Celtic need McGeady magic for Ibrox win
Well, Aiden or the other Irish bhoy!
We’ve already looked at who we think will be the key man for Rangers on Sunday, so now it is time to look at the man the Celtic fans in the Broomloan Road Stand will be pinning their hopes on.
The money at the bookies will be going on Robbie Keane to grab the goal(s) but if Aiden McGeady can find form, Celtic will be likely to create the number of chances that they need to put the ball in the net.
Much like Davis for Rangers, Aiden McGeady has the most assists for Celtic and the Irish internationalist should be well rested after missing out on last weekend’s action versus Dundee United. This was due to the winger being suspended for too many acts of petulance but it may see him fired up to do the business at Ibrox.
Madjid Bougherra will be lining up against Robbie Keane and you can imagine that Rangers will be looking to nullify the Irish captain. This may allow a bit of space around the box and McGeady is just the man to drift in from the touchline and cause havoc at the edge of the penalty box.
In the New Year game, Aiden McGeady was in excellent form until it came time to shoot at goal and then his powers wilted. Given that this is a preview article, we accept that we are using a lot of ‘ifs’ but if McGeady can get his shots away on target, the Rangers goalie will be seriously worked.
And of course, who knows who will be in goals for Rangers this weekend? No matter who gets the nod, there will be some pressure on them and if Celtic want to win, they will need to get at the Ibrox goals from the start.
As we said in the Steven Davis article, it only takes one player to make a mistake or have an off day and the rest of the team’s good work can be undone. Hopefully the game will be remembered for a great display and if it is to be won and lost, let’s hope that it is from a moment of genius as opposed to a blunder or ‘honest mistake’ from Dougie McDonald.
Celtic fans, can you reignite the league race?
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i see celtic have questioned the referee already ffs unbelievable . paranoia brigade are quivering in thier wellies .pulling out all stops to try and take the pressure of squidward as a defeat and he is doomed ,doomed i say.
The refereeing comment is merely an insurance policy for the board, playing to the lowest common denominator will appease a huge swathe of the Celtic fans should it all go wrong on Sunday.
I would hope that there are some sensible and level headed Celtic fans who can see past this latest act of petulance from a board that simply can’t look at themselves and their own shortcomings.
jazrfc and Quagmire
Did you see any of the last two Celtic v Rangers games?
I was at them both Dub and have to say I thought Celtic were unlucky not to have another penalty in the first game at Ibrox and Lafferty very lucky not to recieve a red card in the second game. Fortunes ‘goal’ was correctly ruled out un my opinion as he interfered with the goalkeeper who was collecting the cross, goalkeepers always get the protection in those situations, rightly or wrongly.
It’s the timing Dub, mind games ahead of a game that Celtic simply must win. Nothing wrong with it as Ferguson and Smith are the past masters at it, just appears a bit more cynical to me as it’s coming from the board and not the management team. Seems to me that the board have far too much say in what happens with Celtic and the playing aspect.
Do you subsribe to the paranoid leanings of a section of the Celtic support Dub?
Desperate measures tonight from a desperate club, pandering to the paranoid element of their support days before an Old firm game.
poor stuff from a club with no dignity whatsover, how sad that they have stooped so low
quagmire
Paranoia is an easy stick to use when you don’t agree with someone’s comment.
disagree with you on the Fortune goal, the same referee who thought it was OK for Lafferty to charge about and endanger players but was quick to penalise Fortune for who in my eyes legally jumped for an open ball .
Lafferty had 5 fouls given against him before he was booked for his wreck-less challenge on Hinkel, two minutes later he also dived trying to win an advantage to Rangers. How he lasted the first half was incredible and from were I was sitting not the result of a fair and just refereeing performance.
Honest mistake, well Rangers have got a lot of honest mistakes this season. Just ask the fans of Motherwell, Hearts, Aberdeen and Celtic.
Well said Dub. These questionable performances from referee’s have affected almost every club this season. I guess they are all paranoid. Wonder why none of the Rangers fans are complaining?
We, the Rangers fans are not complaining as we are top of the league by potentially 10 points and still in the 2 cups. Simple fact is Celtic aint good enough. Had your misfiring strikers put away half their chances, it would be Tic on top of the league. Would you be complaining then. Maybe not.
Fail Fail
well said kenny . but in the celtic make up someone has to be blamed , they cant be just rotten ,even though we know they are , calamity defence , powder puff midfield, not bad up front [ keanne ] . only one .
