And welcome to what appears to be the annual mid-season swoon. After a 1-1 draw with Motherwell on a pitch that could be described as ‘horrid’ or ‘a plowed field’ or ‘Fir Park’, Celtic now face off against St. Mirren at Celtic Park this weekend.
Last weekend, St. Mirren were involved with a last minute 1-1 draw with Hearts after a 91st minute strike by St. Mirren’s (and former New England Revolution player) Andy Dorman. That draw leaves them in 9th place by goal difference with 28 points from 26 games while Celtic drop to second on goal difference with 57 points from 26 games.
Five matches will be shown by our good friends at Fado at 10:00 on Saturday morning. Please think of arriving early (9:15 may not be out of the question), not only to get a good seat, but to show our presence to those who wish to impose their bottoms on “our” area.
Speaking of presence, I’ll be gone this weekend. A family obligation or some such thing. If someone would be kind enough to collect for me, it would be much appreciated.
A trip to Fir Park awaits the 3 time champions Celtic this Sunday. After a less than inspiring 0-0 draw with the huns, Celtic will need to find their form against 7th placed (on goal difference) Motherwell.
Motherwell are coming off of a 1-0 win over resurgent Hamilton and have 32 points from 25 matches while Celtic sit atop the league with 56 points from 25 matches. The last two matches against Motherwell have seen Celtic run out 2-0 winners on the 8th of November and 4-2 winners on the 13th of September. In another words, Celtic have not played Motherwell in 3 months. Which seems odd.
While Celtic wait on the latest scans on Barry Robson and Shaun Maloney, Scott Brown is cleared to return to the midfield after his bell-ringing collision from this past weekend. And the entire 2 minutes of extra time that it earned.
Celtic continue their lack of form in the SPL since December gaining 13 from a possible 27 points. This includes 3 league wins, 2 losses and 4 draws.
Sunday’s weather will be a less balmy 28 degrees this Sunday while in Motherwell the forecast will not be too much better with temperatures around 45 degrees (Fahrenheit, for the non-metric crowd) and light rain.
So I hope that everyone bundles up and that we see each other on Sunday!
So. . .whatcha doing Sunday morning?
If it isn’t this, then an intervention might be required. So this Sunday, with a 2 point lead over the huns after 24 matches, the Bhoys face off against the ugly 11.
The huns last league match was against a completely exhausted Dundee United who they beat 2-0 after some assistance from the MIB. Well, decide for yourself, but this smacks of 2003 all over again. Craig Levein, who I absolutely am a fan of, continued his tirade against the treatment the huns are being given at the expense of his club.
Celtic were given a shock 0-0 draw against Inverness CT who we seemingly play like crap against every time we face each other.
Leading up to the huns visit to Celtic Park have been the usual news stories; a crisis at Celtic (oh no! A black eye!), injuries that are regularly overestimated and comments galore taken completely out of context. Of course per the press the huns are out curing cancer, feeding the poor and having this:
“RANGERS’ new pitch is the envy of the Premiership as several leading English clubs have gathered in Glasgow to look at the state-of-the-art Ibrox surface.”
Now call me paranoid, but any bets the next time we have to enter Ibrox it is going to be sopping wet and rutted like someone ran a four-wheeler over it.
So I don’t need to mention to be there, I know you will. I hope everyone can walk out with a bigger smile than they bring in.
And on to the Scottish Cup. Celtic kick off this weekend against the oldest club in Scotland and the only non-professional squad in the Football League. Queen’s Park currently sits 7th in the Irn-Bru Second Division.
It is said that every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Hopefully our quest for this leg of the Treble will not take a thousand miles, but who knows? So we begin this with the residents of the plowed field called Hampden. Fortunately, this match is located at Celtic Park.
Setanta is reporting that Naka will not be part of the squad for this match, so it may be interesting to see who comes up in his place. This may be a golden opportunity for some youngsters to get some first team playing time. Or not.
The game will be shown on Setanta Adhoc, which means everyone needs to be prepared for the crappiest of the crappy, but you never know - we may get lucky.
I hope to see everyone there at 10:00 this Saturday. The forecast has some moderating temperatures coming into town, so let’s hope for the best!
