They say that football’s a funny game.

Well they must be laughing their t*ts off over at the Hunnery. First they are handed TWO soft penalties by Mason in the Black, Dougie McDonald, then they draw Raith Rovers in the semi-finals if they can get past the Arabs at a second attempt.

Strange game when we canny get two STONEWALL penalties at the same venue!

That of course leaves us with the task of dumping either Hibs or Ross County out the cup to give us a day in the sun down Hampden way on May 15th.

Let’s hope Robbie and Co have set their sights on finishing the season with a flourish, preferably stuffing the Establishment team in the final.

Referee permitting….

It was almost like a prophecy.

At the start of the Festival of St Patrick, Robbie Keane, son of Erin, bangs in three glorious goals to dump Tango and Sash out of the Scottish Cup.

The Republic of Ireland captain scored three times in a second half canter that put his ‘bhoyhood’ heroes into the semi-finals.

Then in the afternoon, the Irish rugby fellows dispatched another Celtic nation Wales 27-12 at Croke Park to mark captain Brian O’Driscoll’s 100th cap for his country.

Hopefully the good fortune will continue when Dundee United formerly Dundee Hibernian, go to the Hunnery for today’s Scottish Cup tie.

Referee’s permitting, the Arabs could well knock Scotland’s Shame out the cup and give us even more reason to have a pint of the black stuff!

For anyone who doubted the wisdom of Tony Mowbray, including Skippy, for tempting Robbie Keane to join the Bhoys on loan, then the Irishman left all doubters high and dry today.

A second half hat-trick hauled the Hoops through to the semi-final of the Scottish Cup at Kilmarnock this afternoon.

After a lacklustre fifty minutes in which Celtic were largely second best, Mogga changed things by bringing on Marc-Antoine Fortune and Sammy for the ineffectual Marc Crosas and Morten Rasmussen.

And for me, MAF made all the difference.

Not only did he lay on two of Robbie goals but his general play offered a more direct route.

Tactically the big man made the changes that counted and turned a hard fought tussle into a canter.

So, at last we’ve something to cheer about, well kinda, so lets make the best of it!

It was bound to happen.

At some point in the season Tony was going to tell the press exactly where to get off. And he did yesterday with the biggest hint yet that Celtic may use the media the same way as the media use them.

And I’m glad.

You see, Tony is an honest big guy, and expects everyone else to be the same, which is no bad thing.

But when it come to dealing with the media, then his honesty is being turned around and manipulated to suit whatever agenda the hack has. Now, deny as they might, certain, not all, journos do HAVE an agenda against Mogga and won’t rest until he either walks away, or is sacked.

These very same hacks are the ones that gave Ghordon Strachan and Martin O’Neill grief at every opportunity. Both eventually treated the press exactly the same as way they were treated.

That led to the hacks turning up the heat on the club and managers at every turn. Making up stories that forced Celtic to take legal action, which of course we won.

Who can forget the Record headline “Thugs and Thieves” about the Bhoys trip to Newcastle?

Well, I’ve said this for a long time.

Celtic Football Club should meet the MINIMUM press duties that their sponsorships require, then do the rest via our own outlets, official website, Celtic View and Channel 67.

Of course, the hacks will still try and distort anything that’s published no matter where it appears but at least we can keep as much in house as possible.

The closer to a media blackout the better, in my opinion.

P.S. The attack on the GAA minibus is an absolute scandal. It’s racist, sectarian and small minded. Where’s the press coverage now?

Click here to read the story.

Watching Sky Sports News this morning the wee banner at the bottom happened to do a quick preview of tomorrow’s Scottish Cup tie at Kilmarnock.

Apparently, Marc-Antoine Fortune and Glenn Loovens have trained and look certain to be included in the squad for the game.

Then, something strange happened on my TV.

The next screen mentioned……Shaun Maloney!

Remember him?

According to Sky, Shaun will resume training next week. Of course they don’t say how long he’ll last before he’s injured again.

That’s anybodys guess.

Shaun Keeping Busy While He's Injured!

Here’s a picture of Shaun in case you’ve forgotten what he looks like……

The media and no doubt some of the fans are getting fed-up with the referee, cheating and Rankers bias fiasco that’s still raging on.

Me too. To an extent.

You see, when you want something to change you have to keep on about it. Nagging away, annoying people, getting up the noses of the very same who like the status quo. Because they have what they want.

