Sunday, January 08, 2006
Clyde and passion
Like most Irish people I have what you might call a passing interest in Celtic. It wouldn't be fair to call myself a supporter of the team but I do like to see the club do well, although I don't go out of my way to watch them play.However, with my favourite Irish footballer of all time Roy Keane set to make his debut away to Clyde today, I figured I would forgo my usual Sunday lie in and get up to watch the game on Sky Sports.
Sadly while I was awake for the game, many of the Celtic players were very much still asleep.
Charlie Nicholas and Packie Bonner were there to give analysis on the game and for some reason the Sky host kept calling him Pat Bonner. Sky idiots. He's Packie to all of us! (Those of you who aren't from Ireland, don't worry this isn't a racist term) Sadly it wasn't a good day for Charlie, Packie and those of us cheering on the hoops as Celtic were thoroughly humiliated by Clyde who defeated them 2-1 for their first win over Celtic in 48 years.
I was stunned to see Clyde go a goal in front and even more so when they then got a penalty. Full credit to the goalkeeper for saving it but in the corner which followed, Clyde scored again! What was most shocking though was the performance of some of the Celtic players, particularly the defense.
There was a Chinese lad called Du Wei who was also making his debut today and while I don't wish to anger my Chinese readers, the guy had a nightmare!
According to the BBC's report on the game, "Keane had a very quiet game as the SPL leaders struggled to cope with their eager opponents and a badly rutted pitch" and a caption of Keane reads, "Keane had a Celtic debut to forget" thus implying that Keane had a bad game. Anyone who watched the game will know that Keane's performance was one of, if not the only, positive thing to take out of the match from a Celtic perspective. Nicholas in the studio thought so too. In fact, if I were asked to name the Celtic players who should escape criticism for their performances I would name Keane, Shaun Maloney, the goalscoring substitute Zurawski and the goalkeeper Artur Boruc who saved the penalty. Young Irish midfielder Aiden McGeady looked lively enough when he came on but he wasted a glorious chance to score. The rest of the players all deserve flak.
I'm just waiting now for all the smart arses to come out and deride Keane for going to Celtic but in my eyes the guy who deserves blame for this defeat is the manager Gordon Strachan. Tactically, Clyde got the better of Celtic.
Celtic as a team were absolutely muck and Ronaldinho himself could not have helped that team today. I don't watch Celtic regularly and don't know many of their players but their defense was atrocious and John Hartson was pure rubbish. How did Hartson play you ask? Think Gary Doherty when he plays up front for Ireland and you'll get an idea of how he performed today.
As for Clyde, I'll give them the credit they deserve. They played Celtic off the park at times. They missed a penalty and had two good goals ruled offside. While this is a shock in terms of the stature of the clubs involved, anyone who saw the game will know that the result was not a shock because Clyde played out of their skins and were worthy winners.
Celtic aren't in a crisis by any means. They are very likely to win the league as Rangers are in crisis but that should not detract from the glaring flaws that exist in the team at present.
As for Roy, he still looks sharp and determined and while the BBC say he was "quiet" today the truth is that the majority of his Celtic teammates let themselves and their fans down today big time.
Sort it out Celtic!
# posted by United Irelander @ 3:50 PM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
