SPL Tonight: Celtic's Turn For Catching Up

Celtic v Hibs

Rangers 2-0 win at St Johnstone has knocked Celtic off their perch at the top of the SPL.

Things could be worse. Celtic now have a game in hand and are only a point behind as their rivals count the cost of Dundee United's Ibrox win on Saturday.

Playing catch up might carry its own pressures. But it should also bring motivation.

Celtic have to be strong favourites tonight. On Sunday Hibs showed off both the progress they have made and their continued frailties in both attack and defence as Hearts' secured a point at Easter Road.

They remain undefeated in seven though and Celtic will need to guard against complacency.

Still have to expect a home win.

Motherwell v Dundee United

Stuart McCall's Motherwell are quite the teases, are they not?

After consistent inconsistency they wallop United 3-0 in the Scottish Cup and turn over Aberdeen as part of the undercard to Craig Brown and John Boyle's unlikely pugilist world title fight.

For their part United dusted themselves down after their Scottish Cup exit to give Ibrox the blues of Saturday.

Topsy-turvy.

A win tonight for the home side will settle the top six. But really, who knows what to expect.

Both are buoyant but I'll back United to extract a modicum of revenge.

Away win.

St Mirren v Aberdeen

Joy unconfined for St Mirren at the weekend as they put Hamilton to the sword. That 3-1 win doesn't guarantee St Mirren's SPL status but it goes a long way to removing the threat of relegation.

Aberdeen's season would now seem to be focused on their Scottish Cup semi final with Celtic, their league progress having stalled somewhat of late.

Their defeat at Motherwell will have smarted though and they'll be keen not to have second bottom St Mirren breathing down their necks.

Could be a tight one. Draw.

Hibs v Hearts: Expert Condemns Fans

Apoplexy unbound on blogs and in the Twittersphere at Craig Brown's contretemps with John Boyle on Saturday.

"One rule for one...."

"Why aren't the police/SFA/politicians getting involved?"

All bollocks.

The police were involved, were on the scene. Brown's post match comments attested to that.

The SFA have now confirmed they will act, as we must surely have expected they would.

Politicians didn't get involved because no policemen had called for Motherwell v Aberdeen to be banned in the build-up to the game.

As far as I'm aware nor did a senior officer publicly call for the government to get involved in the aftermath of the game.

I'm fed up saying that the focus on the Old Firm Scottish Cup replay and the fall out from it came about because of the scrutiny the game was always going to be under. So I'll not say it again.

Anyhow, the contrived outrage at the Brown-Boyle bust-up took the spotlight off a more serious issue raised by this weekend's SPL games.

The Scotsman reports:

Dr John Kelly, an expert in sport and sectarianism at Edinburgh University, said he could clearly hear the singing of offensive chants by both Hibs and Hearts supporters during the match at Easter Road.

He also said he was shocked to witness Hibs supporters close to where he was sitting hurling missiles - including a slice of pizza and a large cup of soft drink - from their seats towards the Easter Road pitch, and at the sight of dozens of Hearts fans leaping over barriers to goad their rivals after snatching a late equaliser.

The Scotsman can reveal 20 fans were thrown out of the stadium for "unruly behaviour" by police or stewards, with a further three arrested for alleged drunkenness and encroaching on to the pitch.

These figures compared to six arrests at the recent Old Firm cup final and 34 at the previous Celtic-Rangers encounter at Parkhead that triggered a Scottish Government investigation into bigotry and violence problems in the game.

Dr Kelly, who claims to have no affiliation with either Hibs or Hearts, said: "The latest Hibs-Hearts derby at Easter Road exposed the bigoted, intolerant and inflammatory behaviour of some Edinburgh fans that seems to have escaped scrutiny from the police and media alike.

"Tackling ethno-religious bigotry requires all guilty parties are held culpable if genuine solutions are to be found."

He told The Scotsman: "It was certainly not two or three supporters. I am talking hundreds who were all around me, who were singing 'Rudi Skacel's a f***ing refugee'. And there were thousands of Hearts supporters singing about being 'up to their knees in Fenian blood'.

"In many ways there was a great atmosphere, but there is no doubt these chants are bigoted and offensive. The conduct of a lot of supporters was completely unacceptable.

"I watched around 20 missiles being thrown from the Hibs end when a Hearts player went to take a corner, including a slice of pizza and a full cup of soft drink.

