The Game Ep3 - Partizan Belgrade

To this day, this is one of the most incredible games I have ever attended.  Yes I’ve been at the Barca game, the Invincibles Cup Final Game, victories and defeats at Ibrox but for utterly incredible drama few can match this game - Celtic 5, Partizan Belgrade 4.

A future Dundee Utd Manager, the dad of a future Celtic striker and a guy wearing trackie bottoms - this game had it all (all except a Celtic victory).

Antony and I are joined by Lawrence Donegan as he name drops his way through his memories of The Game.

Here’s how the Celtic Wiki describes it:

This was one of the most remarkable games ever viewed at Parkhead with an absolutely disastrous ending for a brave Celtic team.

Scoring went as follows: 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 5-3, 5-4.

With Celtic leading 5-3 and going through on aggregate with just two minutes left, Joe Miller lost the ball at the Partizan goal corner flag. A quick break down the left wing saw a cross come in and Scepovic headed it for goal. The despairing Bonner got a hand to out and only served to divert it past Paul Elliot who was on the goal line and would have cleared had Bonner not knocked it past him.

Celtic players and fans were devastated at time up and stood in stone silence as jubilant Partizan players and coaches danced for joy on the Parkhead turf.

Billy McNeill was heavily criticised afterwards for not making one substitution when Celtic were leading 5-3 with minutes to go which would have broken the game up and killed some time.

It is thought that Darius Dziekanowski could have laid on another cert, but went for a personal five. He was later lambasted in the changing room despite having scored four goals, and maybe others were more culpable for the defeat than Jacki.

Enjoy…

The Game Ep2 - Palm Sunday

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Palm Sunday gubbing of Rangers, a game that holds special memories for our guest Kevin Schofield as it was his first Glasgow Derby.  It was dark times for the club and these victories were smal glimpses of light.

We had beaten Rangers the week before for what became known as the ST Patrick’s Day Massacre.  That was a game that saw Rangers receive 3 red cards and so for this match, Not The View gave out red cards and Nisbet duly obliged by getting himself sent off and leaving the pitch to a sea of aforementioned red cards from the crowd.  Anton Rogan was the star of the day, scoring the opener in the 3-0 victory over Rangers in March 1991, his first against them (just day before his birthday), but he also set up the second and cleared a goal off the line.

Enjoy…

The Game Episode 1 - Shame Game

10 years ago this month was The Shame Game.  A silly title for a game that saw no shame apart from the terrible behaviour of the soon to be defunct Rangers players and assistant manager.  But with its notoriety and coming to the fore we thought  we’d kick off the new series with a review of that game.

Here’s how the Celtic Wiki describes it:

As one-side a match against the Huns you'll ever see. Celtic were on top throughout this game, and despite the Huns being able to break well at points, they were simply playing for penalties from early on. With injuries/resting players like Lafferty & Jelavic, the Huns were relying on some rough tactics with heavy tackling on the menu. Luckily, Celtic's pressing on fairer referees has paid off with Murray officiating well and taking to half measures. He allowed around 20-25 mins before dishing out yellow cards, and Whittaker was first to be ordered off with two yellows. Harsh the first card may have been but it wasn't for that challenged alone (he had committed a few bad tackles before hand).

From then on, Celtic took control (in particular in the midfield) however we weren't makign enough of our advantages. Wilson was exceptional and has been on a bit of a goal glut of late (3 goals in 6 games) and he scored with his second chance today just after half-time to send the support into raptures. From then in, there was only one team in it. Rangers had a late burst but their runs were cut short..... and Rangers were out the cup!!!

YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More important is the rammies that occurred. Diouf was in everyone's' face, with match offs with Brown and then inexcusably with the Celtic bench. He should have been sent off early but the referee was too soft. Next there was a rammy with Mjallby for Djouf in the tunnel at half-time! It was comical.

The unbookable Bhougeira was sent off! Amazing! Daft tackles were the cause, he's scum like Diouf.

Diouf was sent off after the final whistle for not keeping control of his senses (not possible for him). A farce and scumbag.

The home support were in his face and we all laughed. The worse he is on the pitch, the worse his antics are...

Match ended with a spat between Lennon & Ally McCoist (Hun assistant manager). McCoist approaced Lennon in our dugout, Lennon politley held out his hand, then McCoist whispered something in his ear, Lennon retorted, then it blew with some shoves and people jumping in to separate the two. McCoist should be hammered for it.

Anyhow, we won, it's great to be a Celtic.

Crazy: The match has been criticised by the First Minister as a disgrace with head police officer calling for possibly stopping all games v Rangers or play them behind close doors! Absolute joke, total mock outrage.

Enjoy…

Podcast Xtra - John Kennedy & David Turnbull

Celtic are looking to engage better with the fan media and this was the first step in 2021 of that new engagement with a specially organised fan media press conference.  To be fair to the club, bringing this together is slightly more complicated than it seems.  As I’ve joked recently, there are now a plethora of podcasts and how do the club make sure everyone gets access, how do they balance this with those fans who do excellent written work but not the spoken word - do they let on every podcast and website (not matter the numbers of listeners readers).  Do they have a cut off and how do they measure that cut-off? etc etc.

Regular listeners and readers will know that we have been fortunate enough to have engagement before but it is good to have some further engagement after a little bit of a hiatus.

We have David Turnbull and John Kennedy first up, John being especially generous with his time and providing very full answers.  I have met with John before and found him a very impressive and engaging man.  I have yet to meet a football person who isn’t impressed by John.  I hope you are too.

Enjoy…

Pieces of Eight

Yes, it’s the pirate podcast (you’ll understand when you listen) and we are reviewing the tenure of Neil Lennon as Celtic manager.  We look at his departure last time, his re-appointment and assess whether this was some catastrophic turn of unlucky events for Neil or the inevitable outcome of appointing someone not qualified for the job and I would suggest that the panel have a range of opinions along that spectrum.

A change is gonna come at Celtic and we suspect that it will have an alpine look to it but whatever it is, there are always grounds for omptimism when you support Celtic so we (mainly) agree that next season is going to be very exciting.

Saint Anthony, Sean and Antony all discuss.

Also, we’re pulling together a series on Celtic matches, key games that might now have mythical status among the support.  We’ll be starting with The Shame Game.  Email your memories of this and also let us know hat games you would like us to feature.

Podcasts@celticunderground.net

Enjoy…