Comments, reviews and articles on life as viewed from an island off the West Coast of Scotland.
And how to lose them!!!
Published on May 23, 2005 By AlexMatheson In Football
One of life's great religions is Football (and I mean Soccer). And just like every other religion, it comes in various flavours. My particular flavour is Celtic FC, one half of Glasgow's Old Firm.

Yesterday afternoon, Sunday - even Football encompasses this day - Celtic were within 3 minutes of winning the Scottish Premier League. They just needed to beat Motherwell and had dominated them throughout the game, maintaining a 1-0 lead despite chances to see them reach a lead of 5 or 6-0. But it just was not to be. Motherwell's nippy wee striker Scott MacDonald saw to that with a couple of brilliant goals in the dying moments of the game. And so, the league title crossed to the other side of Glasgow by just a point (Rangers won their last game against Hibernian) in much the same way as a goal difference of one goal saw the title go that way in 2003 after the teams were level on points on the last day.

As a Celtic supporter, I was crushed, outraged, embarrassed, a whole range of emotions all at once. If you don't follow a team, you won't know how this feels - ask any Mancherster United fan after Saturday's FA Cup Final (Arsenal certainly did not deserve to win). But in the end of the day, it is life and we have to get on with things. There's the Scottish Cup Final against Dundee United to contest this coming Saturday and a win is absolutely vital. Especially if this is to be Martin O'Neill's last season in charge - he deserves that high note at least after all that he has acheived in the last five years.

If he does go, then the board really must do all they can to give his successor (Gordon Strachan?) a flying start and keeping Craig Bellamy would help do that - even if it means a few established players have to go. I could name a few that must go (though it looks like at least one of these is going anyway). And we really need some new blood for the coming Champion's League campaign. On which note...

Roll on the new season and another chance for Hoops glory. We've done it before and will do it again. I have absolute faith in that!

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