Brilliant victory at Tynecastle, amongst the empty seats. RIEP Bobby Charlton.

[Joe O'Rourke]

Sometimes during a title winning season, one match sticks out, and you think to yourself, we have just sent a message to all the other teams, that we intend to retain our title again, to make three in a row. Yesterday at Tynecastle was potentially one of those matches, Sevco and their fans would have been as delusional as ever after beating Hibs on Saturday, they would have been thinking their cousins from the East would do them a favour and beat us to reduce our lead to four points, no luck with that, Hearts were well and truly beaten by a rampant Celtic.

I always think a visit to Tynecastle will be a tough game, but that’s ten victories in a row against Hearts and their obnoxious fans, well at least the ones that turned up anyway so much for Steven Naismith’s claim that they kept tickets from Celtic to sell to their own supporters, well there was a lot of empty seats, and I’m not talking about late in the game when they knew they were beat, but right from the start. I think Celtic need now to go back to the SPL and ask questions, should this be allowed to happen again? They would have had a good argument if the stadium was packed out, lets see what allocation they give to the cousins from Govan.

It is strange in Scottish Football, that when the powers that be are always stating that more investment is needed, that we allow clubs to withhold tickets from Celtic Supporters, who would certainly help to swell the coffers of some teams, financial suicide for those clubs. Surely all the stakeholders need to voice their opinions, it doesn’t make for great television of stadiums are half empty, but the local pubs are full of visiting supporters who can’t get into the park to watch the game.


The game itself was a masterclass of fast aggressive attacking football, and the magnificent early goal from Matt O’Riley gave us the perfect start (maybe all the missing Hearts fans were still in the queue outside, and just decided to go home or to the pub) Big Matt is hitting some form at the moment, and when supported by Callum and Reo, it is by far the best midfield in Scotland. Contrary to what Naismith said in his interview, Celtic had to work to get their goals, we even had the luxury of Reo missing a penalty, he needs to study videos of Aaron Mooy, he was brilliant at penalties, or maybe pass the baton to Big Matt or Kyogo.

It was a great team performance, I think since Brendan has come in, all areas of the team have improved, Joe Hart looks calmer, and now launches the ball up field when there is no safe pass on. Cameron and Liam look comfortable together, and Big Rocki will be available as well, Greg Taylor is back to his best again, AJ is just AJ, and our front players are scoring goals. We look in a good place, and if we manage to beat Hibs and St Mirren, it will be a good first quarter of the season. And due to the unbalanced fixture list, we will have played away at Ibrox, Pattodrie, Tynecastle, Easter Road, Fir Park, and Livingston, so in the second quarter we play all of them at home.

Finally, it was sad to hear of the passing of a proper football Legend, Bobby Charlton. What a player Bobby was, and by all accounts a fantastic human being as well. I remember watching the 66 World Cup on the telly, England had a brilliant team, they had great players all over the pitch, but none more influential than Bobby Charlton, they still managed to win without the great Jimmy Greaves, but they wouldn’t have won without Bobby Charlton. I also remember when we played them pre-season in 1966 at Celtic Park and beat them 4-1, that lit the fuse for the greatest season in our long unbroken history. I’ve seen many pictures from that era, and both team, Big Billy, Murdy, Jinky, and Bertie were very comfortable in the company of Bobby, Bestie, the Lawman, and of course Celtic Legend Paddy Crerand, all great players, from two magnificent Football teams.
Requiescat in aeternum pace Bobby.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.