In the last week I have watched games that i have witnessed the following:-
1. Broken leg for a player after 12secs – Offending player yellow carded (B Rivers V Charlton)
2. A goal chalked off for challenge on the keeper – (Stoke Vs Man City)
3. A goal clearly 3 yards offside awarded – B Munich match
4. Clear penalty for Chelsea denied – Last night
I could go on with another 3 or 4 but wont, what are the decisions we have had a gainst hearts and Aberdeen this season please?
Could you imagine if any of the above decisions happened against Celtic? God help us all!
Goes to prove refs make bad decisions, all over the world!
Celtic have had 3 pens in last 6 Old Firm games ,we have had none, again imagine if that was the other way, They have had 3 more pens than us this season, we have had 3 more players sent off,when does it all get evened up!
There is nothing wrong with questioning the competency of refs. This season in particular has been dire. Fair enough, you could perhaps question the timing of the comments. Is there genuine concerns or is it simply to ensure that no ‘strange’ decisions occur on Sunday?
A couple of days ago Kevin Kyle of Killie (KKK?) had the same moan. Was he labelled a paranoid, conspiracist android? No, rightly or wrongly, he simply expressed a heartfelt opinion.
What I will say is that I am sick of former refs and supervisors using their columns in the tawdry rags week after week defending their colleagues for making ‘honest mistakes’. Honest mistake or not, it is happening far too often and when a vital decision goes against your team hearing this drivel offers no consolation whatsoever..
As for the “It can’t happen here” mentality regarding corruption, who can honestly state that for certain? If US and UK politics are subject to skulduggery and when Serie A, one of the biggest leagues in world football, is a filthy cesspool of corruption and underhand dealing, what makes anyone state with absolute certainty that a backwoods league in a backwoods country like Scotland think it is so immune from this?
I’m not stating with certainty that it is, but to be labelled with the old tag of being a paranoid mope for questioning the integrity and competency of referees is far too convenient for some folk.
Every fan of every club could point to decisions all season long that has gone against them, including Rangers fans.
For a list of 5/6 decsions you could give against your team I could stretch to doing the same for mine.
However not every set of fans disect each and every decision in every game, only the poor paranoid Celtic fans do this.
I would seriously give up being a football fan if it effected me as much as it does them, very sad to see.
Amazing how the disection of decisions wasnt the same when they were winning a league and I am sure tehy would happily take a dodgy decision on Sunday if they won the game without a complaint
Scooter,
By the same token would you happily accept said dodgy decision if your team LOST the game and not say a word if it continually happened?
Scooter as for the penalties – it’s not as if you can make that comparison.
Have there been any challenges in these games which could conceivably have been penalties but werent given? Rangers were barely in the Celtic box in January, if they had got a penalty for a foul way outside the box, it would have been a hell of a decision
. In short, stats cant give you the full story.
As for the red cards, apart from the Kenny Miller one (which led to Rangers criticising the SFA’s appeal panel to no comment from George Peat) are we right in saying they all happened early on in the season. Thomson v Hearts, Mendes v Killie, Bougherra v Motherwell – any others?
Steven Conroy took dogs abuse for the sending off of Pedro Mendes and some would argue that the way he has viewed some decisions since then has been affected by this.
Rangers play the same game in the media against refs to get them on board, perhaps Walter is a bit smarter in his delivery, perhaps the media are a bit more compliant with him than some of the other managers they dont know as well….in fact, lets move it away from Rangers, its every team – how many managers and players do you get making remarks about hoping for a strong ref? That is putting the ref in the spotlight as much as anything as has came out this week.
If Peat was consistent he would be making remarks like this every week but he doesnt. He should be out of a job.
PARANOID the timing stinks how many more fights around scotland will this cause with fans thinking they have been cheated .
Strange comments above, Rangers have lost one Old Firm league game in last 22 months, yet we are to belive we are never anywhere hear the penalty box? We have scored 8 goals to celtics 5 in that time in 6 games, yet “Stats” wouldnt back us up?
Keep blaming everyone else, Aberdeen could / should have ahd 2 penalties in the 4-4 game, now imagine if they werent given down the other end?
Same old Celtic, always bleating
I also dont know what point you are making by saying “these decisions happend early in the season” they still happened, or does it not count??
If you are also saying Fortune didnt touch McGregors arm for the disallowed goal, an act that would mean 90% of refs would disallow the goal ala Broadfoot on Boruc last Decembers fixure at Ibrox, then quite simply you are lying
here here
Some Rangers fans have short memories. Walter Smith is well known for putting pressure on referees prior to games. Now Celtic do it and it’s paranoia.
Our referees are rubbish and they crumble under a wee bit of pressure. Smith knows it and has been using it to his advantage, now Celtic are giving it a go.
Could someone tell me how many assists McGeady has this season? I’m surprised to hear he has the most for Celtic.
