" . . . it's more important than that"

I knew it was going to happen . . . listening to the radio I just felt it in my bones that with Celtic being unable to score that crucial second goal Motherwell would equalise. What I didn't expect was that the 'Well would go up for the park and score a winner. Three bastard minutes from winning the League Title for the fourth time in five years. The tin lid on it all is that Scott McDonald is a Celtic fan. I wonder how he will feel when he starts getting the Albert Kidd* treatment from the Rangers fans?

It was disquieting to hear that apparently Rangers and Hibs did a Germany/Austria circa 1982 lash up for the last twenty minutes of the game after Novo scored. I hope I was misinformed on that one. I really like Hibs and they play some brilliant football.

It looks like this blogger reeled in straight from the pub and planked himself down in front of the computer to write his updated obituary for Martin O'Neill's team. I can't agree with him that this is the worst side since Brady's time, but it is pretty damn obvious that this is an aging team whose best has been and gone, and O'Neill is reluctant to dismantle the team and start afresh in the same fashion that Ferguson has been prepared to do on more than one occasion at Man Utd.

I don't know if this reluctance owes to the fact that he doesn't seem himself at Celtic Park long term; it's a simple case of Desmond refusing to open the biscuit tin to release the funds to buy some new players; or more disquietingly (mmm, is that a proper word) does it owe more to the fact that O'Neill being a creature of habit, in his long succesful career as a manager, he has yet to go through the experience of having to rebuild a team after being at a club for a number of years? Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me but I'm sure that it was the case that he left an ageing, albeit succesful, team at Leicester City.

I'm O'Neill's number one fan but I wonder, what with the recent speculation about him considering stepping down as manager of Celtic, if it isn't for the best that he moves on if he doesn't see himself being at Celtic long term. Let's be honest, he is a shoe in as the next manager of Man Utd if he wants the job, and that could be sooner rather than later depending how brassy Glazer's balls are. Could he take Celtic any further than he already has? He's a very intelligent bloke, and short of Celtic ever getting accepted into the English Premiership (more chance of Britain getting twelve points off Spain in the Eurovision), he knows he is never going to have the transfer funds made available to him from the board for new players to allow the club to go to the next level in European football.

I'm gutted - not as gutted as I would have been if I had been watching the game on the TV but for all that I still sooo glad that I didn't go over to the dark side** and support Glasgow R*ngers as a young boy first getting into football. That would have resulted in a degree of self-loathing that would make Robbie Williams seem like he is popping Es like smarties in comparison.

* Albert Kidd was the Dundee player who scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over Hearts on the last day of the '85-86 season, and thus deprived Hearts of the League Title. A number of Hibs supporter's clubs duly voted Kidd the Hibs Player of the Year ;-)

** The obligatory Star Wars reference for those geeks out there.