Get your jelly and ice-cream…

For the third time on the trot, Celtic won in the Scottish Cup at Inverness which makes it harder for the media to keep spouting off about the first two times we met in the competition. They’ll never stop but as long as we keep on winning when we meet, they keep on crowing about games that are getting further in the past with every passing season.

Celtic prepare to on Caley in the Cup

We’ve yet to experience a canter or demolition job in Inverness but you would probably say it was our easiest time up there yet? It was only our third 2 goal victory but our second half showing was pretty decent and after the penalty, it was a training match. A lot of players put in a good shift but once again, Gary Hooper was tremendous.

His work-rate and strength, against a team where you need to match their muscle, were exceptional and his role in the second goal was exactly what you want from a striker. Looking to play in a team-mate, not giving up when it looks like lost cause and then having the drive to bear down on goal when he get the ball. There was every chance that Hooper would have found a finish but a trip allowed Broony to get his third goal in 3 games and it was job done.

The Celtic huddle in Inverness

Sammy had a great strike in the first half and put in a good shift, Kelvin Wilson settled back in nicely and Broony and Joe were strong in midfield. Fraser Forster didn’t have too much to do but two saves in the first half means he can look back on his clean sheet with satisfaction. One moment that also stood out was deep in the second half when Broony had the ball wide right at the half way line and Adam Matthews went tearing ahead of him. I happened to look up and saw James Forrest had dropped back and was covering the right back position. If Ryan Giggs had dropped back to cover his full-back, Sky commentators would be creaming themselves over the experience being shown by the player looking out for his team-mates. That was well done from James and an indication of the way the team is working hard for each other.

So, a good 2-0 win away in the Cup, you can’t ask for any more than that….but the atmosphere today was pretty special. We’ve had some excellent spontaneous moments in the past 2 seasons and today’s was another. Taking a 1-0 lead going into half-time is always a bonus but with a couple of moments to the break, the fans came to life and the fact that the mainstream media have finally woken up to what we’ve been telling them for years was cause for celebration.

We're having a party when Rangers die

One of the best things about the away end at Inverness is that you get to take in some brilliant views and quite a few of us were asking what’s that coming over the hill? Turns out it’s the taxman, it’s the taxman! That and the promise to have a party when our city chums bite the big one and go bust kept the fans cheering for quite a party. The only problem may come when they actually go bust with people being split between celebrating by having a party, having jelly and ice cream, doing the huddle or starting a conga. Still, as most football managers will tell you, it is good to have options. The win over Inverness was well worth celebrating but we’ve got another big game looming at Tynecastle on Wednesday. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating at the end of that as well.

Jelly and ice cream...

Celtic kept their dreams of a domestic treble alive on Saturday as they progressed to the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup with a 2-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Celtic overpowered a difficult Inverness CT side in the Highlands, to become the first name through to the quarter finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup. While the hosts were tough to break down throughout, they proved to be their own downfall with the defence culpable for both goals.

Celtic Lineup

Celtic lop-sided 4-4-2

There was no place for any of Celtic’s January signings in the squad that travelled to Inverness, with Lennon quoted as waiting until they are ready. With regards to injuries, Mo Bangura is out for the season, with Daniel Majstorovic returning from a fractured cheekbone. His normal deputy – Charlie Mulgrew – was shifted to left-back (in place of a not-quite-sharp-enough looking Emilio Izaguirre) allowing Joe Ledley to operate in midfield and Kelvin Wilson a long-awaited start at centre-back. Cha Du Ri was dropped in favour of Adam Matthews.

Elsewhere, James Forrest and Anthony Stokes were rotated/rested, allowing Georgios Samaras and Kris Commons a chance to stake a claim in the first eleven.

The formation therefore was a clear lop-sided 4-4-2, with Commons in his natural position high on the left, fleeting between forward and midfield.

Inverness CT

Inverness 4-2-3-1 / 4-4-1-1. Hayes initially started up front with Tade on the left, but for the majority of the match Tade was the lone striker, supported dynamically by either Hayes or Shinnie.

Terry Butcher’s side had been in fine form, having not lost a match since the unlucky 2-1 defeat to Rangers back on the 17th of December. The only change from last week’s goalless draw with St Mirren was Graeme Shinnie coming in for Shane Sutherland, and Ryan Esson dropped for Jonathan Tuffey.

