GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 19: Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic celebrates scoring his team's fifth goal during the Scottish Cup Semi Final match between Celtic and St Mirren at Hampden Park on April 19, 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
That was nuts. In an already insane season, we may just have seen the most insane thing yet. The incredible thing about it is that it was both deeply scary and deeply inspiring at the same time. In the final half hour of normal time, we saw every negative trait this team has, every negative trait in some of our players and every negative trait in our manager.
O’Neill’s presumption in not changing the system, especially when the St Mirren manager had adapted his and had his side well on top, could have turned our lights out. I was not looking forward to extra time at all.
I do not know if he changed anything before extra time started. But something happened. It was like flicking a switch. Suddenly, the hesitant Celtic we had been watching were gone completely, and in their place was what I like to call the Real Celtic side.
The swagger was back. The ego was back. The arrogance was back. The brilliance we associate with this club was back. For ten minutes in the first period of extra time, we were watching our team again, a team capable of beating anyone. We have seen flashes of that team at various points this season, but this was on a whole different level.
There was energy and movement. There was passion and aggression. And it was clinical.
That is the really mad thing. We have not been clinical this season.
Then, all of a sudden, it fell into place. Two performances in that spell stood out a mile. Kelechi Iheanacho and James Forrest suddenly looked almost supernaturally good. Others produced as well. I thought Maeda looked as good as he has looked in a long time as a central striker. He terrified St Mirren in spells, and when we cut them to pieces in extra time, he looked back to his best too.
We are still too predictable. Celtic gave the opposition reasons to believe today. Far too many reasons. They took heart from our tactical inflexibility, and we cannot keep doing that. We were punished for it today, and we could have been punished even more harshly.
I do not feel any great sense of relief from watching us get away with that, because I have been writing about near-misses and warning shots for weeks. That was as close to a final warning as this team is going to get. We either heed it, or we are going to pay a very high price for ignoring it.
And yet … and yet …
It was all there in those ten minutes. Everything we have not seen or been missing. Everything we wanted to see from this team and simply have not. There was ruthlessness. The players had that confidence of champions all of a sudden.
The reason it was so stunning was not that we did not know these Celtic players had it in them.
It was that we have barely seen it. Yes, we have seen little flashes that Celtic were still capable of excellent football. But what we saw in that spell today was like everyone waking up at the same moment, and producing in a whole different way.
All of us have been waiting for a statement win.
In those ten minutes, we made one hell of a statement. In that spell, we went from a team that looked capable of losing points in every game after the split, and capable of going out of the cup today, to producing the kind of football and clinical finishing that, if replicated, would almost certainly propel us to the title.
We knew this team could produce that. We just had not seen any real sign that they would, and then all of a sudden they did.
So yes, there are still reasons to be concerned. We saw them. They were clear. They were obvious. But for the first time in weeks, maybe longer, there is something like hope as well. Certain players produced today in a way they have not produced often enough. Those players may still have what it takes to get us over the line.
If we play that kind of attacking football after the split, Celtic will do very well indeed. But we need to sort ourselves out in other areas of the pitch too.
More than anything else, the manager has to change his tune on the style and the system. Persisting with that approach is suicidal stuff.
I was so angry at the end of normal time because what we watched in the second half was embarrassing. The manager’s refusal to make stylistic changes and tactical adjustments, when St Mirren’s manager had so obviously figured us out, was one of the most humiliating moments of a long and dreadful season.
But whatever O’Neill said or did before extra time, it worked. And because it worked, it proves there was something he could have said or done earlier and whatever that was, it is why we are in the final, and for the first time in a while, I feel like we have a chance to do something more than just lift the Scottish Cup.
Because for ten minutes today, we saw Real Celtic, the version which, as Luke McCowan said, no team in Scotland can live with.
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Hopefully that sets us up for the rest of the season and we’ve remembered how to score goals. Worth giving Ralston a mention too, he had a great game. There was some issues but I’ll take that from a semifinal anytime.
Peter Pointer goes off and the players start thinking for themselves. Lesson to be learned but it won’t be. The crowd helped by groaning at the pass backs.
Everyone desperate to get the ball, everyone energised. Brilliant. Can we win this league?
To win the league, we need a fit Iheanacho starting imo. Maeda out wide, no tounetki or nygren starting. 3 strong midfielders from Calmac, hatate, Engels and
Chamberlain. Big shout out to Ralston, good game lad!
Just heading back from game and can’t really disagree with much of what you’ve said James.
This Celtic team has had an uncanny knack of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and nearly did it today !
That 4 goal, 10 minute salvo was excellent and wiped away the severe tension that most of us had to experience yet again !
Big shout out to JF & Iheanacho, plus I thought the much maligned Ralston had a great game ! Also good to see Engels return and Maeda show the energy and drive we miss at times ! As much as it defies rational thinking, I still think we’re going to snatch this league !
God willing we can ! HH
Yes Gerry, agree with you, especially on Ralston, a good guy to have in reserve, and he should be appreciated as such by some of the super critical elements of the support.
Well said Micmac! Though as we’ve all said, every game is a very tough watch !
The six subs all played a big part in winning that game, Take a bow Iheanacho, Forrest, Ox- Chamberlin, Saracchi and Murray, just when we needed a bit of energy and skill they provided it.
We have got to use our pool of players more, and a lot earlier in 90 minute League games, whilst pressing teams high up the Park throughout the game. This League can still be won.
The second half was laughably bad but for the next 10 minutes we played very well .
