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KEEP THE FAITH'S NOTORIOUS HACKWATCH – THE RETURN OF TIMOTHY
By Timothy Gumshoe
Is it just me, or does the sun feel a wee bit warmer this week, are the birds singing sweeter, does the air smell that bit fresher and do the winter blues seem a bit more of a distant memory?
I walked into work this morning (Monday) and the office Hun was explaining to all and sundry the reasons why he wasn't expecting the Huns to win yesterday. What a fabulous start to the week!
Have the Huns taken over the paranoia mantle of late or whit? I tuned in to see the Huns TV's ‘Ibrox Uncovered' on Monday night – just for a laugh and a quality gloat (highly recommended, by the way).
Big Brer (Derek) Ferguson did not disappoint, as he was absolutely BEELIN' at the “offside goal, the soft penalty, Celtic getting away with blatant hand balls all afternoon and Whittaker being unlucky to get a sending off……. and as for JVOH not getting 25 years hard labour for the attempted murder of Faye (he had a point there - Hee! Hee!) whit was the ref on”?
Gibbons in the Scotsman suggests divine intervention on behalf of Celtic (and no, it's not Artur's T-shirt spectacular):
“Last throw of dice puts Celtic on a roll as Rangers rue luck
29 April 2008
By GLENN GIBBONS
“Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's impossibly late winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time in the first of the Old Firm fixtures after Scott McDonald had missed a penalty, Aberdeen's disallowed, but perfectly legitimate, equaliser three days later
(Anyone else desperate to see the goal Georgios Samaras had disallowed at 1-0 in the Aberdeen game? It was an absolute peach of a goal and chopped off for reasons unexplained.)
and McDonald's offside opening goal the other day suggest that a higher power may be looking after Celtic's interests.
The little Australian striker was so narrowly offside when Vennegoor of Hesselink headed the ball into his path that it was easy to understand how the linesman, Tom Murphy, could be fooled. Nobody in the pressbox, for example, could be sure until a review of the slow-motion television replay at half-time.”
A quick scan of the papers and t'would seem that the Holy Goalie's post-match attire has the Laptop Loyalists in as much of a tizzy as the perma-raging Huns.
The Record's phone in has people calling for Boruc to be arrested ………Arrested for WHAT exactly? Gallus big Fenian Basturt in possession of a T-shirt is the best I can come up with.
From the BBC:
“The SFA say they will await the referee's report from Sunday's Old Firm game before deciding if any action is required against Celtic's Artur Boruc.
The Pole revealed a t-shirt reading 'God bless the Pope' with an image of the late Pope John-Paul II following Celtic's 3-2 win over Rangers.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan made light of the antics of the player the club's fans call the 'Holy Goalie'.
"If it was 'God bless Myra Hindley', I might have a problem," said Strachan.
The Celtic goalkeeper has found himself at the centre of controversy before in his Celtic career.
In August 2006 he received a procurator fiscals caution for breach of the peace as an alternative to prosecution after making gestures at Rangers fans at Ibrox in February that year.
However, police underlined that the caution issued to Boruc on that occasion was not for blessing himself, as some had claimed.
In March this year the Poland number one was cautioned for making a gesturing towards Hibernian fans after Celtic's 2-0 victory at Easter Road.”
And a day later when the perma-rage falls on deaf ears:
“Boruc to escape T-shirt censure
By Ian Rodgers
“The governing body has always maintained it will only consider disciplinary action for misdemeanours mentioned in an official's report, meaning Boruc, 28, is extremely unlikely to face any action for his T-shirt.
No matter what the judicial end of the incident is, however, the merit of wearing the slogan will be deemed an unnecessary provocation by Rangers supporters inside Celtic Park.”
You can fee-e-e-l the hurt.
BUT…..they really really DON'T get it, do they? Show them (Huns and Laptop Loyalists) a picture of a religious leader (specifically a Catholic religious leader) and they scream sectarianism.
Someone should ask a few simple questions of these people: WHY are you offended by a picture of a religious leader?
Why are you offended by the positive message, ‘God Bless The Pope'?
Someone making the sign of the cross offends you……..WHY?
Is the person making these gestures the problem, or are the ‘offended' the problem?
Once we have the answers to those questions, then I think we will be getting at the root cause of “Scotland's shame”.
Are stats a new thing since Gordon Strachan turned up in Paradise? Or since Wattie took the Queen's shilling? I think it is the latter. You know, like Sunday's match was the first time we have come from behind to beat Rangers in 15 years, or Wattie has never lost back to back games against Celtic, etc, etc.
Having said that, Gordon Smith's “Rangers are the first Scottish team to qualify for the League stages of the UEFA Cup” was a peach to be fair.
There's some interesting stuff doing the rounds in Tim cyberspace (respect to the anoraks) like:
Rangers have only won once away in 7 attempts against an SPL top 6 team.
Or Glenn Gibbons in the Scotsman:
“If there was such a thing as a curse on Celtic through the month of March and the first week of April, they seem not only to have shrugged it off, but to have transferred it to Ibrox.
The onset of an epidemic of injuries and suspensions in the Rangers squad in the past few weeks is surely at least partly responsible for the startling discovery that they have won only two of their last eight matches.”
PS: Two of those 8 were against 1st Division clubs.
Lies, damned lies and statistics eh?
The memory of the last 5 minutes against Motherwell at Celtic Park is still raw. That for me is probably when the SPL title slipped through the fingers.
However, if we get a result on Saturday at Fir Park (to go eight points clear) and the Huns get done on Thursday in Florence then on Sunday at Easter Road, I might, just might, start to truly believe that we can pull off what would be THE best title win for many years.
Hail! Hail!
Timothy Gumshoe
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