Caley Thistle continue to struggle with a lengthy casualty list - Andrew Shinnie, Owain Tudur Jones, Steve Williams, Aaron Doran, Roman Golobart and Chris Hogg all unavailable.

Cagey opening

It was a scrappy opening, with neither Celtic’s direct approach or the Highland’s wind and rain, conducive to quality football. With the extra man in midfield Inverness looked slightly more comfortable in possession, while Celtic were looking to get the ball forward as eagerly as possible.

The sharp mind of Gary Hooper looked most likely to exploit the rushed attacking and panicked defending, with the Inverness defence failing to clear their lines and the striker ghosting in behind. He was, unfortunately, pushed too far wide, and his back-heeled cut-back slightly unlucky not to make it beyond the goalkeeper’s outstretched leg.

While Caley Thistle started with Jonny Hayes in the lone striker role, he was interchanging with Shinnie (in the centre) and Gregory Tade (wide left) frequently – with the gimmick an attempt to open gaps, or unsettle the defence.

Lennon’s use of Scott Brown and Joe Ledley

In something of a regular occurence for Lennon, very early-on in the match he opted to alter the midfield. It was strange because Celtic’s attacks seemed only to be lacking a little bit of luck to prove fruitful.

Nevertheless, Lennon demonstrated the flexibility of his midfield by flipping the lop-sided midfield horizontally. Joe Ledley became the tucked in midfielder, Brown moved central and Commons moved over to the right hand side.

 

The switch also highlights how James Forrest might integrate into the side in the future – with Brown central and Ledley on the left.

The change unsettled Celtic’s rythm, and what briefly followed was Caley Thistle’s best spell of the match. Nick Ross came close having found room between the lines, and then Celtic survived a flurry of corners, and a half-hearted penalty appeal.

Stepping up a gear

As per pre-formation switch, Celtic’s direct approach was consistently a hair-breadth away from breaking the deadlock. Hooper was central, coming close with a well-worked volley, and then his cut-back saw Commons tantalisingly close to controlling the ball and lashing in a shot.

In the end, Inverness were the source of their own undoing, in a comical period of awful defending. Ross Tokeley – the chief offender – feebly letting Samaras to stride through and blast in the opener from a narrow angle. It’s difficult to say if the goalkeeper was culpable; perhaps being allowed the benefit of the doubt due to the confounding curve and power on the shot.

At one point a clearance struck the face of a Caley Thistle defender, going out for a corner. Truly shambolic.

The course of the match varied little from that point, with Inverness trying but failing to utilise the pace of Tade on the counter against a relatively high defensive line.

Testing a 4-3-3

The introduction of Forrest for the imprecise Commons on the hour also saw a change of tack from Lennon. Samaras moved wide-left, with Forrest going high up on the right. Ledley and Brown flanked Wanyama to make a flat 4-3-3.

Normally seen as an attacking formation, it actually served well to contain Caley Thistle’s more forward thinking players. Instead of Inverness having a spare man in midfield, the spare man was at the back – which is precisely where you didn’t want to bumbling Tokeley on the ball.

Unfortunately for Tokeley, he did find himself with possession having cleared up a long Celtic ball. Hooper read the woeful back-pass and raced through only to be knocked down by David Proctor. Scott Brown tucked away the penalty to secure the win.

The other subtlety of the 4-3-3, is that in defending the wide forwards track back more into a 4-5-1 shape. At this stage, when possession is turned over this leaves Samaras (and more significantly) Forrest, quite deep but also fairly open (with the full-backs either out of position or unwilling to track their opposite number into deeper areas). Forrest was therefore able to take a few running starts on the left-back – coming close to scoring in the process.

Conclusion

Lennon will be delighted to progress having travelled to a historically difficult venue (which you won’t be allowed to forget!), particularly without picking up any injuries. While Lennon along with the apoplectic Butcher, have heaped praise on Celtic’s performance, it’s worth holding back on the superlatives.

While the performance was very good, particularly at the back, and while it might be ‘glory-hunting’ or melodramatic to complain about lack of goals in a 2-0 victory, the goals were borne from defensive error rather than quality creation.

The exception was Hooper, whose linkup and desire to get attempts on goal was astounding. But elsewhere it’s difficult to distinguish another strong attacking performance. Given the result, the gripe is minor.

