One of the media themes which has dominated the last couple of days is this idea, wholly unsupported by any of the facts, that the Scottish Cup Final was some sort of one way football match in which we were lucky to get the result.
I have ranted and raved on this in various articles over the last few days; I could not believe that some of these morons making this claim watched the same game as I did. Worryingly, a lot of Celtic fans, whilst not buying into the lie that we were dominated in the game, seem to think our midfield was terrible and that theirs had the better of the proceedings.
I wonder what the Hell game they watched as well.
But there is a significant constituency amongst the fan base which knows exactly what took place on Saturday and are fighting back not just with the truth but with the facts … and this is where Ibrox and its media toadies are going to have difficulty selling this in the long term. The facts are freely available, and they are so damning they even caught me by surprise.
Yesterday or the day before, I got an email from Celtic talking about the game. I’ve watched the game a couple of times, in extended highlights packages both on the mainstream TV services and online, and I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what happened.
Based on those viewings and what I recall about watching I live I already knew that the Ibrox inspired narrative, as trotted out by idiots like Jackson, Keown, English and others. But I clicked on the link anyway and up came a match report and the stats.
I did a double-take looking at the stats. I wondered whose data-set Celtic was working off. I knew we’d edged the game, in spite of all the bollocks from elsewhere; I wanted to see proof of it, and by God, Celtic’s numbers did that. But had we controlled the game to that extent? I thought I’d check them with those from Sky and on the BBC, and they are obviously all getting their figures from the same people and so they’re accurate.
63% possession for our team. Incredible. Four shots on target each. One shot off target apiece. Blocked shots, they had 6 to our 3, but you get no prizes for that, and it doesn’t suggest match dominance either. Nor does a corner count of 11-3 in their favour. I’ve watched games where sides with virtually no corners have won comfortably.
The stats deep dive, as done by some of the online Celtic community, and which is available in various places, including at Opta, are even more compelling in favour of Celtic; we made 510 passes to their 281. 447 of our passes found a Celtic man. In percentage terms, that’s an 88% completion ratio, higher than their ratio of 81%. We had a higher completion percentage of forward passes, back passes, lateral passes, progressive passes, long passes and passes to the final third.
We were the better team. The facts are overwhelming. They were able to get bodies in the way of our players in the final third, and they defended with discipline … but this fiction – for that is what we can now definitively call it – that they were in control of the midfield has been utterly destroyed by those figures and by what we all watched on the day.
You tell me one save of genuine note that Hart had to make. I can’t think of one. Both sides defended well, so what does that leave? It leaves the middle of the pitch where, if you believe the narrative from the press, their trio of Cantwell, Raskin and Diomande were tremendous. I’m not kidding, that’s what Jackson and English and others said … and it is complete cobblers.
Those figures show clearly who the better team was in the course of the game, and they thoroughly obliterate the media “consensus” on which Ibrox’s comforting optimism depends. That’s why it’s interesting, and it’s why you won’t read it in the papers.
The amount of games we’ve lost fae the FILTH this Season & by lost I mean Expected G’s, Moral Losses & ‘We wur 2nd best tae 10 Warriors’ lol! Maybe no worth turning up nxt Season wae these OVERWHELMING Stats showing how far we’ve fell behind lol!
We won the game, end of, the only stat that matters
Hi James
Glad you raised this- and by the way these figures are available on the celticfc.net website the official Celtic one -which includes the score and all relevant stats. I read them at 5.10pm on Saturday evening -they are there for all to see –
this was the first time these clubs have met in a scottish cup final you wont read that in the papers either.
That hun message boy Newport in the Record claiming we soaked up 89 minutes of pressure was an absurd take
Hahahaha I read that. Sheer nonsense. He must have pulled that out of his backside.
“There are lies, damn lies, and the SMSM.” Benjamin Disraeli
James, don’t get upset. You more than most must realise that the SMSM, indeed the Media in general, doesn’t tell the truth.
They play to their gallery, the customer base that still buys their papers. They try to keep the deluded onside, to keep believing.
