It’s old and it is beautiful says the song that was belted out by the financially stricken (and now administration experts) at Ibroke on Saturday. They turned up looking for a horse to support. Shame the horse bolted a long time ago weighed down with cash.
After a week when crash courses in financial and insolvency law to get back to the good auld 442 and the simplicity of scoring goals after p*sh poor defending, crap goalkeeping and delightful play.
Celtic weren’t old (average of 23) but we were beautiful in our romp to winning our 15th league game in a row and Neil Lennon becomes the first manager to win 18 domestic games on the trot since Jock.
We recorded our biggest win over Hibs since December 2003 when a 6-0 victory was recorded (Hartson 2, Sutton 2, Henke and Stan) and our biggest win at Easter Road since May 2001 when we recorded a 5-2 victory (Jackie Mac 2, Henke, Stubbs – one of his last gemmes for the club after he returned from cancer he was a player was Big Stubbsy – and Lubo).
Aye, Hibs are staring relegation in the face…it wasn’t hard to wonder how they were so bad despite a few new faces who one paper seemed like decent additions. Then you saw Pitbull. Feck me. R*ngers saw a move for him supposedly kyboshed for money reason. Really? I thought it would have been for severe lack of talent reasons. He looked like a player that has been bought on his Yous Tube footage.
We face Dunfermline next. Another team I have seen in real time recently and who are showing signs of first division clobber. The last time they beat us (1-0) was in 2005 in the meeting before we tonked them 8-1. They also beat us again in May 2004 (2-1) at CP when the league was already won.
They seem to have a bit of a habit of getting results against us. I remember gave Wim a bloody nose on his domestic home bow with a 2-1 victory in 1997 and in 1989 when they returned to the Big Time recorded another 2-1 victory when Istvan Kozma (voted Liverpools worst EVER signing) scored causing the Jim Leishman to teach Jose how a OTT celebration was done. I hear Jose has it on DVD.
We are told that this will be the standard we will face in life without r*ngers. Smaller clubs every so often getting a result against us. What’s the change then? It’s the standard we face in life with the uglies. I probably remember the 1997 & 1989 gemmes as much as a Dunfermline fan (also Craig Falconbridge stopping us winning the League at East Park in 1998 is another Par in the ointment).
This league is already being devalued and the event hasn’t happened and it seems that some want us to start breaking records to ensure that this title isn’t tainted.
That’s not for me. I’m enjoying the ride. Being voracious got oor neighbours into the problems they are facing (ok, also being stupid and gullible had a MAJOR part in it). We are talking about matching and beating St Martin’s 25 league winning streak.
We are eyeing r*ngers winning margin of 21 points with the savage intentions of attacking it, chewin it up and spitting it out over the corpse of the Scottish gemme. A treble is being viewed as a given despite hard ties against Kilmarnock (good but inconsistent) and DuNT (becoming a one off tie specialist) to come.
Getting too far ahead of ourselves. We need to look and enjoy what we are doing now. When it goes wrong (it will, nothing more certain) we look at our previous and say we will get back on the wagon quickly as we have proved we can. You can’t write the future but you can look to the recent past to predict a bright future.
In our last 5 away gemmes we are averaging 3.20 goals scored. We have lost 0. Double F has 15 clean sheets with an ever changing back four. We start and end strongly. We have scored 14 goals between 10-20 mins and also 14 goals between 70-80 mins in gemmes this season.
We have the two best strikers in the league. It’s a pleasure watching them as they sit on the porch like two cousins duelling banjos in the race to win the Tartan Slipper. You can’t devalue both of their records this season.
Hooper scored his 18th and 19th of the season. Last seasons total of 22 can feel his breath. He became the SPL’s outright top scorer with 15 beating Jelavic’s penalty assisted 14 total (5 pens). He doesn’t even make the top 10 players for the number of shots attempted this season. As accurate as William Tell.
His partner in crime has spent more time on a bench than a Michael Jackson jury. Still he has managed a scary 72 shots at goal (sign of greed or just a natural striker…YOU DECIDE?) and his 18 goal tally is only 1 off last seasons total. His minutes to goal ratio is frightening and STILL our manager says he can do more.
Our second goal yesterday was a perfect example of their perfect match. It’s a match so perfect those dating computers should be looking at how our coaching/scouting staff done it.
Hooper breaks from deep and finds Tony Stokes with a faultless pass. Stokes used his ability (an ability that saw Arsenal take a punt on him at 16) to turn the defender and then show an unselfishness that his shooting stats don’t point you too fed Hooper – who had continued his run as he usually does – to finish with ease.
The scary thing is that when Stokes gets dropped to the bench I no longer question it. I’m conditioned to think that he can do better but I’m also conditioned to think that when he plays or comes on we will get something from him. Samaras is not a good sub. Stokes is. Why am I thinking Mark McGhee?
McGhee was as valuable to us in the Centenary Season as Walker or Macca. He was a gemme changer and weighed in with some vital interventions. While Stokes is not a super sub, that is an insult to him and subs, is he just a perfect example of a squad player. You need every player in your squad to contribute and he is certainly doing it.
The whole squad are contributing. The stats are not lying and can’t be devalued. This title won’t be tainted.
Long may it continue.