It’s a testing time therefore for Commons, whose trademark position in the lop-sided 4-4-2 is under threat not only from James Forrest but now new signing Rabiu Ibrahim. Samaras’ goal (and short-term signing of Pawel Brozek) is also a reminder to Anthony Stokes that his partnership with Hooper is not set in stone. The suggestion of course, is of a quality squad depth, which Lennon was able to successfully demonstrate this afternoon.

Terry Butcher couldn’t hide his anger at Celtic’s Scottish Cup win over Inverness claiming that it was like a training match.

Goals either side of half-time from Georgios Samaras and Scott Brown gave Celtic third third win of the season over Butcher’s side as the visitors made it 15 domestic wins on the bounce.

Inverness went out of the League Cup to First Division part-timers Ayr United but the former England World Cup hero felt that today’s defeat was was more disappointing.

“It was like a training match for Celtic today,” Butcher claimed. “They worked harder than us and that is an awful thing to say.

“I can’t believe how frustrating it is and how disappointed I am. We just let everybody down.

“Celtic could have scored more goals and the only positive I can take from the game is that we only lost 2-0.

“We hardly had a shot, we hardly had a cross and we hardly had any decent play in their half and the penalty was a comedy of errors.”

Caley Thistle striker Jonny Hayes was just as devastated tweeting: “Apologies to anyone who paid for that today! Terrible performance mainly from myself! No excuses against a better team.”

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Goals from Georgios Samaras and Scott Brown eased Celtic to a 2-0 win against Inverness in their William Hill Scottish Cup fifth-round tie at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium.

Sammy And Broonie On Target For Celtic…

A super Sammy strike and a penalty from captain Scott Brown were enough to take holder Celtic into the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup in Inverness today.

Lenny chose to shuffle the pack a bit with Kelvin Wilson partnering Thomas Rogne in the middle of defence, moving Charlie Mulgrew to left back and Adam Matthews returning at right back at the expense of Cha.

Also missing from the starting line up was Anthony Stokes, who dropped to the bench, Lenny favouring Sammy up front with Gary Hooper.

And that change in selection worked for the manager. With the game in a stalemate around the half hour mark, Georgios Samaras latched on to a Ross Tokely mistake to fire an unstoppable swerving shot from 16 yards to put the Bhoys 1-0 up.

The goal was no more than Celtic deserved having dominated most of the possession up to that point and seemed to settle the Hoops, although ICT very rarely threatened.

Although Celtic didn’t add to there lead until the second half, the Bhoys were never in danger.

And the game was put beyond doubt when man of the match Gary Hooper robbed ICT’s Procter on the touchline only to be scythed down by the defender for a stonewall penalty.

Up stepped Scott Brown to score his third goal in as many matches and and take the Celts safely into the next round.

As the game petered out, Sammy Hoops both missed chance3 to make the score a bit more convincing. Still, a victory over Terry Butcher and his men is always nice and made even sweeter with the way the game went.

Well done Celtic and well deserved!

 

 

 

Confirmation of the starting eleven and substitutes named for today's early kick-off away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

And The Media Don’t Like It!

At yesterday’s press conference Neil Lennon did what he does best…..tell the truth!

On the back of The Sun running a story about his assistant, and former team mate, Alan Thompson frequenting the same pub in Glasgow as the Dark Side’s Allan McGregor, Lenny let rip.

Having been a victim of sectarian abuse, in fact he still is, Neil let the media know that  THEY are as much to blame for stoking the fires of the religious bigotry as anyone.

On the one hand they tell us that this is wrong and that’s wrong, then they print a non-story to try and antagonise both sets of fans. Talk about hypocrites!

They then tried to get the Celtic manager to tow the party line and join the ‘poor Rangers’ campaign. The ‘Scottish football needs a strong Rangers’ bandwagon, you know the one I mean, the one that’s angling to let the Govan Mob off with breaking the law and evading taxes.

Well, they needn’t have bothered, because Lenny, as always, told it how he sees it.

Asked if he feels sorry for the mess the noisy neighbours in, Neil replied “No”. He then went on to tell a few home truths, and in doing so gave the media all the ammunition they need to write more sensational headlines.

What these people tend to forget is THEY need the manager of Celtic to do press conferences, THEY need Celtic more than Celtic need them, especially with the advent of current social media platforms.

