THE untimely demise in action of Celtic legend, John Thomson … as, also, its subsequent unfortunate knock-on effect on the life and career of his hapless co-victim, Sam English … ranks high amongst 20th-Century football tragedies.  Accordingly, we are happy, on this, the latest poignant anniversary of his passing, to help perpetuate John’s legend by…

IT WILL BE a complete travesty if Celtic fail to overturn a totally self-inflicted Champions’ League qualification deficit and send Shakhter Karagandy hurtling back to the reality of their lowly world ranking. Setting aside the transparent fact that, as an Asian club, they should never have been anywhere near a UEFA competition in the first…

AT the risk of being labelled even more “incurably green” than Nellie in “South Pacific”, I see absolutely no reason why we should not today be confidently looking forward to the looming Champions’ League Group draw and the stirring strains of Zadok the Priest again booming out over Celtic Park. After all, it was only…

FRANKLY, I have neither the competence nor the inclination to make any meaningful contribution to the current storm raging around the troubled offspring of a defunct Govan-based football club. It does occur to me, however, that something potentially seismic may be getting lost, intentionally or otherwise, in the fog of an increasingly dirty war. While the…

CHARLES Dickens’ classic character, Wilkins Micawber, lived by the ever-hopeful principle that something would turn up. One year on from liquidation, the denizens of Sevconia and their dutiful MSM lackeys cling doggedly to that same rudderless philosophy, convincing themselves that nothing has really changed on Planet Fitba’ and that it is only a matter of…

ON the 75th Anniversary of the landmark victory over the then all-conquering Everton in the 1938 Final of the ‘Empire Exhibition Trophy’, we offer in commemoration, our poetic tribute to that great Celtic team’s right-wing talisman and local Lanarkshire hero: Delaney Cleland! cherish the name … … your bold son of the harp … though…

AMERICAN crooner and legendary “Rat Pack”-er, Dean Martin, had a 1955 “Number 1” hit with a hackneyed little sing-along ditty entitled, “Memories are Made of This”.  It was a schmaltzy, saccharin ballad that typified so much of the mainstream output of the time, before emerging skiffle and rock’n’roll blew a raging hurricane through stuffy old…

THE recent deafening silence down Slybrox way suggests that either: 1) the roof is about to blow off the Big Hoose; 2) the director of communications is out to an extended lunch; 3) the latest convoluted Sevco survival conspiracy is remorselessly incubating … or, 4) all of the above. Jon Daly says his impending move…

HOW fitting that on 26th May 2013, the curtain will come down on Celtic’s 125th Anniversary season in a Scottish Cup Final clash with Hibernian FC. Back in the mists of time, a jubilant Glasgow Irish community threw a post-match dinner and celebration in honour of the original Edinburgh Hibernians in the St Mary’s Halls, Calton,…

FIRSTLY, let me congratulate and thank Lenny and the Bhoys for a scintillating, roller-coaster of a Champions’ League ride.  This is where we want to be, though it can only get more difficult, as football is currently structured. Things could have been so different, though, in a round of sixteen tie, lost so comprehensively, in…