Boys Keep Swinging

 

 

Boys Keep Swinging

Glasgow, May 1979

Mick McGee pushed open the bar door and gazed through the haze of smoke. A group of young lads were crowding around the new jukebox as if it was some magical apparatus. The dulcet tones of Debbie Harry could be heard singing ‘heart of glass’ above the hum of chatter and laughter. A voice called to him, ‘O’er here, Micky boy. Don’t staun there like a spare prick at a wedding.’ Mick eased through the busy bar and playfully slapped his long-time friend Gaz, on the shoulder. ‘Alright, Gaz. I hope you’ve got me a Wilson Picket for this gem the night. Feckin’ walked miles there, wi these buses being on strike.’ Gaz nodded, ‘I sure did Mick, I got ye a pint as well but ye took so long tae get here, I tanned it.’ ‘I’ll get them in,’ Mick replied, ‘will I get wan for Barry?’ Gaz nodded towards the door, ‘speak of the devil and he shall appear.’ Mick turned to see Barry McGowan walking towards them. He was wearing an old Celtic shirt under his zipper which he swore Kenny Dalglish had given his old man, but then Barry was known to tell the odd fib.

‘Alright lads, sorry tae keep yeez, I had to go the long way roon wi Bridgeton full of that mob the night,’ he began. ‘Are we winning this league or what?’ Barry was nothing if not an eternal optimist. Even in the dark days of winter when Scottish football was snowed off for two months and Celtic were stuck in 8^th place in the league; he was still confident they’d win it. The resumption of the league in March saw Celtic cram in an astonishing number of fixtures in the last ten weeks of the season. They had found form and rose inexorably up the table. In May, they had been forced to play 8 games in 20 days and had given it their all. Now, it was all down to their last match of the season; beat Rangers and they’d be champions. ‘The way I see it,’ Gaz said, handing his mates their pints, ‘I’d have bitten yer arm aff for a shot at the title like this. We were miles behind but before the snow and whatever McNeill did during the bad weather seems tae have got them playing again.’ Mick nodded his head, ‘that lot are aw power and muscle. That only gets ye so far. Match their tackling and we’ll do them.’ Barry was as equally confident, ‘Cooper apart, and maybe Bobby Russell, they full of hammer throwers. Get the first goal and they’ll fold like a cheap suit.’

As the three friends made their way along the Gallowgate towards Celtic Park, the streams of people heading for the stadium merged into a swaying, singing river of humanity. They cut down Camlachie Street where scores of men stood urinating against the walls on either side of the pot-holed road. Discarded beer cans and broken wine bottles littered the street and grass verges, and everywhere the sound of singing filled the air. The excitement, mixed with tension was palpable as they turned onto Hollywell Street and saw the stadium before them. Groups of grim-faced cops stared at the fans as they passed. Mick joined the turnstile queue and joined in the song the waiting fans were singing. ‘When we score a barrowload, up the Copeland Road, we’ll be there!’ With his friends close behind him, he squeezed through the turnstile and into an already raucous stadium. ‘Jungle or Celtic end?’ Barry asked. ‘Celtic end,’ Gaz replied. ‘The Jungle will be packed tonight and I want a good view.’ Barry grinned, ‘Celtic end it is, short arse.’ Mick led them up the concrete stairs a feeling a real excitement building in him. When he topped the stair and saw the asymmetrical bowl of Celtic Park laid out before him, he smiled. ‘I fuckin’ love this place.’

They squeezed into the packed terrace behind the goal and allowed themselves to be swept up in the raw theatre of the whole occasion. At the far end, Rangers fans congregated and their songs were met with jeers and loud chanting from the Celtic fans, as the pre-match rituals played out. ‘This is it, boys, now or never!’ Barry grinned, his face flushed with adrenalin. At that moment the teams came out of the tunnel and were greeted by an enormous roar. ‘Come on Celtic!’ Mick shouted, ‘intae this mob!’ The game started and Celtic now had 90 minutes to snatch an unlikely title or go down trying. History was beckoning.

Few games of football have ever been infused with such drama, passion and plot twists as the match played between Celtic and Rangers on that May night in 1979. Celtic began in traditional style and pushed their opponents back in the opening exchanges. Rangers seemed content to sit in, bide their time and wait for the chance to hit on the break. As Mick, Barry and Gaz watched in horror, Davie Cooper raced up the right wing and swept the ball across goal where the onrushing McDonald swept it home. It was like a punch in the gut to the Celtic support, but they continued to roar Celtic on, hope still strong that the men in green could turn things around. Celtic resumed their attacking and a header from Aitken smashed the bar. Half-time arrived in what seemed an instant with the score still 1-0 to the visitors. Mick shook his head, ‘how are they winning? They’re feckin’ gash, man.’ Barry, ever the optimist shrugged, ‘these games open up in the second half, they’ve been lucky so far, but we’ll still do them.’