And if they keep pissing off the sources of their work, then eventually they suffer the same fate as a certain team from Glasgow’s South side…….

Couldn’t come soon enough!

Neil Lennon has gone into detail about the financial meltdown facing Rangers and expressed no sympathy for the Ibrox club.

The past week has seen the mainstream media finally catch on to the depth of the club’s problems highlighted by the desperate need to sell Nikica Jelavic to bring in much needed cash.

Ally McCoist is now operating under the financial constraints that Lennon has been working under since he took over from Tony Mowbray in 2010.

While Walter Smith was able to splash the cash on Jelavic and James Beattie at the start of last season the Celtic boss had to scour the world for cut price signings like Emilio Izaguirre, Biram Kayal, Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes.

“I have a certain sympathy with Ally McCoist,” Lennon told the daily newspapers yesterday having earlier touched on the subject in a Sky Sports News interview. “He’s in his first year in the job and I’m sure that he didn’t envisage the problems that he’s had.

“But somebody must have seen in coming. Do I have sympathy in that respect for them? No. Have they brought it upon themselves as a club? Yes.

Explaining the reality of how Celtic have to operate Lennon added: “We have cut our cloth accordingly for years and had to bite the bullet a few times.”

Lennon’s comments come as the prospect of administration or even liquidation is freely discussed about Rangers.

An automatic 10 point deduction will apply in the event of administration but liquidation is a whole new area for the football authorities to deal with.

Liquidation would mean the end of the club formed in 1873 but a new club would almost certainly be formed.

How the authorities deal with a newly formed Glasgow club probably playing out of Ibrox Stadium remains to be seen. Any new club would have to be registered with the SFA and then apply to the SFL or SPL for membership.

There will be a will amongst some clubs to welcome the new Glasgow club into the SPL for commercial reasons but there are bound to be dissenting voices concerned about any such move.

At that stage Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster will need to earn their salaries and ensure that Scottish football is seen to be operating within the Financial Fair Play guidelines about to be introduced by UEFA.

Celtic midfielder Joe Ledley says all talk of clinching a treble has been banished as his teammates focus on Saturday's Scottish Cup fifth round match with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Celtic’s u-19 match with Hibs scheduled for noon at Lennoxtown has been postponed due to a heavy overnight frost.

The decision is a big disappointment for John Kennedy side who are already three matches behind Edinburgh rivals Hearts and Hibs.

All six of this weekend’s fixtures on the u-19 card have now been postponed with Celtic next in action against Inverness Caley Thistle on Tuesday followed by Sunday’s SFA Cup trip to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

 

Caley 0 - 2 Celtic A superb Samaras shot from a tight angle and a Scott Brown penalty won from dogged play by Gary Hooper saw Celtic ease...

Last week I suggested that the League Cup semi final against Falkirk was one of three massive games that could shape our season.

With that won we’re in the first domestic final of the season, but now we have the other two to contend with as we go on the road again. First stop, Inverness in the Scottish Cup fifth round.

You don’t need to dig out the history books for this one. As the 12.45pm (7.45 ET, 4.45 PT) kick off is on Sky Sports on Saturday they will spend most of the time reminding us of the time Inverness knocked us out of the cup in both 2000 and 2003. I’m sick to death of hearing about the supposed “shock” of 2000. Peterhead have most of that team anyway by the sounds of the commentary from the last round, and we’ve disposed of them already. But no doubt that will again be their focus, despite the fact that we’ve played them in the Scottish Cup in Inverness twice since and beaten them 2-1 on both occasions.

The only game of any relevance is the most recent one, which came in the quarter finals last season. Although Adam Rooney, who scored the opening goal from the penalty spot, has moved on, the man who got both Celtic goals that night was Joe Ledley and he is most definitely still at Celtic. In fact, the Celtic squad has changed very little since beating Inverness in that rearranged midweek cup tie – the initial game being called off due to a waterlogged pitch, something which also happened to a league match there last season! Hopefully this weekend’s match won’t meet the same fate and we can get it played on schedule. After all, I seem to remember watching the cup game on my laptop with Housey from Over and Over doing the commentary since it clashed with a Champions League night!