"When Hearts equalised, around 30 of their supporters, tried to encroach onto the sidelines and some got on to the pitch."

A Hibs forum is also carrying reports of missiles, including lighters and coins, being thrown in the East Stand which missed their intended targets and instead hit the fans sitting nearer the pitch.

Another forum contribution suggests a father had to stop his young son from innocently joining in with one of the more personal ditties sections of the Hibs support were aiming at a Hearts player.

Some sympathy, then, for Old Firm fans who claim that "it's not just us."

Less for any fans who claim politicians and the authorities should leave football alone or that this behaviour is somehow acceptable because it helps preserve the passion that is football's heritage, defending us from the evil forces who would insist on a sanitised version of the game.

Because calling someone a refugee or singing about fenian blood when Hibs and Hearts are producing a game that had passion enough is not about the heritage of the game. It's about idiots being given a platform to display their ignorance and football's continued impotence in the face of that.

The Scottish game is beleaguered enough. It needs to attract fans, it needs to be inclusive. Condoning by inaction behaviour that is increasingly anachronistic in a modern society, behaviour that would be unacceptable anywhere else, is not the way to attract fans or secure the game's future.

I don't know what the answer is, I suspect solutions will not be easily found or quickly implemented.

But football is now in the spotlight. It need to at least acknowledge that we need to have the discussion.

SPL Today: Hibs v Hearts

Colin Calderwood recently had the pleasure of meeting me for the first time.

Truth be told, I’d possibly over indulged.

Drink beer and wine you'll feel fine. But when you drink wine and beer you'll feel queer.

Quite.

So my attempts to congratulate him on Hibs’ recent run of form possibly sounded a little like:

“See me, Col, I’m a bit pished.”

But he’s a very approachable chap, smiled benignly and said that he had much work still to do.

And indeed he does.

His tenure at Hibs has been short but not without challenges. He took over a failing team and it continued to fail.

Faced with both a bleak league table and a squad that clearly did not impress him, he then had to use the transfer window to halt a decline that was beginning to look perilously like a manifesto for relegation.

He pulled that off. Hibs have won five of their last six games, only a draw at St Johnstone denying them 18 points from 18.

That’s impressive. More so when we consider that this has been done with a team that bears little resemblance to the one John Hughes started the season with.

It’s quite unusual in Scottish football for a manager to scrape together such a transformation in the January transfer window. It’s unheard of at Easter Road.

So Calderwood has laid aside his faltering start, begun to sweep out the mess left by his predecessor and taken some steps towards convincing the fans that here is a manager who can prosper at a club that has recently shown a remarkable intolerance to any perceived weaknesses in the dugout.

As a Hibs fan all of this heartens me.

And that should mean I’m feeling reasonably confident about today’s derby.

Well, to an extent.

Partly my trepidation comes from too much experience of Hearts-ache. Partly it’s because I am, by nature, predisposed to take a bleak view of the world and everyone and everything that’s in it.

Those are general, lasting reasons for a sense of pre-derby misgiving.

There are also more pressing concerns for this afternoon.

The fact that Hibs haven’t played a competitive game since March 5th means, at the very least, they are going into this one short of match practice or any real guide to their form. That could either be a good thing or a bad thing.

The six game undefeated run has been welcome, it’s been enjoyable and calmed talk of a club in crisis.

But Kilmarnock are the highest placed side to have been beaten. There’s been no test against the Old Firm, no measure of progress against a form team like Dundee United.

A new look side has done well to win so many games as they searched for cohesion and understanding in the squad.

Yet even taking into account the slight halt to Hearts’ progress as they find themselves bogged down in the no man’s land of third place, a derby represents a completely different challenge for Hibs.

They could well prove up to that task but it remains something of a step into the unknown.

Hearts have also won the last four of these clashes and are now undefeated in six. We have to go back to Derek Riordan’s late penalty at Tynecastle in May 2009 for the last Hibs win.

All of which serves to dampen my ardour for proceedings. And yet...

Certainly I’d be disappointed and a touch surprised if Hibs appear as devoid of intent and purpose as they have done in the previous two clashes this season.

This is, for all that they’re relatively untested, a Hibs team with more edge, more thrust and an added stomach for the fight. Hearts should find more resistance as they attempt to impose themselves on Easter Road.

