Football fans, if they follow their team long enough, come to break games like that into broadly three categories. There are days when you get everything you deserve. There are days when everything goes against you and you feel a sense of injustice. And there are days, many days when you follow this club, when you get the injustice you deserve.
Was there an element of cheating in that first 45 minutes today? Yes, of course there was. Absolutely and no question about it. The red card is a travesty. Their penalty is a joke. But if we score ours none of that happens, which more than anything else brings us back to a point we’ve made often and lamented loudly; why are we so bad at the dead ball?
If the winds of change are rolling through Celtic Park with the departure of Mark Lawwell, if that’s to be the start of something and not just an end point done as a sop to increasingly angry supporters, then we seriously need to drive a wrecking ball through the coaching department and rebuild that from scratch because something is way, way, way off there.
I’ve never seen a Celtic team so utterly ineffectual from dead ball situations.
We can’t get anything from corner kicks. The last time we scored direct from a free kick eludes me. We do not even score penalties regularly and consistently anymore; Idah arrived and converted his first two masterfully. Look at that spot kick today. Is he keeping up his practicing? Is anybody at Celtic prioritising this? You can lose games, and thus leagues, on account of that.
How many corners in that first half? Every one of them wasted.
Every one of them a hit-and-hope shot into the box.
I find it pathetic and this isn’t the first year we’ve watched this, this has been a trend for a long time and we’re not getting better at it. I’ve seen individual games this season where the corner count for our team has been into double digits … and I can count on one hand how many times we’ve been able to make one count.
It’s woeful. Absolutely woeful. I’ve never seen a poorer Celtic team when it comes to this stuff. Not ever. Not in my life. And I am shocked that we’ve had three different men in the dugout over the last few years who have failed to put that right.
The other thing, of course, is John Beaton. And John Beaton should never be officiating a Celtic match, and there isn’t one of us who doesn’t know that.
The Ibrox club demanded that Collum not officiate any more of their league games and guess what? He hasn’t since, not in any capacity. John Beaton is a far more problematic case than Collum is; we all know what Beaton is and what Beaton has done to Celtic over the years.
When you put critical decisions which could decide the destination of a title in his hands, without exerting at least some pressure, without at least making it clear that the club will be insisting on the very highest possible standards, you get the injustice you deserve.
The officials had charted the course of this game at half time. I never believed that we’d see one of those turnaround second halves, it just wasn’t in the script. We’re our own worst enemies because all the issues of this campaign so far were on display, in spades, when it came time to look at who we had available to us from the bench.
The poverty of the squad Rodgers has to work with following four windows without the signing of a guaranteed first team player save for Alastair Johnston is stark and terrible.
Mark Lawwell left this week, but that’s no guarantee that the policies of this club are going to change enough to deliver better, not that it will matter if we lose this league because Rodgers will be one of the first to go and the costs of that are going to make quite the dent in the cash pile and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the decision of the bean counters was to let a new manager, whoever would be daft enough to take the job under these people, see if he can work with what he has before deciding to fund a rebuild of the squad.
The worst thing about this board is that there is not a strategist on it. There is nobody on there who is capable of thinking and acting purposefully. This is why there’s no coherence to the football department, this is why the very real risks of failing to reform officiating have been ignored and why cronyism and nepotism are seen as acceptable business practices instead of as high-risk, lobotomising and toxically divisive.
If these people were capable of thinking beyond the next fan-subsidised knees-up in the executive dining room they’d recognise that they’ve placed themselves and this club in tremendous danger. And there is no sign that they are willing to take any responsibility for a single bit of it.
Even Lawwell’s departure is dressed up as a resignation “to pursue other opportunities” when the properly sensible, strategic, thing to do would be to say he was relieved of his duties because his performance has been unacceptable.
That does two things; it demonstrates that from now on everyone at the club will be held accountable and it shows the world that you are serious. Sacking the chairman’s son is as big a statement as hiring him in the first place, and much more positive. The geniuses at our club don’t even have the common sense or clarity of thought to do that, to turn a real setback for them into something that makes them look decisive.
The performance today wasn’t good enough. Period. There was a time when a Rodgers team would have won that game even with ten men on the pitch.
We seem a long way from that, but then that Rodgers team would have access to a far better pool of players than he’s got to work with here.
Look, if you will, at the state of that side; Bernardo, subbed at half time. Holm, Palma, Kuhn and Lagerbielke, of the signings, left on the bench with Rodgers literally preferring, in a must-win game, a kid from the academy. That’s why we’re here, the state of that squad, and most of the people responsible for that are still at the club right now.