Inverness are on a good run of form at the moment. Although they drew 0-0 at home to St Mirren last weekend, that came after a home win against Hearts, their extra time win over Dunfermline to get them to the tie against us, and an away victory at Motherwell. In fact, Inverness haven’t lost since they visited Ibrox in mid-December, and even then they were robbed thanks to dodgy goals involving hands for Rangers, denials of penalties for Inverness, and of course their own ineptitude in front of goal at times. It’s a game they should have won, never mind not lost.

Far cry then from the team who spent a lot of the early part of this season sitting at the bottom of the league. I maintained for quite a while that they were only there due to a lot of bad luck. Look at their last game against us up there – a sending off for an elbow when Greg Tansey had quite clearly missed and had poked Giorgios Samaras in the eye instead. Okay, bad example, the intent was there and why should he get off just because he missed? Mind you, the review panel still overturned it later. How about the two dodgy penalties Rangers got up there? Or the game they were miles better than Motherwell but still somehow lost 3-2?

Going back to our match, we continued to struggle into the second half of the match despite the extra man advantage before some inspired substitutions gave us the crisp passing to get us in behind the stubborn Inverness defence for a couple of Anthony Stokes goals. That 2-0 win in November actually equaled our biggest ever win away to Caley Thistle, so you don’t need me to tell you that we’ll more than likely have another tough time of it up there this weekend.

Despite our great run of wins, I remain somewhat pessimistic about us. I know I’m in the minority, and maybe it’s a case of “once bitten twice shy”, but we seem to be rarely clicking. We’re doing enough to get by and pick up the wins, which I’m delighted about after every game, but we need a decent performance or two before my confidence can grow.

Victor Wanyama is starting to show signs of his youthfulness with two matches in a row where he’s been less than his best, while Scott Brown appears to be trying to do the job of… well, everyone. He needs to have more faith in his teammates. With Joe Ledley being moved all over the park, Giorgios Samaras and Ki Sung Yeung in and out of the team, and the constant pressure of James Forrest to perform, I’m rather hoping Kris Commons kicks into gear about now to ease things in that department – and ideally get on the score sheet too!

As if Inverness wasn’t a difficult enough prospect, we then have to catch up with our outstanding SPL match on Wednesday night. With Rangers beating Hibernian 4-0 last weekend, the gap is now down to a single point and while it’s nice to still be top with a game in hand, if you had to pick one ground you’d rather not be visiting for that game then it would be Tynecastle.

On our last visit there at the start of October, some awful defending cost us two goals, and in between those Kris Commons was shown a straight red card for a stupid lunge. This was one of the few times that Mohamed Bangura had started up front, but to be honest you could hardly blame him for Celtic’s poor performance. Commons was perhaps the man who looked most likely to score for Celtic until his sending off, but he was one of only a few who looked up for it. You just can’t play at Tynecastle half hearted as the poisonous atmosphere can get to you and will always have the home team fired up.

Of course, they’ve had other ways to fire themselves up of late. The pay issues that have gone on there seemed to do little except galvanise the players into putting in some decent performances. They blew away St Mirren with ten men in their last home game – Rudi Skacel getting a hat trick of goals from outside the box – while they’ve also beaten Motherwell, Dunfermline and Auchinleck Talbot without conceding in recent home matches. Yeah, okay, that last one was down to a dodgy offside, but it was still their second string that played that day and battered the Auchinleck goalkeeper senseless for 90 minutes.

Our previous visit to Tynecastle showed what we were really capable of doing. The penultimate game of last season saw us needing a win to ensure that Rangers didn’t win the league by default. We knew the game was almost up, but we still went out and put in one of our best away performances of the season. An early Gary Hooper goal was followed up later in that half with Hearts being reduced to ten men. Hooper scored his second to all but seal the points before Commons stayed cool to stick away the third before celebrating with the supporters and being shown a second yellow card. Yeah, Kris has been sent off on his last two visits to Tynecastle! Hopefully if he’s after a hat trick on Wednesday night it’s of goals and not red cards!

Two wins this coming week are going to be difficult to achieve, but if we do it we’ll be two massive steps closer to ending this season with the trophy haul we all want.

Krys  (twitter @Krys1888 and for podcast and website updates @TheLostBhoys & @HomeBhoys)
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World Wide Tim Parade – Charity Single – As heard at Celtic Park

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We await the backlash.

