Not Fade Away

 

Not Fade Away

May is almost upon us and it’s a month I look on fondly. Not only is the Scottish winter well and truly over but it is also the time when all the great issues in Scottish football are resolved and the trophies handed out. As a child, it was also the month of Mary and my memories of school include singing songs such as ‘I’ll sing a hymn to Mary’ and the ever popular, ‘Month of Mary.’ It was an optimistic month, a time to contemplate the imminent arrival of summer and warmer, lighter days.

May is also the month that a baby boy was born to John and Elizabeth Kerins in Ballymote, County Sligo in Ireland. The year was 1840 and population of the country had reached a peak of 8.2 million. It seems astonishing, but Ireland’s population then was more than half of that of England, which stood at 15.9 million. (Today Ireland has in total of 6.8 million while England’s population is almost nine times higher at 56 million.) For the poor, in a country treated as a colony and exploited by its more dominant neighbour, life was precarious indeed. Only the abundance of the potato crop allowed this high population to thrive but of course, that abundance was shattered by the arrival of a fungus like organism called Phytophthora infestans which caused great swathes of the potato crop to rot in the fields. As always, the poor were to suffer most.

A few contemporary records survive from County Sligo to give us a flavour of conditions in the county during the years of the great hunger.  On 24 March 1847 Reverend Michael Spelman wrote to the Relief Commission stating that the dead in his parish are being buried without coffins and requests coffins should be provided in future.

"In this single parish (Geevagh, Co.Sligo) comprising a population of 1,000 souls, no less than eighty-seven persons have actually died of starvation within the last twelve days. Many are buried without coffins. This fact is indisputable and as I feel convinced that numbers will have to be interred with no other covering but the rags they wore when living.’’

This lamentable scene was played out all over country. Sligo was to lose fully a third of its population to death or emigration in the famine years. Imagine if you will, a virtually full Celtic Park, that is the number of people who perished or left County Sligo in the hungry years. 57,790 people are recorded as having died or emigrated between 1847-52 from just one of Ireland’s 32 counties.

It is recorded in much detail that the British government’s response to a catastrophe unfolding in a part of the United Kingdom was callously inadequate. Ireland and Britain were unified under an 1801 Act of Parliament and it’s clear that the unified parliament in London treated the Irish as less than equals. Charles Trevelyan believed the famine to be God’s plan to reduce the surplus population and that to interfere would amount to a sin. His attitude to the Irish would be considered racist in today's terms and it was  ominous that a man holding such beliefs was put in charge of famine relief. Ships full of grain, oats and livestock continued to leave Ireland throughout the famine period  and evictions of poor peasants continued on a grand scale. It was a recipe for disaster.

There are no contemporary records to help us discover how John and Elizabeth Kerins managed in those dark times but they did  keep their two sons alive through this seminal period of Irish history. The family would have seen the horrors unfolding around them in rural Sligo and doubtless worried for their future. It is known that their youngest son, Andrew, moved to Scotland where he worked as a teacher. Like many, he would rely on the Church to supply him with an education denied to so many of the poor. The teaching orders of the church welcomed dedicated and hard-working young men like Andrew Kerins and he became a Marist Brother.

The Irish had arrived in Scotland in huge numbers, driven by hunger and destitution at home and drawn by the industrial revolution which promised the opportunity of work. From the docks and factories of Glasgow, to the jute mills of Dundee, they filled the most menial and lowest paid jobs. They helped build the canals, bridges and roads of Scotland and were exploited as cheap, disposable labour. They lived in the poorer quarters of Scottish towns and cities and suffered from the appalling social conditions of Victorian Scotland.

The overcrowded, insanitary slums of Glasgow they inhabited were among the worst in Europe. It is recorded that over 11,000 people died in Glasgow in 1888. Of these, almost 5000 were children under 5 years old. There was no NHS then, no social housing and only charity for those who fell on hard times. The Catholicism of the majority of the Irish in Scotland added another layer to the distrust and often naked hatred they endured. It was into such conditions that Andrew Kerins chose to work.