It’s easy to come out of this today and look at the league table and think that on an average weekend – i.e. one where we’d won and so had they – that it would look just like it does today, with us still chasing their two point lead.
But of course it’s not the same, we blew that, and whether you want to blame officials for that – and they played their role without a doubt – the culprits are actually inside our own walls. But hey, our armchairs anarchists have the police to hate on.
We got what we were due. An injustice in some ways, yeah, but the one that we deserved.
We shouldn’t be losing 2-0 to that mob, home or away. And we’ve managed to do both this season. Today was the perfect opportunity to sicken the Ibrox chimps but all we’ve done is given them another comedic performance.
I guess that statement win against a piss poor Dundee side wasn’t what we thought it was. That, for me, is the most disappointing result of the season. Absolutely woeful. And I 100% agree with you about Beaton. Celtic should be challenging him officiating one of our games ever again. But I know they won’t.
Scunnered.
I disagree with you for once today james.. our penalty was never a penalty in a million years, it was the softest penalty ever, and Idah made a hash of it. We needed cool heads after that, then Yang kicks their player in the face, his game management was absolutely atrocious. Celtic bottled it today, and let rangers off the hook yesterday, a fully functioning Celtic would have took that mob to the cleaners today, as they are not a good side. I am only glad that they lost yesterday, or I wouldn’t have had a tv after that result there. It was a pathetic performance, lacking any creativity and was dire to watch. I decided to not watch Brendan’s interview after the match, as as much as I like him he is talking absolute garbage in some of his after match analysis. 9 games to go, and we need to show far more than that today
Yep
The article is too the point, and the board do have to accept the majority of the blame, but as I have said before the fans are not willing to make a stand,in politics you get what you vote for, so if you keep turning up to the games you get what’s on offer,if you want change , make a stand (don’t go into the stadium, stand outside it)
We’ve correctly blamed the board for their failings. I agree James that the coaching dept needs a clear out, however, Rodgers cannot escape. That team is weak, timid, slow, has no heart and is wasteful. After the sending off there was no energy and press, expected the second half to be very different but it was exactly the same. Rodgers cannot change things, he cannot get the best out of players. I still cannot figure out what he is trying to get this team to do. Naismith has outsmarted him twice in a number of weeks and that is unthinkable, that would not even happen under a Lennon. Credit to fans who are still paying to watch this mince.
Celtic are hopeless at set pieces, especially corners, and have been for a long time. Opposing teams also send high balls into Greg Taylor’s area, obvious to all, and why we need a new left back. So who is responsible? What do Kennedy or Strachan bring to the table? It is hard to see. As you said, James, we once could have come back from this, but not with the downsizing that has taken place under Lawell Junior. Today’s sending off was a high boot, but would it have been given at Ibrox? Not a chance. However, still have hope the league can be won, as the mob are really poor
The penalty we missed was never a penalty so to state we deserved injustice for missing what should never have been is a bit much.
The referee was poor also and allowed the early tackles that drew Celtic into Hearts game of roughing.
You score your penalty it’s a different game this team of players are just not good enough and today again pathetic display not interested in the bad referring we know how this works bent”. But Celtic are a poor side and so are the rangers and the rest of the spl it’s such a poor league if we are honest either of the two Glasgow teams can win it this year win or lose Rodgers will be gone come may or even sooner with a nice pay packet wee Rodgers not behind the door when comes to money
We dont deserve to win the league. End of. Too much chaos from the summer until now. Actually if we did win the title it would be an embarrassment to scottish football, and that needs no help. We can moan all we want about decisions etc but we have a board who continue to remain silent on the subject so what do we expect to happen.
If we win the title it would be an embarrassment, but if <> won the title it would be what exactly???
60 years of following Celtic and I have never seen a midfield so bereft of ideas and pace . I don’t even know what Rodgers is even asking them to do . The captain wouldn’t even improve things . It really is simple . Midfields control title race and ours without Hatate is a parody midfield .
Cheers Pat
Brilliant James. Spot on. ORiley is 6’2″ but he’s taking our set pieces?? Get him in the box let Greg Taylor take them. Idah wasn’t even looking at the goalie. He’s a duffer. Yang and Iwata don’t have the understanding to play Scottish football. Scales heads ball towards our penalty spot and leads to Pen. He is out of his depth despite being a genuine hard worker
Let’s start with the penalty miss! Shocking that we’ve missed yet another one and could yet cost us this title !
