase who follow followed Rangers with heart and soul (if not money) follow follow the tribute act, so yesterday was a thing of beauty for me.
A bit iffy crediting them with souls!
Soles yes, never happier than when coming into contact with any part of the anatomy of a Celtic fan.
Jim Callaghan’s comment “a lie can be half way round the world before the truth has it’s boots” resonates today more than ever as the lazy media to a man define the key narrative of the match as being TRFC robbed by an offside goal.
I don’t know whether it felt better winning and knowing for sure it was offside or now seeing the new footage that Helander played Julien on.
Seems Gerrard was right to scream for VAR it would have quickly confirmed the goal.
You can be certain the SMSM will not change their ‘received wisdom’ on this one
“Boots on” is the complete quote as I have previously read it.Verum2,seriously,I’m not trying to act the pedant.HH
A win is a win and happy Sevco didn’t. However I still maintain Lennon is the wrong choice for Celtic football club. His defensive set up was all wrong from the KO. Never seen such an insipid display from Celtic. The tears and snotters from the blue side just adds to the good feeling that another nail was hammered into the coffin.
You are rightly entitled to your opinion and I respectfully diagree Jim. I think we have steel and substance in Europe which I’ve not seen for a while. We need to improve, especially up front, I’ll grant you. But I feel the backwards step we took over the 14 months prior to BR’s departure has been reversed.
We shall see which of us is right and I’m sure we can agree we hope it is me. HH and have a lovely Christmas when it comes.
I’m loving how both Steven Gerrard and James Tavernier are rhyming off “our day will come” as a scripted reply, when questioned about how they feel about the result.
Another treble and they’ll be onto “our revenge will be the laughter of our children”.
“Our day will come” is going viral on social media, and it must put a beaming smile on the face of Irish nationalists….
Tiocfaidh ár lá as they say…..comedy gold from the comic tribute act..
Just love the moaning on the blue boards about the officials doing them down.
Have yet to see any pictures of Collum and his linesmen celebrating in their local Celtic boozer, unlike Beaton who knows no shame and delighted in celebrating with his fellow fans, even posing for photos.
All the pre-match chuntering was about how young Frimpong would cope against the world’s greatest player that is Ryan Kent. I have duly reported Jeremie to Police Scotland for trying to sneak out of Hampden with a sevco player in his pocket! He truly is a little scallywag! 😉
Oh my days! 😂
I was so confident until I saw the team selection. Lennon seemed to have used the same shape as Rodgers did when Sevco ran all over them, only this time using Lewis Morgan as the lone striker as opposed to Mickey Johnston and both times they were ineffective, through no fault of their own, and substituted for Edouard. James Forrest has proved consistently he is just not up for this game and yet he still gets picked. I think Celtic started two men short because of this. Surely Sinclair and Bayo, albeit he is raw, would have been better choices. Even an unfit Griffiths would have given their defence some concern. The tactics reminded me of Blackadder’s General Melchett stating, “because we have used the same disastrous plan 18 times before, the “Hun” will not think we will use it again and that is precisely why we will”.
Bottom line is that a club the size of Celtic should have appropriate cover for all positions.
We got away with the prize yesterday. The winter break cant come soon enough for our guys.
Remembering all the times the boot has been on the other foot I don’t feel guilty at the result, however, I would really liked to have done them over big time ! Because they really think the are better than us, and, whilst a result very much in our favour would have really put them back in their box, they will now be really fired up for the league game on the 29th Dec. My concern about that, is if history has taught us anything, it is, that in these games form/skill factor goes out the window, it’s about who turns up and wants it more on the day ! If this game scenario was to repeat itself we surely wouldn’t be so lucky second time around.But surely we can’t play that poorly again especially against “them” However in the meantime I will just rejoice that for once in my lifetime in games against “them” we were outplayed but still won Hail Hail. N
Never having played Sevco in a final before, the boot has never been on the other foot.
I didn’t mean to infer that Sevco were the same as “Rangers” but if you have watched Celtic as long as I have you will surely know what I meant !
Ozcelt – 100% correct. So many times in 90’s we were on top but no cigar. I say we ask Chris Sutton to shut up and find his boots. In my humble opinion highly effective hunskelper on and off the park.
“You know, you know, you know“…….42 times in under 3 minutes. If only the interviewer had asked a further question or 2 he might have hit 55. What a banal and dispassionate character.
