To be honest if you’d told me that if we lost on Sunday we would go onto win the league I would have bitten you hand off and I think that’s the same for every fan on both sides. The League cup final win a few years ago when we completely dominated the match was a nice wee day out at the time but when we failed to win the league it looked rather meaningless and hollow. Hopefully that’s the same again this year but with the roles reversed.
While the blue nose brigade act like they’ve just done the treble themselves in stopping our push for it, and put up pictures of a union jack clad Diouf dancing like a spare tit with the League cup trophy on their twitter and facebook accounts (while remaining still serenely oblivious to how little he has contributed to their cause since arriving) one can’t help but notice their blatant sighs of relief. Indeed when their hangovers have faded the more enlightened amongst them might sober up to the fact that a clearly below par Celtic team still took them deep into injury time before a mis-hit ‘trundler’ secured them a long awaited win. They all count I’m sure but outside of forming the junior partner in the treble sweep, the League Cup is of little consequence to either side of the Glasgow divide.
What is also clear is that ever since the 3-0 game we have struggled. Outplayed by an unpredictable Motherwell team, under the undoubtedly vociferous instructions to go out and get ‘stuck into em’ by ex Orc hammer thrower Stuart McCall, was a surprise and brought an end to a 17 game unbeaten run. Then the combative but hardly resounding 1-0 dismissal of Govan’s finest in the cup replay was followed by a forgettable 2-0 win over serial strugglers Hamilton who haven’t won a game in 20. The scrappy 2-1 win at a notoriously difficult venue for us up at Inverness in the cup was welcomed but again too many previous star performers went MIA. Izzy is still bombing down the wings but his final ball needs improvement. Sammy hasn’t kicked his won arse since the Celtic Park league slaughter of Rangers and Hooper looks off the pace. Commons has not surprisingly been able to keep up his break-neck pace like start to his Celtic career but Brown has been more guilty for my money of following below par too often of late. Our defence is creaky and we all know it. Mulgrew is make shift and Rogne still wet behind the ears. While hardly Beckenbauer, Majstorovic at least has experience and was missed on Sunday and will be in the forthcoming weeks.
I believe our next match is a home encounter with Hibs, who while playing not much above decent lately have still managed to go on a long (well for them anyway) unbeaten run of 6 games. Hopefully we can ‘Bring the thunder’ back once again and re-energise the title race with a resounding win.
One thing is for certain…….WE MUST WIN THIS LEAGUE……..and in doing so ruin ‘Super Ally’s’ honeymoon gift from his departing uncle Walter.
