Today was a big opportunity for Celtic’s eleven-year-old neighbours.
It was quickly apparent that the home side had the upper hand apropos energy and running power.
Several sources have intimated to me that there is a nasty winter bug rampaging through Ange Postecoglou’s charges.
A few of them certainly looked seriously off the pace during the match.
At times like that, you need a bit of help.
Sevco’s svelte South American created an early opening for Celtic.
Fierce dacent of the fella!
Last week I was told that Mr Beale’s fitness coach had compiled a rather damning report on Alfredo’s physical condition.
This was visibly evident today.
The featured image is my Tweet on full-time.
This was a match that Sevco HAD to win.
The gap remains at nine, with a vastly superior goal difference.
It was one of those games when an equaliser felt a bit like a late winner.
For whatever reason, Celtic failed to turn up at the stadium John Brown played for and yet were not beaten.
Avoiding defeat will give Mr Beale some breathing space with the Ibrox klanbase.
As I’ve already reported, the brethren in the Blue Room are delighted with how he stays on message, unlike his Dutch predecessor.
Meanwhile, in another part of the Fitba multiverse, the match referee awards a penalty kick against Conor Goldson for this one.
Really?
Seriously?
In this showpiece fixture for Scottish football, someone in Hampden should be embarrassed.
However, that which is cultural is not amenable to reason.
Jim Farry, Hugh Dallas etc…
A colleague in England told me that referees must declare their club allegiance.
Consequently, they are prohibited from officiating in matches involving the stated club.
As ever, viewers in Scotland…
This bit of digital delinquency sums up the bizarre nature of the Goldson penalty call.
The local media should be running with this sort of incident and examine the decision-making process behind it.
However, succulent protocols are in place for the Stenography Corps.
For the avoidance of doubt, Chris Sutton doesn’t do succulent.
Chapeau.
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The argument with the penalty is that Goldson was protecting his face and for the most part not making his body any bigger which is all allowed by the rules however he ended up pushing it over the bar which I am certain isn’t allowed…well unless you play for Sevco. Great save.
As for the game all I will say is that it was the wrong Celtic team, a tradition adhered to by both Lennon and Rogers.
People criticising Joe Hart haven’t fully listened to Ange. He has previously stated that we will, on occassion, lose possession and possibly even goals due to the bravery he expects the players to show at all times. It’s all about the risk/ reward of maintaining possession whenever and wherever possible. Overall, Joe has been immense for us since he signed – both on and off the pitch 🍀
His loss of possession in this particular situation was foolhardy and not as you write due to bravery. When you play football, you have let’s call it ‘a window’ to play a pass. When the window closes the pass is no longer an option and will be intercepted. Route one is then the preferred option. Hart was punted from Manchester City because of this ‘flaw’ in his game and his penchant for howlers. Risk/reward has nothing to do with possession, the player or goalie must be technically good (to execute the pass) and know where the pass is going before he/she receives the ball. This is called vision!
It’s all good.
The team was way off the pace for the majority of the game – yet didn’t give up, and didn’t lose.
The fact that Morelos was playing yesterday – and from the start – shows just how thin [pun intended 🙂 ]
the sevco squad has become.
As for VAR;
all these ‘inconsistencies’ for ALL clubs, must bring things to a head, eventually.
You would think?
But, how long that takes is the worry.
And whilst we are all treated to the SFA version of VAR,
the unaccountable members of the Scottish Referees’ Association will CONTINUE
to be overlooked for the World Cup and the Euros tournaments.
It seems that both FIFA & UEFA don’t rate our match officials either?
I read and re-read Tom English’s official BBC and the Gouldson handball incident wasn’t mentioned. It’s like it didnt happen!
official BBC report!
All you gotta do is turn up at the usual press conference with a power point presentation showing the lowlights and bad decisions is slo mo every week and it (corruption) will soon stop.
Damn, I had 54 minutes in the sevco penalty pool… missed winning by two minutes.
