Come one come all! The quiz and kid on moments of the year have been done, TheComicSnob’s terrific look at ‘The Gaffer’s’ Year and Block102’s very good A-Z Of Celtic 2012 have left you in no doubt about our take about 2012 for Celtic. I thought I’d follow up my quiz with a slightly more serious look at the previous 12 months, and what its meant for me.
Have I truly been happy being a Celtic supporter this year? Delighted. Going into the new year top of the league was brilliant, our convincing 3-0 win at Dunfermline was a terrific start to 2012. With our rivals imploding on themselves it made everything oh so sweeter, but lets be honest, did them dying take the shine off everything this year? I mean nothing was better than watching them struggle from division 3 as we made it through to the last 16. But the hypocrisy from some Celtic fans have ruined it for me. If only the dreaded ‘thephrase’ could have stuck to their word everything might not have been so bad. In May June and July we were promised that ‘Rangers will be forgotten about, all about Celtic this year, we don’t need Rangers’ To which I wholeheartedly agree. *F**K* Rangers.
But they just couldn’t stop, Celtic were out qualifying for the Champions League whilst people were calling for Rangers’ transfer ban to be extended etc. Now I do partake in slagging Sevco as much as the next Celtic fan, but its a joke to me. I’ve never ever qualified a Celtic defeat with the words ‘ah well they’re away to Annan today.’ You just have to look at Twitter on a Saturday to see that Sevco or Rangers or Newco mean an awful lot to some Celtic fans. Sure we’ll all have a laugh when they get beat, but Yesterday v Queens Park was quite funny/embarrassing. I was pitching in with a few Willie Collum jokes, its allowed. I even slagged Templeton for dropping 3 divisions but I wasn’t watching the game. You could see the happiness that they might just drop points.
Now If we’re confessing, I have watched a Rangers game this season. One. The first one away to Brechin. Why? I thought it’d be funny, and I was right, the old party tunes in full flow as the same fans followed the new club. They even conceded an equaliser and the baw got stuck in a hedge. Comical Excellence. We all acknowledged that despite their 2-1 extra time win that they were a very poor side and moved on.
My attitude pretty much from then on in was, if they’re on and they get beat, terrific, I won’t go on tweeting sprees asking every Celtic employee on twitter to ‘LMAO’ or ‘GBNL’ complete with a picture of the scoreline. It doesn’t really bother me, as I said, I take good delight in them getting beat by part timers. However, its win they win, like yesterday that the true feelings really come out ‘Ah but, look at them celebrating as if they’ve beat Barcelona, oh wait we done that’ WHO CARES?! Your ‘ah well onto the big bhoys now’ statements don’t work when for 90 minutes previous you’ve been getting ever so slightly more excited by the tweet that Rangers might drop points.
So with that out the way, there are really only 2 other true highlights of the year have come in the champions league. Beating Barcelona was brilliant, we’ve beaten probably the greatest ever team of all time. This Barcelona team in full flow would give any team from the past a decent game, and probably beat them. We kept probably the greatest player of all time down to 1 goal and only a few shots on target. It was all around the time we turned 125 years old. It was special. It was amazing and it pretty much made up for all of those ‘ffs Celtic’ moments we’ve all had through our lives.
HOWEVER, as good as that was, in my humble and probably minority opinion, it came nowhere near as close to us finally winning away from home in the Champions League. The Barca achievement is probably more greater, but I have not felt as much satisfaction after a Celtic game after Moscow since Ibrox 2011 when big gorgeous ran riot. It didn’t matter how well Celtic had been playing domestically in Europe, every time we travelled away we’d be told about how rubbish we were away from home, and within 10 minutes of the game, we’d be 2-0 down and then for 50 or 60 minutes we’d compete well then lose another goal and come home with a doing. In Moscow however, things were different, we saw out the early flurry of corners, we knocked the ball out well, we kept 11 players on the park for longer than 47 seconds, and guess what? We took the lead! Then of course, Aalborg syndrome got to us and we conceded two goals, but remarkably, Celtic fought back. What was happening?! We were not lying down and accepting defeat away from home in Europe, Celtic attacked, Hooper was through on goal and brought down outside the box. Spartak were reduced to 10 men, and although Charlie ‘ma baw, I need to find ma burd in row z’ Mulgrew passed the ball back to Spartak with the resulting free kick, Celtic had a sense of belief in them we hadn’t seen before in the Champions League. Lennon, for just about the first time in his managerial reign, made a substitution that didn’t make us go ‘WTF’ he put Forrest on, and within minutes, Forrest had rattled the ball off the keeper, which in turn rattled off the defender and into the net! We were level, Yipee! We were going to get a draw for the second time and the first time since we took a draw off our good friends Barcelona EIGHT F’ING YEARS AGO. Wrong. In the dying seconds, a quick free kick saw Hooper release Izaguirre, who found big gorgeous again who’s brilliantly placed header gave Celtic the lead again and we had won.
To be watching a team who, no matter, how good the team was, how good the players were, complete and utterly fold every time they went away from home in the Champions League, come back and actually win a game, was the topping on the pizza for me this year. It was a long long long time in coming, and where it was seen as a bonus for us to actually win away, a very poor 0-0 draw at home to Benfica previous meant it was in actual fact essential to our qualification goal, which made it an even better achievement because the pressure was on more than usual.
So the one question remains, why do I think that topped Barcelona? Well theres two main reasons. the first one is that I’m still very bitter about losing to Barcelona in the nou camp, the disappointment and emptiness I felt after Alba scored still by far outweighs the feeling when Tony Watt scored our second at Parkhead. I don’t know why, I had just started to believe that we were going to get a draw in Barcelona, so much so that I quietly expected us to beat Barcelona at Celtic Park.
The other reason is quite simply the celebrations in the pub when Samaras scored in Moscow were amazing. As a Celtic fan who hardly goes to any games (nae season ticket and hardly get to away games these days) I’ve always appreciated just how amazing (and demoralising) watching Celtic in the boozer with all your pals can be. Theres been a few bumpers in 2012. Winning the league then the last ever Rangers game was two terrific days in the boozer.
I realise I’ve talked a lot of rubbish, some about Sevco but hey, some of you had to hear it. All thats left is to wish you all a very happy new year and a very happy year.
Remember to save chip and bring on Juve!