Matthew Lindsay thought the "12th man" protest that Celtic staged during their Premiership game against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park today fell a bit flat - but he feels the Parkhead side need to find form fast to prevent their season turning ugly.
Peter the Celtic fan from Robroyston had been in the same position before more years ago than he cared to remember - but he remained unsure what he was going to do when the moment came.
“I’m old enough to remember 1994,” he said as he stood on Springhill Place outside Rugby Park around an hour before his team’s game against Kilmarnock kicked off this afternoon. “That was a different world. I’m not sure the younger generation realise what it was like back then.”
He could, though, certainly appreciate why the more militant element of the Parkhead support had organised a late entry protest during the William Hill Premiership fixture and understand why so many of his fellow fans wanted to show their displeasure at how their club is currently being run.
“The transfer window was an absolute joke,” he said. “We shouldn’t be going in to a Champions League play-off game without a striker. What is that all about? They’ve had months to bring in a replacement for Kyogo [Furuhashi, who departed back in January]. What’s the point in having all that money and not spending it?
“But I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m thinking about it. I might go in to my seat, I might not. I think there needs to be a change in how we do things. But is this the way to go about it?”
Peter’s daughter Liz was of an identical view.
“I definitely shared the concerns of the guys who have organised this,” she said. “But I just don’t like not supporting the team. I don’t like the fact that it might harm the team on the pitch. I’m going to go into the concourse and weigh up what I’m going to do in there. I’m not sure.”
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The vast majority of the Celtic faithful who made the trip down to Ayrshire to see the Scottish champions try to reclaim first place in the Premiership – and there were several thousand of them in the crowd – had no such qualms.
The Chadwick Stand was only around a fifth full when referee John Beaton got proceedings underway. Most of the travelling supporters milled around outside or stood in the stairways waiting to make their entrance. They all chanted, “Sack the board.”
In the 12th minute of the match – they are, after all, the Glasgow giants’ 12th man – they finally took their seats having made their point to those high heid yins who were taking in the game from the comfort of the directors’ box in the Frank Beattie Stand.
They by no means, however, focused on the football thereafter. Banners were unfurled which read, “Sack the board – back the team.” The faces of major shareholder Dermot Desmond, chief executive Michael Nicholson, chairman Peter Lawwell and chief financial officer Chris McKay were also displayed on No Entry signs.
There were chants of “Lawwell, Lawwell, get to f***” and “Michael, Michael, get to f***” and at the start of the second half The Green Brigade ultras group whipped out another banner which read “Nicholson, McKay, Lawwell out – parasites, liars cowards”. The mood of the visitors’ followers didn’t improve any as the game neared its conclusion.
They had been delirious when Japan winger Daizen Maeda, who admitted during the international break that he had wanted to leave during the transfer window, headed in a Marcelo Saracchi cross. But when David Watson got on the end of a Greg Kiltie corner and levelled with seven minutes of regulation time remaining their mood darkened somewhat.
It took a controversial penalty in the sixth minute of injury-time for their jeers to turn to cheers. Debutant Kelechi Iheanacho, who had come on for Maeda with 20 minutes of regulation time remaining, showed immense composure when he stepped up and converted from 12 yards.
Many of the fans who had refused to take their seats before kick-off leapt out of their seats and jumped over the advertising hoardings so they could celebrate with the players on the pitch.
It was ironic that two guys who arrived during the final days of the transfer window, Saracchi and Iheanacho, set up and scored the goals which clinched victory for Celtic and sent them back above Hearts at the top of the league table on goal difference.
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Weren’t the punters revolting because their transfer business had been so poor? Their team would have lost the encounter had it not been for the crucial contributions of the two new boys. The neutral observer would have argued they were being a little over the top. Their counterparts at clubs who can only dream of the sort of domestic success they have enjoyed in recent years have been withering about their discontent. First world problems much?
But Peter from Robroyston thinks their grievances are valid. “Celtic fans protested in the 1990s years ago or so when the people were running the club into the ground,” he said. “They took us to the brink of bankruptcy. Fergus [McCann] came in and we survived.
“This is probably an unprecedented period of success in our history. But that still doesn’t mean we aren’t entitled to want better, to want the very best. The way the club is being run isn’t good enough and there needs to be change.”
If Brendan Rodgers can get his new look side to gel quickly then they should see off Hearts’ challenge and cruise to a fifth successive title come May. Sebastian Tounekti looked like a footballer out on the left wing, Saracchi made a difference and Tounekti buried his spot kick confidently in difficult circumstances.
But they were lucky. The penalty award was soft to say the least. They need to find form quickly and start winning more convincingly. The anger in the stands, which was not at the level it was 31 years ago when they were saved from extinction, will most likely dissipate if they do. If they fail to hit their stride, though, then things could get ugly.
The protests today were rather flat, a bit of a damp squib, truth be told. Rodgers is hoping everyone at the club can settle their differences and work together as one to land more silverware.
“It's been a challenging couple of weeks,” he said. “As a manager and a supporter of Celtic, I don't really like to see that, I really don't. For us, we want to be always together, and we always want to be the very best that we can be as a football club. The quicker we can find that, then the stronger we will be.
“Until that moment comes and there's some differences, which I have a respect for, I need to make sure that the team is focused and I manage the situation the best I possibly can to make sure we keep getting the results. It is a challenge, but that's the job of the manager, to deal with it.”