 

Yet despite the hardship and hostility, in the east end of Glasgow, in Edinburgh’s Cowgate, in Lochee by the Tay and scores of other places they carved out a life for themselves. The new sport of football offered them a way to integrate more into Scottish society and as Brother Walfrid proved in the foundation of Celtic, it offered a way of raising funds to alleviate the poverty and need he saw around him on a daily basis.

Celtic’s most famous captain, Billy McNeill, once said that there was a fairy tale aspect about the club. Who could have envisioned that on a bright, sunny day in 1967 that a club born into the poverty and squalor of Victorian Scotland’s poorest community would become Champions of Europe? As McNeill held that gleaming trophy above his head in the Lisbon sunshine, he was cheered by thousands who had made their way to Portugal to support Walfrid’s side. Many of those supporters would have been the grandchildren of the Irish who arrived in Scotland with nothing and endured much hardship and discrimination to make a better life for their children.

That is the triumph and significance of Celtic’s victory in 1967.  Celtic is a visual reminder of a people who refused to fade away, to integrate to the point of invisibility. The human spirit can fight back from hardship and oppression and that a people can rise and take their place in the world with dignity and pride.

So as May begins tomorrow and we remember the birth of Andrew Kerins on the 18^th of the month, it would be somehow fitting if the team he founded to brighten the lives of a downtrodden community once more fought back to become the champions we know they are.

 

First Time in Paradise

 

First Time in Paradise

A good friend who is a high school teacher, told me recently about one of her students who arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker in 2020. The teenager had arrived at Dover with three other children following a dangerous cross-channel journey from France. This followed an epic journey from Sudan to reach Europe in the first place. As an unaccompanied asylum-seeker, he was settled in Scotland and arrived here just as winter was setting in. He must have felt very far from home in the gloom of a Scottish winter.

My friend described him a hard-working, positive and resilient lad, who is an excellent footballer and these qualities have helped him adjust to life in a new country and make new friends. He became very fond of Celtic Football Club and watching them avidly on tv. He told her it was his dream to one day see them play at Celtic Park. Today that dream becomes a reality when the teenager who risked his life crossing the channel will join 60,000 other Celtic fans watching the Hoops take on St Johnstone. When the game is over, I’m certain Celtic will have one more lifelong fan following them.

His trip to see Celtic was facilitated by the excellent people of the Kano Foundation who have now arranged for over 12,000 youngsters to see Celtic play for free. In an era where the poor behaviour of some of those who attach themselves to football grabs all the headlines, organisations like the Kano Foundation quietly do wonderful things. It’s worth recounting the roots of this charity and the role it has played in bringing so many deserving youngsters to  watch professional football when they might not have otherwise managed it. Their own website describes the charity’s origins in the following way…

‘The KANO Foundation took inspiration from the highly successful “Bringing Martin Home” fundraising effort that was undertaken by the Celtic support. Overnight in 2008, Martin Kane, a Glasgow Celt living in Australia, was struck down by a rare neurological condition called Devic’s Syndrome.  The condition is an extreme form of multiple sclerosis and causes the immune system to attack the protective material that covers the nerves.

‘Martin, known as “Kano” to his friends, was a regular contributor to the Celtic Quick News forum. When other members of the forum found out about his situation they quickly kicked off a fundraising effort to raise £60,000 to pay for modifications to his house to get him home for Christmas with his family, after spending a year in hospital. One fundraising event was a bucket collection outside Celtic Park on a match-day. The overall campaign exceeded the target and it was decided to use some of the extra money to take a group of children, who had volunteered at the bucket collection, to a match at Celtic Park. The idea for The KANO Foundation was born.’

The Kano Foundation uses money raised by Celtic supporters and local businesses to purchase season tickets which they use to gain entry to the stadium for groups of children they are working with on a given match day. They currently have 186 season tickets and their usually boisterous group is easy to spot on match days in the lower Lisbon Lions stand. Their patrons include Tom Boyd, Henrik Larsson, John Higgins and Scott Brown.

Following the sad passing of Martin ‘Kano’ Kane in 2015, his comrades kept his spirit alive in the foundation which bears his nickname. They have impacted positively on the lives of literally thousands of children who saw their first Celtic match thanks to the Foundation. In doing so they have undoubtedly won some new fans for Celtic but the principles for which they stand are bigger than that. It's about free football for children regardless of background or circumstance. Many of us enjoyed that privilege in the days when lifting kids over the turnstile was the done thing. It’s about teaching them about being sporting and respectful of others and introducing them to the fun and exhilaration you can experience watching professional football.