Scooter, have Rangers been denied any penalties in games v Celtic in the time Celtic have got theirs?
No, so your point is irrelevant. Does scoring goals equate to getting penalties? Surely being fouled in the box is the criteria for penalties, not scoring goals.
As for the “early aprt of the season” comment – just trying to recall when they were – feel free to take an inference any you want.
Please point out our reference to the Fortune goal in this discussion.
“Steven Conroy took dogs abuse for the sending off of Pedro Mendes and some would argue that the way he has viewed some decisions since then has been affected by this”
So this wasnt a reference to Fortune “goal”???
I rest my case, feel free to continue along the paranoid route whilst every sane person laughs at your site
scooter
I doubt you will find too many sane people finding their way to this site. Now climb down off your high horse and have a nice cup of tea.
No, you had the Lafferty non-sending off, which given we had talked about sending offs, could maybe the way to go.
Still, with a few days to go before the game, maybe best for everyone to chill out and see what happens.
TintedSpecs – according to the SPL site, Aiden McGeady has 8 assists. That will just be for league games, not sure about all competitions.
Ref’s in the S.P.L are incompetent regardless of conspiracy or otherwise. Bottom line. There is too much at stake financially for too many clubs to let this go on. Especially rangers.
Does anyone know what happened to the 700m development of Ipox?
Quite what the £700M development of Ibrox has to do with this topic Mag i will never know, I will however try to quest your obsession with all things Rangers.
David Murray came out with the last in his long line of spin and stories to try and appease supporters who were seeing through his charade of smoke and mirrors at Ibrox. Quite simply it was never going to happen.
Unlike the redevelopment of Parkhead, which all began with Glasgow City Council bequeating them crucial land for the princly sum of 1p. We also have the Commonwealth games to come where for the very first time in the long history of the games, we have an opening ceremony away from where the actual games are taking place, Hampden. Where are we holding it, you’ve guessed it Parkhead!! As a result, the old pals act will see redevelopments and upgrades to the Meccanodome and have it hoisted into a worldwide audience, meanwhile in a very fair and equitable fashion, the council have given Ibrox the prestigious Rugby 7′s to host!! And you have the fans who say Rangers are the ‘establishment’ club!!
The only good thing about the opening ceremony in the San Giro, is that Her Majesty The Queen, will be the guest of honour and once more, the national anthem will ring proudly round the piggery!!
dont think it got built ,i never saw it at the last game anyway , our clubs up for sale , we are at our lowest , no buyer , in debt , no leadership ,thats our bad points ,our good points are we have a cup final to play next month ,if we win our game in hand we go 10 points clear in the league [ beat the beggars on sunday could be 13] oh and we are still in the active nations cup , win them 3 its called a treble maggy , not bad for a team on its knees . as the song goes things can only get better , oh and if we win the league it could be upto 15 million [ you could get robbie keanne all year with that maggy
There is a good level of irony in these comments “our clubs up for sale , we are at our lowest , no buyer , in debt , no leadership”
being followed up with a reference to the opposition as being “the beggars”
Haha, good work Jaz!
Glasgow football….most of the time, logic goes right out of the window…then again, it is was what drives much of the goodness about the game (sidestepping the bad moments)
So as your pal Jim might say…Logic, My Arse!
If GCC have a history of being Celtic-minded, or at least employing people of that ilk and nature, there was a historical reason for this. A large percentage of firms in Glasgow wouldn’t employ these folks so the council took them on! We are not privvy to anything in the council nowadays, all our friends and relatives who were part of the council have all been hived off out to the outsourcing sectors. Sure some of our informed readers will know a lot more than us about the goings on and the shady deals at City Chambers.
The fact that the new developments for the Games are happening in the East End (we for one cant wait for the Velodrome to be complete, this is what Glasgow has always needed…lets hope we can get Kraftwerk to play there like they played the one in Manchester) may have some bearing on why Celtic Park was chosen.
Or maybe it was just to get the Queen in there! Haha, this has obviously sparked some debate, if anyone is silly enough to get worked up by that, they deserve what they get
Am I reading this correctly WKSFA?
Are you implying that Businesses in Glasgow were somewhat ‘sectarian’ in their employment strategies? Then in turn your implying that GCC is/has employed a sectarian policy as way of matching this?
Mind you, when was the last Protestant Lord Provost of Glasgow?
Whilst having no empirical research at hand, I would say yes to the first point but would remain uncommital on the second.
I think there will be an agreement that back in the day (way back, not in our lifetimes) many firms would have a ‘closed door’ policy regarding employing people from select backgrounds. I am sure that it will have worked both ways, with some firms operating in the similar but opposite manner but yes, that was certainly the situation for many people in Scotland. Firms, without even maybe undertaking a strict employment strategy on this matter, may have used certain criteria or requirements which then made people from one background or another more attractive to them and the posts on offer.