Shortly after the second half began, a further body blow was delivered to the watching Celtic fans. Winger John Doyle got involved with Rangers’ Alex McDonald, who was lying on the ground at the time. Doyle aimed a petulant kick at him. It wasn’t a brutal assault, more of a ‘get up, ya dick’ type of flick with the boot, but the watching linesman raised his flag. The referee showed Doyle the red card and Celtic found themselves a man down and a goal down. ‘Jesus Christ, Johnny, wit did ye dae that for?’ Mick asked no one in particular. The game restarted and Celtic, like a boxer on the ropes who knows he needs a knockout, threw themselves at the Rangers defence with almost fanatical fervour. The crowd seemed to sense it and roared them on. In 66 minutes, Roy Aitken flicked the ball to the left wing and raced into the box. Provan crossed and the big midfielder smashed the ball home. Three sides of Celtic Park erupted, the noise was deafening. Celtic were level! The three friends behind the goal jumped for joy with thousands of others. It was still on! They could still win this title. Just 8 minutes later an Aitken shot was blocked and a gleeful George McCluskey fired the ball home. Celtic were leading 2-1. Nothing would stop them now… would it?

As the Celtic support celebrated McCluskey’s goal, Rangers, in a rare foray up field, won a corner. It was headed clear to the edge of the box where Bobby Russell fired a hopeful low shot. To Mick’s horror the ball zipped through a forest of legs in the Celtic box and ended up in the net. Mick looked at Barry in disbelief. ‘Jammy bastards!’ Even the ever-hopeful Barry wondered if it was going to be their night. ‘There’s still ten or twelve minutes to go. They’ll give it everything.’ As they watched the minutes tick past, Celtic swept towards the Rangers defence in waves. McCloy saved an Aitken shot and an increasingly desperate defence got deeper. Then with barely 5 minutes left, the skilful McCluskey cut in from the right and hammered the ball towards goal. McCloy threw himself to his right and parried the ball wide. To his horror it struck the onrushing defender, Colin Jackson, and spun into the net! ‘Yaaasssssss!’ roared Mick behind the goal. ‘We’ve done it! We’ve fuckin’ done it!’ He hugged his friends for all he was worth.

Rangers seemed to sense the game was almost up and fired high balls towards the Celtic goal. As the clock read 90 minutes, a long clearance found Murdo MacLeod in space on the Celtic right, He drove towards the Rangers goal with thousands of Celtic fans urging him to smash it into the crowd as time was almost up. Mick watched mesmerised as MacLeod strode towards the Rangers penalty box and unleashed a fierce shot. The ball flew like a stone from a slingshot and flashed into the top corner of the Rangers net. The deafening roar that greeted that goal was one made up of pent-up emotion, utter joy and maybe a hint of relief. They had done it! Despite the odds, the set-backs, the ordering off of Johnny Doyle, Celtic had risen to the challenge time after time. It was an astonishing night of drama, passion and emotion as the ten men of Celtic showed the guts, steel and indomitable spirit of Champions.

After they sang themselves hoarse and celebrated with the team after the match, the jubilant army of Celtic fans left the stadium chanting, ‘we are the champions.’ Mick, Gaz and Barry headed back to the pub to see if they could still catch a pint before they headed home. As they walked into the bar, there was a cheer from those who hadn’t been to the game but had followed it on the radio. The three friends punched the air. ‘What are we?’ Mick shouted, ‘we’re the champions!’ Barry headed for the juke box and slid in his coin, before looking at the barman. ‘Nae Celtic songs on this machine, Jimmy?’ The man shrugged and shook his head. Barry scanned the song names before making his choice. As he headed back to join Gaz and Mick, the unmistakable intro of David Bowie’s latest song filled the air. Mick handed him a pint and joined in the song, which somehow seemed to hit the right note on this night of nights…

‘Heaven loves ya, the clouds part for ya! Nothing stands in your way when you’re a bhoy!’

 

 

A winter’s tale

 

 

A winter’s tale

Celtic’s reaction to the club’s latest defeat was swift and decisive. Wilfried Nancy became the manager with the shortest reign in Celtic’s 138-year history after being sacked after just 33 days in charge. It was brutal and there were mitigating circumstances surrounding his appalling 25%-win rate. Important players were injured, those who were fit struggled to adapt to his system of play and Celtic’s forwards squandered at least 20 great chances in Nancy’s 8 game tenure. The final straw came when Celtic failed to show up for the second half of the Glasgow derby, having controlled the first half and squandered some excellent chance to go in at the break more than one goal ahead. His team looked far too open at the back and individual errors were punished by a frankly very average Rangers side.

