Re: Artur Boruc

1

I missed the game yesterday but apparently the guy on the tannoy at St Mirren said something like this at half time:

I would appeal to all St Mirren supporters to uphold the good name of the club by not responding to the sectarian singing of the away supporters.

I believe the Celtic supporters had been singing The Soldiers Song and The Boys of the Old Brigade so what a clown this guy is. Its reported this morning he made the announcement off his own bat without any approval by St Mirren or the police. And why would either sanction such an announcement seeing as the songs arent sectarian in any case.

Any brief report on the game rock, pagey, pied piper?

2

Quick Report

Celtic started with nearly their first choice eleven (Wilson is injured but back training) with Maloney ahead of McGeady in the only real disputable call. Bench was strong too with Magic, Aideninho, Sno, Jarosik, Marshall and O’Dea. Great to see VofH and Tommy G back in the starting lineup becuase they are crucial for Europe I think.

Game was 90 seconds old when we moved it about a bit and found Naylor thirty yards out on the left hand side. There was nobody pressing him - full back and winger were tracking Maloney further ahead - so Naylor had plenty of time to swing in a deep cross to just beyond the back post. Big Jan was backpedalling but won a clean cushioned header back across goal that Miller ran onto. Kenny was running across goal from Naylor’s side but beat the defender to it - couldn’t control the ball but prevented a clearance - and the ball broke to Tommy Gravesen who burst onto it twelve yards out and smacked a left footed drive in at the near post. One nil.

After that St Mirren got a bit of pressure on for about 5 minutes but then faded again. Celtic passed it around nicely. Second goal was after 20 minutes and on the end of plenty of passing. The ball was worked around Maloney and Naka and eventually went all the way back to the back 4 after lots of play in midfield. It came to Caldwell’s feet who played a 30 yard ball with pace to Gravesen who had advanced a little from midfield. Gravesen took it and turned with it, allowing him to shrug off his marker, then jinked past two tackles before hammering in a right foot shot. Slight deflection beat Bullock at his near post. I was very pleased with the goal because I was happy that we’d kept the ball for a while and went back to the defence to start again. I noticed Strachan shouting “well done” to someone after the goal and assume it was Caldwell for picking the pass.

After that we owned the ball until half time. Didn’t really create any chances but won 3 free kicks around the box and Maloney fluffed the 3 of them. Bit annoying because the last one in particular was tailor made for Naka.

Second half they got a bit more energy for a while. Lappin started getting on the ball and he’s a nice footballer. Boruc gave the ball away very sloppily to their striker but redeemed himself with 2 great saves from the ensuing shots. Then Lappin fired in a cross which Mehmet headed against the post. They started getting a bit of pressure and Sutton scored (unfortunately didn’t see it because I had to pick Mrs Rock up from the DART station and missed 5 mins of the game).

After that we got back on top again - in truth they’d had a good spell but we were comfortable I felt. Won a corner a few minutes later swung into the near post and Tommy got ahead of his man and scored with a glancing header like Sutton’s against Blackburn. Ball was cleared from behind the line but the officials spotted it and gave it (fair play there - though I forgot to mention in the first half that Dougal missed a stonewall penalty on Maloney at 2-0 which was absolutely blatant).

After that there was no danger and the game fizzled out a bit. Maloney went off with a knee injury and not much else to report.

Ratings:

Boruc 5 - needs to cut out the sloppiness
Telfer 6 - fine
Naylor 7 - got into good positions and crossed well
Mick 6 - poor for goal apparently but defended well otherwise
Caldwell 7 - one bad mistake with a pass from the back but recovered well
Lennon 6 - comfortable
Gravesen 9 - perfect hat-trick: right, left and header
Naka 7 - not quiet, but not very effective. Did some decent defending
Maloney 7 - not brilliant going forward but put in one or two excellent tackles
Jan 7 - great header for first goal.
Miller 6 - quiet

Ratings might be a bit low because we played very well for much of the match but it was hard for individuals to shine when we were so comfortable.

We continued to play great

3

The talk in Scotland today is that the next time Celtic fans are singing “sectarian songs” that there will be points deducted. Of course the media are trying to label all our songs as sectarian.

So far The Soldier’s Song and The Fields of Athenry have been classed as “Irish tosh” - in a move that’s supposed to be about tolerance and inclusiveness only in Scotland would you get such anti-Irish generalisations.

There are massive problems though for any football association that wants to ban even the likes of Boys of the Old Brigade. For one there is nothing sectarian about the lyrics whatsoever. As a second point the song is commonly available in any HMV etc in Ireland or the UK. So if the government are not censoring it what right do the SFA have to do so.

What do other freekickers think about this? I know there are those who may believe that singing songs like BOTOB has little place at a football ground. If you leave that aside for the moment though (and I disagree by the way) does anyone here think that Irish rebel songs are offensive? And would ye distinguish between older songs (like Sean South) and newer songs (like Roll of Honour)?

4

Had a read of some of the Scottish papers at lunch time; this is surreal. The mindset of the anti-Irish brigade is incredible over there its as if theyre living in a parallel universe. I repeat what I said yesterday that none of those songs are sectarian at all. Sure some of them are Irish rebel songs but the foundation of Celtic goes hand in hand with the history of Ireland. There is no way BOTOB or any of those songs are comparable to hello, hello we are the Billy Boys; hello, hello, youll know us by our noise; up to our knees in Fenian blood; surrender or youll die yet the Scottish FA and media never went after Rangers instead UEFA did. Meanwhile, Celtic supporters who have been widely decorated by both FIFA and UEFA are now being targeted by the SFA! Go figure.

5

Farmer, Tommymoore, all Rocko-Bandage sceptics take note: I am going to disagree with Bandage here.

I think the Scottish media went after Rangers quite a bit last season for their sectarian singing. Graham Speirs obviously did - he is despised by Rangers fans for doing so - but others like Walker and McCarra in the Guardian also made references to their offensive songs in newspaper reports.

Also, and this may be a bit controversial, I don’t have a huge problem with them singing “Hello Hello” - I do agree that it is more hateful than all Irish rebel songs sung at Celtic Park or by any rebel band that I can think of: it is more about a hatred of fenians than a proclamation of pride. However I couldn’t give a shit if they want to sing something like that because I don’t consider the term offensive or anything.

It is unrealistic to expect UEFA or the Scottish media or football association to differentiate hugely between what is being sung. They will equate the killing of Fenians with our songs of the IRA no matter how much we argue the difference. That’s why I wasn’t delighted with the UEFA inspector’s damning indictment of Rangers fans’ behaviour last year- condemn them for their Nazi salutes absolutely (that’s sickening) - but I don’t want to see them getting involved with the Rangers - Celtic conflict because they’re never going to punish one side more than the other. Also it’s all just tokenism when you consider nobody did anything when Rangers had a sectarian signing policy for 100 years of their existence. That’s real discrimination and is far more important than the songs they sing.

6

I meant the Scottish based media exclusively not the likes of The Guardian which would be available up there too obviously. I meant The Herald, Daily Record etc. I’m aware of the guy Speirs speaking out but not many more besides. Speirs is a Rangers supporter too as far as I know so fair play to him for having a go.

As for the Billy Boys I don’t find the term Fenian in any way offensve either, it’s the up to their knees in blood part that I find out of order. Agree on your last point re the tokenism and the 100 years of sectarianism that was accepted without question up until recently.