“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same,” Rudyard Kipling

As The Celtic Star Editor raised in an earlier article this morning, Ange Postecoglou chose to remind the hacks last night that the tune has been changed somewhat amongst the mainstream media in the space of just a few short months, when he said post-match at Tannadice – “At the start it was all trouble now it is all treble.”

Of course both triumph and disaster makes for good copy but in truth both are imposters and it seemed to me Ange was pointing out just that after Celtic’s win at Tannadice last night.

My Uncle used to be a teacher. When we visited him during the summer holidays, we used to eat at what seemed a huge dining room table. And on the wall close to the door that led through to the kitchen was a Rudyard Kipling poem ‘If’ with the immortal line within “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same”

My Uncle, I think, would have approved of Ange Postecoglou, not just as a Celtic manager but also as a man.

After last night’s surprisingly comfortable win in the Scottish Cup Quarter final against Dundee United, and a victory that set up the likelihood of three Glasgow Derbies in April that could have a huge bearing on not only the destination of the league title, but now also, if you transfer your expectations back to last summer, a scarcely believable treble, Ange treated the imposters of triumph and disaster exactly the same.

The manager embraced the win of course in his post-match meeting with the assembled press, but he wasn’t for overegging things and he couldn’t resist a sly dig at those who believed disaster was a likely outcome in August, whilst now believing a Treble was a possibility in mid-March.

“At the start it was all trouble now it is all treble.”

“The important thing is that we are still in the competition and at this stage of the season we have given ourselves an opportunity for success. That is the expectation here. That expectation is on me and everyone at the football club. The players need to embrace that.”

“We can’t think just because we have won a trophy already that it is going to be a good season. We want to win every competition we are in and five ourselves a chance to do that. Particularly at this end of the season and we have given ourselves a chance. It should also help with the confidence.”

In the next few weeks nerves are going to be frayed – in the stands that is inevitable. After all many of us had consigned ourselves to a season of transition and the likely lack of silverware such a rebuild would entail. Now, with expectations soaring, many of us will likely have invited in the imposter of impending triumph, just as we consigned ourselves to a possible disaster in August. Such is the life of an emotionally invested Celtic supporter.

Yet there would also be concerns that with so many new players in the dressing room and a distinct lack of mental and physical muscle memory to call on when it comes to playing under the pressure that is just about to build, that nervousness may be as prevalent amongst the players as it would be amongst the support.

Ange Postecoglou however it appears will be the man who will ensure external pressures and expectation do not impact on the changing room. As his Celtic team continue down the road from ‘trouble’ to possible ‘treble’, thoughts of both triumph and disaster, it would appear, will be pushed to one side, treated as the imposters they both are, and replaced by an embracing of the building expectation.

Ange certainly seems to be the one man who will keep his head while those about him are losing theirs. And although April will be a month of reckoning and one where many will lose their minds, you get the impression Celtic have just the man to navigate these crucial games, and do so as calmly as he did when it all seemed impossible in August.

And don’t miss Sandman’s Definitive Ratings for the best and funniest round-up of last night’s match…

READ THIS…Sandman’s Definitive Ratings – Celtic at Tangerine Dream

Niall J

About Author

As a Bellshill Bhoy I was taken to my first Celtic game in the summer of 1987. It was Billy McNeill’s return to Celtic Park as manager and Celtic lost 5-1 to Arsenal . I thought I was a jinx, I think my Grandfather might have thought the same. It was the finest gift anyone ever gave me when he walked me through Parkhead's gates.

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