We then move onto Yang’s red card!
As soon as we heard Beaton was involved, it was the inevitable outcome. Robertson has shown his stupidity, ignorance and/or corrupt complicity by overturning the yellow and showing red.
The penalty decision again demonstrated the corruption at work, ( no surprise,) and complete lack of understanding for the rules of the game. Disgraceful decision but again, should it surprise us? Why has Beaton never been held to account, in the manner of Sevco’s attitude towards Collum.
Whilst I cannot fault the effort and determination of our players today, the lack of more game changing quality players and depth to our squad was again, evident. Even for allowing that we played almost 80 mins with 10 men !!!
For this we can throw more blame at our ineffective board’s poor recruitment…that and the continued silence on these officials and their obvious biased and dishonest performances.
VAR should be scrapped and only reintroduced when we have independent governance and officials. Rather than the way it can be weaponised, and used to benefit one club!
A big opportunity wasted today, and it remains to be seen how costly!!!
James I totally agree with you on our corners and set pieces,we can’t score from them and we can’t defend them either,I’m like you wondering when we last scored consistently from set pieces.Its got to have something to do with training and coaching,one more thing why did no one at Celtic,the board or manager not deem shankland worthy enough to test hearts resolve, everyone knew we needed another striker why did no one make a move for him,all that rubbish from liewell about it being hard to get players in the winter transfer window,we might at least have tried,don’t know where that result today leaves us .
“A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation.”
Cheating is the only rational explanation for the penalty decision today.
Agree we are rubbish at set piece football. Tavernier will score from penalties or fee kicks at will. Looks like practice makes perfect. Celtic was robbed today at Tynecastle. Sending Yang off and penalising Iwata definite cheating.
I agree wholeheartedly with the coaching comments, I’m sure Steve Wood coached Ronnie Simpson, and I am all for helping out ex players, but John Kennedy has had his time, Gavin Strachan I have no idea how he got a top coaching job.
Top managers don’t allow someone else to pick players either.
“An injustice in some ways, yeah, but the one that we deserved.” Seriously James? So we have to be good enough to overcome cheating officials as well as the opposition? I agree we were poor today and don’t have the quality we have enjoyed in previous seasons but to suggest we have to be good enough to overcome cheating officials is way off the mark in my opinion.
Who said that? I never said that. The officials have DIRECTLY influenced the result today.
My point is that we let refereeing go unreformed, we do nothing to keep people like Cheatin’ Beaton in check and then we follow it up with a grotesque weakening of the squad, we get what we deserve. Was that an injustice today? Of course. But it’s not anything we didn’t see coming a mile away. And we let these people think they could get away with this stuff, that’s why they do it, because they can.
So yeah, we got what we deserved and until we man the fuck up we’ll have days like this.
“If you’re good enough, the referee doesn’t matter.”-Jock Stein. He knew nothing would be done about it and that was 60 odd years ago.
There is some truth in that because if we had scored the penalty, a soft one in my opinion, the whole match would have changed. Yang had to go as the boot was way too high and he made it easy for the ref.
Our lack of strength in depth is always goin tae affect us in one way or another. Today tho, lookin back ah believe if we had 11 men we win there. The ridiculous penalty and soft red card made it a lot more difficult and the atrocious pen miss didnae help. Question is tho, when are the gutless cowards sittin on that board, gonnae come out and demand this corrupt bastard Beaton never officiates a game for us OR them in any capacity again. Enough is enough, these people are a disgrace tae their profession. But we know that.
Lawell is to blame for our loss today , not alone by the embargo he has put on signings but the fact that Beaton , knew he intended to cheat celtic out of the game today one way or another and they would be no sanction against him , he’s the toast of sevco tonight .
Lawell only laughs at this cheating and losing 60 million of the club and share holders money is nothing to laugh at .
Beaton and co are not finished until they cheat further in the games ahead to win the league , but i’m finished putting a penny into the club or buying merchandise that i or my family would wear only to be laughed at by these shysters ,
Why do you keep on criticising the board, then suggesting that Rodgers should go if we don’t win the league. I enjoy your articles although the whole sack the manager if he doesn’t win the league is poor, irrational and in no way supportive. We have a very good manager, who like players thrives on support and confidence.
The manager had a seven point lead. He can’t survive blowing that.
If we’re going to have accountablity then let’s have it across the boards.