Anyone else notice at approximately 50 secs in the interviewer referring to them as, “The Rangers”? 😂
What I did notice towards the end of that intellectual insight (masquerading as a post-match interview) was the presence of a particular character from the Star Wars movie franchise. Step forward… JABBA THE HUTT!!
The bottom line is this, sevco didn’t score a goal, El duffalo didn’t score a goal, El duffalo didn’t score a Penalty, and sevco couldn’t score against 10 men, and the best part is Celtic did score a goal an offside goal at that, what a wonderful world.LoL
Today was a step back in time for me . I was lucky enough to witness the god like English goalkeeper Gordon Banks as a kid .::.. Can we build a statue for big Fraser ??
More tears from Sevco. It’s infectious down there. Greetin and snotters wiped on manky shirts. You could make a clothes washing advert out of them.
£43.5m overspend to be perennial losers. If it wasn’t so utterly funny it would be pitiful.
Not giving the ball back and not clapping Celtic up for the cup shows their lack of class and decency I’m afraid.
It’s great to be a Tim and let these glorious years never end.
Celtic didn’t get out of second gear.
Thankfully The Great Wall was deployed.
Well done to all though, the spirit of champions.
On a positive for RIFCPLC thank goodness they lost as player bonuses would have bankrupted them. Only kidding guys, we know there’s no financial problems, Mr King is picking up the tab for your superstars.
Heading for the auld leaba…..what a day…what a f**king day..🍀😂
How many times did he say ‘You Know’ in the interview?
Surely another world record claimed by ‘The Rangers.’
I know 🤪🤪🤪
Cryin Jack
As above I did not see the game today I did listen to Radio Shortbread oh dear the sick bucket was getting passed about after the game . It almost felt like maybe someone had died (I Sevco but dont mention that ) . The doom and gloom in that studio was something else . Now let’s see what squirrel stories we get hit with tomorrow. No doubt fatman at Level 5 will have something up his sleeve to sooth the KLAN and the BENNY’S pain .
Huns
I have a horrible cold and watched the game in bed. On the phone, no less; there were many moments when I genuinely believed that I was hallucinating. I WAS overheated and woozy, after all.
However, when Tavernierinho gave the ball to El Duffalo, I had a moment of clarity.
We have won this game.
I notice that there was a very ‘Hitchcock-esque’ walk through by a high level PR being from a distant galaxy during Mr Ts ‘devastation’ there…
1 min 20
Well done Celtic …. I feel a quadruple treble shaping up!
Undoubtedly the worst Celtic performance this season, we were slack with the ball, slow in the press, both lucky and outstanding in defence and we had a talisman on the bench who proved what it is to actually have intrinsic value.
The best thing is giving them hope then taking it away, I’m sure I saw a piece from somewhere that said not only didn’t DD want them to die he wanted to see them suffer.
All we need is a home or away win for either Feyenord or Porto and for some Young Boys to turn up the heat on slippy and co on Thursday.
We on the other hand have the luxury of being able to field some of our own young bhoys and not have to worry a joy.
HH
Away win for Feyenoord would see the Ibrox club qualify as they have a better head to head. The only way they dont qualify is if both Young Boys and Porto win. Here’s hoping.
Actually, I hope they do qualify, for two reasons.
1. It keeps the number of games at equity so they will be just as tired as us
2. It does help improve our country co-efficient which means the league winners will have a slightly easier path to the Champions league group stages.
DD had the chance to make them die and didn’t take it. He still has the opportunity to make them suffer through Res 12 but he won’t take it.
Well said Phil. The truth shall set you free!!!
I didn’t see the game but I watched the post-match discussion on BT Sports. Messrs McCoist and Rae went to great lengths to convince viewers that Rangers* were dominant, that Julian was offside for the winning goal and that Big Fraser moved off his line before the penalty was taken. Chris Sutton just smirked at their pain. At the end of the day, there was only one factor that counted:
Celtic won Rangers* lost.
Here is the result of today’s Cup Final:
Celtic 1,
Rangers didnae!!!
great day, enjoy it all hoops fans, but we MUST STRENGTHEN this January, we must invest NOW, we must take the initiative moving forward. I feel there were some worrying signs, a strange selection and a VERY POOR performance, although injuries and conditions played their part, we did get out of jail!…. if lennon gets us to 10, he will be a legend next to Jock Stein, and as a lennon critic, i will be proved wrong and will be glad to eat humble pie and apologise, but there is a long way to go, we are only 2 points ahead, we have to be focussed, its still not won!…..WE MUST INVEST NOW AND KILL THEM OFF