Frail joy as title triumph gets closer

Stevie Frail was delighted by his side's performance to beat Hibs today to move to a point away from clinching the championship.

Goals from James Keatings and Greig Spence put a smile on the coach's face with just one point required from the last two matches against Aberdeen and Hearts to put the title beyond Rangers.

"We're getting close to winning the league and that can get nervy," Frail said. "I though that we were terrific today, especially in the first half.

"They passed and moved the ball well, scored a good goal and there didn't seem to be any tension in their play.

"We got the second goal at a good time and looked comfortable after that. 

"The players were told to look only at this game, take each game on it's merit and not be sidetracked. If they play as they can and work as we ask them to then there should be no problems."

Keatings spectacular goal in the 28th minute killed off any nagging fears of a frustrating afternoon in front of goal.

During the first part of the season Keatings was used mainly on the wing but has moved inside in recent months with Sean Fitzharris taking over out wide.

Frail explained: "James has scored a few good goals this season, he got a top class goal down at Kilmarnock.

"He played well earlier in the season coming in off the wing, he was hard to pick up. At times we've had to put him in the middle and he's did well there in recent matches especially against Livingston and Rangers. 

"We're always at him to shoot but at the right times. Sometimes he pulls the trigger when he's not set and skies it but today he took a touch in the middle of the park, opened up his body, looked to shoot and struck it well and their 'keeper couldn't reach it."

Spence scored for the seveth game running with the former Alloa striker visibly growing in confidence game by game.

As well as having the priceless knack of anticipating where the ball will drop in the penalty area the striker has developed the art of getting himself in front of defenders and turning quickly despite taking some hefty 'treatment' from opponents.

"Long may Greig's scoring run continue," Frail added. "He led the line very well today and is a nuisance for defenders. He's gaining in confidence with every game.

"That's not just from his goals but from his performance against Rangers which was arguably his best game for us."

Celtic 2-0 Hibs match report

Alkmaar friendly in doubt

Celtic's friendly with AZ Alkmaar on Wednedsay is in doubt with flights throughout Scotland still banned.

The Dutch side are scheduled to fly into Glasgow on Tuesday but already there are reports that all flights could be grounded until the middle of the week at least due to the Icelandic volcanic ash.

Celtic are expecting to make an announcement on the game going ahead or not on Monday as they monitor the flight conditions on a day by day basis.

Uefa will also be watching matters carefully with Barcelona due to fly to Milan on Monday ahead of their Champions League semi-final with Inter the following day.

Expecting Barcelona to travel by coach or train would be impossible however Lyon's trip to play Bayern Munich shouldn't be in any doubt with just 350 miles seperating the two cities.

Update, Uefa have announced that both semi finals will go ahead, if Barca are facing a coach trip to the San Siro a bet on Inter should provide extra value after they won home and away in the last two rounds of the Champions League.

Celtic u-19's on brink of title triumph

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Youths move to a point from title celebration

Celtic's u-19 side are within touching distance of the league title after beating Hibs 2-0 today while Rangers lost 2-1 at Aberdeen.

Those results put Celtic twelve points ahead of Rangers who have four games left to play. The Ibrox kids haven't won any of their last four games with Celtic now needing just a point from their two remaining matches, against Aberdeen and Hearts to put the title beyond reach.

Rangers play Hibs in midweek with anything less than a win conforming Celtic as champions.

James Keatings and Greig Spence were on target today as Celtic beat Hins with something to spare with the added bonus of James Forest returning to the team.

There was no sign of title nerves as Celtic took the game to Hibs straight from the kick-off with Spence sending a glancing header looping over the bar in the fifth minute following a great cut-back from Forest.

Celtic were dominating the game with the midfield trio of Darren McCauley, Callum Bagshaw and Keatings all interchaning and linking well with the strikers.

The goal that Celtic had been threatening duly arrived in the 28th minute and was another spectacular strike from Keatings.

Richie Towell's throw in was returned by Sean Fitzharris to the full-back who slipped the ball to Keatings, after sidestepping one Hibs player Keatings powered an unstoppable 25 yard drive low beyond the Hibs keeper.

The goal was no more than Celtic deserved with Forest almost doubling the lead three minutes later but his 18 yard shot was blocked by the Hibs keeper.

Bagshaw, Forest and Spence all had chances to increase the lead before the break with the slick passing and movement carving open the Hibs defence.

Celtic picked things up quickly after the break with a one-two between Forest and Spence five minutes into the second half ending with the former Alloa striker being blocked off just as he was about to shoot.

Spence wasn't to be denied however and scored for the seventh game running in the 58th minute when he found space at the back post to head home a Fitzharris from the left.

After going two goals up the pace dropped a little allowing Hibs to come more into the match but they rarely looked like getting back into the match.

There was still half an hour to play in the Aberdeen-Rangers game when the final whistle blew with the score tied at 1-1.

Aberdeen's late winner means that Celtic can only be beaten on goal difference by Rangers- on today's form the young hoops are worthy champions and will be looking to win the championship by as big a margin as possible.

CELTIC: Guardino; Towell, Hughes, D Gallagher, Lowden; Bagshaw, Keatings, McCauley, Fitzharris, Spence, Forest. SUBS F Twardzik (Forest) Kennedy, Jones, McGregor, Young, O'Donnell.

Youths step up title bid

Celtic's youth side can take a significant step towards winning the championship by beating Hibs at Lennoxtown today, kick-off 1pm.

