Caught your breath yet?
Celtic’s mauling of their local rivals on Saturday may be in the rear view mirror but as I nurse my rib cage back to health after laughing at the sheer hilarity of the situation – it’s time to reflect.
What when down at Ibrox on Saturday was the culmination of how good Celtic are and how good they thought they were. Paraphrasing quotes before the game after showing ‘too much respect’ to Celtic there was a feeling the boys in blue would ‘come out swinging and give Celtic a game’ especially on their home turf. How did that work out? A draw at Celtic Park earlier this season certainly got their tails up, so much so that the Ibrox side thought they’d be the ones to knock Celtic out of the Scottish cup the week previous. Some call it delusions of grandeur – I like to call it ‘We Are the People syndrome’, or Rangers-itus as the bold Charles Green once fell victim too; I’m told he’s since recovered.
The very notion that Celtic, with the season they’re having were going to turn up at Ibrox and surrender under the weight of playing away in a derby game is so laugh out loud ridiculous my recovering ribs just took another beating. As we all know Celtic did not surrender, too repeat there was NO SURRENDER by Celtic at Ibrox on Saturday.
The league may be won, we may be out of sight but this game was the exclamation mark on Celtic’s season and domination over their Glasgow rivals. The game finished 5-1 and it’s somewhat sad that Celtic’s scintillating display was watched by a plethora of blue seats rather than paying customers. The Rangers fans must have heard a fire evacuation alarm just after half time, the only plausible reason I can think for the staunchy stauncherson’s ‘walking away’ from their team. Lucky the Celtic fans didn’t hear it, maybe because they were too busy singing and generally having a party – They were even there to cheer Kenny Miller on as the veteran striker scored to start the impossible comeback.
Five goals, Five scorers; Two defenders, two midfielders and a striker put each individual nail in The Rangers coffin. Talk about having goals through the team!
Special mention to the bold Jozo Simunovic who made possibly one of the best tackles I’ve ever seen from a Celtic player. A tackle so good we’ve immortalised it in our online store – and yes that was a cheap plug ;). In all seriousness, what a tackle and the greetin’ from Kenny Miller since then has made it all the more sweeter, a poorer ref would have seen Kenny Miller flying through the air and assume he’d been fouled when in fact the player played it absolutely perfect.
The Rangers fans are cursing the referee but I think he did their team a service at the end. With goals flying in and subs being made there was a good 3-4 minutes of injury time to be played at the end but in compassionate fashion the referee chose to ignore this and blow the whistle shortly after the 90 minutes had passed – as if to say ‘enough lads, you’ve made yer point’. They should be forever in John Beaton’s debt.
As for us Celtic fans, the season is far from over. We have an unbeaten run still going and the small matter of a potential treble to be had. It’s a great time to be a Celtic fan, and if Rodgers is here for at least another four years I need to stock up on paracetamol because these two day hangovers are killing me!
HAIL HAIL!
