The strangest of weekends at Hampden, as Celtic make to it the Cup final, and the SFA continue to make fools of themselves

Well, that was as weird a weekend as it gets at SFA headquarters.

Celtic made it to the Cup final in spectacular extra-time style, after everyone thought we’d blown it in normal time.

It seemed written in the stars when Neil Lennon and his Dunfermline side secured their place in the final on Saturday afternoon.

There was going to be something radically wrong if he didn’t get to face his old mentor in May’s showpiece.

Yesterday’s game had extra-time written all over it from the start.

I even said to one of my mates before it kicked off that I expected extra-time and penalties.

That’s just what you expect from Celtic these days.

We don’t do anything the easy way.

And it certainly didn’t look like we were going to yesterday either.

We managed, in spectacular style – to blow a 2 goal cushion – while conceding the equaliser in the first minute of stoppage time.

The writing seemed on the wall that we would then capitulate in extra-time as St. Mirren seemed to have all the momentum.

What transpired in the first half of that extra-time was utterly mind boggling.

I’m still scratching my head this morning thinking about it.

It has left me asking myself one question, where the fuck has that Celtic been all season?

You’ll have to excuse my language, but that’s the only sort of wording that aptly describes what I’m trying to get across.

Now, I’m not going to give myself false hope and say that this is a turning point.

I’ve been at that all season long and its got me nowhere, so I’m not going to start now.

But what it did do is show us that there is a caged Celtic animal in there crying to be left out.

Yesterday it had enough, it gave up crying and broke the hell out of that cage itself.

Once it was out, it wreaked havoc on a shellshocked St. Mirren.

Stunned.

Bamboozled.

Scunnered.

They’re just some of the words that should describe how the buddies’ players felt.

And the both sets of fans in the stands.

Because make no mistake, there’s not a single Celtic fan out there this morning who saw that coming.

I don’t need to post mortem the game, that’s been done enough already.

I’ll make just three points surrounding our players.

Give James Forrest a year’s extension to his contract.

Where the hell has that version of Anthony Ralston been hiding all season?

And Kelechi Iheanacho is the man, he is the striker who will score goals for us in this title run in.

He is hitting form at the exact time we need him to, and both of his goals yesterday were sublime.

That header?

Did you see how high he rose to meet it?

His second was a thing of beauty.

You don’t tuck a strike like that away from such a tight angle unless you’re a top class striker, and yesterday, Kelechi Iheanacho proved he is just that.

After that display yesterday, I’m a just a little bit more confident that we might actually pull this off.

Because when a striker finds his scoring touch like Iheanacho has, only one thing follows.

Goals, and hopefully plenty of them.

Now we can put the Cup final to the back of our minds and focus on the business of the League title.

Neil Lennon and his Dunfermline team await us in what will probably prove to be a classic final.

Like I said, written in the stars.

Finally, I just want to point out the idiotic behaviour of the SFA at Hampden over the weekend.

They made themselves look like complete fools with the way they reacted to Michael Stewart’s appearance in the car park.

Fair play to his employers, who took every opportunity to highlight the SFA’s behaviour.

Both on the Saturday, when he was ‘hiding’ in the Premier Sports van.

And then on Sunday, when they announced that the SFA stated Michael Stewart was not welcome in the carpark for the Celtic v St. Mirren game.

I’ll put it this way, it wasn’t Premier Sports who looked utterly farcical.

It was the SFA.

But somehow, it all seemed to fit into a perfectly nuts – if not strange weekend – at Hampden.

The whole weekend provided the world with a glimpse of how batshit crazy the Scottish game is.

I guess that’s why I love Scottish game.

With all of it’s idiosyncrasies, I’d still take it over the lifeless EPL any day.

After yesterday, it looks like there will be plenty more mad twists and turns before this season concludes.

I’d suggest you strap yourself in and enjoy the ride!

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