As the title heads for Celtic Park, the Ibrox side clutches at straws, lashing out at everyone, anyone

I was going to write an article in the aftermath of yesterday’s title winning performance from Celtic.

I can say that now, because in reality, we will not lose it from here on out.

But I didn’t write an article yesterday because I think it was better I gathered my thoughts.

Waited until the dust settled, so to speak.

My initial reaction was that it was close and that we had just scraped it.

But when I examine the tie more forensically, a pattern that tells a different story emerges.

Yes, the Ibrox side harried us and closed us down to a degree that we couldn’t play our passing game the way we like to.

But Beale knew he had to do this.

If he wanted to take something from the game, he had to approach it much differently to the way he approached the League Cup final.

I think what concerned me and all of the fans at my CSC from the start, was the performance of Aaron Mooy.

Nearly every single pass he attempted was misplaced.

It seemed totally out of character.

And it seemed to affect other players.

Yet despite this, we still drew first blood.

Now, the Ibrox side would have you believe they drew first blood with the disallowed goal from Fat Freddy.

I think they might have had a case, had the portly Colombian been in front of Alistair Johnston, not behind him.

But he wasn’t.

And whatever angle you look at it from, it looks like he pushed Johnston.

I don’t want to get bogged down too much in this, I’ll leave that to the Ibrox board and their letter writing scribes.

Goal or not, it forms part of my central theory on the game.

The Ibrox side had 3 shots on target in the whole tie, from a total of 8.

Two they scored, the other, a shot from Morelos, forced a save from Joe Hart.

The reality is that the Ibrox side created the majority of their chances and goals from set pieces.

They had one shot on target from play, that did not involve a dead ball situation.

Morelos’ disallowed goal – Corner

Tavernier’s 1st goal – Free kick

Tavernier’s 2nd goal – Following on from a free kick

Kevin Clancy was throwing yellow cards around the place like they were confetti.

He gave soft free after soft free to the Ibrox side.

To me, the second half just seemed like a litany of soft free kicks for them.

We committed 19 fouls to their 12.

The majority of which, seemed to me to come in the second half.

Every time an Ibrox player hit the deck, it was a foul.

Even the final kick of the game was a soft free kick, and we were lucky Barisic didn’t make more of it.

So if the Ibrox side want to complain that the free given against Morelos for their disallowed goal was soft, then they need to look at every soft free kick they were given thereafter.

It was the central theme of the game.

For Clancy, as far as he was concerned, if a player hit the deck, anywhere, it was a free kick.

Michael Beale stated that the gap between the teams, which had just gotten bigger, was not as big as people thought.

Your team created one chance on target from open play Mickey.

One chance.

And you reckon the gap, which got wider, has closed?

That you’ve shown you can compete well with us?

It’s highly unlikely Kevin Clancy will referee the Cup semi-final.

Which in turn makes it unlikely the Ibrox side will get as many dead ball situations as they did yesterday.

My initial thoughts after yesterday’s game were that I’d be worried about the Cup semi.

In hindsight, I’m not.

The back lash from Ibrox and it’s acolytes regarding the disallowed goal has been hilarious.

David Tanner came straight out of the wood work with this tweet:

Twitter: How is the mind-boggling
“VAR is anti-Celtic” conspiracy theory holding-up today?

To be clear, there is no bias a… https://t.co/xEo8ol2tcU (@DavidTannerTV)

He wants us to grow up and be nice?

4 solid months of the Ibrox side getting everything their way with VAR.

One decision goes against them and all hell breaks loose?

The club will be writing a letter to the SFA demanding an explanation?

For what?

Fat Freddy pushed Alistair Johnston, end of.

It’s always the same with this mob.

Something goes against them and they throw the toys out of the pram.

Then they lie and deflect.

Michael Beale lied blatantly after the game.

So too did James Tavernier.

Felipe Jota did not handle the ball before Kyogo’s second goal.

The below tweet proves that conclusively:

Twitter: Oh Mr Beale…what were you thinking with the arm patter https://t.co/DCydKLZIrY (@ETimsNet)

Yet both Beale and Tavernier, on live television bullshitted that he did.

Bottom line is they just weren’t good enough to beat us yesterday.

We weren’t at our best against them, again, and they still couldn’t take advantage, again.

All the lashing out, lies and deflection in the world will not change that.

Michael Beale has had three attempts to beat us.

He has failed in all of them.

In Glasgow, second best counts for nothing.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zero.

Zilch.