Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Aberdeen - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - July 31, 2022 Celtic's Georgios Giakoumakis reacts REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
The BBC did it. (No surprise there.) Sky Sports did it. (Again, no great shock.) A couple of the tabloids have done it in their online editions. Ibrox fan media is awash with it. What I didn’t expect was to see the headline in The Guardian; “Celtic pull ahead in Premiership race as Giakoumakis sees off nine-man Hearts” it screams.
And this from their PA piece. It’s not even the latest bitter rant from Ewan Murray, their pet Hearts fan who can’t stand to give us credit for anything.
Highlighting the nine men is just another way of denying us credit for what was a very comfortable win. They had no shots on target. They planed 89 of the 90 game minutes with eleven men on the park. We were into injury time when they were reduced to nine.
Honestly, these headlines are a joke. There is a malice about this sort of coverage which is hard to ignore. It doesn’t help, of course, when Robbie Neilson himself, the Hearts manager, is allowed to go on national radio and TV and claim that it swung that match … there is speaking up for your team and there is just talking utter rot, and that’s what he did.
But he should have been called on that. 89 minutes with eleven men. No shots on target. None. Where was the equaliser the ref and the Celtic crowd robbed them of going to come from? I saw no sign of it on the horizon. In fact, it was Celtic who looked more likely to score the second goal of the game. The boss was right; we looked in no danger.
Yet the coverage makes it sound like we broke Hearts only when the sending offs happened. There is no context to those headlines and there isn’t supposed to be. They are another form of attack on us, a puny and quite pitiful one to be sure but we can recognise the intent even if this particular means of hitting us doesn’t really have teeth,
It all feeds in, too, to the underestimation of this team that is still going on across the city. They’ve apparently not noticed that we’ll very soon have gone the equivalent of a whole league campaign without defeat, and they have to come to our house soon.
All that aside, Celtic is in a good place and even these snide headlines don’t change that. Even if we’d played 80 minutes against nine men and the bias was actually reflecting the facts, the one that counts and perhaps the only one is the league top.
We’re on top, on points and goals, and it doesn’t matter if they don’t like it … only someone beating us is going to change it. 36 and counting.
Uppity! That’s how I describe our nationally funded broadcaster and our SMSM ,any time they describe anything Celtic FC. The stunning success of our club sticks in their throats because as we all know, that success should be attributed to another Glasgow clumpany, the establishment club, the Rangers.Its as if any time Celtic win an advantage ,there is excuse after excuse as to why opposition teams can’t cope with the superiority! As I’ve said previously, let them gripe, bitch and mourn.Celtic FC shall be here long after they have gone.
James, I look upon these headlines as a positive.
Anyone who watched the game know that whilst we were not at our best we won very comfortably.
Headlines like these give those on the south side hope
and they think their team will be too good for us when we play them in a couple of weeks.
I understand your frustration with the media but it has always been this way and it won’t change anytime soon. As long as we continue to dominate whatever they say will pale into insignificance ?
The Scotsman gave fair comment on the game. The paper bagged Robbie the Manager and obliquely complimented Mr K Clancy.
Some headlines are flagrantly misleading. Do they think the readers don’t know?
More people are getting their news from Television News and News Radio sources.
Bitter rubbish from bitter people, top of the league that’s all that matters
What is the bookie offering for Rangerrs not getting a penalty in any game.
Would be by betting plan, big massive odds.
Their warped headlines means nothing to us and who cares about what the rest of their readers think. The league table remains the same despite their distortions of the truth and it does not impact in any way on Celtic’s relentless progress.
All that matters is that we are unflinching in our support of our Club.
We never stop!
….nine man Ibrox side draw with Hibs” (The Herald).
Factual? Yes….Honest? No.
This must be the only country in the world where the only organisation that gives, or ever gave them, any sort of credibility, is hated
simply because of the religion and customs of the country of its origins.
Mind you: the fact that they were forcibly removed from Ireland might give a clue as to that hatred and the fact that they can`t get us
to sit quietly content in the trailer.
I, personally, blame the Catholic schools for giving us such a good education.
Classic one liner.
Going to use it, with permission off course.
Bereavement plays horrible games. This sticks and stones chucking is simply more anger and blame pushing from grieving huns that just can’t get over the death of their club and their responsibility in it. Blaming anyone and everyone are classic symptoms.
Son of hun newco can’t replace their first love nor the truth of their inaction that led to its death. Its hard knowing and accepting that you done nothing and sat back and watched it die. The acceptance of their own guilt, the hurt and the pain, it just won’t go away
“There is a malice about this sort of coverage which is hard to ignore.” Spot on, subtle, ingrained, safe.
Couldn’t give a f@ck if we beat SIX men. Fact is THREE points put us back where we belong. HH
As I said in a comment to an earlier article Sportsound could only talk about the Jambos to such an extent that I thought we were being overrun.
Michael Stewart made the ridiculous comment that they had big game changers on the bench and that would worry us.
Did he not see the Celtic bench.
Was astounded by these comments from Michael Stewart. He’s usually more switched on than that. They brought their big hitters on at various points in the second half and still couldn’t lay a glove on us. If I was a Hearts fan, thank f*ck I’m not, I would want to ask Mr Nielsen why my team hadn’t managed a single shot on target during the game if they were so good. No Celtic fan is fooled by this sh*te. Let them write or say what they like. The Ange juggernaut rolls on. HH
Celtic are on top and all the discussions about our team are useless and stupid. Our opponents don´t know how to put our club in doubt. Totally useless. Our Ange and the bhoys will go ahead, despite all our enemies´ plots. HH. YNWA.
I thought Stewart was OK but
he has changed after his (forced) apology to Old Firm r4 ng£rs I thought he was made of sterner stuff.
What could you expect, though, from someone who can’t distinguish should have from should of?
The whinging by the press and Neilson are fucking embarrassing…to give a bit of credit where it’s due though,i watched the game and it was via Hearts TV.
Both commentators (don’t know who they were) were excellent.
Not a single complaint from either one of them…criticsed their own players stupidity for getting sent off,and praised Celtics good play. They called it like neutral observers the entire game.
Well done guys,whoever you are. 10/10.