Another incredible Celtic year

What an amazing year, glorious and tragic in equal measures as we enter 2009 with 4-in-a-row in sight and our city rivals on the brink of more upheaval as we strengthen our domestic dominance.

HAPPY NEW YEAR VIDEO

Winning at Ibrox was the perfect way to end the year, a win that meant much much more than three points, welcome as they were.

Earlier this year we were way behind Rangers, back-to-back defeats at Ibrox and at home to ten man Motherwell seemed to be the end of the road and a long painful close season in the shadow of a Rangers treble win and a possible UEFA Cup triumph to eclipse the joys of Seville held dear by a generation of Celtic fans.

How could that happen?

Thankfully it never came to pass, Rangers drew away to Dundee United, the door opened a little, we hammered Motherwell at Fir Park, beat Rangers back to back and after the horrible death of Tommy Burns and his uplifting funeral we were partying from Tannadice to Paradice and beyond as an unlikely championship was warmly greeted.

Perhaps you need to stare despair in the face to fully appreciate triumph but I wouldn't recommend it.

Again this season we've had our trials, watching Rangers win 4-2 at Celtic Park, a flattering scoreline on the day, was grim and scary as even Arthur Boruc lost his edge and a testing season loomed ahead whilst Rangers concentrated on the SPL as we faced the additional challenge of the Champions League.

The manager, the team and the squad have answered the challenge, 3-in-a-row hasn't made them complacent, it's made them hungry and the desire to avoid dark days is fresh enough to keep the team winning.

Twelve SPL wins on the bounce through autumn was a great achievement but there was still one question lurking over most of the present team... can they win at Ibrox?

Despite the title wins and Champions League qualifications there was still a cloud over the side cast by three straight defeats at Ibrox without even a goal scored.

Walter Smith's derby day record had taken a jolt in April with back-to-back defeats at Celtic Park but that 4-2 win gave legitimate grounds for concern and questions to be asked of the current team.

Did they have it in them to win at Ibrox against Rangers?

Were Hartley, Brown, McDonald, Caldwell, Robson and Samaras capable of winning at Ibrox, especially when the side is depleted?

Without Aiden McGeady, Shunsuke Nakamura, Shaun Maloney and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink fit only for the bench Celtic emerged winners, deserved winners with the players reputations enhanced by the result.

It wasn't pretty but the team held firm, limited Rangers chances and when the moment came Scott McDonald showed class in his finish to join that elite group of Celts to have scored the winner at Ibrox.

The new year promises much, a squad hopefully returning towards full strength homing in on the title and perhaps domestic silverware as well to cushion the blow of no European football.

JANUARY

Begins tragically with the death of Phil O'Donnell, never the greatest of Celtic players but a local boy that lived the dream, wore the hoops and refused to buckle despite the constant injuries that hampered his Celtic career. On 9 May 1998 Phil played his part on a great Celtic day as St Johnstone were beaten 2-0 to secure 1-in-a-row and end a near decade of misery. Barry Robson and Georgios Samaras join the club after the earlier signing of Andreas Hinkel from Seville.

FEBRUARY

Two impressive 5-1 away wins to begin the month away to Kilmarnock and Aberdeen with some special magic from Aiden McGeady the highlight at Pittodrie. Barcelona called and truth be told they wiped the floor with us, after six straight Champions League wins at home Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and the rest give us the runaround despite the 3-2 scoreline.

MARCH

I'd rather forget. Out of the Champions League after a 0-1 in the Camp Nou is more acceptable than losing a Scottish Cup replay at home to Aberdeen after snatching a draw right at the death of the first match. A miserable month ends with a 1-0 defeat at Ibrox as the SPL slips almost out of sight.

APRIL

More misery as Motherwell win 1-0 at Celtic Park but two wins over Rangers keep the SPL race alive although help is required from elsewhere... assuming that we're capable of winning our remaining matches. Nakamura and big Jan score wonderful and contrasting goals in the 2-1 victory with McDonald and Robson the matchwinners in the 3-2 game.

MAY

Sadness and shock as Tommy Burns loses his fight with cancer just months after being part of the dug-out, an incredible turn out in Glasgow's East End mourn the loss just two days before the league is won at Tannadice with Jan the man again as the celebrations kick-off. Tannadice was a great setting to win the league, the United supporters concerned only with football matters and perhaps a little appreciative of Celtic's win after some rough decisions against Rangers in recent months.

AUGUST

Back for more but no big name signings, Shaun Maloney returns, Samaras's loan becomes permanent but a 4-2 loss from Rangers wasn't predicted whilst the Champions League draw pairs us with Manchester United, again, Villarreal, again and Aalborg.

SEPTEMBER

The start of a recovery, a devastating first half at Motherwell with four goals scored, another convincing win away to Kilmarnock but just one point from six in the Champions League ahead of the double header with Manchester United.