The Media know that they’re lying but justify it because they’re printing what their customer base, that particular demographic that can’t cope with reality, NEEDS to see and hear. The Gap is small, we’ll beat them next season. It was the officials that robbed them, the SFA set them up. Peter Lawwell controls the SFA / SPFL, Glasgow City Cooncil, the Scottish Government.
You’ve been down their sewers enough times to realise they can’t deal with facts, reality. Anything that challenges their Supremacist worldview must be a Conspiracy against them. Why else would they be denied their rightful place at the top of Scottish Football.If they were to be constantly presented with facts that negated their world view. Had it drummed into them why they were perpetual losers and where the blame really lay they would have the mother of all breakdowns, individually and collectively and they would turn. They would turn on the’Big Hoose’ big style and all the Media that helped to nurture their perceived victimhood would be in the front line for retribution.
That’s why the Media lies to them. It helps to preserve the fiction of the two big ‘Lies’ that are a straight jacket squeezing the life out of the Scottish game. They lie to them so that successive Ibrox Boards can continue to fleece them while trying to stay two steps ahead of the fans with their own lies.
Above all the Media lies to them on behalf of the Ibrox Board through fear. The lies the media and the buyers of ‘the basket of assets ‘ told the Ibrox faithful were akin to Life Jackets to drowning men. They buoyed them up, gave them hope in their darkest hours. The Chimera the SMSM, GREEN and the long line of Staunch Custodians created can only be contained by even more lies. To break the cycle invites destruction by the Monster they created.
The media don`t lie through fear, they lie because they are bigots. It`s ingrained in them and even if every Celtic fan bought their rag and no Sevco fans, they would still spout the same anti-catholic/Celtic hatred. They don`t need to fear a bunch of cowards with the same leanings as themselves, so this talk about their fear is absolute rubbish.
There is an after game interview on YouTube with Tav and a sympathetic apologist for Rangers. The interviewer was trying to put words into Tav’s mouth to appease Ger’s fans.
Tav apologised to the fans. He did not complain about referee decisions. He said
“We came up short”. Undeniably true. when you look at the Score Board. That’s what matters. He also said there were times when he felt Rangers were on top. As you said; Celtic’s defence neutralised Gers attack during these periods. Tav is a sportsman you could have a good conversation with.
Just an observation: Last year when Mick Beale was sending hand signals from the sideline, Tav appeared to have no clue what Mick wanted. He did not pass any message to his players.
I think Tavernier is a decent person,he tries to keep things calm and stops his teammates being arseholes, remember when cuntwell refused Reo some water Tavpen stepped in ,same recently when one of his team mates tried to get at Johnstone Tavernier pulled the offender away,he just seems like a decent sort.
I think that’s why they want him stripped of the captaincy. They want a snarling bigot like themselves leading by example, a Barry Ferguson / John Brown type.
Look for tangible evidence and you will get to a truer reflection of any match, not the typical garbage churned out by the press.
The statistics you mentioned James are clearly evident across almost all media outlets. But there is more evidence which you need to dig a little to find, like these ‘match summarisers’ comments and evaluations during last Saturday’s Final
13th minute: Rangers press is providing more space in the midfield for McGregor
24th minute: Celtic have settled better in the last 10 minutes, Rangers can’t get on the
ball.
26th minute Ridvan has been forced back by James Forrest.
27th minute Rangers need to string 2 or 3 passes together
36th minute Celtic have dominated the last 20-25 minutes
42 minute We need to take steps to stop Celtic’s control in the last 20-25 minutes
80th minute Rangers have been the better team in the last ten minutes
87th minute Rangers look like the team that’s going to win
99th minute Rangers have pretty much bossed the show.
Simple arithmetic confirms that Celtic had 30-35 minutes of domination in the first half.
Who’s evaluations and comments are these? None other than Andy Little, summariser on Sevco TV.
Priceless!
His commentary fur the goal is Soooperb! “Aw naw.. so against the run of play, heartbreaking Tom” LOL!!
Half of our passes unfortunately where square passes accross. our back 4 ,I am not interested in statistics bar the one at the end of the game ,and that is the final score.
Football is about who score’s the most goals”that’s the facts .