In Richie Towell and Callum Booth the home side have full backs who are capable of giving Hearts’ midfielders and defence pause for thought. Akpo Sodje gives an added dimension in attack, Derek Riordan retains a certain enigmatic quality.

Victor Palsson’s injury in Iceland’s under-21 clash against England is a concern. He’s become a combative component of a midfield that Calderwood has transformed into a more formidable unit. Here’s a 19 year old who does not look like an Edinburgh derby would give him any reason to be fazed.

It’s a different Hibs, a better Hibs.

All of this leaves me searching for a prediction. Into the mix I must throw Hibs’ improvement, Hearts’ slight slips, Hibs’ inactivity, my own pessimism, Hibs’ new faces and the added pressures and dig of a derby clash.

Which, when processed, means?

I really don’t know. I expect this one to be close. I don’t expect Hearts to be able to dictate the way they did earlier in the season.

These are games that rarely throw up treats for the neutral footballing aesthete. If the sides are more evenly matched then we might find the game turning on an individual contribution, be it a flash of brilliance, an honest mistake or a moment of madness.

And that can make a game something of a lottery.

Which drags me inexorably towards predicting a draw. With the proviso that either team could sneak this one by the odd goal.

Apologies if that’s about as decisive as a tactics talk from John Hughes. But there we have it.

I’m feeling sick with nerves already.

Hibs v Hearts: The Tynecastle View

The first of The Scottish Football Blog's derby day previews comes from Craig Cairns, the force behind Three at the Back and a supporter of the boys in maroon:

After two solid months of nothing but Old Firm matches, attention now turns to Easter Road for Scotland’s real showcase football match. Hearts will be looking to make it five wins in-a-row against their Edinburgh rivals but will surely face a sterner test this time around from a resurgent Hibs team.

Hearts without a number of players

Jim Jefferies is without a number of key players heading into Sunday’s match. Eggert Jonsson and Adrian Mrowiec are suspended; Kevin Kyle, Lee Wallace and Calum Elliot are all out injured, whereas Rudi Skacel, Marius Zaliukas and Suso Santana are doubts. Consequently, Hearts find themselves light in almost every area of the pitch.

Whereas Hibs now have a settled back four, the Hearts defence has chopped and changed in recent weeks. Full-back has proved to be a problem position all season. Ruben Palazuelos has deputised adequately for long-term absentee Lee Wallace at left-back but his services would have been more beneficial in the centre of midfield due to the lack of options there.

Right-back has been more of an issue and with Jonsson suspended, Craig Thomson looks set to start. Although a full-back by trade, Thomson has looked unsteady defensively this season and has shown that his best qualities lie in deliveries into the box, be it from open play or from dead ball situations. He started on the right-wing against Dundee United recently but was moved back to his natural position as a consequence of the erratic and reckless performance of Ismael Bouzid.

No matter who starts, right-back is a weak spot in the Hearts back four, which will otherwise consist of a central defensive pairing of Andy Webster and Marius Zaliukas, should the Lithuanian pass fit.

Formation and the midfield battle

At half time in their most recent match, and trailing 1-0 at home to St. Mirren, Jefferies switched his side to a 4-4-2, sacrificing holding midfielder Mrowiec in favour of another striker. Hearts went on to win the match 3-2, however, it would mistaken to deduce from this that they will start with four in midfield and two up front on Sunday.

Hearts were chasing the game and required a dramatic change in approach after an inept first forty-five minutes. Lining-up with a midfield of Skacel and Black flanked by two wingers would inevitably lead to Hearts losing the midfield battle as Hibs have vastly improved in this area since the last time the sides met.

The starting position of Colin Calderwood’s side sees them line-up in a narrow 4-1-3-2 formation, which becomes a 4-2-3-1 of sorts when Martin Scott pushes on, David Wotherspoon pulls wide right and Derek Riordan drops deep and wide left. Victor Palsson is deployed as a regista and is vital to Calderwood’s system. He is also a doubt for Sunday but should he and Skacel overcome their knocks, then this will be one of the game’s key battles. As well as dictating play from deep, Palsson will be tasked of keeping Skacel quiet, a tactic that a few other sides have successfully employed against Hearts in recent months.