Our manager answered a predictable question “Do Celtic need a strong Rangers”? He gave an honest answer. NO!

And that is the truth the weaker Rangers are the better chance we have of securing trophies and a place in the Champions League. A perfectly straight answer. The real question is Do we actually need Rangers in Scottish football? We say No but everyone will have a different point of view on that.

However the fact that Neil said he felt sorry for the Rangers supporters will count for nothing. Certain media outlets will whip this up into a frenzy so expect more hate filled attacks on our manager.

Be in no doubt.The end game is has begun. Rangers will go out of business within the next few months. Don’t be fooled by the media campaign to assure you that Scottish football will die without them. It won’t.

PS. Ally Say’s he does not think that Neil Lennon should comment on Rangers. Well Lennon was asked questions and gave honest answers. That’s more than Ally has. I honestly believe if Lennon had been treated with the same contempt by our board he would have walked. But then again Ally has the moral strength of a melted Mars Bar.

Dignity my A*se

 

 

Fraser Forster Big Decisions Syndrome

Stan Petrov Get Me Outta Here Syndrome

Mo Bangura Will He Ever Be Seen Again Syndrome

Darren O’Dea Cockroach Syndrome

Kris Commons Jamie’s Diet Syndrome

Nikica Jelavic See Ya Later  Syndrome

Craig Whyte Big Issue Syndrome

 

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John Kennedy is hopeful that tomorrow’s u-19 clash with Hibs at Lennoxtown will beat the weather, kick-off 12 noon.

All five of the other u-19 fixtures scheduled for the weekend have been postponed with a win tomorrow allowing Celtic to go into second place ahead of the Edinburgh side on goal difference with two games in hand.

“The forecast is hopeful overnight and we want the game will go ahead,” Kennedy explained.

“We had a game against St Mirren ten days ago and we want to get back into the way of playing every weekend and are looking forward to facing Hibs.

“We need to get on a winning run if we are to get among the prizes. Hibs will be tough opponents, it was a really tight game against them earlier in the season when we won 4-3. They caused us a few problems and we’ll have to be on our toes.

“They beat Hearts in the cup and have good footballers that can cause problems, their second in the table and it’s a game that we can look forward to.”

Celtic’s 2-1 win over St Mirren was achieved without Marcus Fraser, Dylan McGeough, Filip Twardzik and Paul George.

All four will be available tomorrow giving Kennedy plenty to choose from when he gets round to selecting his team.

“We’ve got a good squad of players available,” the hoops coach added. “Players know that there are others waiting to get their chance.

“Everyone knows that there are players eager to step in and play, the competition is good for everyone.”

On Tuesday Celtic are at home to Inverness on league duty and face Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the quarter-final of the SFA Youth Cup next Sunday.

You can follow the action from tomorrow’s match on twitter with an early morning weather check on whether the game goes ahead.

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Steven Pressley has been called before the SFA to explain his comments after the League Cup semi-final defeat from Celtic.

At half time in the match the Falkirk boss angrily confronted referee Euan Norris about Celtic’s first half penalty and continued to question the impartiality of the official after the match.

“I’m so disappointed for the players,” Pressley claimed. “We gave so much to the game and it was decided on two debatable decisions.

“The two pivotal decisions in the game went Celtic’s way and we paid the price for that.

“I just wanted justice for my players. The issue for me is would it have been given in the other box? That’s the question for me.”

Pressley will have that very question answered when he appears in front of the SFA on February 23 and will also have a few questions to answer himself.

Rule 68 of the SFA states: “No recognised football body, club, official, Team Official or other member of Team Staff, player or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA, shall in an interview, a ‘blog’ on the internet, on a social networking or micro-blogging site, or in any other manner calculated or likely to lead to publicity (i) criticise the performance(s) of any or all match official(s) in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence on the part of such match official; or (ii) make remarks about such match official(s) which impinge on his character.”

Hopefully after the hearing the Falkirk boss will retract his comment or explain what he was implying.

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Celtic boss Neil Lennon has spoken out about the financial crisis at Rangers in an interview with Sky Sports News.

After a week that saw Ibrox chairman Craig Whyte under attack from former directors the extent of the clubs debt has come under greater media scrutiny.

While some people are already lobbying for Rangers to remain part of the SPL regardless of their finances the Celtic boss takes a more pragmatic look at the situation.

