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This Celtic Team Boasts “We Never Stop.” Today, We Never Showed Up.

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Gutless. Weak. Inept.

All three adjectives describe, perfectly, a Celtic display at Hampden today was which was utterly bereft of a single positive except that those who constantly slag Greg Taylor need to do us a favour and take the night off.

For everything else there is only anger as we produced our worst performance in many, many months on the stage we most needed a big one, and considering the worrying lack of application, heart and will to win that was on display on that pitch today the league triumph that many of us have taken for granted since Ibrox is no longer such a lock either.

Any team in the league would have fancied their chances against that tame, pitiful version of Celtic which showed up today and then promptly downed tools.

There was nothing to credit that performance whatsoever, not one thing, and if the manager tells us that he thought the team played well then he is kidding himself and watched a different match.

One player threatened to make an impact on their team; Maeda, who ran and ran until he was dead on his feet.

The rest of this team barely functioned.

Jota, in the last two months, has produced not one thing of note which makes me believe for one minute that we should be paying £6 million for him when this season ends … I’ve said that Carter Vickers is the better of the two and that was highlighted again today in a performance of total ineptitude from the Portuguese.

He looks like a player who would struggle to warm Benfica’s bench and if he and his agents think the super clubs will be queuing up after this campaign ends they are delusional. He looks like a guy who decided some time ago that this would be his only season here; on the evidence of today nobody is going to miss him and the money can be put to better use.

Hatate has an excuse for his limited performance; he’s played a full season in Japan. I don’t what Rogic’s excuse was. I don’t know what game Juranovic thought he was in before he came off and Abada was too easily brushed off the ball.

No review of this game would be complete without my expressing my absolute contempt for and disgust of the referee who was woeful throughout and did everything he could to make sure the game was played at our opponent’s pace.

Not that it mattered because we allowed them space and time to get their breath back after every break in the game.

A team which should have exhausted itself chasing us in the first ten minutes was allowed to meander around the pitch taking it easy because we ditched the high press for the day to let them.

The whole display was absolutely shameful and every Celtic player should be embarrassed as they are made to watch it again. These guys could have written their own page in the history, but instead they turned up and put on a performance like that.

What we witnessed today was a joke.

It was the complete inverse of our full blooded claim that “we never stop.”

Today, all any of us were asking was “does this team intend to start?”

And the answer was a resounding no.

What a disgrace, what an utter disgrace.

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  • Jimmy says:

    Spot on James. I know there is going to be criticism of Bobby Madden and rightly so. He was rank rotten but So were we for the most part. When we can discuss Arfield and Davis coming on and bullying our midfield something is very wrong. We were mince in the first half. Time to put the league to bed and use the champions league money wisely because we need to be better Going forward.

    • Jimmy says:

      Why do people on this site accuse people of being Huns because they don’t agree with their take on the game. That is follow follow behaviour Dora. rangers did suffocate us with Lundstrom showing the fight we required. They were the better team, delusional if you think otherwise. If you accept that performance then we are standing still. Taylor, Jota and Hatate were very poor. Their goalkeeper was never challenged. We need to be much better than that.

      • Dora says:

        Everyone is entitled to an opinion Jimmy and I respect all who share on this site, however I personally felt Sean was bang out of order suggesting on the next page tav was motm and Lundstrum on this page was best player on the pitch when he shouldn’t have been on it with the blatant, cynical hatchet jobs on Celtic players.
        Not familiar with FF so I’m entitled to my opinion, and mine was Sean Og was way too complimentary towards the rangers when quite frankly they were shite too!
        Celtic coulda, shoulda gone 2 up but it’s done, all good so day day and HH

  • Saulgoodman says:

    I’m not taking the night off ! Tavernier had Taylor on toast, never a celtic starter , all on the manager as for 6m jota no thanks not kicked a ball in months , hatate !! been living off that 45mins looks worse every week , got to feel for Joe Hart + ccv physically a very lightweight team .no question best team won , this league ain’t done yet , why where the team so tired looking ang ?

    • Smokey says:

      Saulgoodman
      Absolutely spot on especially on Hatate…
      living on one past glory and why he wasn’t subbed earlier beats me .
      Jota not much better and not worth the 6million
      The sevco goalie will never have an easier game….CCV and Calumn only pass marks.
      Madden…..no words for such a biased performance

  • Andy says:

    I think you are understating the intervention of madden – he was absolutely appalling. At least two of their players – Bassey and Lundstrom – should have been sent off before half time! The “winner” was offside as well. Madden is an embarrassment.
    I agree that Celtic did not play well today, but neither the the scumbags who are through to the final. But they are there for one reason and one reason only – the officiating.

    • Dora says:

      Totally agree Andy, that lundstrum shoulda gone but Sean seems to think he’s a superstar…Celtic champions again and that’s all that matters although Sean prob thinks the wangers are still in with a shout..

  • Andy says:

    Who’s that aimed at?

