Dingbats 0 Dingwallians 2

Tony Mowbray lookalike Martin Scott scores the clinching goal for Ross County in today's Scottish Cup semi-final. Thus, ending a dismal season for Celtic.

Does that qualify as irony?

Killie me softly

Crumbs.

You don't even have to click on the link. All you need to know is the opening paragraph to the report linked to:

Robbie Keane's Celtic debut ended in disappointment as Kilmarnock recorded their first win at home against the Glasgow side in nine years. [My emphasis.]

Does Tony Mo have to go? Should I have copyrighted the 'Melting Mowbray' post title all those games ago? Will Owen allow me have a full night's sleep again before his seventh birthday?

Slater or Larrson?

A canny bit of last minute business from Mowbray on transfer deadline day , I guess. If only because it takes the heat off him and his transfer policy for a few weeks or so. (February 28th, to be exact.)

Only thing is; hasn't Keane been here before?

And hasn't Celtic been here before, as well?

I guess I'm being unfair to Keano Mark 1, as Celtic did win a league and league cup double the year he was at Celtic Park, and I'm definitely a lot fairer to him than Keane Mark 2 was at yesterday's press conference when - mentioning no names - he stated: ""I am here until the end of the season, that is as far as I have thought about it. I didn't want to come here aged 35, at the end of my career and struggling. I am here at the peak of my career . . . "

I guess for some people Japan/South Korea 2002 was only yesterday.

Must try harder

Nothing like a false dawn on a freezing Saturday morning:

Four minutes into your Celtic debut and you score a winning goal and receive a yellow card? (No doubt for the celebration.)

Morten Rasmussen could be interesting and maybe - just maybe - I'll stop referring to Tony Mowbary as Tony Burns.

Turns out it was his second game for Celtic. I'd already expunged this travesty from my football memory bank.

Melting Mowbray

Oh my. I wasn't expecting that.

I will always remember where I was when Celtic recovered from a 3-0 deficit, to steal a 3-3 draw against the best team in Austria: lying on the couch . . . with the laptop on my belly . . . half-watching the Magnum PI segment on BBC's I Love 1981.

Good night from Vienna?

Go on, chaps. Prove us all wrong.

'Quick . . . quick . . . .no show'

What a thing to wake up to:

Looks like it's shaping up to be Artmedia Bratislava and Neuchatel Xamax all over again.

Can the fact that the team in green and white is winning be considered a silver lining?

McCourt goes marching straight through the Saints

It looks like McCourt's goal against Falkirk in the cup midweek was no fluke.

The commentator may be right about St Mirren's "powder puff defending" but it was no more weak or ineffectual than the Brazilians against John Barnes all those years ago in the Maracana or the Belgium defence falling like ninepins against Al Owairan at the 1994 World Cup. It's just a case of the stage being a wee bit on the smaller scale.

It's Rapid Vienna on Thursday and R*ngers at Ibrox next Sunday in the lunchtime kick off.

On that sort of form displayed by McCourt, Mowbray has to give him his chance in at least one of the games. The obvious would be against Rapid Vienna at Parkhead but it'd be a nice surprise if Mowbray went all out and employed him on the Sunday at Ibrox. The game will be the usual fast and the bloody furious, so someone with McCourt's guile and skill can only prosper in such an environment with the headless chickens in the blue jerseys running around in circles hacking away at all and sundry. The freekicks he'd win in and around the box would set up Maloney perfectly for the perfect away smash and grab.

Watch this blog as I eat my words next Sunday afternoon.

From me trying to convince myself we have a future Celtic legend in the making to footage of the Celtic legend of the last twenty years still doing the business at the age of 38 for Helsingborgs IF against AIK Stockholm a couple of days ago.

The bloke's still got it in abundance. That abundance should still be on display at Parkhead.

Hat tip to 101 Goals website for both clips. It's the first place to go to on the net if you want 45 second clips of Chilean football with Cantonese commentary.

Touring down the middle of the park

Nearly a year to the day after this minor post, it's nice to see McCourt score this gem (46 seconds into the clip) for Celtic against Falkirk last night in the cup:

Btw, it's worthwhile checking out that Mail article linked to in the older post.

Not just because of the pleasing possibility of a 'might have been will soon become' aspect to the story but because it's mentioned in passing that West Brom, then managed by Tony Mowbray, were poised to sign him before he joined Celtic and Peter Grant is quoted all over the piece as someone who really rated McCourt.

Grant's now First Team coach at Celtic.

It looks like McCourt will got a decent chance of getting *cough* a chance in the first team, and that's not something that could always be said for squad players under Strachan's regime.

PS - With regards to that YouTube clip, what's with the included snippet of Grant at the post-match press conference talking about the seriousness of McGeady's injury? Out of sync or just dubbed? Are people from Bellshill really that difficult to comprehend. I guess it could explain Sheena Easton's mid-atlantic monstrosity of an accent.

Celtic and Arsenal*

I knew it was coming - in that way that if you spout enough gibberished predictions in life some of them will occasionally come true - and it's definitely the match of the round, so all eyes will be on Celtic.

Well, most eyes: My eyes will be on the bloke pictured below. I fear he's going to run rampant.

*One of my more mundane post titles on the blog, I'll think you'll agree.

'Felix Dzerzhinsky, your boys took one hell of a beating today.'

I really wasn't expecting that. A very nice surprise and a very classy goal from Samaras.

According to the BBC Report, Celtic could get the likes of Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Lyon, Stuttgart or Fiorentina in the next round and, as I'm not expecting Celtic to progress too far in the Champions League, I wouldn't mind them drawing one of the bigger clubs asap.

Bring on the Gunners.

Didn't we do this already with Artmedia Bratislava a few years ago?

Seven minutes in and they're already 1-0 down . . . at home . . . against a team founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky.

It's going to be a long season following Celtic on BBC's live text.