it's the fact we've not been in the bottom 3 all season that worries me, it's one of those million to 1 stories that seems to happen in football. Similar to Royal Antwerp winning the Belgium league last year having been top for the final 3 minutes of the season and winning it. I have this horrible feeling we drop into the bottom 3 with minutes to spare, spending the shortest time ever in the relegation places yet being relegated and again with a 50 point total! 

League 1 is a lot better standard than it was last time we were in it

Overall the majority of problems stem from a lack of quality throughout the side, this leads to poor decision making, crumbling under pressure, whatever you want to call it.

Using Wharton as an example, not because he's the worst but because he comes to mind first.

 Wharton is slow, he makes decisions slowly and is criminally one footed. This leads to us moving the ball out from the back ponderously, which leads to possession being heavily concentrated to one side of the pitch when he has the ball, leading to players having to play with their back to goal (predominantly right footed, receiving it on the left). Teams squeeze up, our players move over to condense the play and try to get numerical superiority, we make mistakes and the compounding impact multiplies over a phase of pay with players being out of position to cover mistakes. They switch the play and we're caught out time and time again. 

You could replicate this model across the pitch where individual deficiencies cause massive problems that lead to a disjointed unit that when playing anything other than trench football, with 11 men behind the ball struggles. 

13 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Low ratings all around, but I must've watched a different match to a  lot on here. I thought JRC was atrocious, and when he wasn't lumping the ball forward he lost possession in a variety of ways. Tronstad unusual sloppy as well, and Brittain was so poor. Dolan and Gallagher really struggles in matches like this, where there's too much space between our lines, and we can't get enough bodies fast enough forward. I really hope we play four at the back again versus Coventry and find a place for Ayari in the team. Would give Pickering a rest too, tbh. 

 

Based on errors, Hyam and Pears should sit that match out as well, but can't see that happening.

 

I think JRC has been generally garbage since returning from injury, he seems to be under the impression he’s a much better player than he is. He gives the ball away cheaply so often and is challenging Buckley for the walking booking trophy. 

An absolute disgrace from start to finish, I said to my son (8) this morning that we’d get a draw at best. The mentality of this bunch of players is that after last week the job is done. Turned up today believing they’d waltz around and take all 3 points. Genuinely embarrassed by the team this afternoon. 

11 hours ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Mark, for 25/30 minutes second half Aberdeen were absolutely pegged back in their defensive third and blowing out of their arses. On another day that would have been a routine 3-0 or 4-0 win. Forrest’s introduction made such a difference. Then Celtic’s centre half  Scales had a nightmare spell where he missed an absolute sitter of a header and then lost his man twice to allow goals from similar positions to the one he missed.

Great game though! 

Scales is so slow, the amount of problems be causes himself in possession by how ponderous he is with the ball is criminal . Terrifies me. 

On 15/04/2024 at 11:59, Claytons Left Boot said:

Yep, you usually pass us on the M74, if yours is the white bus with a 01772 number on the back? 😆 Do you end up in the Tavern on Tollcross Road like us?

Aye, they've been going in the Anchor across from Parched Library while the Tavern was closed but they were back in the Tavern on Saturday. 

13 hours ago, Claytons Left Boot said:

I try to get up to Celtic Park once a month. The Celtic Supporters Club that I’m a member of runs a bus up to all home games, some away games if tickets are forthcoming, otherwise it’s a minibus or cars. Week in, week out.

The bus leaves Coventry at around 6am and gets back to the Midlands after games at midnight. There are lads on from Peterborough, the south coast, Wales, Coventry & Birmingham, with a few more being added on the way up.

The coach park at the stadium is full of coaches from all over Scotland and the UK. There are also numerous coaches parked up outside pubs. In addition, fans arrive from Ireland by ferry and plane. Week in, week out.

I can assure you, these are not plastic fans. They are die hards. As much as I dislike those from the other side of the city, their support and the lengths they go to, to follow their team, falls into the same category. 

Celtic is a club founded on charity and the need to help those less fortunate than others. To this day, the supporters continue to raise thousands of pounds each year for those in the east end of Glasgow, the wider Glasgow area, Scotland and further afield. I’m not talking about the club making donations here (although it does), I’m talking money raised by supporters alone. Over the years, it will have run into hundreds of thousands, if not more.

I can’t be arsed going into the details of the Tv deals (or lack of in Scotland) which reduces the Scottish Premiership to ‘Mickey Mouse’ levels, when compared to England. It’s not worth it.

May be do a bit of research before coming out with utter bullsh*t. You haven’t got a clue.
 

 

 

 

I go up on the Blackpool Shamrock CSC Bus which I think a few of the lads from ours get on yours for cup games, etc!

Eustaces’ will be neither clean nor dirty for me, he’s been brought in to do a job, if/when the job is fulfilled then I’ll say well done. To this point he is on target to achieve his goal of retaining championship status, how he gets there is of little consequence in the grand scheme of things and I don’t think has much bearing on how a team would set up next year. 
 

There has been a job to do, some very acute problems to be solved and a seemingly chronic lack of morale that needed boosting. Eustace appears to have been doing the job he was hired for, nothing more nothing less. 

