We as Celtic supporters have had to endure our fair share of heartbreak over the years but it has been quite a while since I can remember such a self-inflicted capitulation occurring. The last day agonies of 2003 and 2005 were hard to take, but to surrender our season on our home ground to ten men quite is unforgivable, as Gordon Strachan knows only too well.
Celtic started the match brightly enjoying much of the possession and hemming Motherwell into their own half with some attractive play that for all its domination lacked penetration. A couple of headers from JVH aside Celtic couldn't capitalise on their great start.
Motherwell always looked dangerous on the break and that was all it took to see our season disappear in the blink of an eye. Gary Caldwell failed (is that his full name) to stay square on Ross McCormack who took advantage of his positional faux pas to fire a shot off that Boruc could only palm into the path of a Motherwell player and all was lost.
Celtic tried to get back into the game but the abject panic that was being displayed in the stands started to transfer itself onto the pitch and the players started to fear mistakes. We were even given a gift in the face of a rather fortuitous straight red-card that was awarded to Boab the Bigot. Any other player in the land I would have felt sorry for after they saw red for what was a yellow card (with the exception of Cheat Thomson) but get it right up you Malcolm. Its just as well the M74's hard shoulder is closed for road works isn't it Boab? Where did you sleep last night?
So here we are, half an hour left to play in a must-win match, a goal down to ten men. What would you do? Take off a defender and bring on another forward? Go to three up front? Bring on another wide player? Move Naka or Aiden central to exploit the very large space recently vacated by the very large Bob Malcolm?
Answer: None of the above. Lets take off our top goal scorer and bring on Samaras. A decision that baffles me given that Samaras has shown that he can cause mayhem just dropping in front of the forward line and playing composed balls into the forwards, I.e. the type of ball that both JVH and McDonald thrive on.
As many of you will no doubt know, I have back the manager all season long, through thick and thin and have tried to remain positive in the face of our teams self inflicted malaise but even I am struggling to keep to that now.
The decision to replace one central midfielder with a wide midfielder in the substitution of Donati for Robson left me pulling my hair out. It would appear that our sole tactic at this stage would be long range shots from Robson, given the space that Donati was getting at the edge of the box, and we were willing to negate our entire shape to attempt this rather risky tactic.
And then came the crowning glory, to ask a 19 reserve player to strip for action only to leave him on the bench before eventually bringing him on with five minutes to go, and to top all that he takes off the only one of our two full backs who looks comfortable playing football in order to facilitate this. A third striker on for a full back is the tactic that you employ with half an hour to go Gordon, not half a minute.
So with Rangers slipping up (quite literally, did you see that unpunished dive by Boyd?) we have been let off the hook slightly, but seven points of a difference with a game spare could have been four points had we had the ability to beat ten men at home. I see this not only as an opportunity lost but also a league lost. Yes you read that right, Rangers will not win this league, we seem quite prepared to hand it to you on a plate.
I am not calling for the Managers head, I will leave that to the many 'Green Huns' that have infiltrated our support in recent times to hiss, spit and wax lyrical about, at least the majority of decent Celtic fans decided to drown out the spiteful restrains of Strachan GTF with "We are Celtic Supporters, faithful through and through". If there is one positive to be taken it is that at least losing the league will get rid of these glory hunting "green huns" who feel it is acceptable to come to Celtic Park and hurl abuse at the team I love for 90 minutes.
So to sum up, we are still in with a vague shout of retaining the SPL Title and many Celtic fans I am sure would take great pleasure in getting revenge for Black Sunday and the burn-out of 2003, but I would take no pride in winning the league this year as we simply don't deserve it.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt