Young Hoops Triumph In Glasgow Cup Final

Celtic’s Young Guns tonight beat Sevco by 2-0 to lift the Glasgow Cup.

The match was characterised by one team playing football and the other trying to defend with big men behind the ball, and striking on the break where they could.

The Young Hoops were classy. The big Sevconian’s were ugly. Some things never change.

The Celtic team has a number of very decent players.

The one who stood out for me was Calvin Miller, about whom I’ve heard plenty but not seen much of.

He has good feet and electric pace. He terrorised the Sevco players all night long.

Yet for a while I was worried that it might be the Murray Park team who stole the glory.

This was a typical anti-football performance from them, defending deep and hoofing the ball away whenever it came near them.

On their few forays up the park they looked dangerous simply because they were defending well and seemed capable of sneaking it.

But John Kerr and Mark Hill provided the goals in the second half, within a minute of each other, just when it looked as if we might see a shocker.

It would have been a travesty, although our keeper had to make two excellent saves.

Despite the minor scares, Celtic’s kids were well in front in this one, and looked dangerous from the start.

Our boys all look comfortable on the ball.

Midway through the first half my old man asked me if their team looked bigger than the Celtic side.

They did, of course, and it vindicates something I’ve been hearing for a while about the Murray Park operation preferring a certain “physical type”.

The onus clearly isn’t on football, unless it’s of the public park variety, and if this is truly the measure of their future it will bear an ugly, and awful resemblance to their spiritual ancestor’s past.

Celtic’s kids, on the other hand, look to be playing in a similar style to the first team; patient, steady, and when they get motored they look an attractive team to watch.

Tommy McIntyre is doing a good job there. It helps if you cook with the right food though, and we’ve got a good bunch of young players.

How many of them will make it to the first team? That’s a harder question to answer; over the years I’ve watched enough of these to know that it’s a rare ending to the footballing journey for most of these boys, but young Millar, and especially Mark Hill, definitely look like they have the tools to go a long, long way.

The commentators (on CelticTV) kept on referring to it as a “Celtic – Rangers” game, which I suppose is better than using the hated OF tag, but still … they’re playing to a home crowd.

Would it have been too difficult to just called them Sevco and have done with it?

That’s a minor gripe. It was entertaining viewing throughout.

Games like these are, in one sense anyway, reminders of days gone by when there was a team called Rangers playing in the top flight.

The national stadium was virtually empty, as Scotland still doesn’t trust grownups to behave like it.

The Celtic – Rangers experience is still a match marketed around hate, except that at some point someone smarter than the media which ramps this stuff up realised that all that poison might be harmful.

It is sad to see empty stands at a game like this.

Our boys have played their way to a cup final that they couldn’t even enjoy in front of their own supporters.

Something has to change here, and pronto, because this just embarrasses the national sport.

Nevertheless, tonight does not belong to the bigots or the media who wants to turn every clash between green and blue into World War III.

Tonight belongs to the Young Hoops, the Glasgow Cup Winners of 2015.

Congratulations bhoys!