OCTOBER

Another clean sweep of SPL wins but nothing yet in the Champions League as we lose 3-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford. Striking situation getting very concerning with McDonald left on his own at Old Trafford although Cillian Sheridan emerges from virtually nowhere to score in his first SPL start against Hibs.

NOVEMBER

Champions League, and European exit, after losing disastrously away to Aalborg after taking the lead. Six minutes from a home win over Manchester United thanks to a brilliant Scott McDonald goal but deep down most of us knew that we weren't equipped for the Champions League, however a UEFA Cup run would have been a decent consolation. Another clean sweep of SPL wins.

DECEMBER

Arthur has a wobbler at Hibs, Aiden and Gordon go bonkers against Hearts, Koki Mizuno scores on his debut at Falkirk and delight as Scott McDonald's goal beats Rangers to spark a flurry of text and emails involving McDonald's and 7up.

Hail Hail and here's to 09

A wonderful Christmas time

How good was that?

Skippy's Christmas special video

As a game it was woeful, barely anything of note, hardly any goalmouth incidents, not many outstanding performances and few incidents or controversies.

But we all know that it's not just a game, it's not 90 minutes and three points. Winning at Ibrox is simply wonderful, in the mid eighties we had a regular run of it and again in the first half of this decade the wins came fairly regularly as well, even inspiring the stat the Neil Lennon won more SPL games at Ibrox than the messiah known as Paul le Guen.

Lenny was back at Ibrox again yesterday but a new generation of Celts added the label of 'Won at Ibrox' line to their cv.

SPL winners, some two or three times over, Champions League qualifiers, again achieved twice by some of the players.

Last season's title triumph was awesome and we're still feeding off it. The dark scary days that followed that home defeat from Motherwell are history as seven wins on the bounce, two over UEFA Cup finalists gave us a fantastic and unexpected league win on that strange, glorious and emotional night at Tannadice as our dreams came true.

Those league winners are now getting cocky, strutting their stuff and even a 2-4 loss to Rangers in August hasn't dented their confidence. A punishing Champions League campaign saw them bounce back domestically to overtake Rangers who had the benefits of a full week to prepare for SPL action as Gordon Strachan attempted success on two fronts against an injury list that almost became overwhelming.

The build up to Ibrox was dominated by who wouldn't be playing, no Shaun Maloney or suspended Aiden McGeady, Marc Crossas still short of match fitness, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink missing for three months and doubts over the match fitness of Barry Robson and Paul Hartley.

Pre-match and Shunsuke Nakamura is also out of the picture with flu and by half-time Andreas Hinkel has been kicked off the park. Despite those circumstances the resolve was solid stemming from a battle hardened core of Stephen McManus and Gary Caldwell through Hartley, Robson and Scott Brown to the magnificent Scott McDonald.

Our moany faced goal machine wasn't getting much support from Georgios Samaras whose going through an infuriating spell of almost always making the wrong decisions whatever the situation.

Remaining on the ball too long, passing when he shouldn't, beating one man too many and losing possession are all features of Sammy's play recently and they were in evidence again at Ibrox.

Until, until until the 57th minute when he got in a header in front of Davie Weir; with his back to goal McDonald knew exactly what he was doing.

With one touch on his chest to tame the ball, McDonald teed things up as he turned around to leave Kirk Broadfoot catching flies before skelping the ball over Allan McGregor into the net from 18 yards out before spinning away to celebrate in front of the Celtic support.

It was a moment of class and composure and richly deserved for McDonald who quickly corrected his scoring record against Rangers to 'three in two' from 'three in five' when he was interviewed on Setanta after the match.

Darren O'Dea was ready to come on before the goal was scored, Strachan stuck with his convictions and sent the Dubliner on in place of Koki Mizuno with O'Dea moving to left back pushing Lee Naylor further forward.

There was little threat from Rangers, although fraught with tension and fear of an equaliser there was no real panic with the central defenders dealing easily with Rangers crosses into the box and protecting the still shaky Artur Boruc.

When called upon the keeper was up to the challenge, blocking purposefully from Kris Boyd early in the second half when the striker was sent through on goal.

After the match the reaction from Celtic was sensible and restrained but after turning around a seven point deficit last season the same group of players are unlikely to throw away a seven point advantage on the back of a win at Ibrox.

The depth and determination of the squad has been tested and came out on top with a seven point advantage through the trickiest of circumstances.

The Aiden McGeady incident has strengthened the hand of a manager who will never please a large section of the Celtic support but his stubborn desire to succeed can never be doubted.

The next game with Rangers is only five SPL games away. The gap between the top two is more likely to be extended rather than trimmed, if that is the case Celtic have the ideal opportunity on February 15 to put the SPL beyond Rangers.

Having fought and scrapped their way into this position it's highly unlikely that complacency will be an issue, especially with a squad of 20 players all capable of playing their part and entitled to think of themselves as first team starters.

Happy Christmas Hoops.