So as Paradise roars out its backing for the Bhoys today, think of that teenager from far off Sudan who will be experiencing it all for the first time. His eyes will be full of that wonder we all had as kids when we first experienced a game at Celtic Park. He’ll look around him and breath in sights and sounds that will live with him forever.

You may be in a new land, young fella, but you will most certainly never walk alone. I hope you have a great time and you come back to Celtic Park many times. Welcome to Paradise.

 

Should you wish to learn more about the work of the Kano Foundation or donate to this excellent charity, please click the link below.

Click here for... Kano Foundation

 

 

 

The Poison in our midst

 

The Poison in our midst

The decision by Rangers FC (2012) to withdraw the team from the Sydney Super Cup was hardly surprising given the level of antagonism coming from many of their supporters. Given that the four-club tournament was billed as ‘Ange’s Homecoming’ and Celtic were being given a higher profile and fee, some took umbrage and let their club know in various forums and actions that they were not in favour of the ‘friendly’ match with Celtic. The club itself released a terse, one paragraph statement on its website which left more unsaid. It stated…

‘After it became clear that the tournament organisers were unwilling to fulfil their commitments to Rangers, we have with immediate effect terminated the club’s agreement with the organisers.’ 

I’m sure the Sydney Cup organising committee will find a suitable club to replace Rangers in the tournament and perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that the Ibrox club aren’t involved. One newspaper, The Greek City Times, was clear that Sydney had dodged a bullet when Rangers withdrew. It stated…

‘The Sydney Super Cup, or more commonly known in Australia as Ange Postecoglou’s Homecoming Tour, has been saved from having to deal with the consequences of dealing with Rangers fans. Rangers withdrew from the four-team tournament after supporters of the Ibrox side protested and expressed their unwillingness to participate in a friendly tournament as the support act for Ange’s Celtic FC – despite the generous monetary compensation. And for this, Rangers fans have inadvertently saved the harbour city and the Sydney Super Cup from themselves. One cannot read a Scottish football forum or social media without a plethora of Rangers fans disgustingly exploiting victims of child abuse to disparage their Glasgow rivals. In the same manner, the weaponisation of child abuse victims to disparage or “banter” should not be tolerated, yet as already said, one cannot browse any online medium relating to Scottish football without seeing Rangers fans exploiting child abuse victims.’

How sad that Scottish football is saddled with this poison and that people on the other side of the world are shaking their heads at this despicable weaponization of child abuse. The article not only pointed out the poison on social media, it also noted that…

‘An administrator of the Follow Follow website, which is an official media partner of Rangers FC, announced on their forum that the “Rolf Harris Cup organisers hit back”, clearly replacing “Sydney Super” with the name of the convicted Australian paedophile. If this is how the administrator of an official Rangers media partner behaves then Sydney can count itself lucky that such a vile supporter base has forced the club to not be a support act for Ange’s Homecoming Tour.’

Scottish reporter and childhood Rangers fan, Graham Spiers also commented on some of the ‘filth’ on the ‘Follow-Follow’ web forum. He commented on Social-media…

‘For years people have spoken about the sheer squalor, filth and bigotry found on Follow Follow. Just how Stewart Robertson and Rangers have contrived to make this cesspit “an official media partner” of the club is utterly depressing.’

 The reformation of Rangers FC (no pun intended) in 2012 was an opportunity to dispense with the tawdry and small-minded bigotry of the past at Ibrox.  Instead, the new club seems to tolerate the bigoted section of their support and has been accused of tacitly encouraging them, via things such as club adverts using the tune of the racist ‘Famine song.’ Rangers made a rod for their own backs a hundred years ago when it self-identified as the ‘Protestant and unionist club’ of Scottish football and began its contemptible apartheid against Roman Catholics. It says much about the Scotland of that era that the SFA and League did nothing to question this ‘unwritten policy.’ Rangers attracted the worst elements in society to their fanbase and now find those elements are stuck to them like barnacles on the bottom of a ship.

