Celtic v Hearts - Title Decider, Saturday 12.30pm

Sport
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  1. Hearts 80
  2. Celtic 79

Celtic need to win to overhaul the long-term leaders. Hearts must avoid defeat. The home side are going for their fifth title in a row & 14th in 15 seasons. Hearts are playing for their first title since 1960.

There was final day drama between these two in 1986 when Hearts lost to Dundee & Celtic won at St Mirren to steal the title on goal difference. But this is the first season in my lifetime (1981/82 to present) that the top two will be facing each other on the last day to decide the title.

Celtic have had three different managers in four separate spells this season, shambolic recruitment last summer (Balikwisha, Yamada etc) & in January (none of the six signings saw game time on Wednesday night), a fan base at loggerheads with the football hierarchy, a chronic injury list & general discord for large spells.

Their standard has dropped quite a bit while Hearts have improved markedly under Derek McInnes & following Tony Bloom’s investment in the club. They’ve essentially met in the middle of their usual point tallies.

Hearts are solid, organised, aggressive, physical, strong on attacking & defensive set pieces & have some quality in the final third with Shankland, Braga & Kyziridis. They’re not a flowing football team but they’re a disciplined & hard working unit.

Celtic wouldn’t have clawed their way back into the title race but for Martin O’Neill. While some displays have been scratchy, he’s restored belief & instilled a fight & winning mentality that looked to have been lost. Different individuals have come to the fore at crucial moments to turn draws into victories & they’ve won their last six league games in succession. They’ve earned 19 points with goals scored after the 80th minute in matches this season across all three managers, 17 of those coming with goals scored from the 85th minute onwards.

I’d back Celtic because of home advantage & the experience of their players in these huge games, even though they tend to play in patches. Hearts have been undefeated at Tynecastle but not that impressive away from home generally. However, they’ve won at Celtic this season already (albeit a Wilfried Nancy Celtic) & have 2 wins & a draw from the previous 3 games.

Celtic looked very leggy on Wednesday night, which was a concern, but both sides have to deal with 3 games in the last week. Hearts, though, were knocked out of both cups early & didn’t have European football to contend with whereas some Celtic players have loads of minutes in their legs due to poor squad depth & injuries to other players. On the other hand, Celtic have been boosted by important players like Johnston & Engels returning from injury recently but some key Hearts players have been ruled out (McEntee, Halkett, Leonard).

Celtic are likely to line up with a similar side to midweek, with possibly Tounekti dropping out. Iheanacho will probably be kept in reserve again. Hearts too should be along the same lines. The atmosphere will be electric despite the early start time - it’s a proper Buckfast for breakfast situation really.

Please enjoy the game & post responsibly.

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Rangers v Aberdeen 1991.

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I wasn’t aware of that one. Please fact check the rest of my post.

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You couldn’t hate these bastards enough.

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A significant portion of their support are AMAB from the PUL community (cc @Little_Lord_Fauntleroy).

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Stephen Hendry is a big Heart Of Midlothian supporter. This pain inflicted by Stephen Hendry on me personally in the years 1990 to 1995 has not been forgotten. That pain has never really eased in the intervening years either. It still festers. Mr. Hendry deserves to feel some of that pain back tomorrow.

My first trip to Scotland was Friday March 25th, 1988 to Sunday March 27th, 1988. My two aunties worked for Aer Lingus so in the right and proper way that family of employees got freebies, meself, me oul’ fella and me granny got a freebie on what was called the Vomit Comet to Edinburgh (we were even brought into the cockpit on the way back). On the Saturday morning we went on the train from Edinburgh to Dundee over the two big railway bridges and I got four packets of football stickers at the WH Smiths or John Menzies (Ming-gus in Scotland) or whatever it was at Waverley Station. Me oul’ fella toyed with the idea of bringing me to Dens Park for Dundee v Rangers but thought better of it and instead we made for Glasgow on the train for Celtic v Dundee United. That finished 0-0 and there’s not much to say except I got a scarf under the Celtic End at half time which I subsequently lost coming out of Ireland v the USSR at Lansdowne Road on April 25th, 1990, and somebody hit the bar with an overhead kick at our end with about 15 minutes left, I thought it was Frank McAvennie but one subsequent trawl on the YouTubes said otherwise, I think.

Anyway we had to go back to Edinburgh because we were staying there and on the Sunday morning we got a taxi to the airport. I don’t really remember this but me oul’ fella used to frequently mention it that the taxi driver was quite unpleasant when he heard our accents and that we’d been to see Celtic play. He was a Heart Of Midlothian supporter and apparently he quite pointedly mentioned the Volkswagen Passat or whatever it was that had been caught on camera reversing at a funeral in Belfast and you know the rest, as if we had been responsible.

Anyway two weeks Celtic later beat the Heart Of Midlothian 2-1 in the Cup semi-final with two late, late goals, so fuck you taxi driver.

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Derek McInnes singing about being to up his neck in Fenian blood, surrender or you’ll die.

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Listening to a bit of yesterday’s Indo podcast Bits and Bobs. It’s abundantly clear that Dan McDonnell can’t admit he was wrong on Martin O’ Neill being a far better option than Wilifried Nancy last December. A ridiculous “tongue in cheek” comment stating that if MO’N was that good he’d have Celtic 15 points clear. Then bizarrely bringing Stephen Kenny’s positive ambience around the team hotel into the equation. He’s still fighting a culture war despite being incredibly wrong. The veteran coach in his Indian summer reels in a big deficit but we hear Dan repeating that it’s not sustainable, while his chosen one flounders in a much lower ranked league (UEFA coefficients).

He also alluded to a very personable coffee shop which both he and Joe Molloy frequent. My thoughts immediately turned to the Orange Goat and I wondered if this might be the establishment in question. He didn’t confirm whether Brian Fenton used to be a regular but did mention a very courteous waitress/barista @Bandage.

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Surprised by DanMcD tbh,
He should have shown MON a bit of respect,
He’s a legend.

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Ah sure the Irish sports media (for the most part) were trying to run Martin O’ Neill for the last couple of years of his tenure. You had Alan Cawley calling him out for not having an exciting enough style of football after a 1-1 draw with Austria which kept Ireland top of the World Cup qualifying group in June 2017. I didn’t really listen to OTB on Newstalk during that period but I can only imagine the kind of shite that Ger Gilroy and Co were peddling.

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The way Derry men are treated in this country is an absolute disgrace

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Who are they?

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They are then Celtic manager Neil Lennon and Heart Of Midlothian supporter John Wilson who entered the pitch/sideline area with the express purpose of assaulting Lennon during the penultimate game of the 2010/11 season at Tynecastle Park, and did indeed proceed to assault him.

For a moment it looked like some random nutter was about to assassinate Lennon again.

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A Mark Hateley double secured the 1990/91 title for the Teddy Bears who needed to win. A draw would have sufficed for Aberdeen.

I am somewhat surprised that a fellow purveyor of the League of Scotland @Bandage doesn’t recall that one.

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I was using Celtic as the reference for my brainstorm but really should have considered that 5/6 year spell when the Bears were being challenged by other clubs.