Great two-handed save by Goldson, mind you — Alan McGregor must be worried about his place in the starting 11 now.
Honestly fed up with their cheating, when on a position of high you bring it out. Not when you are down, cmon Celtic…the time is now !!!
You have to laugh. The new clubs supporters can be seen in the video highlight comments sections filled with “Beale is the answer” and “We proved we are the best team in the country”. They are all so high on their draw with the Champions side, that clearly were off their game today, that they think they are now the finished product and just a small tweak with a signing or two this window will make them world-class. Meanwhile, I thought Johnston had an amazing showing on his first outing, the new Japanese Player of the Year still to show us what he has got. Ange just going about his business going from strength to strength.
Today WAS an opportunity for the 11 year old’s and they nearly took it. Or rather, Celtic nearly gifted it to them. We were controlling the game until Hart had a brainfart. That gave them confidence. He needs benched. Juranovic was a disaster and should be punted to the first team to offer £12m. (But why would they?) Starfelt is a bomb scare and we can only hope that the new Japanese guy is better. Forrest should never start at Ibrox. O’Reilly is off his game. 2CV was immense. We need a top striker.
We are not as good as we think we are.
But, they still can’t beat us even when we are poor.
The entire game turned on the Hart incident. We were in complete cruise control until that point. As soon as it happened a tension crept into a side which had been playing relaxed but confident, controlling football.
He was rooted to his line when More-or-less had two free headers both of which he should have buried. He won’t come for cross balls unless there’s no one in front of him, even then not always. I’ve long lost count of the number of times, balls which should be his all day long, have crossed in front of him and resulted in a back post header. If he does come into a crowded area he invariably makes a hash of it. A top class keeper OWNS his box and will take out anything in front of him to get to the ball. For a big guy Hart has NO physical presence.
Cards on the table. I didn’t rate him in his prime. He was lucky enough to be playing behind probably some of the best defenders in the world at the time, who were more responsible for him winning the golden gloves awards than anything he did himself. Gardiola clocked his deficiencies immediately. Other than a spell with Torino he struggled to get a game ANYWHERE after he left City. My brother-in-law is a life long Spurs fan and told me that they couldn’t believe ANYONE would pay money for him. I’ve seen NOTHING since he came to make me revise my opinion. He pulls off the odd stunning save, but even poor keepers do that. He can spread himself and use his size when someone is running in on him, but when it comes to the bread and butter stuff he’s no more than a mediocre keeper.
I have always said Scandinavian referees should be brought in as there is no trust in Scottish referee’s. The SFA wont admit they nor their referee’s are up to the task. most referee’s in Scotland have an allegiance to one club this is not acceptable. Beaton and his sidekicks knew the world was watching so he ducked out leaving decisions to var. what is the point of him being on the field.
Your headline question might just prove to be so…We weren’t at our best…got denied a blatant penalty…yet still didn’t lose….That’s what Champions are made of.
That’s 55 for Celtic…just saying
Any other club would have a spokesman asking difficult questions for the officials… blatant cheating is unacceptable in any sport but there’s not a chance anyone from our club will say anything .
Our Board is happy with the result and of course the cheating will then continue.
We’d be 20 points clear if the referees had acted fairly this season ….
Every week the club should put someone up at the weekly press conference and highlight these incidents and compare them with similar incidents that have gone against us and simply ask why this is happening.
I’m not sure we’ve had two decisions go for us. The four minutes spent examining Hatate’s goal last week as a disgrace. It is not even in the same postcode for being offside.
These decisions aren’t even close.
The Rangers penalty today was not a penalty. Sakala actually stands on Starfelt and then goes over. Sure Starfelt shouldn’t have gone to ground but that doesn’t make it a foul.
Agreed, why is no one talking about the hun penalty? No contact except that the hun stood on Carl’s foot and went to ground,
Why is Davies behind Goldson in one picture and Kamara behind him in the other?
Seriously? Angles.