David Potter filed this article with The Celtic Star early this morning but in the rush to get a morning shift done by 10am to leave for Paradise it was unfortunately missing from your early morning reading material options on The Celtic Star ahead of the 4-1 win against Hearts where Celtic produced a magnificent performance and blew away the Scottish Cup Finalists to make the destination of the league title this season a formality waiting to be confirmed tomorrow, or on midweek.
But it’s worth letting you read David’s words regardless and with the three points already won opening up an uncatchable lead, there’s no anxiety or nerves ahead of the game which I think we were all expecting Celtic to win. It’s the form we have found and all that…here’s David Potter’s missing morning message ahead of Celtic beating Hearts today at Paradise…
Win it the day, Celtic
Good morning! It is an important day in the history of our club, and I hope we can just settle matters today. A win means that it is all over bar the shouting. The only way we could then lose the League would be by goal difference and the margin is more or less impossible to make up. So just win today, Celtic. Any kind of a win would do!
The players must not be spooked by what happened on the other side of the city the other night. Everyone says that “it has nothing to do with us”, but we all know that is rubbish. How our rivals do intimately affects us, and we all felt the pain on Thursday.
Since then, of course, the BBC, Sky Sports and every tuppeny halfpenny newspaper in the business has gone into overdrive, and true colours have been raised. But it is important nor to be diverted by that. We must concentrate on our job.
And make no mistake about it. If we win the League, the adulation will transfer, at least for a while, to us. Why? Because as Kerry Packer once said, “there is a bit of the ham shanker in us all”. There certainly is in the Press and TV! Some in the media are genuine Rangers guys like McCoist and Boyd, and funnily enough, I can respect that; others play to the lowest common denominator of sycophancy and adulation.
It is perhaps an idea, I feel, for Ange to make a few changes to the starting line-up at least. David Turnbull, for example has been grossly underused, and what about James McCarthy getting a start? We can then bring on our exhausted but talented Japanese guys in the second half. And I think Giakoumakis should start.
Hearts will of course fight hard. They don’t like us very much, and Albert Kidd still hurts, even though that event celebrated its 36th anniversary just recently. Willie Wallace hurts even more. But Hearts do have one of the best goalkeepers around in Craig Gordon, and he may have a point to prove to the team who gave him the best years of his life. I would love to see Craig gain another Scottish Cup medal in a fortnight, wouldn’t you?
But please, Celtic, just win today. The last few weeks have not been good for anyone’s health – and we need relief, closure, deliverance, resolution, freedom, relaxation. We need to be Champions, especially as I have the sickening feeling that Eintracht Frankfurt might fold on the big occasion!
David Potter
David Potter’s new book, Putting on the Style, a biography of Celtic legend Willie Fernie is out next week, thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered and your copy will be posted out as soon as the lorry arrives. If you would like to order your copy please use the link provided below.
David,
You and I are contemporaries and I am sure you vividly recall the April 1960 meetings of Eintracht Frankfurt and the original Rangers. The aggregate score being 12-4 for the Germans. Every football fan remembers what Real Madrid did to that formidable Frankfurt team. What would Real have inflicted on that Rangers defence ? Could double digits have been reached against Shearer/ Caldow et al ? Imagine Canario on one wing with Gento on the other. Three years later Real did score 6 against them at the Bernabeu.
Let’s hope the present day Eintracht can emulate their famous forebears. I have little hope of the Embra Cousins winning the Cup, Madden/McLean/Robertson will ensure that does not happen.