Ross & Brand

The Ross and Brand carry-on shocked me. I always thought these programmes were live.

Cube!

The financial crisis

I don't pretend to understand the current financial problems, and presumed it was caused by malpractice and greed in the financial sector that, if done in the public sector, would have resulted in naming-and-shaming, criminal charges and sackings. This short video compares it to an Antartic expedition.


The credit crisis as Antarctic expedition from Marketplace on Vimeo.

If the world could vote

Celtic 4 Hibs 2

I know I'm probably sounding a bit bipolar but I really enjoyed today's game. Although Hibs came back from 2 down to equalise, I was always confident that we'd win. It was that type of game.

For me the following had a good game:

• Boruc
• Hinckel
• Loovens
• Hartley
• Brown*
• Sheridan

The rest were OK with no-one having a stinker apart from Naka's second half.

I thought all the Celtic goals were well taken.

It was a good victory and continued our great record of coming back from away CL matches (maybe because we don't play in those CL matches) to win.

Man Utd 3-0 Celtic

The game went pretty much as predicted. In fact, that was the disappointing thing - that we expected to get hammered... and we were ("3-0" a friend predicted, "4-1" I replied). It's on nights like this that the ultra cautious approach of the Celtic Board is painfully obvious.

It's just a pity that the fans (3000 in the ground and another 3000 outside) don't behave like the fans of a "wee team" -- or 5,000 of those fans and another 100,000 watching on TV could have saved themselves a lot of time and money. Game report.

Inverness CT 1-2 Celtic

Good three points. Poor performance. But at least Lee Naylor is no longer the worst player in the team. Stand up Glenn Loovens.

Chomsky on current affairs

Chomsky interviewed in Speigel magazine. Via Metafilter.

The BBC turns a statement on The Famine Song into a debate on Celtic's "offensive" away support

The BBC takes the opportunity of a statement by Celtic chairman John Reid in relation to the singing of the racist "Famine Song" by thousands of Rangers fans, to open up a debate on the offensive behaviour of... em.... Celtic fans [See MySport Debate box 2/3rds way down the page on the right - link to BBC's 606 messageboard forum].

I suppose this is what qualifies as fair and balanced journalism in Scotland these days?

Sarah Palin debating flowchart

Metro decides Celtic out of Europe already

Back page of the Metro, Friday 3rd October -

FOUR-GONE

MOTHERWELL became the fourth Scottish side to exit Europe at the first hurdle...

.

Celtic - 4 Hamilton - 0

Villareal 1 Celtic 0

It's been a while since I swore at the telly, but I did last night when the goal went in. For me it seemed like a passback and Boruc should have saved it easily. Is that too harsh?

We played well in the first half and I was happy how Maloney, Brown, Hartley, McManus, Caldwell and Samaras were doing. I was less happy with Wilson and Naylor. They aren't good enough for this level. I was fairly happy with McGeady and Nakamura.

Why Samaras slowed up as he went in on the keeper is beyond me. He gave the keeper too much time to set himself. One of Samaras's strengths is his speed and strong running. For some reason he didn't use it when he needed to.

I'm not sure what happened after 55 minutes, but from then on in it was desparate stuff. Hartley, Brown, McManus and Caldwell continued to do well but Maloney and Naylor were caught out too often, putting the rest under pressure. I thought Maloney should have been subbed much earlier than he was, and Nakamura faded badly.

I didn't come away with the impression that Villareal are world beaters.

A 1-1 against Aalborg may be our best hope this year.