The Celtic players need to look at themselves too. Nancy’s system didn’t miss sitters or misplace passes. They can and should have been much better. There was confusion and discomfort in the team when Nancy changed the set up from day one, instead of building on what he had been left by Martin O’Neill. Celtic simply do not have the players to play his 3-5-2 system. To see Yang and McCowan being asked to play as wing backs was a reminder of how short the club is of specialist players. It was starkly brought home when Celtic lost two goals in the opening 8 minutes to a Livingston side who have averaged one goal a game this season. Both goals were caused by Livi exploiting the space down the right side of the Celtic defence.

Nancy seemed more bellicose in one of his final press conferences when the press badgered him on his future. He was a mixture of angry and fatalistic when he replied…

"So now, as you know, I need time. I know that I don't have time, as this is the way it is in my job, but with the small amount of time that I've had, I saw things that we did better than when with a team for four weeks in pre-season. Yes, I want to ask you: Give me time and you'll see my team. You're going to see what I'm going to do, because you can see already what I did before. I didn't start yesterday.”

As we know he wasn’t given any more time. Those in control didn’t see enough progress to continue with their experiment. The league season is just over half way through and Celtic sit 6 points behind Hearts. It will take a major improvement in form for Celtic to turn that around. They face Hearts away in 3 weeks with the tie coming only 3 days after a tough European trip to Bologna. Before then Celtic really need to be taking full points against Dundee United and Falkirk as well as seeing off Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup.  

Martin O’Neill will return to guide the club through the rest of the season and he knows the size of the fight Celtic have on their hands to retain their title. Football is a confidence and momentum game. O’Neill needs to get the squad motivated and believing in themselves again. He demonstrated during his initial interim spell in charge that with a pragmatic formation and some determination and fighting spirit, the squad can win games. He will hopefully have identified areas in need of strengthening in the side and suggested players who might come in and make a difference. The team is crying out for a striker to convert some of the chances they make. Things could have been very different for Nancy had the current strikers taken even 50% of the chances they created.

The board need to back O’Neill now, interim coach or not. There is still a chance this season in the SPFL and while that is the case, Celtic should fight for every point. If Celtic can stay in touch at the top of the league when the spring comes around, they will have both Hearts and Rangers to play at Celtic Park and a chance to put right some of the errors made this season. I still believe that the squad at Celtic Park is capable or rising to the challenges ahead. As Martin Luther King once said, 'The ultimate measure of a man is not when he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge.' 

These are certainly challenging times for Celtic; the club and its supporters have had an astonishing run of success in the past decade. Things have been tougher this season due to many factors, chiefly; injuries, a team coming to the end of its cycle and a manager who wanted to implement his changes too quickly and with little attention paid to the context he found himself in. The pressure to win is always intense at Celtic and I don’t think Wilfried Nancy fully grasped that. Martin O’Neill knows what is required at Celtic and should be given the tools to do the job.

The night is darkest just before dawn. Let’s hope the first rays of dawn are seen in our upcoming games. The challenge is there, Celtic. Now go and meet it.

The Sacrament

 

The Sacrament

Well, that’s another year over and for those who follow Celtic it has been a strange mixture of wins and worry, of trophies and tribulation. 2025 began with the team well in control in the title race but slipping to a 3-0 defeat in the derby match. The team then won ten domestic games in succession to surge towards the title and put up a decent fight against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. The team wasn’t always firing on all cylinders as the spring arrived but nonetheless were expected to win the cup final with Aberdeen and complete another treble. Celtic trounced the Reds 5-1 at Pittodrie two weeks before facing them at Hampden and in retrospect that may have fed the notion that they were certain to win the cup. As we all know, Aberdeen parked the bus at Hampden in a show of defensive defiance, and doggedness the likes of which has not seen since the Zulus attacked Rourke’s drift in 1879. Celtic seemed to run out of ideas and stumbled towards a penalty shoot-out, which, with an almost fatalistic sense of history, they lost. Few could begrudge the dogged Dons their moment of glory but it really was one that got away for Celtic.

The following season began with the team failing to defeat Kairat Almaty in the Champions League play-off match and suffering yet more penalty shoot out misery. For many fans, this result, coupled with the down sizing of the team hurt. How could a club with £70m in the bank allow the side to decline so quickly? Good players left and were not adequately replaced. Stalwarts were out injured, adding to the problems and the manager was clearly hinting in interviews that didn’t feel the club was supporting his in the manner he wanted. With the fans increasingly feeling ignored and patronised, it all came to a head at the end of October when Brendan Rodgers resigned. The club’s response was curt and ungracious…

‘Celtic Football Club can confirm that football manager Brendan Rodgers has today tendered his resignation. It has been accepted by the Club and Brendan will leave his role with immediate effect. The Club appreciates Brendan’s contribution to Celtic during his two very successful periods at the Club. Brendan leaves Celtic with our thanks for the role he has played during a period of continued success for the Club and we wish him further success in the future.’