This isn’t really a controversial opinion is it?
Whether we can state the GCC acted in a sectarian manner is beyond my understanding or analysis. It could well be that more of the applications to the Council were from that background – as they found it harder to obtain jobs with other firms – so the likelihood of them obtaining jobs was higher. That is as plausible as a direct recruitment drive.
As for the religious background of Provosts…I dont know…and to be honest, don’t care enough to check! What, in the modern era, does the Provost do, apart from photo opportunities?
WKS,
Didn’t you know the Knights Of St Columba run everything?When the underground experiences problems on a matchday at Ibrox it is the ‘unseen Fenian hand’ at work of course.
Jeezo, from a valid point of INCOMPETENT refereeing to all this madness in the space of a few quotes. Who would have guessed there was an important game coming up?
Thankfully, the management and players of both teams are unlikely to be spending their time on here so it shouldn’t have an impact on the outcome of the match.
Hugh Dallas reads it though, he doesn’t approve.
EDIT: Actually, we’ll edit and add here because it was a very fair point made by BSW, which was met in a way where humour was hoped for but possibly seems flippant now! Sorry.
It is pretty worrying how quickly the chat descends…this post wasn’t even the story about the Celtic leak story…although to be fair, that story was put online when no one was going to be around to moderate so it was decided to close the comments.
We tried to put a witty initial response to the question of leanings in certain organisations…we don’t know any more than the usual tittle tattle and innuendo…but this week probably isnt the week to be fanning the flames.
There are enough nutters around (and we thank you all for visiting the site) without us stoking up anything further, so sorry if any comments of ours havent helped, but there is a level of craziness attached to these games that defies logic and makes relatively normal people act in abnormal ways.
It isn’t good is it?
im saying nothing il get stitches in my head and my windows smashed.
Here Billy, I’d often wondered why the Underground went funny on match-days, so it’s been the unseen fenian hands all along, the dirty rotten scoundrels!!
Thing is with message boards, is interpretation. You might think my post back at WKSFA was in the mains serious, I happen to know it was a wind up.
I enjoy my ‘banter’ with the Celtic Minded on here, by and large it’s not the extremists that I conversing with, so banter is well meant and enjoyable. Some you win, some you lose.
Make no mistake, I will be hear on Monday (at some stage anyway) to either gloat or eat humble pie. I will call the game as I seen it and debate the rights and wrongs of Brother McDonalds performance on Sunday.
PS – Heard half a ball was bringing forward his visit to Scotland in order to meet with the referee before Sunday!!
The only difference with the internet and the pub is that in the pub you can see that your mates are having a laugh when they make a comment (okay, there is also beer, music, barmaids..right, there are a lot of differences between the internet and the pub) It is sometimes a bit harder when the words are written down….and no one wants to see LOLS or smiley faces at the end of sentence!
The site has built up a decent group of regular posters – we’re not all going to get on all the time but I think there is (dishwashing aside!!) a reasonable level of respect, which is good.
And aside from that, there will always be some bams…its a bit like real-life!
everyone have a good Friday and Saturday, best not to wish people to have a good Sunday, it will only be misinterpreted (LOL!)
Hugh Dallas is not a problem you solve by throwing money at.
niether is robbie keanne your throwing enough at him LOL
Now Hugh, its not your job to comment on players – leave that to your drones Clark and Dougal
WKSFA – Am I correct in saying that Kenny Clark is ‘Celtic Minded’ not suggesting that it corrupted his judgement as an official in any way, just one of these messageboard topics that he at least comes from a ‘Celtic Minded’ family.
Quagmire, without knowing the answer, that is certainly something I’ve heard a few times.
There is an argument that some people would be likely to go against their instinct or background to prove that they arent biased towards the team they supported.
This can then lead into bluffs, double bluffs and so on and so on…so who knows where it will end but yes, have definitely heard the same thing as yourself.
does celtic minded mean hes paranoid ,
Depends who you are speaking to Bill?
It varies between being a football thing, a religious thing, a lover of flowing football or whatever personality trait the person is trying to place on someone.
The main media tends to use it in a shrouded dig….paranoia isn’t at the forefront of it but what the heck, throw it in there. In short, ‘Celtic Minded’ is just really a stick to beat up Celtic fans with.
Mind you, a stick is probably better than a stiletto shoe!
Aw come on Ed, Celtic Minded is a phrase coined by your own to describe the Celtic family.
Quagmire, originally yes but it never gets used in that manner anymore.
Blame Jock Brown!