A brutal referee, poor substitutions, and the lack of a plan after Vigo went ahead, on a night where Celtic head into Nancy territory…

We are now officially in Nancy territory.

Yes you read that correctly, I said Nancy territory, and by that I mean Celtic have suffered 5 defeats in in 7 games.

If we somehow manage to conspire to lose at Easter Road on Sunday, we will have suffered 6 defeats in 8 games.

Wilfried Nancy was sacked for that.

Oh, I know you’ll think I’m crazy suggesting to the same should happen to a legend like Martin O’Neill.

Legend doesn’t buy you impunity.

But if we lose on Sunday, and I know given our current domestic form we probably won’t, serious questions must be asked of Martin O’Neill’s ability to take us through this season.

Europe is all but gone for us now.

If Besiktas win at Celtic Park in a fortnight, it is definitely gone

Don’t bother coming at me with the excuses that we’re just not good enough in Europe.

That in itself is just not good enough.

Last night once again proved that when we’re faced with any kind of adversity, we just wilt.

Chris Sutton will be once again remind us of his flat track bullies reference come Sunday, I’m sure.

I’m not going to reference it again.

I think we all get it at this point.

As far as I’m concerned, three things cost us last night at Celtic Park

And they happened in this particular order.

One, the referee, who was an utter gobshite on a power trip.

I’ll get to his decisions later on.

Two, the way we retreated into our shell once Vigo went ahead.

This resulted in us reverting to long hit and hope punts up the park.

Three, our substitutions, well, just two in particular.

Sorensen and Tounekti.

I resigned myself to the fact the game was over when I saw those two coming on.

I also think that Bhoycie was right on Wednesday night when he said part of Sorensen’s loan deal is that he plays in all of Celtic’s Europa League matches

Which is a disaster.

Because once again we were left to wonder what Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could have contributed in a game like last night’s.

Instead, we were treated to the wonderful skillset of Oliver Sorensen.

Which contributed the square root of f*** all.

As did Sebastian Tounekti.

Could we not have just left James Forrest on the left, and allowed Hassan to see out 90 minutes?

This is in turn left us with the complete lack of a plan after Vigo went ahead.

It was all haphazard once again, and looked nothing like what we saw last Sunday against Hearts

We suddenly become deer in the headlights once we go a goal down.

This has been the pattern in almost every game this season.

But yes, I know the referee was a wanker, like a school teacher on power trip.

Some of his decision making was inexplciable.

No penalty award for the push on Callum Osmand in 23rd minute, and instead a yellow card for Duran for protesting the decision.

In the second half, Duran was then cynically fouled by a Vigo player, and no foul was given.

Martin O’Neill was then booked for protesting.

Vigo went up the park, won their own free kick, and scored the equaliser from it.

Bulgarian referee Georgi Kabakov’s decision seemed to go from bad to worse.

Two excellent tackles from Colby Donovan and Liam Scales resulted in free kicks being awarded to Vigo.

Donovan then received a yellow card for throwing the ball away in frustration after the Kabakov awarded Vigo a throw in that clearly should have been Celtic’s.

Kabakov must have gone for a couple of pints with David Dickinson and Steven McLean before the game to get the lowdown on how to referee Celtic.

You get my point.

Overall, we can blame the referee partially for this result, but we were mostly at fault for it ourselves.

Bringing on Tounekti and Sorensen to close out a game we knew we needed to win put the tin hat on it really.

We are now in danger of setting unwanted records in the Europa League if things continue the way they are

As usual, Martin O’Neill was in complete denial.

As can be seen here in his after match comments on BBC sports:

We conceded a free-kick and I thought a second before that we should have had a foul for us. They score from the free-kick and it knocks us a little bit. It gave them a bit of momentum.

I think if [Liam] Scales’ header goes in to make it 2-0, we get the three points. We’ve lost three matches now, remarkably we’re still in with a chance [of progressing]. We’ve got to win here and got to win away from home.

We take the lead in the game, if we get the second goal we win the match and it changes the whole dynamic.

It didn’t happen, that’s it – we need to try to find a way to win European games.

Yes indeed, Martin, we do need to find a way to win European games.

Using Oliver Sorensen and Sebastian Tounekti as impact subs in a must win certainly isn’t the way.

Leaving a Champions League winner on the bench is criminal.

Then again, being tied in to having to play someone like Sorensen in all of our Europa League matches is criminal too.

Of course, Shaun Maloney was at pains to tell us that Martin O’Neill oversees everything when it comes to the footballing operation, including recruitment.

I’m sure he then agreed to the deal that Sorensen must play in all of our Europa League ties, yes?

Fantastic recruitment indeed.

He says we’re remarkably still in with a chance of progressing in the Europa League.

Let’s get real here, no, we’re not if we continue to put in performances like last night.

Here’s my personal opinion.

If we lose on Sunday at Easter Road, it’s time to call a halt to this mess.

6 defeats in 8 games will not be acceptable.

It is not acceptable at Celtic.

It was unacceptable for Wilfried Nancy, so why should it be any different for Martin O’Neill?

But you know, and I know it won’t happen.

So, we’ll just plough along like this.

This is who we are now.

This is what we’ve been reduced to.

Utterly useless in Europe, and flat track bullies domestically.

What’s worse is that people will happily accept this.

Until such time as nobody accepts it, nothing will change.

That’s the reality here.

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