I find myself in a strange state of calm at this stage in a season which is similar to many of the run ins of the late 60's and 70s that were regularly won on the last day of the season. In a weird and perverse way it is almost less stressful playing catch up at this stage of the season than it may have been had we managed to maintain our slim lead at the summit of the SPL.
As this crazy season comes to a finish there are many permutations of what could happen, none crazier than the fact that if the results go the right way the league could be over on Sunday!
Let's hope that we can see images of Green and White Ribbons on Monday.
Anyway, now that my random rambling has ceased, onto last night's match.
For the impartial viewer, last night's tie against Dundee United promised a lot and it certainly didn't fail to deliver. From crunching tackles to curious referee decisions to nail biting finishes last night had everything. I wonder how many times in our history that games v the Arabs have finished with the same score line of 2-1 to Celtic?
Celtic started well, (as Scott Brown always shouts to his team mates as they leave the tunnel) and played some excellent football, with Samaras looking as though he was back to being as useful as he was at the start of the season with some neat link up play and Aiden McGeady terrorising the United Left back. Celtic took the lead thanks to an excellent headed goal by the man of the match Glenn Loovens, who looks to have put his poor show at Ibrox behind him. Thanks for that goal Glenn and the resultant winnings that it provided yours truly with as I correctly predicted that he would score the first Goal.
After the tension was broken with that award Celtic should really have killed the match off, had they taken advantage of the amount of chances that they created, with Scott McDonald being the most profligate in front of goal as Celtic missed chance after chance to put the game beyond doubt.
This brings me on to my one and only criticism of last night's game. Why doesn't Aiden McGeady ever release the ball early??? When he broke through the midfield last night with Scott McDonald in an ideal position for a slide rule pass why did he feel the need to jink past two players before releasing the pass to the now offside Aussie? I am all for being entertained but not at the expense of a clear goal scoring opportunity.
Celtic came out in the second half determined to finish the game off and did so (or so we thought) when Samaras cleverly played the ball off of Lee Wilkie and past the excellent Zaluska. Ok I'm kidding, it was fortuitous that this effort found the net but it was nothing more than our endeavour deserved.
Then the sucker punch came. United reshaped and made a couple of substitutions and took control of the midfield and started to threaten. The inevitable United goal came after Lee Naylor went to sleep at the back post and allowed Robertson to sneak in at the back post and "operation squeaky bum" went into def con five.
United proceeded to create chance after chance after chance and could have left Parkhead with all the points had they been more accurate in front of goal, but thankfully fate was on our side as Celtic managed to hold onto maintain their advantage and the score remained at the usual result between these two teams.
Craig Levein was less than impressed with referee Stuart Dougal. After losing the plot trying to claim that Scott McDonalds trick of jumping in front of the goalie as the corner is struck was somehow an infringement he calmed down only to be incensed by the referees lack of action when Scott McDonald recklessly lef the boot in on Lee Wilkie.
Levein had this to say: "I asked him why he didn't stop the play for Lee Wilkie to get treatment and I don't think that is unreasonable.
"If you were Lee Wilkie and you had been out of the game for three years, you would be upset.
"It is compounded by the fact that he wouldn't let anyone come on, he didn't believe him.
"If he wants to look at the stud mark above Lee's shin he can do that."
Meanwhile Gordon Strachan had this to say about the incident and the game in general "I seen what happened."
"I liked what I seen for the first hour but it was a long 25 minutes at the end," he said.
"They took their goal brilliantly but defensively we were very annoyed.
"We were 2-0 up against United before and they got it back to 2-2.
"Our guys and our fans realised it could be the same thing happening again so we all got a bit spooked by it.
"They were all thinking, 'it's going to happen again,' although I didn't think it would.
"Dundee United felt better because they had been in that position before and felt that they could do it again.
"So they took heart from that and became the more dominant force in the game."
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt