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A Brutal, Cynical, Shameful Away Side Can’t Do Enough To Stop Celtic.

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In the last 18 months, about the time Ange has been in charge, this blog has returned to the same theme over and over again; clubs who come to Celtic Park with no intention whatsoever of playing something that could reasonably be called football.

That was one of those days today from Hibs, a display of breath-taking cynicism and thuggery which would have shamed a public park team. And in the week where standards and the need to improve them are one of the central topics of discussion they are winning praise for doing it and the media is singing a hard-luck story on their behalf.

They were not just awful today but disgraceful.

Short of the Livingston game from last season that is the most shameful performance from any team who has visited Celtic Park in the tenure of this manager. And like almost all of those which have come before it the central fact which should be remembered and lessons learned from is that it did no good whatsoever.

Hibs got exactly what their despicable anti-football deserved; nothing. Let the media express their sympathy and push the myth of a deserved point as they will, but if Scottish football has a bad reputation then it would be largely because of days like this, and when our games are being shown across the world clubs who play this objectionable stuff should be scorned by our hacks instead of being singled out for praise.

BBC thought the red card was “harsh”. Far from feeling Hibs should have finished the game with eleven on the pitch I was amazed that they ended it with as many as ten. There could have been several more yellows dished out to them. At least one of the yellow cards should probably have been a red. They kicked everything in a Celtic strip today, often without even the pretence of trying to play the ball. It as a brand of neddish football I have never associated with them and I cannot imagine their fans having taken any pleasure in watching it.

Our own performance was disjointed, largely as a result of their brutality, time wasting and niggling fouls to break up the game. The injury to Hatate knocked us out of our stride somewhat and that is a far more worrying development than anything Hibs looked likely to do to us today.

Big players come good at big times. You cannot ask for more than that your subs play a starring role in the win and they came up with the stuff for us big time. We’ve all been waiting to see what Oh was about and today we did. That goal is huge for him.

And it;s huge for us. We head into the international break now with our heads up and the injured players with plenty of time to get their fitness back. We are in a good place and as angry as I am about that appalling away team display I am delighted that we got the result.

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  • Martin says:

    Their red was harsh. But they got away with at least one other red. Arguably losing a front man made them harder to break down. We need to be more adaptable when we change lineup. Otherwise few complaints

  • Pan says:

    Their red was not harsh. It was a second yellow. The thug repeated his thuggery after the 1st yellow. Also, we did adapt and we won the game.

    • Martin says:

      Thought his foot came up as he fell over. Replays showing CCV “helping” him down haven’t changed my mind. But, swings and roundabouts. They got off with 2 straight reds 2nd half.

  • Andrew Lamb says:

    Totally agree with James, but what we are getting here is the narrative that Scottish football is shite and clubs come to Celtic Park and Trump towers (Ibrokes) just to survive and in today’s case not even try to win the game.. yeah they were ahead but fvck me that’s like a treble xmas bonus to be up against us when their game plan is just to not get paid off.

  • Johnny Green says:

    I don’t think Hibs were any worse than any other team we’ve played at Celtic Park. Todays’ game was one of those where we had to grind out a result and that’s exactly what we did. Another 3 points and another step towards the Title which is very close now, all’s well in the Tim households tonight.

  • JimBhoy says:

    Hibs haven’t been the worst by far this season. The slightest touch and fall over brigade really grind my gears. Marshall constantly battering the ball to the guy with the tennis ball haircut was bizarre.

    O’Riley has been an underperformer this season, Turnbull I question whether Celtic class. I think the manager would take money for these two and also Starfelt. All likeable guys and good players but the 2 midfielders not contributing enough imo and Starfelt has been found at fault on a few pens this season.

    Now before you have a go, Ange is looking to improve every position and have others to slot in over a tough season. Haksabanovic seems to be the impact player of choice and I think this is nearer the quality we need in midfield plus consistency.

    I suspect Ange will look at other factors and Taylor on his day a very good fullback but seems to be carrying some injuries. He has competition from the young Argentine but I think Ange will also look at maybe a recruit in that area.

    The good thing is Ange doesnt have to rush things he will have a few targets lined up now I would think but wont go tripping over himself to push things on.

    • Darren Kerr says:

      Quite agree. Turnbull has a slow body and football brain and for me should be out the door to a lower level English Championship side before next season. I just don’t rate O’Reilly but was well worth a punt for what we payed but I think Ange will want more.

  • Pj says:

    I thought Hibs were a disgrace today. Time wasting off the chart and I’m delighted they got what they deserved. Feigning injury, cynical fouls with no intent whatsoever to play football. Embarrassing for a team with designs on third place Expected better of them I must say.

  • Johnno says:

    Admittedly it was a hard watch at times with plenty of frustration also.
    But the beauty of this celtic team is you never feel that sence of panick even when thing’s aren’t really going our way.
    Didn’t expect to Hibs to be as anti football as they were and this was happening well before the sending off, so only another lame excuse for the Scottish media to cry about

  • jrm63 says:

    Ange was obviously annoyed about something in the interview on Celtic TV. Hibs are rotten so not surprized by their approach and they were no more thuggish than some others. There should have been a second red. Clearly something has gone on

  • Kevan McKeown says:

    Hope the injuries tae Hetate and Mooy are minor. Hugely important, especially for these games comin up. Tho good tae see the subs steppin in and doin the biz.

  • Charlie Kelly says:

    Hibs today we’re absolutely shocking today,wasted time from goalkeeper to wingers.Must have counted at least 4times maybe more where an extra ball was thrown from dugout onto park to disrupt the game,even Johnny Kennedy went into there dugout and removed balls.There manager spent majority of the game talking to 4official or complaining players took it turns to go down injured and Marshall repeatedly called defenders back for byekicks to take a pass,once back would change tactic and chase them back up the park ,were he would punt ball down to player at outside right.The only shot on target was the Penalty,I agree about Turnbull believe he slows our game down when on the ball,can’t understand why Starfelt gets criticized as very seldom puts a foot wrong and again today turned in good performance

  • Neil Smith says:

    Hard to comprehend the anti O’Riely n Turnbull stuff. Some blokes just seem to react to a single incident/game/half. Excellent footballers who have made vital Contributions to our season. The former in particular and Turnbull too also important as Scottish, alternatives any naysayers???

    • Darren Kerr says:

      Iwata if fit. Tbull was all we had today and Ange will want upgrades on this level of player. Unfortunately there is hardly a good Scots player that is good enough to get in this side and eventually the squad and that is a major disappointment and problem. I put him in the same James Forrest too slow body and brain category for Anges type of football.

  • Carlo B says:

    BBC Scotland and other outlets are quoting stats saying 6 v 7 fouls…?

    Not sure how that matches up with your ‘Brutal, Cynical, Shameful…’ rhetoric or the ‘breath-taking cynicism and thuggery’ hyperbole of your article.

    At best, the 2nd yellow for Youan was a 50/50 challenge, the latter was fouled and was being pulled down.

    Again, how can 6 v 7 fouls be portrayed in such a ridiculous way?

  • Geoff says:

    Assuming there will be a post on the scandalous comments of the neutral panel on Sportscene?
    Thomson,Foster and McCann who spewed out such anti Celtic rhetoric tonight that it’s hard to fathom how this was allowed to be broadcast.
    Along with the offside Sevco goal that was hardly given the Quincy ME post mortem that follows any decision that we get that might be deemed soft or controversial!
    Fuckin fed up with this open bigotry!

    • Kevan McKeown says:

      @ Geoff. Saw that, especially foster, practically sayin starfelt was cheatin wi the first yellow, when ye could see he had clearly been hurt. 3rd rate ‘pundit’ and even worse player who’s obviously spewin because we won AGAIN.

  • Eldraco says:

    2 teams on a pitch playing football only one team did.

    The other was sent out to hurt people in their workplace. Think about that. How much did they pay the manager to do so? ,Now think about that.

  • Eldraco says:

    It’s obvious if we wish to progress in CL the squad could be stronger in depth, am sure it will be.

    Let’s leave it there.

    • John Markey says:

      I’m not leaving it there, for it is not obvious at all, not to me. Like it or not Ange does have his favourites, Starfelt and Taylor for starters, who even last season it was obvious they were not good enough for Europe. He did bring in Bernabei but that hasn’t really worked out either. I would like to think he has plans for strengthening our weaker areas including our goalkeeper, but I am not really convinced that he will.

  • Peter Campbell says:

    I think any player, and coaches now of course, found to have thrown a ball onto the pitch in order to break up play should be red carded. They know what they’re doing, it’s ungentlemanly and it’s cheating.

    • Martin says:

      Peter, it’s a cautionable offence (delaying the restart). We can’t go down the route of that no mark ex ref who wants to make up his own rules. But 2 yellows make a red. I’d caution the manager unless obvious who it was, then tell him if it happens again he’s getting a 2nd yellow-he’s now responsible for making sure the rest of his dugout behaves. And if I see who threw it on they’re getting booked too, but he’s still getting a 2nd yellow because we’ve had this chat. That may at least make them think.

      Agree absolutely disgraceful tactics. Shows the negative mindset they arrived with. I’ve never seen Hibs as a dirty team but they were going for leg breakers yesterday and deployiall the dark arts.

      On another point, someone really needs to have a word with Starfelt! I don’t subscribe to him being a bad defender, I actually think he’s pretty good… But he does some utterly inexplicable stuff especially in the box. He’s a real penalty risk every game. There’s absolutely no justification for pulling a shirt in the box. And to those who say “if we give those we’d give 100 penalties a week” I say yes, we would. For a week or two then it would disappear. If that happens 100 times in a game there should be 100 penalties in that game. My only issue with the refereeing at that penalty is that it should have been a yellow card as well for a holding offence. That’s a completely avoidable and utterly stupid foul and frankly I don’t want my defenders doing that.

  • Johnny Green says:

    27 points left to play for and only 18 of them necessary, which will change once we beat them at Celtic Park in two weeks time. All is well in the green half of Glasgow as we march relentlessly to the finish line. Happy days!

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