Naismith doesn't take defeat well. Zadok the Priest returns to Celtic Park.

[Joe O'Rourke]

It’s been a great start to the season so far, Saturday might not have reached the heights of previous games, but it was a good victory, and another clean sheet as well, the best start to a season for over a hundred years, what’s not to like? We knew Hearts would come to defend, and that’s exactly what they did, but even employing those tactics couldn’t stop Celtic. We could have, and should have won more comfortably, but we got there in the end. It was brilliant to see Arne Engels and Luke Mc Cowan score their first goals for Celtic, we will need a strong midfield in the Champions League, we look as though we have that in place.

It’s great that we now have five midfielders who can slot into the team at any time, we can pick an any three combination, content with the fact that we have two other players on the bench who can come on at any time when needed, Matt O’Riley is a big loss, but Big Arne looks like a very good replacement, and Luke will bring energy and aggression to the team, he also has great delivery from set pieces, and as we saw on Saturday, he will score a few goals for us, so all in all we look to have a squad capable of competing, and progressing in the Champions League.

Steven Naismith doesn’t take getting beat by Celtic well at all, you would think he would be used to it by now. Every decision that went against him, he was right into the fourth officials ear, it’s a particular tactic that all the teams that come to Celtic Park appear to utilise, and I would suggest it’s been successful a lot of the time. Naismith quoted that either both penalties should have been given, or denied, it actually came as a big surprise that both calls went in our favour, and an even bigger surprise that it was VAR official Alan Muir that made the call. You have to ask the question, why did the referee get both wrong, especially the penalty given to Celtic, I saw it clearly, and I was 100 yards away. I watched the You Tube VAR Channel set up by the SFA. It showed two examples for Celtic, and two examples for Sevco, unsurprisingly, both Sevco decisions went in their favour, and the two Celtic decisions went against us. It will be interesting to watch as the season unfolds how many go for or against Celtic.

I’m really looking forward to another Champions League night at the home of the Famous Glasgow Celtic, Celtic Park is widely known to have the best atmosphere in European Football, we need to harness that atmosphere, and start to once again turn Celtic Park into a fortress, a stadium where the top teams in Europe have come to, and went home after being beaten, teams like AC Milan, Manchester United, Juventus, and Barcelona, have all suffered defeat, and even the great Barcelona team with Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi didn’t mind getting beat by Celtic, what a compliment that is to Celtic Football Club, and to its Magnificent Support. It was a decent draw for our group, and I think we can progress to the next stage, but we will need to be on it, and we have to get behind the team right from the start, when Zadok the Priest music starts, we need to make Celtic Park shudder with the noise, to paraphrase a famous man who once said, “Everyone has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.
Let’s do this Celtic, let’s make this another famous victory for the Mighty Glasgow Celtic, and its Magnificent Support.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.