Mind all that stuff I was saying last time about confidence? Well it’s still there. So what was the problem against Dundee United in the second half on Saturday then, you may ask? Well, it’s like this. Everybody needs to share that confidence too. And yes that means you and me too.
You don’t want to be bothered with some guttersnipe crowing in the media that they felt the Celtic Park crowd was getting anxious and he felt that helped his wee team get back into the game. We need to cut that out once and for all and that means you have a part to play too. And yes, like I said, I do mean you!
Now I don’t watch the English Premier League if I can at all help it, and the only other team I would go out of my way to watch apart from Celtic is yon team from Barcelona. But for the first half on Saturday Celtic played some stunning, nay breathtaking, attacking football that thrilled me out of my seat and scored two great, well-worked goals in the first twenty minutes.
Izaguirre and Samaras, an unlikely duo, were interchanging and passing like they had shared the same mother’s milk. Another duo Mulgrew and Rogne were imperious in the centre of the back four, and the first goal was a cracker courtesy of the Hoopy and Stokesy deadly duo. It was nothing short of delicious football and the entire fortress Lennongrad was enjoying the spectacle. After the second goal The Triumphal March from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi was ringing out around the place, otherwise known as the Victor Wanyama song.
What made the first half performance so impressive was that both Kayal (injured) and young James Forrest (ill) were out but the trademark attacking wing back play (one of my stock phrases I know) by the aforementioned Izzy and Matthews was impeccable and was slicing through the other wee team’s bewildered defence at will.
Sadly due to my important and highly confidential role with an agency that works to save the planet and overcome the powers of evil and darkness 24 hours a day, I couldn’t be at Celtic Park myself on Saturday, but as I looked on from my secret island lair I felt, like you no doubt, that the job was done and the second half was to be a further lap of honour for the SPL leaders. A mere bagatelle.
As I sipped my first Dubonnet and soda of the day the second half began as furious as the first, with wave after wave of sharp Celtic attacks and had already they only narrowly missed two superb chances when Chico had a free kick fumbled but eventually scrambled away from the goal. The truth, dear reader, is that had one of those chances been converted the whole of Lennongrad would have gone into a ‘Let’s All Do The Huddle’ frenzy, the poor wee boys from Dundee would have shriveled up and cried to get home early and the Celtic team could have gone on to rack up five, six, seven or eight.
This is where you, me and everyone you know comes into it. Just because someone wee lad flukes one against the run of play from outside the box against us does not mean the whole fortress has to rent itself asunder. A nervous reaction they called it in the media, the Rangers fanzine The Daily Telegraph even cheekily described it as a ‘schizophrenic’ performance from Celtic that seemed to stem from the jitteriness of the fans.
Yes it was disappointing that the magnificent performance in the first fifty minutes didn’t go on to become a more enthralling landmark game, and yes we have had one or two of those already earlier this season. But the Celtic team showed a total and unflinching confidence that they were going to take all the points from Saturday’s game and that nobody but nobody was going to take anything away from them.
The result was never seriously in doubt. Apart from one unlucky slip by Adam Matthews (who we later found out had been playing with a virus) the defence was rock solid although some of the drive and creativity from the back was missing when Izaguirre was replaced before the end of the game.
In the end there really wasn’t too much to get worried about. In truth Celtic fans have nothing to fear except fear itself. If Celtic Park really is to become Fortress Lennongrad then we all have a part to play – at the ground, on Twitter, in the pub and at home.
As fans we have the right to be confident in ourselves. Confident in our traditions and in the team we support and the proud culture that created it. There are times when that self-confidence needs to reach out across the stadium and reach through your screen to the players on the park that wear the jerseys.
They have started to have confidence in themselves. Surely they have started to earn some of your confidence too. Then Fortress Lennongrad will be hidden no more.
@the_eriugena media specialist for @SixtySevenLive
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