We went through the mill again yesterday afternoon in Motherwell, but we got there in the end, and secured the valuable three points, we now have eleven cup finals to play to win our third title in a row. Anyone who watched the game will have acknowledged it was the proverbial game of two halves, we were poor in the first half, and obviously improved greatly in the second half, which ensured the vital victory.
I suppose every Celtic supporter will be thinking the same as me, why didn’t we start the first half the way we started and finished the second half? I know we changed Idah for Kyogo, and I would say also that Yang was an improvement wide right, and a definite bonus was having Cameron Carter-Vickers back in the team, I think we’ll need to wrap him in cotton wool for the rest of the season.
I had to laugh at the Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell in his after match interview, when he said people might think we were happy with a point, well Stuart, when you line up at home with a five-four-one system, it kind of gives the game away, you were happy with a point, and Brendan wasn’t, probably that’s why the opinion outside of Scotland is, that the SPL is a Pub League, with only two team trying to win every match. Kettlewell’s tactics were predictable, get a giant up front, and launch the ball up to him at every opportunity, and it worked in the first half, we need to be savvier, and stronger in those situations, the bullying stopped with the arrival of CCV.
The travelling Celtic Support were not happy with the first half, but they gave the team brilliant support in the second half, and played their part in winning the game, that’s the way we need to be in every game, 100% backing for the team at all times, that’s the way we can all celebrate success at the club, from the very top to the very bottom. I said last week, if your not a Celtic Supporter in Scotland, your anti-Celtic, and that goes for SPL Managers, as well as other supporters, at least six of the twelve in the SPL would be well known as supporters of Sevco, two played for the Old Rangers, and another four wished they had played for them.
We also have the influence of the match officials to contend with, again not too many would be of a Celtic persuasion, and if you don’t do all you can to help out Sevco, then your chances of promotion up the tanks are very much limited, just ask Crawford Allan. Willie Collum was his usual self yesterday, every 50/50 decision went against Celtic, the Motherwell player Jack Vale clearly dived in our box, Collum didn’t give it, but he didn’t yellow card him either, so Vale continued to dive, and he wasn’t the only Motherwell player to do it.
So, it’s Dundee at Celtic Park on Wednesday night, they will employ similar deep defensive tactics, we need to start that match the way we played in the second half at Motherwell and keep that up for the 90+ minutes. The message remains the same, if we are to win this double, we need to all be singing from the same song sheet, it’s about the team and success, nothing else matters, absolutely nothing.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.