I think it was luck though, not some tactical masterclass that we improved.
Didnt watch the game but just saw the highlight
Our defence are appalling- cant defend crosses, aren’t strong enough and they need to stop all the fucking back passes to the keeper. He got lucky twice today from what I saw. The centre halves and keeper aren’t the fucking footballing geniuses they think they are so they need to wise the fuck up and keep the ball awsy from the goals
On a positive note looks like we click and scored some great goals in ET..
Bet the board will be sounding oit a move for mandron?
Nygren and empty jersey but still scored, Calmac far too negative and doesn’t look fit, Yang and Tounetki, the least said, the better. Scratchy and Iheaneacho changed the game. Start both and we should produce early. Forest did well when he came on but he’s no way a starter. Happy with the result but heart is going to burst before this season is out with our lacklustre play at times. To give up a 2 goal lead at ht in a cup semi to a team in real relegation trouble is not good enough.
I must admit I stopped watching at HT as I felt we were going to insist on shooting ourselves in the foot (again). On the plus side, the garage door got a much needed coat of paint! Finished painting to be told it had just gone 2-2…
St Mirren were unsettled when we got the ball forward much quicker (regardless of whether we controlled the ball – we started looking to win the second balls). We need to get more minutes out of Iheanacho – a class apart and will score the chances we have been scorning.
Any insight on the issue with McGregor – O’Neill implied that he isn’t up for 90 minutes hence reason for being substituted? I didn’t the 2nd half so won’t comment on that, but I don’t see us playing as aggressively in ET as we did with McGregor on the pitch.
Whatever happens in the final, let’s hope we don’t offer Lennon the job in the showers…
I have checked out until there is structural change at the club regardless of result today…I’m hearing and reading the 2nd half made observing the garage drying more entertaining
? (that should be a laughing emoji but not convinced it will be posted as such…). From Angeball where our attitude after scoring was let’s score the next goal, we have regressed to “we’re winning, let’s hold on”. I won’t blame MON as he’s been left holding the baby.
But I do believe our squad (if properly directed and used) is more than capable of winning this league. We need key players to stay fit and play themselves fitter, with additions from the sick list to help us out.
As always the most important game is the next one – let’s take care of Falkirk and score some goals.0
For fucks sake – Surely we can kick on from that first half of extra time that we were (sort of) fortunate to get to…
They CAN fuckin do it when they want to…
There are NO EXCUSES now !
“But something happened.”
Aye, McGregor was removed.
Bottom line is. The win once again paints over the fact this squad struggled to dispatch a mediocre team with a rookie manager and an inexperienced 17-year-old. They failed to dispatch them in the regulation 90. We don’t get extra half-hours in league games. We might have one but that should have been put to bed long before it did.
Their 17-year-old keeper wasn’t even tested once in the second half. THAT is an embarrassment. And that’s putting it politely. MONs team played like old men for most of that 90-minutes. And then switched off AGAIN in the second half of extra time. Hardly league-winning mentality. Time will tell. Let’s hope i’m wrong. BTW, Ralston’s goal, for me, was pick of the bunch. Cracker!
We might have won, not “one”…
“More than anything else, the manager has to change his tune on the style and the system. Persisting with that approach is suicidal stuff.”
Not going to happen. Mark my words, James. Next league game will see us revert straight back to the anti-football with McGregor at the heart of it. Win the league? I very much doubt it. And playing that tippy-tappy anti-football we don’t even deserve to finish second. I hope beyond hope that i will be proved wrong.
Like some other commenters have said already James, Anthony Ralston was immense yesterday and in my opinion the best Celtic player on the park. I understand why you call him the Good Soldier as we can do better at right back but it must be difficult for him as he only plays sporadically and he’s very rarely let us down when he plays considering it could be months between appearances for him. Daizen looked a player again yesterday but he’s not done that enough thus far and he needs to keep that level up if he wants his move, Jamesy Forrest whatever you think of him, at 34, did what not one other player done in the ninety minutes, he ran at his man beat him and put in a great cross for Iheanacho to score and that put the momentum back in our favour again after a dismal second half. I had no faith in us going into extra-time as the momentum was with the Buddies and if they’d upped their game ten percent could’ve won in the ninety minutes so to say I had trepidation was an understatement, that twelve minute burst of scoring was like the real Celtic which begs the question where has this team been all season? The truth is it’s down to the players and I understand we’ve had a lot of injuries as well and we’re down to the bare bones but where’s their professional pride? They’ve not been on it or anywhere near the level we expect, they’re paid handsomely and should be turning in better performances than they have, I suspect also though that players who’ve been angling for a move might affect the mood of the squad also, it only takes one moaner to bring a the vibe down. I’m not saying Daizen, Reo or Arne after the Nottingham Forest interest are all doing that but there’s certainly not the intensity in our play that was our calling card since Ange came in and Brendan carried on. The predictable horseshoe pattern, slow, tippy tappy, backpassing, lackadaisical and lethargic manner we’ve been subjected to is soul destroying and has brought pressure on ourselves and cost us a lot of points this season. It’s essential we keep Iheanacho fit and firing in the last six games as he’ll win us the double as he knows where the goal is and is our only competent striker, I know young Osmand is on his way back but can he get up to speed quickly enough, I have my doubts. If we win this double and it’s a big IF then I’ll be delighted but it won’t resolve the deep lying problems with the structure of the club and if we think things are bleak now we’ve still not reached our nadir, unless we oust Desmond nothing will change it’ll only get worse.