[Bhoy Fett]

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!