Dalgety Bay TA

I wonder if him and his ‘source” still think there is a split in the Celtic dressing room? Since he came out with that pish Celtic have played 7 domestic games, won them all, and scored 25. Timing is everything.

Catching up on a few days worth of posts, my tuppence on NL. There has been a lot posted in here about Lennons level of “fuddery” and maybe he should tone down his behaviour and suchlike. However I doubt there has ever been anyone in Scottish football who has suffered as much as NL has in his time in Scotland. Abuse, coins thrown, physical attacks both inside the ground and outside while going about his daily life, bullets and even bombs in the post. Are we really meant to believe ALL of this is simply because of how he behaves in a football stadium. In addition, given this variety of abuse has gone on for 18 years or so, and was no where near this level in his time in England, is it any wonder that he ends up given some back from time to time? I have no doubt Lennon got dogs from various sections of Hearts support on Wednesday. The same folks who think they have freehand to call him anything and everything for 90 mins then either turn rabid or start greeting about “behaviour” if they get it back for 10-15 seconds. Nowt as hypocritical as football fans. Neil Lennon is a far better man than I ever could be given what he has had for last 18 years or so. He’s also showed far more restraint than I probably ever could. But in many peoples view he is the one who has to have a look at his behaviour. This is a two way street, if Scotland is ever to progress away from this sort of pish there has to be an acknowledgement that a decent % of fans also have to have a serious think about how they behave in a football ground.

The trial is this weekend coming.

100% it isn't.

National pride would have fixed that for you.

Plenty saying Albania were poor, ok they certainly weren't Belgium but they had already beaten Israel 1-0 on Friday and I would like to think they looked honking last night mainly due to us being good.. From the first whistle we played with a very high tempo, got "intae them" as we used to do in the past and rattled them. Seemed to be late in the first half and in bits of the second before they settled. When they did have little phases they passed the ball well and created a couple of decent chances. Overall though we were the dominant side and we imposed our game on them. Also lets not forget, based on rankings etc, we are playing teams of our own level in the NL. The fact that we were able to dominate one is more credit to us, we weren't playing a Faroes or Andorra tonight, we were playing a nation who has been at a major tourney more recently than us. No real failures from what I could see, everyone did their jobs. We created a decent number of chances and on another night, with a pass a few feet either side of where they were played, with a bit more clinical finishing, we would have had the game done by HT. Thought we looked better in the second half with Armstrong on, midfield 3 very fluid and linked and passed well. A few comments about McGinn, yes a couple of poor passes but his energy and drive and just strength to get his body between man and ball made him very noticeable for me. Credit to McLeish, thought Naismith had a very effective game too, set the tempo with his usual harassment of their back 4, something that I thought was gone from his game nowadays. Overall, came away from Hampden with any moans or niggles for the first time in a while.

Agreed on this "ohh but it was Belgium, they have great players" pish. If I wanted to go and see Belgium and their great players turn it on for 90 mins then I would be picking a game where they weren't playing Scotland FFS. Watching Hazard etc pump us isn't an enjoyable experience. Tonight certainly wasn't high on my agenda for things to do when the draw got made but I have a couple of mates across from Italy for the game. Considering one of them mate at least a 6 hour round trip to got to a game in Bologna back in April with me then the least I can do is fire through from Fife tonight for a few hours. The prices are also good tonight IMO. Doubt that it will have much affect on the attendance however.

I could possibly understand it if it’s something outstanding, like Ronaldo v Juve, Zidane CL final goal. Nothing last night even close to those levels. They had some clinical finishes from individual mistakes. That was it.

Was Josh Mceachran not meant to be on £40k a week at Chelsea a few years ago?

I have a small degree of sympathy for him in the way I would for anyone with mental health and alcohol issues. Add in the fact he seems about as bright as a blackout and its dreadful combination. No excuses for the worst of his behaviour, especially the violence, but him shouting/singing whatever he has been up to recently doesn't really fuss me. More fool those who think that is "entertainment" and shame on those who lead him on to producing that sort of "performance".

Word. Popped in for the first time in a long time at the weekend, just to read the reaction to the game on Sunday. Found those two polluting nearly every page of every thread with utter drivel. The fact that I have actually returned most days since then is solely down to being able to put them both on ignore. Now if folks could just stop quoting them I would be content.

