We Don’t Need Them. (Facts, Findings & Thoughts About Idiot But Dangerous Looking Fans And Beating Inversenkie)

I don’t really want to dwell on this too much. I had something in my mind to write and that’s what I’m going to write.

Off course I NEED to mention it.

Our friends are poorly it seems. It comes as a shock. I haven’t read anything about it. They have released a statement that reads like an open letter to Dignitas. The owner has been on the steps getting roundly booed while eyeing up the marble stair case for his mansion (sic).

But until the I’s have been dotted and the T’s crossed then I don’t think I will be looking into it too much. Off course, I’m lying but my head is mince trying to make sense that this day has come. I NEED to get Inverness out of the system. I can’t multi task.

I was watching them v relegation fodder Dunfermline on Saturday before I travelled to CP. There were 4 Celtic fans and 2 of Them. The Aulder Bear (bedecked in a tartan scarf, which could have been as auld as him) commented that our mirth and merriment at their plight proved we had short memories.

“Naw, yer wrong.” I said.

“The fact we have long memories is the reason why we are enjoying this.”

I reckon we are the elephants of the football fan world. We never forget anything. Stevie McLean should take heed of this. In a week when I thought Wullie Gollum pinned the tail on the worst MIB donkey we get a performance from McLean when he made officiating seem as difficult as learning Mandarin.

I’m not one for buying a ticket for the questioning integrity train. Though, after a week together in La Manga could the MIB’s have decided on a plan of action for the rest of the season? Nah, that’s just fools talk. What do you mean that he is the brother of Ex-R*ngers player (there could be a lot more of them!) Brian McLean – who was roundly abused for choosing to turn his back on the country of his birth.

Man, get yer paranoia back in yer boax.

FFS, I’m not going to go on Twitter and abuse the SFA CEO about this.

No. What annoyed me last season when Lennon was being demonised and blamed for the strike was that they got all uppity about their integrity question being questioned. Was it b*llocks (though you would think one of them admitting he lied would be enough for them to go: “Fair enough” if it was).

He questioned their ability to do their job correctly and the people who were appointing them to do their jobs. The past weeks efforts still show we have a way to go.

It’s hard not to imagine some sort of sinister cheating going on when you think back to the honest mistakes of Mowbray’s reign (ok, he did enough in the dugout to get himself a gardening leave gig BUT there was a few dodgy decision that cost us points) and to Dougie Dougie Gate. Go back even further and you get the meeja admitting that there was some sort of bias against Celtic but when it stopped (or started) no-one knows.

Then you get McLean on Saturday showing that his interpretation of the rules is as far removed from reality as is humanly possible and that he can only point the way Inverness are shooting.
Twice in the first half he gave fouls against Victor Wanyama when conventional wisdom, gravity and physics said differently. Did he get the Big Dan decision wrong.?

Yes and No.

Dan was caught flat-footed, out of position and out of time (like most of his Celtic career) and his misreading of the gemme saw him having to lunge for the ball. If a defender has to go into a challenge like that he has done something wrong in the first place. He is playing catch up on his error.

His tackle, while looking like he got the ball, could be easily deemed as reckless. In winning the ball doesn’t automatically mean that it isn’t a foul. Richie Foran last week on the aforementioned Victor. A straight red card in any other league in the world but….he won the ball. Still doesn’t downgrade the brutality of the challenge.

I am not saying that Dan’s challenge was brutal. Not at all. It was an honest mistake (them again) and an attempt to make up for an error in judgement. The Inverness players say it was a decent challenge and he won the ball. Fair play we are not denying that what I’m saying is any appeal could be thrown out as the tackle could be deemed as reckless.

The truth is Mr McLean made this gemme interesting. Inverness were toothless and we were going through the motions on the way to 14 league wins in a row. The sending off saw the MEN come to the fore.

Ledley started covering every blade of grass. He was breaking up play here, there and everywhere. Scott Brown was immense again. A lung bursting break from the edge of the box deep into the Inversenkie half was typical. In fact, it’s safe to say, that I haven’t seen this Scott Brown before in a Celtic jersey. Hibs? Aye. Not us.

Up top Sammy was interesting and his Cruyffesq turn, which saw the team numbers return to equal was a thing of beauty. It summed up his confidence, which was not in keeping with his performance.

Still, you would think we would cut the players a bit of slack? I mean we were 15 points behind on Remember Remember the fifth of November and now are 4 points in front. Our team has over took Gordon Strachan’s games won in a row record and on Saturday smashed Walter Smith’s 13 game winning run in 2007/08.

Not a chance.

New faces around me berated the players. Sammy was useless. The player named as a leader by our leader was ripe for his soul to be abused. Wilson, Dan and Mulgrew all got it as well.

Worse though was the abuse Jamesy Forrest was taking. His previous performances, fantastic assist for the goal was forgotten and that he is probably more complete than Aiden McGeady ever was at such a young age as we were told that he “didnae have what it takes to be a Celtic player”.

Ok, after the sending off he looked like he didnae have a clue where he was meant to be playing (up top with Sammy or wide right he just couldnae decide) but this was completely OTT.

Right, Jamesy had annoyed me. I mentioned the superb Joe Ledley earlier. His goal was the perfect example of HOW and where a wide midfielder should be when a cross is coming in from the opposite side.
In the second half Sammy put in a ball and Jamesy was still a week away from getting into the box. Yes, I love the wee freakish looking fellow but he needs to add that back post tap in to his repertoire. He needs to take lessons from Joe.

I had to look to see who had shouted this. The guy had two massive Mars Bars on his scalp and one down the side of his face. It was a coupon that had surely seen a pair of tights, a set of mits that had probably seen a shotgun and his Sat Nav the coordinates of a Balloch Post Office.

He’s right. Jamesy will never make it.