What happened on Thursday night is anyone’s guess, what happens from here on in can only be better. The events of Braga and Utrecht only have one place and that is firmly in the past as we as fans look ahead to the rest of the season.

The weight of expectancy and entertainment in European competition plays to the tune of club income and in the past few years it has not been a happy hunting ground. Perhaps the reality of this dire streak should be pinned to every notice board within the club as a reminder of how far away we are from making the grade.

Neil Lennon has had a short and bitter experience in Europe this summer but he will learn from the mistakes he has made. The wounds will heal over the next year and any determination he has will be put directly into challenging for the domestic trophies now.

But it is time to stop the talking and knuckle down - it has been pretty gleeful watching the club sign player after player; regardless of how good or bad you think they are. There’s no doubt Celtic are still missing three core players with some potential candidates for moving on as well but there is work to be done on the park.

With Europe now a closed door, there are fewer distractions and for someone such as Lennon, it may well be a blessing in disguise given the stage he is at in his managerial career. To compete at home and abroad as a rookie manager may be a great challenge but you need to be able to succeed at this to be a Celtic manager.

This is no slight on Lennon because I like the guy, in fact I love the guy and his press conferences have been good. However, the continued transfer talk has been getting slightly irritating of late so I’d prefer it if we would just stick to talking about matters on the park and leave the press to speculate.

For Lennon and his back room staff this is where their best work will be done, because that is all that counts. There are three domestic trophies for this coaching team to focus on and that should be enough for them right now.

The most important thing for Lennon is to keep Celtic’s SPL form going because that if anything would realistically be the only competition that will make him successful. The cups would be a fantastic bonus though, particularly our old favourite, The Scottish Cup.

You cannot beat a sunny day in May at Hampden and atmosphere that goes with it. The ‘cups’ have become rather low key competitions over the last few years seeing some of the most unlikely of finalists but I applaud the smaller teams for achieving such feats.

Celtic haven’t made the final since 2007 when they beat Dunfermline Athletic 1-0 with a Perrier-Doumbe goal, typically the only thing the Cameroonian ever did in a Celtic jersey. Not a memorable final, but there haven’t been any ‘top club’ clashes since 2005 when Celtic beat Dundee United in the final 1-0, current coach Alan Thomson the scorer on that occasion.

So with all this in mind, Lennon cannot be too downhearted because there is much to achieve in Scotland before Europe comes around again. The stronger we finish domestically this season, the better placed we’ll be for Europe next season.

Hail! Hail!

Firstly, this isn't a sideswipe at the very website that brings my writing to the masses. No, it's just that my attention has been drawn to the increasing amount of 'resurgences' that have been happening on the NewsNow website.


NewsNow is a daily fix for myself as well as many other Celtic fans, not to mention that there is other news going on in the world of course. However, recently their have been a shed load of old articles resurfacing from weeks, months and even a year ago!

I am at a loss as to why we need to know what happened last season or even last summer. I don't suffer from memory loss (yet), though it would be nice to forget all about Tony Mowbray and his Barnes-esque Celtic experience.

STV’s website in particular had one day where virtually every Celtic article they had was spewed onto the NewsNow ‘Celtic’ page. What I was wondering was, are these the desperate acts of the external websites or a glitch in the machine that is NewsNow?

I do hope that in the future this can be rectified because if I wanted to read old news I would read the Daily Record. In saying that, I haven't wiped my rear end with one in years so it is unlikely I would ever do so again.

So over to you NewsNow - what's the Hampden?

It’s widely acknowledged amongst football supporters who have seen Serge Gumienny in charge of a match, that he does not stand for any nonsense on the park. It will also be of no surprise for you to hear that this UEFA Premier Development Referee, promoted last year, is also in line to become an Elite Referee in the near future.

However, if Elite Referees are supposed to be so good, why was this muppet booking Charlie Mulgrew for time wasting with over 85 minutes left to play? This isn’t the sign of a good referee, but a man who wants to look authoritative for his peers without any consideration of fairness to the players especially Mulgrew’s first half.

‘Fair Play‘ we hear UEFA officials cry, particularly in matches at this level, yet Gumienny decided to keep up the bookings on Celtic alone and kill the first 45 minutes for us. The penalty that came in that first half looked pretty harsh as well given that no hands were raised by Ki, but the camera angle was just about as unclear view as that of the referee and his assistant's who raised his flag, so in all ‘fairness’ it remains inconclusive.

The game itself was played at break neck speed but Celtic weren’t playing that badly in the first half considering that we had to deal with more than Braga did. This team was barely recognisable to supporters and never settled down until the second half.

There were some decent individual performances in the match but the tactics were wrong against this team who, it has to be said were fairly average. I think we shot ourselves in the foot with one up front and two wide men as the guys on the flank rarely received the ball, leaving us with two passengers.

Once again, Celtic are devoid of a good midfielder who can put his foot on the ball and dictate the play. In fact, I thought this position would have been a priority signing for us to gel this team of new guys but I have yet to see that happen.

It was abundantly clear that nobody was in a position to do that for us and to place that task at the feet of Ki I think is a bit too much. He is a good player and he played well, but I would never have earmarked him for that job because he isn’t the correct type of player to do it, though he does have a role in that midfield for sure.

On a positive note, I felt that Juarez and Samaras played well on the night the former of the two running himself into the ground and getting all around the park. Samaras did some good work for the team throughout the match but coming deep to do it negates playing one up front, especially when you are that lone man.

Loovens for me is still the biggest weak link at the back and I can’t help but think he will remain that kind of player unless Celtic purchase a defender of the same quality we require in the midfield. The spine of the team is the paramount of importance, but we haven’t yet bought or developed one.

The result reflects badly on us in fact it flatters the opposition, but this tie is not yet dead and as much as I would like to be in Glasgow for it I cannot however, I know if I was in town I would give in and go and back Lennon. He will need our support to overturn this result and regardless of how I have honestly dissected his team and his tactics..........we are Celtic supporter’s faithful through and through, over and over we will follow you.

Hail! Hail!