Chris Sutton got right to heart of it last night when he was talking about this Celtic team on Twitter after the game. Or rather, he got right to the nuts of it. He praised this team by talking about their balls.
And you know what? He was right to.
He should have talked about the manager too, because he is definitely possessed of some ferrous metal ones himself. To keep the attacking team on the park when we went a man down is not a tactic most managers in the league would have gone with.
The only time in living memory that I’ve seen something so aggressive is when Brendan brought out on French Eddie at Ibrox when Simunovic had seen red, and went all out to win when it would have been easy to take a point and run with it.
Ange’s gamble was a measure of the man, a man who does not quit just because it’s the path of least resistance.
And this team doesn’t quit either. Celtic players had the composure to keep probing for openings when other sides would have punted balls into the box.
We got our reward for it too, with the best cross from the right of the whole game.
There are a lot of elements which make a title winning team. Guts and determination and will to win are amongst them, and they are as important as the skills which are necessary to unlock defences and pull teams to bits.
This Celtic side is close to having it all.
I loved the way they showed those fighting qualities last night. I loved the way Ange refused to compromise or settle for the single point instead of pushing forward to try and win the game.
Results like these, victory in the face of adversity, is how title winning teams act and this side, although not on top of the table yet, has shown it has the desire to be there.
This is shaping up to be one Hell of a season.
Let no-one doubt we have what it takes to make it a truly special one.
Yes, this team doesn’t quit. Unfortunately, it seems the other mob aren’t exactly shrinking violets either. We are going to have to beat them three times to ensure the titles comes home, and hanging on until the dying embers is doing fuck all good for my heart!
They’ll have to sell in January.
If they suffer half the injuries we have(they probably won’t), they’ll implode.
Hell, if they drop 4 points the hoards will be on them and they’ll fall apart.
We could win the league by 10+ points.
Great resilience no doubt from the bhoys last night, playing and trying to win right to the final whistle with 10 men (thanks to the ref’s failure to stop the game for a head injury to Starman and then his helpful hun card happy decisions). Its admirable alright but we should not be putting ourselves in that position. Our control of games, our possession stats, etc, are just that stats.
We need to up the finishing moves stats in front of goal and start putting these games to bed much earlier given the chances we make. County score against us with minimal supportive stats. Its been a feature of our season and nearly, not quite last night, went against us. It may/will in future games, bite us on the bum. We miss too many chances and that’s along with slack defending shows we’re still a ways away not only from sealing games early but from winning the league this season. A realism is setting in but its not over and the January window is ever nearing so I continue to hope more than believe atm. HH