From a Hearts perspective, Skacel is expected to not only create and score goals, but, being in that area of the pitch, to pay close attention to Palsson when not in possession. Much like the way he nullified the threat of Liam Miller in Hearts’ 2-0 victory at Easter Road earlier in the season.

Martin Scott is another key man in the Hibs midfield. His energy is exceptional, he looks like he can score goals and is prepared to graft and do the dirty work. I fear that the central midfield of Hearts, which will likely consist of Black and Stevenson as the holding pair with Skacel in a more advanced position, will be overrun and Hibs will dominate as a consequence.

Goals a worry for Hearts

Despite three goals in their most recent outing, Hearts have struggled for to find the net of late, managing only five in the eight matches previous to the victory over St. Mirren. The prolonged absence of Kevin Kyle has left Hearts bereft of an adequate target man. When at their peak this season, the midfield runners of Hearts thrived on Kyle’s ability to hold the ball up and link play.

Hearts have struggled to fill the position since his absence. Stephen Elliott has been marginally better than the other aspirants and will likely start. He has displayed an ability to score a few goals despite not being entirely suited to a lone-striking role. What can be frustrating to watch is when Hearts ignore the obvious mismatch in height between Elliott and most central defenders, yet insist on lumping long balls towards him.

In attack for Hibs, Ricadro Vaz Te looks to be an astute acquisition for Hibs although he has struggled for match fitness. Even more so now that Hibs have just completed an entire month without a competitive match. Whether he or Akpo Sodje starts, the Hibs attack is an entirely different proposition than in recent Edinburgh derbies. Derek Riordan was isolated as a lone-striker in Hearts’ 2-0 win at Easter Road earlier in the season and Valdas Trayks was similarly anonymous in the same role at Tynecastle on New Year’s Day.

Prediction

Hibs are the form side going into the match, unbeaten in the last six, even though five of these matches have been against sides in the bottom six. Nevertheless, how the break has affected Hibs will go a long way to determining the outcome of the match. It will be interesting to see whether a month without a competitive fixture will have a detrimental effect on them or not.

The home side have a settled back four now, Booth and Towell look dangerous when they push on and Stephen Elliott may struggle to get an inch from Dickoh and Hanlon. Without Mrowiec and Jonsson, and with Palazuelos required at left-back, Hearts look weak in the centre of the pitch and I expect Palsson, Scott and Miller to dominate.

Hearts have a lot of players missing and will likely get plenty of men behind the ball and attempt to hit on the break, and if players like Templeton, Skacel and Driver hit form, then Hearts always have a chance of scoring.

1-1.

Follow Craig on Twitter @Threeattheback

SPL Today: Four Out Of Five

2nd of April in the SPL. And still the postponements come.

Inverness v Celtic, today's early kick off, was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch.

This season might never end. And we'll have the joy of moaning, accusations and counter-accusations caused by the the number of games that need to be squeezed in before the split.

The joys...

Motherwell v Aberdeen

Motherwell's defeat of Dundee United in the cup this week confirmed them as the SPL's least consistent side. Good follows bad follows mediocre follows excellent.

So who knows what to expect today. A bit of a sub-plot offered by the return of Craig Brown as well.

I'll say draw.

Rangers v Dundee United

Celtic's postponement means the Old Firm will both played 28 games after this one.

And a Rangers win will send them top. United might still be somewhat shocked by the shellacking they took on Wednesday night.

Big game, big stakes. I can't see Rangers slipping up.

Home win.

St Johnstone v Kilmarnock

What does life after Mixu hold for Kilmarnock. His departure this week was a bitter blow for one of this season's SPL success stories.

Kenny Shiels' interim appointment offers continuity and its up to him make sure the players aren't badly affected by the shock of Killie's loss.

St Johnstone haven't won in six and have had four draws in that run of results.

More of the same today. Draw.

St Mirren v Hamilton

Hamilton are now such habitués of the last chance saloon that they've got their own cushioned bar stool and a silver tankard hanging behind the bar.

But this surely must be it. Do or die. Win or be relegated.

Sadly I think they're no longer masters of their own destiny, the club's been enveloped by the relegation crisis and the players are powerless to stop it.

Home win.

Friday Video: Busby, Stein and Shankly

Recent commutes have been leavened by Barney Ronay's The Manager: The Absurd Ascent of the Most Important Man in Football.

