The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[The Stallion]

Shockingly poor standard of football in Scotland these days. Celtic are brutal and they're strolling away with the League.

[tyroneStatto]

Celtic were very poor today while Rangers played above themselves. Overall still a good result as the unbeaten record is maintained and it means Celtic won't/shouldn't be complacent for the cup game next month.

[Dougal Maguire]

Good analysis

[Main Street]

Celtic were very poor today while Rangers played above themselves. Overall still a good result as the unbeaten record is maintained and it means Celtic won't/shouldn't be complacent for the cup game next month.

I'd take that, a gammy enough draw giving them some hope and nail them in the cup game.
Even so, despite  7 of Celtic team worth about 2 or 3 out of the 10,  the game was entertaining and exciting from beginning to end.
Miller's attempt of a two legged off the ground tackle on Armstrong was horrific,  fortunately Armstrong took evasive action with space to spare.

[StGallsGAA]

Celtic were very poor today while Rangers played above themselves. Overall still a good result as the unbeaten record is maintained and it means Celtic won't/shouldn't be complacent for the cup game next month.

A good result?  Yes if you're a Rangers fan. Shocking for anyone who spent money travelling to see it.

[Hectic]

Glad to say I did not travel today. Sluggish performance with too many players sleepwalking through the game. Hopefully though that is it out of the system ahead of the cup game but certainly more like the approach we used to see from Rangers as Sevco went flying into the tackles early. I thought Madden had forgot his cards for a while but that does not excuse us not matching their determination.

[StGallsGAA]

Based on the 90 minute total domination of the last OF game that resulted in a 1 goal win, most Celtic fans expected at minimum a 2 to 3 goal win that the gulf in class would signify.  Sadly a poor result therefore.   Many I expect were hoping for a same if not better of the 7-1 Hamden in the Sun result!  Perhaps Brendan is saving that for the cup game.  Lure Caixhinho into thinking he's inheriting a  half decent team then annihilate them next day out?

[ned]

Miller set the tone with that second minute challenge, Madden shat it.
Book Miller early and that nullifies their main tactic.
Holt should have seen red, his challenge very much took Roberts out of the game.
Bitton had to go off at HT due to a knock from a heavy challenge.
Hill should have been booked even before his scissors kick on Griffiths which should have resulted in a penalty.
Their tactics had the cardigan's dirty hands all over it.
The ref was Sevco's main man.

We didn't play well but as has happened countless times this season, we should have won the game comfortably but due to the ref's cheating we didn't. We were not allowed to apply our normal flowing game.

However, I take comfort in that we are so far ahead that they celebrate a draw like they had won the league. The SC semi will be an entirely different outcome.

[From the Bunker]

I would not go as far as to blame the Referee (totally). But there seems to be an open house policy on the level of tackle a Celtic player has to put up against all opposition.

It's hard to know how to deal with such a bias? To lose the plot and up the anti with dangerous tackles would probably play into the hands of the opposition.

Anyway, the Cup semi is the real important game of the season. Today was all about aesthetics, but a failure all the same.

[illdecide]

TBH Celtic's two best players this season were our two worst players today (Sinclair & Dembele). Sinclair didn't want to know and Dembele looked like a centre forward from Mid Ulster League. Strachan said it at HT, if they keep it at 1-0 with 20 mins to go then anything could happen, Sevco had plenty of chances and i suppose if you took your green tinted glasses off then a draw was prob a fair result.
Actually just glad it happened there and not in cup semi final as we may not have got the opportunity to rectify the situation, that was prob our worst performance for a long time but the run Celtic have been on it would be a bit unfair to criticise too much.

It's hard to know what way that result will pan out for next game...will it give Sevco more belief and knowing they can kick Celtic all over the pitch and get away with it or will Celtic come out all guns blazing next time to put them back in their box...

P.S. did you see the way Sevco celebrated at the end for getting a draw..Wow.

[MoChara]

TBH Celtic's two best players this season were our two worst players today (Sinclair & Dembele). Sinclair didn't want to know and Dembele looked like a centre forward from Mid Ulster League. Strachan said it at HT, if they keep it at 1-0 with 20 mins to go then anything could happen, Sevco had plenty of chances and i suppose if you took your green tinted glasses off then a draw was prob a fair result.
Actually just glad it happened there and not in cup semi final as we may not have got the opportunity to rectify the situation, that was prob our worst performance for a long time but the run Celtic have been on it would be a bit unfair to criticise too much.

