A CELTIC win at Ibrox on Saturday will deliver a 2018 whitewash against the club Charles Green founded back in the summer of 2012.
Other than a penalty shoot out victory in the Scottish Cup and two rather fortunate draws at Celtic Park, one was Madden assisted when he denied Leigh Griffiths a stonewaller in the closing stages with the score at 1-1.
So if the got something once at Hampden and were able to wildly celebrate their two draws, secured under the guidance of Graeme Murty, at Celtic Park, they have taken nothing at all to from the encounters at Ibrox.
Only Brendan Rodgers has taken Celtic there to play the club formed in 2012 and the Irishman has a 100% win record to protect and increase on Saturday.
If he is successful the 2018 whitewash will be complete, Celtic will end the year six points ahead of Gerrard’s side and with a game in hand. It will be a huge psychological blow to ‘The People’ and having a looking at their forums after the draw with Neil Lennon’s Hibs side yesterday, it is clear to see that the natives are already getting restless.
Celtic seemed to up a gear at Pittodrie in the face of three Honest Mistake setbacks and the message was loud and clear ahead of Ibrox – these Celtic players perform best in the big games as trophy hunters they are looking for Zombie scalps.
The first encounter of 2018 was also at Ibrox back in March on what turned out to be a Beautiful Sunday. Celtic had their set-backs that day. A Boyata error early in the match allowed Windass to break free and drill his shot past Scott Bain who was making his debut for the Champions.
Ibrox was rocking. They fancied their chances big time.
But Celtic steadied themselves and started to play their way into the game. Tom Rogic, who missed the decisive penalty in that shoot out and has been making them pay for it ever since, curled an outrageously good shot into the top corner to bring Celtic level.
But after more hesitancy in the Celtic defence the home side restored their lead. The half time whistle was approaching as the Rangers fans in the Main Stand cheered a late challenge on Celtic skipper Scott Brown. His connection with the ball however set up Moussa Dembele perfectly and the ‘Wits The Goalie Daein Tom?’ Signalled another beautiful goal from another big game player.
Half time 2-2 and there was plenty more drama to come. Willie Collum produced a straight red when Simunovic’s arm went across Morelos’ body and the striker fell to the ground seeking a decision.
Collum’s mind was made up for by the screaming Unionist MP shouting Red Card, Red Card!
Compare and contrast with Collum’s decision yesterday at Pittodrie when despite having s perfect view himself, he pulled out a yellow for the Aberdeen man.
Down to ten men allowed Brendan Rodgers to deploy a pre-designed tactic. Celtic took off a midfielder and went with two strikers – Dembele and the substitute Odsonne Edouard and the two combined for Celtic’s goal of the season and what turned out to be the match winner from French Eddie.
This site broke the news that Bain would play and we christened the day Beautiful Sunday and that would catch on big time as the year progressed.
That day, that defeat knocked the stuffing out of the Rangers players and support and when the sides met again the following month in the Scottish Cup semi-final Celtic romped to a 4-0 win and the score line flattered the Rangers.
Meeting number 3 – on the third Beautiful Sunday came in early May and Celtic needed to win to wrap up their 7th title in a row. Few doubted that they would and with half an hour remaining Celtic were 5 goals to the good. The fans shouts for 7 were ignored as the foot was taken off the gas. The gulf in quality was there for all to see and it was huge.
David King brought in Steven Gerrard and he brought his remodelled team to Parkhead in September. An Olivier Ntcham goal was enough to give Celtic the win but it really was all Celtic and the score line should have been 3 or 4 nil on the chances created.
That was also on a Beautiful Sunday and the Slosh song was establishing itself as a firm favourite with even the club playing it.
The number of visiting fans was vastly reduced at this game, in a tit for tat response by Celtic to their decision to reduce our allocation for games at Ibrox to 750 rather than give us our usual allocation in the Free Broomloan Stand.
That caused a change to the pre-match access arrangements and nearly led to tragedy when there was a serious incident avoided only through the calmness and patience shown by the Celtic support underneath the North Stand.
Police Scotland were nowhere to be seen as their amended match day played proofed itself to be wholly inadequate.
At the final whistle the beaten Zombies were rather hilariously held back so they had to watch as Celtic conducted their usual post match routine – win, lose or draw – of applauding the support.
Zombie rage boiled over and some of their disabled fans at the front got hurt as the red, white and blue mist came down on their support which included the loathsome Nacho Novo.
This incident was raised in a Police Scotland report, conveniently leaked to the Daily Record and was also mentioned at the Rangers Agm ( the holding company that owes the club).
Compare and contrast with their pitch invasion at McDiarmid Park last Sunday when they scored a late winner against St Johnstone.
Celtic fans going to Ibrox on Saturday have been given instructions from Celtic SLO John Paul Taylor re the parking, access and timings for this game. Please make sure that you follow these precisely. Please make sure you travel to and from there in groups ie not alone.
Hopefully everyone is safe and we put them in their place for the fifth time in 2018 – that’s one star for every thrashing!
COYBIG
