lostbhoys.com

On the first Day of Christmas my Truelove sent to me…….. a hooped shirt without a number on the back. If Santa is getting the sled ready and plying Rudolf full of magic flying sugarlumps, maybe he could go back and work his magic to put us back in our old style kit of numbers on the shorts and uninterrupted hoops on the shirts. The symbol of unity and solidarity back at Celtic Park – that’s my first request in this season of advent.

Let’s be honest, we all recognize the players from their hairstyles (Sammy), height (Shaun) and race (Davey Ki) so if the reason for the numbers on the shirts was to help commentators, then I would have to ask has technology not gazzumped this old way of identifying the players? Hence, another reason for no need for  numbers on the shirts. Even if the Referee (stop booing at the back, okay don’t) needs to book a player, can he not just have a wee squint at a player’s shorts for identity confirmation?

Celtic’ uniqueness was solidified in the fact that they were one of the few clubs to swim against the current and not have numbers on the shirts. In this day and age, we are still swimming against the tide, albeit a different one, but rebellious all the same. I will of course take all this back if we sign Stephen Ireland and give him squad number 32, I’m all over that, I might order my first ever shirt with number and name on the back (for the wee lad of course, for the wee lad).

The last two weeks have been torturous with no celtic action. So much so, I actually got up at 6-15 am here in Texas on Saturday morning to catch the Caley match and I was very glad I did. The thought of getting up at ungodly hours to watch the Thistle match might seem strange to most people considering we have wall-to-wall EPL games pumped into our living rooms here via cable at a saturation level, but come on, the EPL is boring enough to watch in the afternoon without having to sit through the snorefest of Aston Villa v West Brom or Everton v Wigan first thing in the morning. If someone would like to give me a high level five minute explanation of why this is the self proclaimed “Greatest League in the World” I’ll be happy to listen, but remember, I will quote these two games and your argument will need to be special to convince me that it is.

Anyway, up I got to watch the boys in red white and blue verses the boys in, well, red white and blue and I wasn’t disappointed with the fare on show. Although not exactly a neutral, I tried to watch the game as objectively as possible but I have to admit to jumping up and punching the air as Jonny Hayes let fly with a thunderbolt shot that ripped the net of the visitors with their EPL bound goalie left catching flies. After the break it looked like a case of déjà-vu as the visitors came out a much changed team as they always do once Smith does his half time voodoo and casts a spell over the team that couldn’t kick their own arses in the first half. Indeed, they came out roaring like the team in escape to victory with attack after attack. By the way, who does the first half team talk? If it’s Sally – give him the job I say. Anyway, after the predictable Miller equalizer, everything went to script with the award of another soft penalty. Wait a minute, it wasn’t a soft penalty, it was a clear dive and ref Calum Murray went for the easy option of not getting criticized in the mainstream press by pointing to the spot. With my finger hovering above the “escape” key on my computer, a woeful miss by the SPL’s most prolific striker left me delaying my exit and I watched to the end as the visitors struggled to capture their early second half form. If this had have been a different team from Glasgow, and if the outcome had have been a draw, would everyone be bemoaning inexperience and lack of ideas to change things, but because it was you know who, it was the poor old manager with a paper thin squad and fixture build up that even his genius couldn’t effect this time.

Thanks Phil for the increase in paranoia!!

Anyway, glad the new site is up and hopefully we will have the weekly podcast back on the go too. We did record last week, but we had some migration problems and couldn’t get it posted.  Watch this space.

Chris  (twitter @ChrisLostBhoy and for podast and website updates @TheLostBhoys)