The Greek City Times was not only scathing of Rangers followers ‘weaponising’ child abuse, they also pointed out that this…

‘Does not even take into account the inevitable sectarian songs that would be heard ringing around Accor Stadium in western Sydney, or perhaps even targeted racist chants like Celtic star striker Kyogo Furuhashi has already experienced, and almost certainly violence. Either way, we thankfully will not find out after Rangers fans, outraged about being a supporting act, successfully convinced their club to pull out of Ange’s Homecoming Tour.’

We live in the information age where words and images can be flashed around the globe in the blink of an eye. Scotland is a great country and most Scots are tolerant, decent and hard-working people. It remains depressing that a socially illiterate minority, with attitudes which belong in another century, continues to be tolerated. Those who should know better don’t help by branding everyone who points out the poison in our midst as ‘anti-Rangers.’ Bigotry, racism and the scurrilous use of child abuse to score points, goes way beyond club rivalries. This is an issue where the decent people of all clubs and walks of life need to stand together and say -that’s enough!

We may never get through to the ignorant minority who seem to wallow in their petty hatreds but we owe it to the future and to the children growing up in our land to do better. The beautiful and progressive city of Sydney will be spared the ugliness we see so often on our streets here in Scotland. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to say our society has lanced this particular boil, but that day appears to be some way off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knock it on the head

 

Knock it on the head

Folk have called Jim Spence many things over the years but no one can claim he doesn’t call it as he sees it. His troubles with elements of the Rangers support, after the old club’s demise in 2012, stemmed from his refusal to join the historical revisionism which some journalists cravenly fostered to deny the verifiable fact that the Ibrox club went bust and started again as a new club. Only he will know the full extent of the harassment and hassle his ethical standards caused him both personally and professionally. He told me once that he offered to ‘take the jaiket off’ in the street to one particularly nasty critic from the blue side.

Like him or not, Jim knows the hypocrisy involved in criticising the bile which some Rangers supporters indulge in and remaining silent when some followers of Celtic indulge in similar antics. He said on Twitter last night in the wake of Celtic’s trip to Tannadice…

‘I heard the old line ‘soon there’ll be no Protestants at all ‘ sung by a small section of Celtic support last night. they need to knock that right on the head. One thing which always marked the club out was its openness to all and a significant number of non-Catholic supporters.’

Most who responded to his tweet were supportive of his call for this regressive and frankly moronic nonsense to be knocked on the head. This sort of trash and that God-awful ‘roamin in the gloamin’ dirge go against every principle Celtic stand for. The great thing about Celtic Football Club was that it opened its arms to all at a time when the club and many who followed it felt the bitter sting of bigotry in their own lives. This is the club of John Thomson, Jock Stein, Bobby Evans, Bertie Peacock,  Tommy Gemmell, Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain and many more wonderful players who gave their all for that famous shirt despite not coming from what some would call a ‘Celtic background.’ As Willie Maley once said, ‘It’s not the creed or nationality that counts, but the man himself.’

I have attended perhaps more than a thousand Celtic matches in my life and have seen the supporters in all hues of emotion. From the ecstatic highs of victory to the deep lows which occur now and then at every club. I have always found a warmth and a comradeship among Celtic fans. There has been a compassion for those suffering injustice or poverty from Parkhead to Palestine, and that compassion has always led to action to help out where they can. The charitable roots of the club continue to flourish in the work of the Foundation Celtic and in the many kindnesses and charitable works, large and small, I see happening every day. The ethos of this club has always been inclusive. It is, undeniably rooted in its Catholic and Irish DNA but has moved way beyond the community which founded it to be a truly global football club.

Celtic attracts supporters from all walks of life and we are proud to see supporters from many parts of the world call Celtic their side. That very diversity is a great strength and makes the Celtic family stronger. As in any family there will be fallings out now and then and occasionally tough truths need to be told. Today is a day for tough truths- Jim Spence is right; this creeping barrage of bullshit needs to stop. Celtic has supporters from all faith and none and it is simply not on that any Celtic fan is made to feel uncomfortable by the actions of a misguided few. If we shake our heads at the ‘famine song’ mentality of rival fans, how can we look the other way when some of our own indulge in the sort of crass nonsense, without being utter hypocrites?