It's hard to know what way that result will pan out for next game...will it give Sevco more belief and knowing they can kick Celtic all over the pitch and get away with it or will Celtic come out all guns blazing next time to put them back in their box...

P.S. did you see the way Sevco celebrated at the end for getting a draw..Wow.

Well to be fair to them it was their fist time ever getting any points of Celtic, I find it inspirational that a small recently started team can do so well as to be legitimate contenders for second place

[Hectic]

I was holding back a bit from giving the referee full barrels as we have to first and foremost look at our own short comings and there were a fair few yesterday but fff it I said at the time it was one of the most biased performances I had seen in a while.  Sevco had about 5 clear yellow cards in the first 15 mins - in fact a couple could have been red.  It took Hill until his 4th cynical foul before he actually got a yellow card.  Holts tackle/assault on Roberts was a clear foul and at least a yellow when he was already on a yellow but instead the referee waved him on to have a clear attempt on goal. There were throw ins which were ours given the other way and of course there was the clear penalty where the referee could not have had a better view. 

I also noticed that Armstrong took a bump in the lineup at the beginning when they were shaking hands and pointed this out to my brother and sure enough he was targeted a few times with wreckless tackles early in the game - as someone above said Walter or even Bomber Brown all over that one.
I have been aware for a long time that Bobby Madden is said to be a former season ticket holder at Ibrox and that would not surprise me off the back of yesterday. 

And back to Celtics failings - perhaps the biggest was letting the thuggary of the early tackles affect them and if so it is something that needs addressed as this will be the blue print for the next day - that said we have to be careful because if we match that thunder with our own thunder I could see us down to 10 very early in the game giving the way officials operate. 

But all in they threw everything that they had into the game, we were poor yet they celebrate like they won the league - I think that tells us that we will not be worrying about them for some time to come yet.

[screenexile]

TBH Celtic's two best players this season were our two worst players today (Sinclair & Dembele). Sinclair didn't want to know and Dembele looked like a centre forward from Mid Ulster League. Strachan said it at HT, if they keep it at 1-0 with 20 mins to go then anything could happen, Sevco had plenty of chances and i suppose if you took your green tinted glasses off then a draw was prob a fair result.
Actually just glad it happened there and not in cup semi final as we may not have got the opportunity to rectify the situation, that was prob our worst performance for a long time but the run Celtic have been on it would be a bit unfair to criticise too much.

It's hard to know what way that result will pan out for next game...will it give Sevco more belief and knowing they can kick Celtic all over the pitch and get away with it or will Celtic come out all guns blazing next time to put them back in their box...

P.S. did you see the way Sevco celebrated at the end for getting a draw..Wow.

Well to be fair to them it was their fist time ever getting any points of Celtic, I find it inspirational that a small recently started team can do so well as to be legitimate contenders for second place

You should also find it ridiculous that a team with the financial clout of Celtic were outplayed for a large amount of the game against such an inferior side with such inferior resources.

Also the state of Celtic's pitch?!! What was that about?!!

[Hectic]

Yeah Celtics pitch not great at all right now and Rodgers will be getting a new semi synthetic one in the summer which should compliment the way he wants to play even more.

Out fought/bullied - yes

Outplayed:
Poss : Celtic 56% Sevco 44%
Shots: Celtic 11 Sevco 8
Shots on Target:  Celtic 7 Sevco 5
Corners: 3 each
Fouls (that ref blew): Celtic 13 Sevco 19

Look in a lot of ways it probably felt like Celtic were outplayed because we were so far off our usual but it was not the case.  Sevco were strong for the first 25 mins but after that it was nearly all Celtic but still not a good Celtic performance.

[screenexile]

Yeah Celtics pitch not great at all right now and Rodgers will be getting a new semi synthetic one in the summer which should compliment the way he wants to play even more.

Out fought/bullied - yes

Outplayed:
Poss : Celtic 56% Sevco 44%
Shots: Celtic 11 Sevco 8
Shots on Target:  Celtic 7 Sevco 5
Corners: 3 each
Fouls (that ref blew): Celtic 13 Sevco 19

Look in a lot of ways it probably felt like Celtic were outplayed because we were so far off our usual but it was not the case.  Sevco were strong for the first 25 mins but after that it was nearly all Celtic but still not a good Celtic performance.

In only saw the second half and Rangers were well on top for the last half hour. Look it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things but a similar performance next week in a game that really matters won't do!