  • Gordon Ashley says:

    Fed up reading how great maeda is it’s a total myth.. aye he runs his heart out but he does nothing with the ball is very overrated.. as is juranovic who is not as good a player as ralston. Poor performance but as long as we hold the league it’s a great season and they will be consumed with rage and utter devastation

  • Tom Foolery says:

    If you think Ralston is better than Juranovic then i really feel sorry for you.

  • Gordon Ashley says:

    Correct I had a feeling the overconfidence of some would come back to bite us and James Forrest was laughably overconfident all week.. was quietly confident the last 2 derby’s but had a bad feeling about this one simply due to the arrogance of some of our fans in the build up

  • Paul burnett says:

    If I didn’t know better I would say that game was a fix , didn’t think this team could play that bad .

  • Peter Doak says:

    Totally agree , although BM was embarrassing it made no difference to our performance which in one word was pathetic.

  • Ryan Ellis says:

    Christ sake James get over yourself. ‘It was a disgrace’ , ‘they should be ashamed’. The team that’s won the league from a no-hoper position should be ashamed cos they won’t win the treble? You’re the worst sort of Celtic fan, we don’t have a divine right to win everything and after last season? I’m happy with two out of three, as Meatloaf said, that ain’t bad. 🙂

    • Saulgoodman says:

      Yeah fair enuf , the hurts wearing off slowly , good post , made me laugh for 1st time today .

  • Saulgoodman says:

    Ye we’ve been very good season , but that was worrying today 2nd half at ibrox as well , cal mac needs big help in the middle , your as good as your last game juranovic abada jota Taylor hatate , we finish wi Welsh ralston unfit kyogo the strength in depth nowhere near good enuf –

  • Dennis McLaughlan says:

    We were dominated and I’m sorry to say we lost without a fight.

  • Henry says:

    Rogic was really off form and has been for most of our games since the restart in January. He is the fulcrum and his failure to show up today meant the front three were starved of service. Jota’s decision making was terrible, and Abada as often happens struggles to impose himself.

    Didnt think Rangers were particularly good today but I do think Ange has to have a long hard think about making Jota and Maeda permanent additions to the squad. I think our priority (and there are a few of these depending on what week you analyse) is someone in the Lubo role, but these players are not easy to come by.

  • Christopher Parkes says:

    Says a lot how far we’ve come how angering that performance was.
    Big picture, to probably win a double given where we were a year ago, is unbelievable
    Didn’t think they needed a kick up the arse but maybe this is what is needed to get the league done.
    I hate talking about a ref after a defeat, sounds like sour grapes and, first and foremost we were awful. Especially middle to front. but Madden was god awful. He definitely had a material influence on the game. Bassey and Lundstrum Especially got away with murder. Their best player cos he was allowed to be. Their day today but our year. You learn more from a defeat and A LOT of lessons tone learned moving forward

  • Sadie Clinton says:

    The team looks dead on their feet and it’s down to being overtrained. The squad is nowhere near good enough. No urgency in any part of their game, so disappointing. Better shape up for the remainder of the season. Ref was horrendous. And what game was Ange watching?

  • Chas says:

    It wasn’t a disgrace. In truth, this Celtic side has overachieved in the league this season, and if we end up winning it, it’ll be a fantastic achievement. But we have weaknesses in the side, some of which we exposed today, chiefly the real lack of pace and drive in midfield. The only midfielder who turned up from the start was McGregor, the other two were passengers. O’Riley made a bit of a difference when he came on but in truth we need a lot more pace and drive and bite in there. They controlled that area of the park for most of the game through their physical presence, as opposed to greater talent.

  • johnn says:

    McGregor and Carter Vickers were the only two that played well today, The rest were very ordinary and your pet player, despite scoring the goal, was once again mediocre and will never be Celtic class.

  • John S says:

    Poor refereeing is unfortunate but I don’t think anyone can claim the ref was impartial – and that is simply unacceptable.

  • John gladwin says:

    Totally agree with everything you say did they think all they had to do and everything would fall into place go in with that attitude against Ross county and the league race will be back on make no bones about it

  • Craig Gallagher says:

    This was a game for McCarthy or Bitton getting tackles fired in in midfield & pushing McGregor forward. It’s amazing the effect a crunching tackle can have on a game as it lifts those on the pitch to compete harder & also lifts the crowd. We did not use our bench well enough, that’s on Ange. It was clear Rogic was a mile off it & should’ve been hooked earlier along with Hatate. In saying that if that effort from CCV goes in they would’ve crumbled & we would’ve cruised over the line as we passed them to death. We also allowed then to dictate how the game would be played, in tandem with Brother Madden controlling the flow. We never got in their faces like we did the 1st half at Parkhead last month & pinned them back either as we didn’t seem to have the legs or dare I say the confidence without GG up front battering them. Never thought I’d see the day where I thought we badly missed GG today, but we did as he loves to scrap & unsettle them. That Rangers team wouldn’t stand a chance against our 2003 Team, they would destroy them, that’s the type of characters we need to be signing to put them in their place. Ps Madden is a corrupt cheating rat, end off.

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