Today I watched a game that was as painful and boring and awful as any that I’ve seen this season or for many a year.
An abject Hearts with nothing to play for contested a match of back garden football in a public park atmosphere against a dire Sevco side who triumphed mostly because they got out of first gear and Levein’s team didn’t bother to.
That was a Hearts side already on holiday, managed by a guy who should already be on gardening leave. Hey, if Ann Budge is satisfied with that she’s easily pleased. They were lucky to make the top six. Keep “faith” with the loser in the dugout and next season they won’t.
But today, nevertheless, is noteworthy just the same.
As I said yesterday, it has set the scene for the game we were told would not happen and could not happen and should not happen. The SPFL got lucky today in that they have a week to hype it; had Hearts won (not that it looked likely for even one second) they would have had next Saturday to give it their all.
So much for the naysayers. How stupid do they look now? How feeble? How pathetic? Any person with a modicum of intelligence could have seen this coming; apparently it was too much for our governing body. If you’re looking for rational decision making you are looking in the wrong place. They aren’t capable of any of it.
Folks, the silver lining on yesterday’s dire display is that next week, in front of a home crowd, a full 60,000 fans, on a lovely Sunday afternoon, we will have the chance to put Sevco to the sword and secure our seventh consecutive league title and there is nothing that a living soul can do to prevent it. It is on. Sevco’s agony has been muted this season so far, but on Sunday next week we can turn the volume up on it in full.
If they think 7000 of us taunting them at Ibrox is bad … yeah, wait until they come to Celtic Park for a title party.
And believe me, they are not in any fit state to take us on. They were moribund today. That really was like watching two pub teams go at it. Their lack of invention is painful to watch, unless, like me, it tickles you and makes you laugh. Their defending is chronic; there are people who will spend the week telling you to beware of Boyata … Sevco have two central defenders who are far, far worse and they will be going up against a Celtic side that needs no additional motivation.
Yet, I strongly suspect that motivation will be forthcoming. I strongly suspect that the next seven days are going to be spent listening to rallying calls from old “Ibrox legends” and big confident talk and a raft of rash promises from their team. I would rather we took the opposite approach, and after yesterday I strongly advise it. Not one word from Celtic Park about how we’ll do this or do that; leave that to people like me. Radio silence from the management team and the players; get on with the job and leave the other side to embarrass themselves.
I cannot more fully express my contempt at the SPFL for the way they’ve stumbled into this, the one game they didn’t want. Sevco will come to Celtic Park to take on a team that has beaten them eight times in little more than two years. There would be no better way to secure title number seven than by getting win number nine.
Get ready to party folks. We got the one we wanted after all.
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