Stevie Frail's side require seven points from their last three matches to take the title- assuming that Rangers win all five of their remaining matches which are all away from home.

Rangers face Aberdeen today with a 1.30pm kick off knowing that they must win and hope for results elsewhere to keep their hopes alive- a bit like the first team situation in reverse.

After today Celtic have to play Hibs at home and finish the campaign away to Hearts on May 1, three days after the SFA Youth Cup Final against Rangers at Hampden.

SPL u-19 table
SPL u-19 fixtures.

Rangers and the £108m debt

The Herald newspaper has redeemed itself to a great extent today revealing that Rangers owe £108m to Murray Group Holdings.

The same newspaper has run various stories over the last few months proclaiming that various individuals are on the verge of buying Rangers suggesting that a £30m bid is all that is required to make the garden rosy again.

£30m or less may buy Rangers but with the overall debt of Murray Group Holdings causing Lloyds/TSB serious concern they are unlikely to allow a fairly cash-rich part of the empire be given away at a bargain price.

The level of debt owed to the Murray Group explains why no local businessmen have given serious thought to buying Rangers.

Anyone looking to buy Rangers is likely to require to pay off a serious chunk of the debt to the Murray Group, make a realistic offer for Sir David Murray's shares and also satisfy Llyods/TSB that they have a sound business plan to pay off the debt in a realistic time frame.

Until those conditions are met Rangers can expect to function in the same manner as they have over the last 18 months with incoming transfers unlikely regardless of how much money the club generates.

How Celtic capitalise on this is the question for the Celtic board- whoever takes over as manager from Tony Mowbray will comeinto the job knowing that their only domestic rivals are at their lowest possible ebb.
Herald story

Youths on the brink of title success despite the lack of sporting integrity

With sporting integrity returning to the footballing agenda it's perhaps appropriate to highlight the obstacles that Celtic's u-19 side have overcome to take them to within touching distance of the championship.

A 22 game season could almost be described as a sprint rather than a marathon making a decent mix of home and away fixtures of extra significance.

While Celtic and ten of the other clubs have managed to achieve that Rangers have found themselves in a very strange run of fixtures.

Of the first sixteen games of the season Rangers played 11 of them at home giving them what would appear to be a significant advantage in the title race.

For whatever reasons a significant number of Rangers away matches during the course of the season were postponed leaving the Murray Park kids with six away games to complete their season.

Despite the advantage of such a favourable run of home fixtures Rangers currently find themselves trailing Celtic by nine points as they approach their final five matches, Celtic have three games remaining.

During the season Celtic had home games against Aberdeen and Hibs postponed due to weather conditions as were the games at Motherwell and Hearts. The first Celtic-Rangers fixture, scheduled for October was cancelled due to international commitments for both clubs.

Assuming that Rangers win all five of their remaining matches, Celtic require to take seven points from their last three matches to take the title with their recent 1-0 win away to Rangers the significant result of the season.

Should Rangers slip up in any of their remaining matches Celtic can clinch the title by winning their next two matches, at home to Hibs and Aberdeen.

It is very ironic to hear Martin Bain use the phrase sporting integrity in regards to fixtures, perhaps he's not aware of how his u-19 side are faring this season?

Every season you can anticipate the arguments and complaints that arise from the post-split fixtures.

The SPL- governed entirely by the member clubs- have a set of criteria to follow with the priority being to give as many clubs as possible 19 home and 19 away games.

Every season this has happened with Celtic and Rangers.

The added complications are caused by the SPL's desire not to have a Celtic-Rangers title decider/clincher and being unwilling to play the derby fixture on the weekend of the May bank holiday.

These requirements create the problems with the SPL arranging their fixtures in order to give Rangers the chance to win the title at home in the first post split fixture and to be formally presented with the trophy in the final match.

To allow for this Rangers will play three back-to-back away games, something that many clubs face during the course of a season.

If the championship 'race' had been tighter Rangers would have been given a better balance between home and away fixtures- this season's schedule is to ensure that the clinching of the title and trophy presentation gets maximum publicity with Rangers slotted in to play those games at Ibrox.

The phrase sporting integrity is one that first came to light two seasons ago when once again the SPL fixture list was being manipulated to suit Rangers needs.

Having taken the unusual step of agreeing to postpone a fixture at Gretna to help Rangers Champions League prospects- the SPL took the unprecedented step of extending the season to accommodate Rangers bid to win four trophies.

Celtic and other club's kept their unhappiness over this situation private but when a request for a further extension became an issue Peter Lawwell made Celtic's opposition public.

Whilst Rangers kept on playing matches when it suited them Celtic had to wait ten days between their final two fixtures before clinching the SPL title away to Dundee United- Rangers finished that season with three consecutive away fixtures- one of those against St Mirren had been held from October of the season with the Saints players counting down the minutes to their end of season sunshine jolly.

As his club prepares to win the SPL title perhaps Bain should think more about the facts and his own club's credibility rather than playing to the gallery as he attempts to sell season tickets against a very uncertain financial backdrop.

Now that sporting integrity is back on the agenda hopefully the SPL will keep a close eye on u-19 postponements to ensure that no club finds itself playing eleven of their first sixteen fixtures at home before ending the season with six consecutive away matches.

Next season's Champions League group stages will consist of six matches, three home and three away for each club, with the officials selected from outwith the nations of the competing clubs.

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