One of the reasons I find it so easy to let go of negative feelings today about elements of yesterday’s performance – I’ll be back onto that tomorrow though – is that I know Celtic’s enemies are squealing in every corner of this land.
The momentous nature of what the club has achieved in the past four seasons has them flabbergasted and frustrated in equal measure.
But mostly they are just hurting.
It was best typified last night by the reaction of Neil McCann, who’s furious rant about Edouard’s penalty was so over the top even Steven Naismith effectively told him to shut it and stop raving. McCann’s meltdown was all the better because he had to expressly deny that he had lost the plot because we’d gone two goals up.
He was hardly alone.
The media is filled with spiteful people who cannot bear that Celtic has done this.
But McCann’s epic rant is especially delicious as he has never really been able to hide his pain when we’ve done big things.
I enjoy moments like this in part because I know that people like McCann are out there and how it must make them feel.
The Daily Record’s attempts to put a damper on the day by having a go at Scott Brown for his conduct after the match is another example of it. They know full well that Brown was reacting to a day of absolutely ridiculous provocation on the pitch including being slammed in the face twice and having Naismith stamp on him.
This is all the have to try to put a negative slant on the occasion though and I find it absolutely pathetic that they’ve done so.
They can’t help themselves at times like this.
On top of that, I know the Ibrox supporters are absolutely pig-sick. They might sit at the top of the league with what looks like a mammoth lead, but they know if we hit form we’ll win the games in hand and suddenly the gap is seven points.
They came within minutes of dropping something against Motherwell at the weekend, and they know their team is looking ropey now, no longer quite as indestructible as they’ve been claiming. A better manager than Robinson, and a team on better form, would have taken them the full way as St Mirren did when they decided to press them.
Their long wait for a trophy goes on.
In the same week as we secured our piece of history they’ve lost another chance to make some of their own, and you know that’s hurting them and they are scared to death that this season is going to slip away from them and hand us another incredible victory and the chance to keep on re-writing these history books.
At half time at the weekend, that’s was the view many of them were expressing on their forums; that their slide had begun and that we would win the cup and that would provide the momentum we needed to take full advantage of their loss of form.
They are right to be afraid; that is not an out-there scenario. Indeed, it’s not even particularly difficult to imagine circumstances where it starts to seem likely.
I didn’t think we played well yesterday, but as Phil pointed out to me earlier the team was driven to keep fighting and not give up. The heads could have gone down. The players could have chucked it but this team has accomplished so much. They found some real inner strength and that’s scary for our rivals to see. We haven’t given up and we won’t.
Their pain today is real and it is delicious. So too is their fear.
That’s what we have to ratchet up and that means following up yesterday’s triumph with a win on Wednesday against Ross County and to let events elsewhere transpire as they will.
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