It's not banter, it’s not lads having a laugh- it’s offensive and it drags Celtic’s name into the gutter. I know a lot of Celtic fans who hate these songs and the add-ons wedged into decent Celtic songs, but usually hold their peace as the flack they get on social media for mentioning it isn’t worth it. I know by writing these words that I’ll be asked by a few predictable folk ‘how was the soup?’ or told it’s ‘Birthday-card pish’ to think we can rise above this drivel. But as Jock Stein said when asked how some of his more ‘staunch’ friends took the news of him joining Celtic… ‘I lost a lot of friends when I made the move to Celtic but if that’s what was important to them then they weren’t really friends at all.’

Celtic Football Club is too important to too many people to accept going down this road. There are scores of great Celtic songs we can be singing. I don’t include Republican songs in the pantheon of pish I wish to see consigned to the dustbin of history as no matter how inappropriate it may be to be singing them at football, I don't accept then as 'sectarian'. I do draw the line at nakedly sectarian lyrics such as those  Jim Spence alluded to. This nonsense does indeed need to be knocked on the head and soon, otherwise we run the risk of becoming that which we claim to despise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We never stop

 

We never stop

Watching Celtic falter to another predictable exit from European football in the Norwegian arctic was strangely not as depressing as it might have been. The team looked disinterested and sluggish in the first half against a well drilled and fast-moving team. Perhaps it was the first leg deficit and the fact that the likelihood of Celtic turning it around was slim. More likely it was the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine which puts sport into its proper context.  Few things please me more than Celtic doing well but it all pales into insignificance when we watch the suffering of others.

It has long been a mystery to supporters that teams with a fraction of the resources Celtic has at its disposal, can develop sides which regularly give the hoops real trouble in Europe.  Bodo Glimt play in a town with a population smaller than Paisley or Cumbernauld and yet their coaching and youth system seems to be very successful. The team plays to an average crowd of under 4000 and has won the Norwegian league for the past two seasons. Their style of play, play acting apart, is attractive to watch and not dissimilar to the style Ange Postecoglou is looking to develop at Celtic.

Developing a pattern of play which is instilled into every level of the club - from youth players to the first team, takes time and the early signs are promising at Celtic Park. Few of us expected a club in transition to be challenging for the title this season, especially after the club dragged its heels for over a hundred days waiting for Eddie Howe to make up his mind. Ange has brought in virtually a whole team and in football, that changing of the guard is seldom smooth. His ‘we never stop’ mantra has seen Celtic overcome a sticky start to the league campaign, in which the first three away games were lost and Celtic sat sixth in the table, to now sit three points clear at the top with eleven matches remaining.

Celtic fans are no fools, they know the results in Europe and recent stuttering form in matches against Raith Rovers and Dundee mean that nothing can be taken for granted. They would also have watched Rangers knocking Dortmund out of Europe and know the boost this will have given them although remaining in Europe will also put added demands on their squad as the domestic season reaches its climax. Celtic now begin the most telling part of their season at Easter Road on Sunday. How this new side reacts to the pressures of ‘must win’ games every week remains to be seen but we can be confident that Ange will prepare them well and give them the belief and organisation required. European football is over for this season and those ties with Bodo Glimt must not affect the team’s confidence at this vital stage of the season. Celtic has won over a dozen games this season by one goal and while that shows real fighting spirit, it also demonstrates the fine margins involved in putting in a real title challenge. The upcoming matches are going to test the team’s title credentials to the maximum and they need to turn up at Easter Road, Livingston and Ibrox and demonstrate that they are up for the fight. Livingston have proved a tough nut to crack for Celtic in recent times and the hoops have spilled four points to the West Lothian club in two games this season. That needs to be addressed before any mental block develops there. They must also ensure that there are no slip ups in home matches to the so called, lesser sides, in the SPFL. The two derby matches left on the fixture list will also be pivotal. Celtic’s comfortable victory over Rangers in the early days of February will give the team a lot of belief.