Worse was to follow when the club’s biggest shareholder, Dermot Desmond, used the club’s website to launch a barbed critique on why Rodgers quit. Rodgers was accused of misleading fans over his contract talks and the club's transfer business and it was claimed in the article that Rodgers was "divisive" and had "fuelled hostility" toward the board and executive team. Desmond suggested Celtic's recent struggles were down to "one individual's desire for self-preservation" Amid the backdrop of increasing fan protests, which have called for the board to be sacked, Desmond blamed Rodgers for "contributing to a toxic atmosphere" at Celtic.

It was explosive stuff and as sections of the support were in open rebellion against a board they saw as overseeing an almost managed decline in the team, the hunt was on for a new manager. With Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney doing a good job as the interim management team, there were many who thought that they should be allowed to lead the team for the rest of the season. He had steadied the ship, organised the team in a manner suited to their abilities and if they weren’t in the same class as the team O’Neill built 25 years ago, at least he had them confident again and winning. The board in their wisdom pulled the plug though and brought in Wilfried Nancy from the American league. Most fans were willing to give the Frenchman a chance, but rather than stick with O’Neill’s pattern of play, Nancy immediately reverted to a back three. Without injured defensive first team players such as Johnston and Carter Vickers, the team looked confused and ill at ease with the system and began to leak goals at an alarming rate. Hearts came to Celtic Park and won 2-1 in his first game in charge. It wasn’t the tactical master class from Derek McInnes that some claim as Celtic missed some good chances to take something from the game. It was, however, clear from the Hearts’ goals that the defence was struggling. Next up was a very good Roma side who defeated Celtic 3-0 in a match they seldom needed to get out of third gear to win. Alarm bells were ringing though and fans began to question why the manager was playing ‘round pegs in square holes’ when it was obvious the team wasn’t coping well with his tactical demands. The league cup final with St Mirren followed and it seemed the time to switch to a more traditional set up as the Saints are a big, awkward side to play against. In fairness to St Mirren though, they brilliantly exposed Celtic’s defensive frailties and defended well to deservedly win 3-1.

No previous Celtic manager had lost their first 3 matches and it was with some trepidation that the side headed to Tannadice to play a Dundee United side that hadn’t beaten Celtic in 11 long years. Celtic started well, took the lead and missed some easy chances to kill the game off. However, when United equalised there was a nervousness about Celtic which saw them go into their shell and eventually lose the match. It had been a horrendous start to Nancy’s managerial career at Celtic Park. It seemed as if any team with a good tactical nous could exploit the spaces down the sides of Celtic’s back three. To play that system, a team required three good, pacy centre backs and wing backs who can get up and down the line well. O’Neill had that a generation ago with Didier Agathe and McNamara flanking the likes of Valgaeren, Mjallby and Balde. Nancy doesn’t have players of that quality today.

Celtic did defeat Aberdeen and Livingston in their next two matches. In the Aberdeen game they should have been out of sight at half time and yet found themselves at 1-1 with ten minutes left. Two late goals won the match but in truth Aberdeen played poorly. Livingston having won just 1 SPFL match all season managed to exploit Celtic’s leaky defence and in an extraordinary start to the match had the game tied at 2-2 after ten minutes. Celtic eventually wore them down with the help of one of those fortuitous penalties the VAR system doles out now and then, but the fans remain unconvinced with the manager’s style of play and tactical know how in a league he is new to. The match at Fir Park earlier this week seemed to confirm that any decent, organised team will give Celtic trouble. The alarm bells were ringing loudly after that toothless, confused display. Two wins in seven matches is unacceptable at a club like Celtic and Nancy is feeling the pressure.

So next up is the Glasgow derby with a Rangers side who are grinding out results and have had the rub of the green via recent VAR decisions. They’ll know of Celtic’s defensive set up and be out to exploit it. This match has great significance for Celtic which goes beyond a mere 3 points. The intensity of the rivalry and the ongoing split between the board and sections of the support mean that defeat could turn discontent into something much stronger.

I was chatting to a fellow fan on WhatsApp about events at Celtic Park in recent times and what the manager needs to do to turn things around. He responded with one of those darkly, unintentionally funny typos which made me laugh out loud. It read, ‘Wilfried might not be on the last rites just yet, but he has had the sacrament of the dick.’ Even in these troubled times for Celtic, we had to laugh at that one.

So welcome to 2026. Strap yourself in as I have a feeling it’s going to be quite a ride.