To Peterhead and back in a Ford Cortina

Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Harper

Happy New Year troops and what an enjoyable festive season it was

We rounded off the end of the holidays with a good win in the highlands against Peterhead. A team that I only knew anything about after reading Krys’s match preview yesterday. In fact the only thing I’ve ever heard about Peterhead is the story about the guy that killed two adverts with one stone in the local newspaper. 10 words maximum with contact number for lowest cost resulted in:

Peter Reid from Peterhead is dead Ford Cortina For Sale!

Still makes me laugh especially if you pronounce it Peterheid and deid…

Anyway that’s what I knew before the game, what do I know now? They wear blue, have a stand/terracing built with mechano and like most teams in Scotland were allowed by the men in black to boot us all over the park.

Hat-trick hero Anthony Stokes was right to be angry on numerous occasions at the late challenges that came in and went unpunished. Not to mention the aerial challenge that seen Joe Ledley go off injured in a move that came straight out of the Lee McCulloch book of elbows.

Jim McInally said after the game he had asked his players to be physical and leave a boot in, well I’m sorry Jim but that’s exactly what’s wrong with Scottish football and these kind of comments are questionable to say the least. In fact I think he should be asked to explain them to the SFA. Yes we all know lower league teams are going to try and use aggression as a leveler but there’s a difference between that and “leaving a boot in”. Personally I thought Peterhead were a disgrace yesterday and the referee who was incredibly lenient/weak throughout has to shoulder much of the blame for allowing it to continue for 90mins.

It was a miracle nobody was seriously injured and I’m sure Ledley will be fine for next week.

It was one of those games yesterday where only the result mattered and was also a useful exercise to give some of the fringe players a run out.

I thought Paddy McCourt was excellent yesterday being asked to play in a far deeper role than his usual remit. He was often the player taking the ball off the toe of the centre backs and looking for the openings to slide a ball through. Yes a lot of it was tippy tappy stuff with his teammates but it was the role he was asked to play and he didn’t put a foot wrong. His ball over the top for Samaras at the opening goal was laser guided precision and as my good friend Charlie said at the time had that been someone in the EPL they would be raving about the pass of the season. It was world class and as we’ve maintained on HomeBhoys for a while, McCourt is undoubtably one of the best passers in the squad. Some people seem to think if the Derry Pele doesn’t take on 3 players every time he gets the ball he’s had a bad game, that’s simply not the case.

It was an interesting new position for Paddy and one I’d like to see more of him in, however I’m not sure how long he’ll fancy hang about on the sidelines.

Izaguirre and Kelvin Wilson continued in their search for match fitness and will have livelier games in coming weeks. Likewise Captain Scott Brown got another 90mins under his belt and was only surpassed by Stokes for man of the match.

All in all it wasn’t the most exciting games to watch on television but we’re through to the next round draw where bigger fish to fry await. Special mention has to go again to the traveling support who were excellent as always in miserable conditions. Keep it up lads and keep teaching the rest how it’s done.

Talking of the rest I must mention this briefly having taken in the first 18mins of the Arbroath game yesterday. Are the Blue Order a Green Brigade tribute act? I suppose to imitate is to flatter…

So as we turn the corner into the straight what are our realistic goals for the season?

For me it has to be the Treble. Why not?

In fact I would go as far as saying retaining the Scottish Cup will be the hardest of the three trophies to win. I really really believe with a healthy squad and at least one ‘quality’ addition we should be able to go on and win the league comfortably. I’m never one to get over confident but if we keep our form and maximize our strengths then we are and will be a far superior side to rangers and the rest.

Falkirk stand between us and the League Cup final and we have to be favorites for that competition and although anything can happen in a one off I think we are more vulnerable in the earlier rounds of cups. I fully expect us to win the first silverware up for grabs in the season, followed by the SPL and hopefully a day out in the sun to finish off the treble.

Would love to hear what you think about where the season is heading and what might happen in the transfer window. Give us a call on the HomeBhoys phone-in show tonight. We’re live from 7.30pm Celtic Park time.

Turn OFF Clyde and support YOUR side.

Harper (twitter @Harper1888 and for podcast and website updates @TheLostBhoys & @HomeBhoys)
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