It's in turns mildly diverting, reasonably interesting and laugh out loud funny.

And, of course, no discussion of the role of the manager without reference to management's tartan trinity.

Sent forth from the very bowels of the Ayrshire and Lanarkshire coalfields, it seemed Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein were put on this earth to bend football clubs, and the game itself, to their will.

As Ronay writes:

"Busby, Shankly, Stein. This is our managerial supergroup. They're like the members of Cream, if Eric Clapton had been joined not by some other excellent 1960s musicians, but by Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix and Liberace.

"Each brought something different, his own virtuoso guitar solo, drum break or shrieking signature vocal. Busby gave the preacherly and the paternal tone, father and Father rolled into one. Shankly brought an urgently vocal presence. Stein was the Big Man, the beacon, the lighthouse."

Each rebuilt clubs from inauspicious beginnings. Manchester United were near bankrupt and bombed out when Busby took over. Liverpool were in the Second Division when Shankly arrived. Celtic had won the league only once since war when Stein was appointed in 1965.

All stories that have been oft repeated, all stories that remain remarkable despite that familiarity.

In an ideal world, a planet free of copyright and rights issues, this week's Friday video would centre on Hugh McIlvanney's three part Arena documentary for the BBC: Busby, Stein and Shankly - The Football Men.

Instead we'll turn to the most publicly vocal of the three. That might be fitting, it's easy to imagine Busby and Stein giving their smiling acquiescence as Shankly, as ever, demanded the last word.

Bill Shankly on Matt Busby

Bill Shankly on Jock Stein

Bill Shankly on Bill Shankly

SFA: Peat Eyes Top FIFA Job

It appears we might not be shot of him yet.

As George Peat's tenure as SFA chairman enters its final few months, amid ongoing controversy, he has emerged as a realistic contender to challenge Sepp Blatter in the forthcoming FIFA presidential elections.

Although a divisive figure in Scotland, Peat's candidacy could find favour in the broader footballing world.

Already the other three home nations have fallen behind the former Airdrie man.

Northern Ireland and Wales see a successful bid from Peat as offering the most satisfactory end to damaging debates about a British team competing at the Olympics.

The English FA have come on board after Peat, supported by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor, persuaded them that a home nations president - the first since Sir Stanley Rous left the post in 1974 - was the best way of ridding the governing body of the anti-English sentiment that soured England's recent World Cup bid.

Sources within the SFA and FA refused to confirm that Peat may also have left a possible deal over an English World Cup in 2026 on the table.

Taylor's influence has also helped soothe Peat's passage to world football's top job inside UEFA where the SFA president's tact and diplomacy are far more admired than they are in Scotland.

Peat's age and lack of enemies in the wider football world have convinced UEFA chief Michel Platini that the Scotsman can serve as a viable anti-Blatter candidate.

A gentleman's agreement will see Peat transfer his support to Platini ahead of the next elections.

Although Mohamed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation, was set to formally announce his own candidacy today it now seems he will step aside to back Peat.

The Qatari is keen to build relationships across the footballing world ahead of what is predicted to be a controversial build up to the 2022 World Cup.

He has also been persuaded that a pooling of Asia and Europe's resources in a united campaign for Peat will neutralise the financial strength of Blatter's FIFA-backed re-election bid.

Bin Hammam will delegate Asian football's chief strategist Cancan Hick Fee Gnu to co-ordinate a global campaign that will stress both Peat's capacity to unify the game and trade on lingering resentments over Blatter's turbulent time in charge.

The monetary clout of a joint campaign will also allow Peat's supporters to buy favour around the world. The home nations are already on standby to rethink their international friendly strategies should they be called on to make goodwill visits to countries who fall into line behind Peat's presidential bid.

The promotion of George Peat as a unity candidate will raise eyebrows in Scotland where his SFA term has been dogged by division and controversy, most recently in a series of damaging run-ins with Celtic.

It is believed that Stewart Regan, chief executive of the SFA, formulated the idea for Peat's presidential bid after discussions with Neil Doncaster, his SPL counterpart.

Both men believe that the dual benefits of added influence at FIFA and the removal of Peat from domestic football will allow them to concentrate fully on rebuilding the Scottish game.

It seems the dinosaur might not yet be extinct.

FIFA's elections will be held on June 1st in Zurich's Alp Fir Solo Conference Centre.