The Murder Of Motherwell......

Your day starts off in hope. It ends up with you watching your goalie kidding on he is the Polish John Hartson and- embarrassingly- playing the final few minutes of the game as a makeshift striker. Mind you, if the truth was to be told then when I saw the team at 2.50pm then I knew what was coming next.

In the games we have lost or dropped points at home this season the games have followed the same pattern. Decent start, fade away, opposition gets comfortable, opposition scores wee their first attack, opposition then sits in and we huff, puff and do fleck all to change it.

Where as earlier on in the season we had players who were pulling us out the mire now we have a team misfiring and for the first time on Saturday we saw a team physically chuck in the towel with half an hour left.

No ideas and no hope. Even in the dark days of scrapping 1-0 victories I always said we put in the effort. Saturday it’s easier to pick the players that didnae put in the effort wie, for me, only Caldwell and Hinkel- who had his worst game in a Hoops jersey- didnae hide when the chips were doon. And by saying that disnny mean I thought they had guid games.

Only 3 goals- against Gretna- in the last four games, failure to score in the last three home games and overall- so far- 11 points dropped at home and papped out of two cups at home show where our major problem lays. Our manager likes his stats and these must make unimpressive reading for him. Fortress Parkheid is no more. I always thought that the ICT defeat would come back to haunt us but it know looks like our home form will be our undoing.

So how do others see it?

A pall of uncertainty hangs over Celtic and their beleaguered manager. This was the day the defence of their championship died. Played out against a soundtrack of booing, and abusive chants aimed at Gordon Strachan, it made for an ugly spectacle. The Herald

The question now is, what is the present mindset of Dermot Desmond? There are Celtic supporters, reporters and columnists who, while trying to fathom the immediate future for Gordon Strachan, would love to be able to peer inside the head of Celtic’s principal shareholder. The Times

CLASSICALLY educated or not, Gordon Strachan will have a deep understanding of what Hamlet meant when he referred to "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". The Scotsman

THE jury left Celtic Park early to consider their verdict. They will reconvene back here a week on Wednesday for the next Old Firm game to deliver their findings.
If the league has already been lost by then, and in all probability that's likely, the fans must decide on that date who's to blame. The Daily Ragger

I will have to suffer with the rest of the fans who have Celtic at heart. We didn't take our chances and couldn't keep a clean sheet," Gordon Strachan, from the Beeb.....Motherwell goal as well.

Full "highlights" here, for those whose Beeb link willnae work

The most striking thing about our poor results this season has been that fact that they have all been the same. When our system fails it fails big time and our manager is loathed to change it. Unsure whether it is stubbornness our a misguided belief that it’s worked before and it will work again.

Any kudos he did have wie the vast majority of the support has now disappeared. His constant changing of the midfield and his belief that playing Massimo Donati at home is a great tactic while forgetting that Massimo’s decent performances where that long ago I didnae need to clip ma nose hair. He also ignores the fact that oor best performances from the turn of the year have been when Hartley and Brown have been the pairing in the middle.

Also, playing players that are so out of form in the hope that they will suddenly regain something that resembles a performance has also cost him. Skippy, Brown, Mick, Naylor should all have been dropped by now. This season is resembling 2005 in terms of a team not functioning and a manager not willing to believe that he maybe wrong.

Now, his record should give him a slack. I empathise should. Fact of the matter is I and the majority don’t think he has it in him to rebuild and not make the same mistakes. He has had three years and the problems he inherited are still their and that is after spending millions. But....he did not deserve, no CELTIC manager or players, deserved what they got on Saturday.

In my twenty odd years following the Hoops I have seen some howlers. We have all been through dark times, times a lot darker than now. We have seen teams put out by Macari, Brady, Frank Connor and John Barnes. These teams gave us loads of howlers to muse over.

But at no time have I ever heard the CP crowd turn on their own like they did on Saturday. The chanting tell Strachan to get tae, the booing of subs and in fighting, arguing and punches being thrown was the most sorriest state I have ever seen at CP. The success spoiled consumer- at least they turned up on Saturday unlike a the last few home games- proved to be a fickle beast. A beast we all knew they were.

I found maeself thinking that if GS stayed then these fuckers would not renew their books, go back to shopping on a Saturday afternoon and disappear from the slopes of Paradise. Having just watched my team chuck another three points away I don’t need thousands vein bulging scream green murder at everyone. I mean do you think the board don’t look at Celticcybertimdom to gauge reaction? Do they really think throwing scarves and singing anti Strachan songs is really going to do us any guid.

The honour of the UEFA fair play award is a long time dead. We are nothing more than big club Charlie type followers who change like the wind and will stamp their feet like weans when low behold we dinny win games. Look across the citee. Like what you see? Like taking the moral high ground? Well don’t.

GS position is a lost cause. The PLC will make the decision to replace purely on financial grounds. Lost revenue and lost pound signs will be the reason DD makes the decision to change if it comes to that. I firmly believe though GS was leaving anyway and his mind has been made up for sometime.

While not being in the pro-GS camp am not fully anti-GS. If we were told that he was getting another year then I would support him but......I do think that would be the wrong decision. All managers reach their glass ceiling. GS has reached his.

I said in the pre match blog before the Motherwell game that if we carried on the form we have been showing in the last month or so then we would lose the league by 15 points. That’s now changed to 13 points. We go into next weekends game looking just to stop them winning the league at CP. Changed days.

Forza.