The support remains solidly behind Ange Postecoglou and can see the progress the side has made. Few of us expected that his side would be in such a challenging position a mere eight months after he took over but as we reach the business end of the season, the club is in with a fighting chance of pulling off a remarkable turnaround. We need total focus now. The team needs to fight for every point and the supporters need to back them every step of the way. No silly squabbles with the board over flares, no empty zones in the stadium, just a club and their fans united in a common purpose; to put Celtic back where they belong- at the pinnacle of Scottish football.

The future starts today, be relentless Celtic and never stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parcel

 

Parcel

It is said that modern technology has shrunk the work and allowed people from all over to interact. Social media, for all of its inherent flaws, has also allowed people to exchange views on every topic under the sun and introduced me personally to some great people. One then was the irrepressible ‘Parcel 0  Rogues’ otherwise known as David Brown. His online persona could be brash, funny and often caustic but he challenged the haters and hypocrites wherever he found them. His avatar, an image of Fagan as played by Ron Moody in the movie ‘Oliver’ was familiar to thousands of us on twitter.

David and I share a love of Celtic Football Club and our early interactions on Twitter were all about the ups and downs of our team. He encouraged me to follow fans of other teams on Twitter as is helped counteract the tendency of social media to become an echo chamber of like-minded people. He loved his team and told me he had first seen them in action in April 1977 in a match against Aberdeen and was smitten. Those of you who have that emotional bond with your team will know how strong that can be and despite David’s life taking his to the USA, he never lost that affinity with Celtic. He could be withering in his assessment of them if they played poorly but loved the ideals the club stood for. Inclusion, charity and of course good football were the values he saw in his team and, like so many of us, his moods could be influenced by their results.

Our late-night conversations would focus on the things he loved most in life; his family and Celtic. It was very much in that order with him as Siobhan and his boys were his pride and joy. He knew pain in his life as well as joy and was philosophical about it most of the time although some things he carried with him on his journey. Dave was a generous guy and first to support my annual charity fundraiser. Last year he won a beautiful signed and  framed portrait of Odsonne Edouard in one of my lottery style draws and immediately contacted me to say I should give it to the group I was supporting. That’s the sort of man he was.

Our last conversation in January was a poignant one. He was discussing his views on religion and spirituality and said to me…

‘Like all of us, I’ve been through heartbreak my friend. But my ma taught me I’m no better or worse than anyone else. Every single day I thank God, because I’ve had so many days since then knowing just how much people love me. When it’s my time, I’ll go to face the music.’

We’ll all miss David and his alter-ego, ‘Parcel.’ Life can be fickle and at times cruel. He was just 56 when his journey ended and  it may be of some comfort to his family in these dark days for them to know that many people enjoyed his humour, his wit and his humanity. Like us all, he was a complex human being but his decency shone through and he touched the lives of many.

Rest easy, pal and thanks for the laughs, the advice, the honesty and kindness.

 

David Brown (Parcel O’Rogues)

Family man, Celtic fan and a good guy.

 

All Aboard

 

All Aboard

Walking along the Gallowgate towards the bright lights of Celtic Park on Wednesday night, you could feel that old electricity in the air. Man and boy I’ve walked that walk, and in days long gone it would be the tall pylon, standing like a lighthouse in the darkness, that would guide us to the old stadium. As the rivers of green clad humanity flowed towards the new place, their songs rising into the dark Glasgow sky, you could feel something was afoot. There was hope in their hearts that at last the ghost of last season could be exorcised. Yes, Celtic were missing key players and had a poor record in derbies in the past couple of years but this was a new Celtic side, full of heart and running. Ange Postecoglou also has them playing a brand of fast, attacking football which if not always getting the rewards it deserves, at least promised to give Celtic a fighting chance.

The decision of Rangers to deny Celtic any tickets for Ibrox this season meant Celtic reciprocated. Their players would therefore be entering a noisy bear pit at Celtic Park as 60,000 of the noisiest fans in Europe were arrayed against them. Not since the legendary Barcelona game of 2012 have I seen the stadium as animated and raucous. The players came out to a wall of noise and Rangers on loan ‘wonder kid’ Amad Diallo looked visibly nervous at the assault on his senses he was experiencing. From those first moments when the whole stadium roared out ‘You’ll never walk alone,’ the fans kept up an incessant racket which cascaded onto the pitch and had the desired effect of driving Celtic on from the very first moment of the game.