You would like to think so but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting on that to happen. Quite a few I have seen. not on here, felt Collum was totally biased against them on Sunday. No acknowledgment of the McGregor incident.

The only fans still harping on about the Tonev incident are non-Celtic fans. Logan got abuse because a) he was being a d!ck and b) he was winding up Celtic fans while being a dick. He would have got the same abuse whether he was black, white, yellow, orange or green. He's now a panto villain. As is the likes of Scott Brown. Brown also gets abuse because he can also be a d!ck and he also winds up players/fans. Fans in general, especially inside football grounds, can overreact to things that they wouldn't give two hoots about outside a football ground.

Was just about to mention that one. 23 minutes from what I just read.

Seen them in Dunfermline last year, still a good watch.

No, lost 11-0.

At the same end. This one worse in that Mottram misses both the goal and then the Thistle player with the ball in his hands handing it to the goalie.

Where Rangers have improved this season is by bringing in a keeper who can turn a 3/4/5-0 gubbing into a close game scoreline wise. Their defence may be better but that's not difficult considering last seasons. The midfield looked miles behind Celtic's and the two Liverpool loanees looked out of their depth. Celtic's big game players turned up and bar a great keeping performance and the woodwork, it would have went the way of a few games over the last couple of seasons. Collum was his usual self, missing key incidents and giving strange decisions such as the Christie dive. Apparently Rangers worst start to a league campaign in nearly 30 years. Twitter also investigating their trending algorithms for errors to try and find out why #letsgo has disappeared without trace in the space of last 4 hours.

England had about 200ish in 1985. In my distant memory I had thought they were all in the front of the North Enclosure at the time, now North Stand. But they were actually in the Celtic end, which was also was the Scotland, certainly didn't have an official section. They got smashed and were climbing the fences to escape and were all gone by HT. Have 3 quite grainy pictures of the them scrambling over fences and being herded out, would post them if I could work out how to!! Sure one of them was in the goalnet behind Jim Leighton at one point. 1987 was bad. They definitely had a section that day. We got the train up from Dunbar, one of the first trains coming into Scotland from the NE England. Was heaving with NE mobs. Lots of bother that day. We also ended up getting the last train south with them on the Saturday evening, about 150 odd waiting to go to NE and about 5 of us from Dunbar, no police. They were fine, no hassle thankfully. There was bother in Waverley late into the evening though with Hibs looking for English going south and a fair bit in Glasgow during the day. 1989 the worst. A lot was made of the English coming up the via the West Coast but again there was loads coming from the NE. We got same train into Edinburgh and then decided to give getting the same train through to Glasgow a miss. As we were leaving Waverley a load of Hibs surged in and there was general mayhem, police caught a bit off guard as it was 10.30 in the morning. Tons of trouble outside, the police on horses at the back of the Celtic end were struggling to cope at end of game as loads of Scotland fans were going for the English section. Ended up meeting some mates and getting a bus home that night so missed centre of Glasgow and Edinburgh after the game.

Picked up on both of those last night. Mental. And the whole second half it was "too hot" apparently. Lawrenson is just a sneering whining man, adds nothing to the broadcast whatsoever. I don't mind some of the newer "experts" like Keown or Murphy to be honest but he is from a land that time forgot. If they papped Hansen off a few years ago he should have went with him. He must know where the bodies are buried.

England did well for most of the first half, missed a few chances, created quite a lot though but not quite the "World Class" from Gabby Logan or "the best team the tournament has seen so far" (21 mins in). Tunisia looked all over the place. Seemed to be a different England side second half, like they had lost confidence and went into a shell. Tunisia grew on this and seemed quite comfortable a lot of the second half and towards the end of the game. A deserved win through overall even if the goal came very late as they did have two of the most blatant penalty claims I have seen in a long long time ignored. No idea how this VAR works if its missing things like that, twice. They were near identical to the one Manduzkic got v Nigeria on Saturday night.

The host are the weakest team in the tournament based on the FIFA rankings.

I think they may have an inkling they are going to get a decent offer for Dembele, more than Eduard costs.

Young Fathers in Leith Theatre last night, probably one of the best gigs I have been to in many a year.

That's the worst spelling of his name yet! Thank fvck youse didn't appoint Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko as manager. Aye, I copied and pasted that.