As a Celtic Supporter, you would have to say the last two games in four days have been very enjoyable, eight goals scored and none conceded, and increasing our lead at the top of the table to fourteen points, it doesn’t get much better than that. 2024 has been magnificent for Celtic Football Club, only two games lost in a calendar year is really top class, and a statistic to be really proud of, and one of them, the game against Hearts was one we should not have lost. Off the field of play the Football Club has also performed magnificently, we have never been in such a strong financial position, and with that strong financial position, we can continue to strengthen the playing squad with real quality players, and continue to dominate Scottish Football, and make real progress in Europe.
Yesterday afternoon against St Johnstone was another good performance from the whole team, there were no failures whatsoever out on the pitch. I think the most frustrating aspect of the game was the time wasting by the Saints goalkeeper Josh Rae, and even more frustrating was the fact that referee Mathew Mac Dermid allowed him to do it every time he had the ball. Mac Dermid continually pointed at his watch to indicate he would add on time, then added on one minute at the end of the first half. Every goalkeeper who comes to Celtic Park does the same thing, the only way to stop it is to show a yellow card to the keeper early, after one or two warnings, but that never happens, so there is no deterrent to the keeper, something Willie Collum should be addressing on his YouTube videos.
It was good to see Arne Engels back to his best in the last couple of games, and it was great to see Nicolas Kuhn back in the team, Nico has been sensational this season, and in that kind of form it will be hard to stop big money bids coming in for him, we got Nico for around £3 million, which could probably be reported to the Police as theft. We can now go to Snake Mountain of Thursday with real confidence to win the game, even though we don’t have to win, but we obviously want the win, and to maintain our undefeated season, that will be the manager’s instructions to the team, and I fully expect Brendan to play his strongest eleven. I think we can all guess the line-up, with maybe who starts at left back as being the only doubt, barring injuries of course.
I was really shocked this morning when I checked the internet and couldn’t find any statement coming out of Ibrox, I mean surely they must have noticed that once again the incompetent Kevin Clancy disallowed a perfectly good goal by Jack Butland, aye that’s right an own goal by Butland when he punched the ball into his own net, is this the same Jack Butland that was worth £40 million last season? You have to conclude that Clancy and his accomplice on VAR cost Motherwell two points yesterday. I wonder if Willie Collum will be as critical of those two official’s as he was with Alan Muir and Frank Connor, will they be stood down from officiating at any games on Thursday? I very much doubt it.
So it’s a Hoopy New Year to all the Celtic Family when it comes on Wednesday, I hope Santa was good to you all, and that he has kept a wee present for us all on Thursday afternoon.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.