They played at a high tempo throughout and harried and hounded their opponents into errors. This was exemplified when Croatian internationalist, Borna Barisic tried to start an attack down Celtic’s right flank. He was met by a turbo charged Callum McGregor who forced him back into his own half, before the experienced Rangers player passed the ball back towards his own goal keeper as McGregor audibly snarled ‘shite-bag!’ at him. Celtic were up for this game and every single player in the famous old hooped shirts demonstrated a degree of hunger and desire to win that had been lacking at times last season.

Abada, the hero with a late winner against a Dundee United side, which in truth offered more resistance at Celtic Park than Rangers did, ran Barisic ragged.  With Jota on the other flank and supporting full backs joining in attacks at every opportunity, Celtic carried threat with every attack. The 3-0 half-time lead could easily have been 5 or 6 but the game was effectively over when the ever-alert Abada raced past the flat-footed Barisic to score the third goal. This though, was a team performance, typified by Joe Hart racing from goal to snatch the ball from the feet of Arfield and immediately look to begin an attack. A moment later Hatate was curling the ball past McGregor at the other end. It was as solid a team performance as we’ve seen in Ange’s time and as he explained after the game, the team is improving week by week but still has a lot of developing to do. Hatate is still not fully fit and will be an even more impressive player when he is.  

Their emphatic 3-0 win over their rivals puts Celtic at the top of the table and perhaps ahead of where many thought they would be at this point in the team’s restructuring. The fact that they destroyed Rangers with key men like Rogic, Turnbull and Kyogo missing augurs well for the future. No one is fooling themselves that it is any more than a big win as there are still many twists and turns to come this season. It is however a major bursting of the Ibrox bubble as they now know they have a real fight on their hands. Last season’s meek surrender of the title hurt a lot of Celtic fans, but the class of 2022 won’t be brushed aside so easily.

When the season was in its infancy, Ange Postecoglou castigated a journalist for suggesting the league was over after Celtic lost their first three away games. Celtic were six points off the pace and sitting in sixth spot in the table, having collected just ten points from the first seven matches. He shook his head and commented…

 ‘It’s a weird league, you call things early here, don’t you? It’s remarkable that seven games in people are calling the title already. It’s just not how I work. I’m not pulling up stumps after seven games just because other people think there is some sort of insurmountable challenge for us. I know people are wanting to push me onto some kind of ledge somewhere but that’s not going to happen. I know what this club is all about and what the expectations are.’

His words are as true after Wednesday’s stirring victory as they were back in September. Nothing is settled in the league. Celtic is in a good position, playing well and full of confidence, but no more than that. There are almost 50 points still to be fought for so it’s one game at a time. Postecoglou said…

"Our end goal was not to be on top spot in February. Being where we are at the moment means that we've progressed, we've improved and we're a step closer to the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to be successful at the end of the year. I haven't sensed any change in mood or atmosphere amongst the players. They've come in today ready to work hard and to get ready for what's going to be a difficult game on Sunday."

The Eddie Howe saga now seems a distant dream as Celtic fans take their new boss to their hearts. Some have spoken of ‘dodging a bullet’ with Howe although we’ll never know how he would have fared in Scotland. What we do know is that the man in the manager’s chair has done a tremendous job in building a team in just six short months. When Postecoglou’s Yokohama F Marinos side played Manchester City in a very competitive friendly in 2019. Pep Guardiola raved about the style of play the Japanese side adopted. They gave a full-strength City a real fight before losing 3-1; City’s third coming in the 94^th minute of a game in which the J League side had 58% possession. Guardiola said…

"Yokohama played some incredible football and they were an incredible test for us. I knew how good they were and it was tough for us,"

Raheem Sterling was also suitably impressed by how Postecoglou’s side played and said after the game…

"They’re probably one of the best teams I’ve seen play out from the back and they played some great football so it was a great test for us.’

That is the measure of what Postecoglou wants to achieve at Celtic. He wants the Hoops to be competitive not only in Scotland but also in the European arena. That journey has only just begun and there are exciting times ahead.

All aboard the Ange Express! It’s going to be quite a ride!