You Know Who Else Never Gave Up Last Night? The Celtic Fans At The Game.

My old man has forever told a story about how he saw the Celtic supporters save Neil Lennon’s job that night at Kilmarnock.

He was there that night, and he said the slagging we endured from their fans was so extreme that he and the rest of the troops decided that score notwithstanding that they would simply out-sing them all night long.

And that, he says, had a decisive impact on the performance of the team.

I’ve seen that sort of thing have an effect before, and it definitely had an effect last night.

The nonstop singing of the Celtic fans carried the team through much of the match.

When the fans started chanting you could see weary legs suddenly finding a burst of energy or speed. You could see how much the players wanted to win it for them.

That was made pretty clear at the end when the players ran to the fans instantly and were engulfed in them. Tony Ralston in particular was clearly keen to share the moment with them.

And they earned that, they deserved it. That was much more like it from our fans.

We will never know just what impact the silent protests have on them, but I agreed with James Dornan when he wrote the other day that the players need the fans to be right there with them at this moment in time, and the protests deprive them of that.

Don’t get me wrong, I get the reason for those protests and I support this cause wholeheartedly … but there is no doubt that it does have an impact on the team when the stadium is morose and silent and you can hear a pin-drop.

How could it not when last night it was the will of those thousands of fans which combined with that of the team to secure the points?

These players deserve the fans to be behind them, whatever else is going on.

And they need us and they feed off of us and they play better when they hear us.

That last few minutes last night was glorious.

The supporters urged the team to that win and the players knew it and showed their appreciation.

This is our great strength, the reason they call us the 12th man.