Lennon has made a net profit on Celtic’s transfer dealing and didn’t inherit the richly assembled squad that Ally McCoist enjoyed at the start of the season.

Celtic have been regularly criticised for operating within very tight margins with the hoops boss hoping to enjoy the benefits of that policy.

Lennon told Sky Sports News: “I’m not in the camp who believe the SPL, or Celtic, need a strong Rangers. I’d be quite happy if we were a lot stronger than Rangers.

“A lot of people think Celtic and Rangers need each other, well at the minute we don’t.

“We’re in a strong position financially with good young players coming through but we’ve had to work hard and be patient for that.

“We are talking hypothetically as we don’t know what the outcome is going to be.

“But the people who suffer the most as always are the supporters and I have a lot of sympathy for the Rangers fans with the situation being the way it is at the moment.”

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A trip to Tynecastle in midweek, we’ve been here before haven’t we…

I can’t remember exactly when games there went from strong dislike to vitriolic hatred but our younger readers will be amazed it was ever anything but. I first started seeing Celtic at Tynecastle over 30 years ago and pretty much all through the 80s Hearts fans would sing The Sash and Derrys Walls, with the odd “No Pope of Rome” thrown in for bad measure. Yet rarely was there bother outside the ground before it or in the boozers after it.

In fact there was, right up until Tynecastle became all seater, an unofficial Celtic end in the Hearts end. At this time Hearts occupied the Roseburn end and if you were looking right at it, the bit of terrace at the right hand side nearest the exits was always occupied by about 1000 Celtic supporters every time we played there. Quite often they would sing and chant, never hide colours and would just watch the game as if they were in the Celtic end proper. There were never any mass brawls or surges towards them although it’s fair to say that their position near the exit was strategic.

As you’ll probably know I am no stranger to a home end myself when Celtic are away although at Tynecastle the closest I’ve ever got to it when Celtic were there was the centre stand. The theory was your less rabid golf club type Jambo b*stards, say @mrewanmurray, would be in there, as opposed to in the terrace where your headbangers like @iainmcgill would be prowling.

Two occasions I remember fondly were in the centre stand, the first was a 4-0 drubbing of Hearts, with Brian McGlaughlin and Andy Walker running riot against a very poor Hearts side in front of a sparse home end. I’d gone into the game with a low profile but soon realised almost everyone around me was a Tim and by the end of it the Boys of The Old Brigade was being belted out with gusto. The other occasion was a tense midweek affair in 1996 when we were fighting for the league and the atmosphere was proabably the worst it has been there for us up until THAT game last May.  I was sitting in the front row of the centre stand and just in front of me, in the posh seats sat Kenny Dalglish, Jim Kerr and….Walter Smith. We’d gone a goal down and were really up against it. We were outnumbered by Jambos this time but were giving as good as we got such was their venom towards us. With about five minutes to go Smith got up to leave and turned to us and said “Great result boys” to which we told his shocked face to go forth and multiply with himself. Three minutes to go and big Pierre bulleted home a header which had us going bananas and the Jambos behind us going even more so. There was hardly to time to exchange bile when the ball dropped to Andy Walker and he rifled it home for a great 2-1 win that created a scene in the centre stand that was akin to the end of “The Warriors”

There will always now be an intense hatred between both clubs, of that there is no doubt, but I honestly laugh when I hear Celtic supporters that Hearts are worse than Rangers or that going to Tynecastle is far worse than Ibrox. The fact is you mingle more with Jambos outside the ground, that’s why you think that. To test my theory, when we go to Ibrox in March, wear your Hoops around the home end and see how you feel after it….

Finally, what I miss more than anything about games at Tynecastle is not being at the Gorgie Road end. Many a time we came out the end chanting. My two favourites were in November 1987 when a fighting 10 man Celtic got a 1-1 draw and we left the ground with “Who do you think you are kidding Wallace Mercer, if you think we’re on the run” and in April 1988 where, after a 2-1 loss, we knew we were going to win the league at Paradise the following week, a huge “Who’s the Champions now, Scum?” was belted out.

So enjoy the game on Wednesday, have a look out for me in the centre stand…

Paul  (twitter @paullarkin74 and for podcast and website updates @TheLostBhoys)
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World Wide Tim Parade – Charity Single – As heard at Celtic Park

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