4 minutes ago, LDRover said:

Hmmmm, I like JRC but is that another sick note thrown in there??? Vying with Dogshit Dom for captain of the dinghy?

He seemed pretty desperate to get himself sent off, maybe Eustace was denying him the pleasure 

Easiest penalty a ref has had to give this season, terrible decision making by Hyam. 

5 minutes ago, roverandout said:

The fact we are now a feeder club to crap like Palace says everything about how far we've fallen 

I think it says everything about the nonsense that is EPPP and tribunal fees protecting developing clubs. 

Eze and Olise are outliers in that they’d both been in and released from several elite academies. Being given a ‘last chance’ and Millwall and Reading academies respectively before making a name for themselves in the EFL. So neither club had invested heavily in the players development. However Adam is exactly the sort of player EPPP and tribunals are designed to protect, people will argue £18.5 ml is a realistic/good figure but we all know Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask! 
 

The reality is that the game is rigged to benefit those in the EPL, a closed shop who vote for each other and will sell us and the rest of the pyramid to the dogs for their own gain. 

Eze had played over 100 games for QPR and Olise had played a lot at Reading. Both been at several academies, none of which were CP. 
 

What CP look good at doing if anything is lowballing teams in turmoil for their best young talents, certainly not something the guardian (who decry the financial might of some clubs) should be celebrating 

Hopefully we see that JRC from last year and earlier in the season, he was chucked into it on Friday but looked miles off it. We were better through the middle when he was replaced 

Bit of revisionism going on re Amari’i Bell, he was crap for us. Huffed and puffed going forward and was decidedly suspect when defending. Nobody was particularly bothered when he was released. 

Is it on the Red button today?

No chance the Bhoys in Green pay 10million for him. Mentioned plenty of times my family are big Tim’s so follow them closely and the transfer strategy is to buy lots of young unknowns with the idea one will generate a big fee in years to come. It’s a constant point if discussion/falling out between the fan base and the board, bringing in big fees for Dembele, Edouard, Jota with little of note invested. Will be the same this summer when O’Riley and Kyogo are both likely to move on for fees upward of 15million. 

13 hours ago, Upside Down said:

Some primary school teach other languages but it's not part of the curriculum until secondary school, maybe that's changed but you are 100% correct about the bonehead mentality of many folk from the UK.

Been on the national curriculum for 10 years or so I think to teach a modern or ancient foreign language at KS2.

All schools teach Spanish and/or French from KS2 Y3 onward, so the notion that languages aren't taught in Britain until high school is factually incorrect. The general attitude toward learning languages and the small man mentality vast swathes of the nation has toward Europe is the root of the problem. 

There needs to be a Sammie chant to the tune of Stone Roses classic, Sally Cinnamon 

51 minutes ago, alcd said:

It appears this injury is related to the the twice-operated broken fibula. He had played for Sheff Utd for only a few minutes after his second op. It's a wasteful pointless signing that reflects very badly on Broughton and the medical team. 

The medical team can be overruled though, they present information and give advice. It is on the powers that be to make the decision. For all we know the medical team could well have said he has weaknesses around his fib, associated muscle problems and is likely to break down. Waggot or Broughton could well then come in and say sod it, he's cheap and it's a risk we're willing to take if we get 5 games out of him.

3 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

Incidentally on this - I would say based on current form and performance I think that first XI is a decent top half Championship standard... only questions for me are Moran (who was excellent at Newcastle so maybe turning it around) and if I had a choice would prefer JRC to Brittain. Brittain is a fantastic receiver of the ball and can't half put a shift in getting up and down. But he struggles to impact games in my view - his final ball rarely works (Stoke game apart...). But still think they are both better than relegation standard.

The bench is worrying though.

Think that's harsh on Brittain, his vision and delivery is his strongest asset IMO, that pass for Gallagher against PNE was incredible. He's got the 2nd highest assists with 6, 4 in the league and 2 in cups. I think we will see more from him as the season goes on as he's playing as a more traditional FB/WB where he seems most comfortable.

Inverting him as JDT was doing doesn't get the best out of his ability to get up and down. JRC is the man for the inverted role, although that could be a thing of the past under JE. 

25 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Siggy was the only one who was going through the motions when it came to pressing.

He did win a 50-50 though, I think it was more due to not being able to get out the way rather than trying to make a tackle 

On the defensive side there was one particular passage of play where he battled Burn for the ball over 20 yards, it was obviously a duel he was destine to lose but he stuck at it, delayed him and did his job for the team. Something we've not seen before. To be fair he wasn't the only one, they all seemed much more willing to engage in duels last night rather than closing down and pressing without initiating contact

Getting to and from Ewood last night was a total mare but couldn’t spoil a Fantastic night, had a lot of the good bits of JDT with some defensive steel mixed in. Every player to a man deserves credit for tonight. 
 

I though when the subs were made we’d fold like a deckchair but they performed admirably, even Billy, who for 5 minutes looked like he was plucked from Sunday League before calming himself down and making a few valuable contributions.

Shame to end with not going through but a fantastic evening and great to see Ewood bouncing