There was a time when you were encouraged to ‘keep your head down’ and ‘don’t say too much’ about your faith, your heritage and your opinion.

Well I’m sorry folks. None of the above now apply.

By fighting our corner we, Celtic Football Club, Celtic supporters, Catholics , Irish and every other ethnic person have gained some sort of equality in this country.

Do you think we should give it all away?

And go back to the ‘keep you heads down and don’t complain culture of the past.

No. Me neither.

When one of your opponents, your fiercest rival speaks out about refereeing favouritism then it can quite easily be dismissed as sour grapes.

Two? Well just another manager unhappy about a defeat.

But three. Well that’s a different story.

Tony Mowbray, Craig Brown and now Gus McPherson* have all accused Scottish referees of bias towards Rankers this season. Whether it be penalty kicks denied, perfectly good goals disallowed or inconsistency in cautions there can be no denying…..the officials have collaborated in making the title run-in as easy as possible for the Establishment team.

25% of SPL managers have now spoken out about this blatant cheating, yet the SPL themselves do nothing about it.

They are just as guilty of making this seasons title one of NO CREDIBILITY.

*McPherson was once on the MM’s books, unusual for ex-players to break rank and criticise their former paymasters.

The easiest thing to do when it appears that everything you try goes wrong is to ……quit.

Since the day that Tony Mowbray stepped through the front door of Celtic Park I’ve heard ‘fans’ calling for his head. And that was before a ball was kicked!

It was the same when Ghordon Strachan took the job. Three SPL titles and a few cups later and the same fans were still wanting him sacked.

What we have to remember is some people will NEVER be pleased. (I’m sure these ‘fans’ were the very same that booed Neil Lennon for keeping possession!)

Anyway, as this season has unfolded there has been very little for Tony or The Faithful to cheer about. Going back as far as August when the Champions League qualifiers were drawn, what was the team we didn’t want?

Dynamo Moscow. Who did we get? Yip, the Russians. And despite a defeat at Celtic Park the Bhoys won 2-0 away in Russia to qualify.

Next round. Who don’t we want…..? Arsenal. Who did we get?

Yip, once again we draw the toughest tie possible. Unfortunately, we didn’t get through this one, nor did we carry any luck. Gallas’ deflection, Gary Caldwell’s own goal, the Eduardo ‘dive’ everything that could go against us…did.

Little did we know that would set the tone for the rest of the season.

Now, it’s well documented about the horrendous refereeing bias shown against us, not only in the three Derby matches, and the missed chances from a variety of our players.

But something else has been overlooked.

And I’m NOT making excuses here.

However, can we honestly say that we’ve carried any luck during the course of the season? Got the rub of the green? I can’t remember anytime.

How many times have Celtic finished with the same back four as we started with? How many of our back four, including Danny Fox when he was here HAVEN’T been injured at some point?

Only youngster Josh Thompson has escaped injury.

Then there’s Shaun Maloney. How long has he been out?

Even now, in the first week in March we can’t field a recognised defence, one that includes Jos Hooiveld, the centre back we so desperately needed.

All of this may sound like I’m making excuses for Tony. I’m not. The performances at times have been abysmal.

But we do need to give the team and management time to get it right. And to the critics who slate him for making so many changes at once, well, who was it that wanted rid of the so called ‘underachievers’ of last season?

Try looking in the mirror Bhoys….

Team Tony is here to stay, let’s get behind the big man.

As if we didn’t already know just how biased they are, the Daily Record have once again nailed their colours to the mast.

While they try to convince us of media neutrality, the truth is, and has been for a long time now, the Daily Record’s Managing Director is fairly and squarely in the pocket of Sir Minty.

Celtic Fanzone have it on impeccable authority that the MD Bruce Waddell hosted a Sports Dinner in Edinburgh last week with the guest of honour being…….Sir Minty.

Yep. In the same week of a derby match Sir Minty is given the red carpet by the same media that claim we’re paranoid!

How can we expect fair coverage to be given to Celtic when the newspapers top man is entertaining our rivals biggest shareholder?

This is the same rag that accused Celtic supporters of assaulting Allan McGregor without a shred of evidence, tarnishing our name without a second thought.

And have they apologised?  Nope, didn’t think so….

Surely it’s time for the Celtic board to take this man to task, after all he is the man in charge of the paper.

There’s no point in calling for a Bhoycott, we can chose to patronise who ever we want, however the next time your buying your daily paper think carefully about your choice.

A goal in each half was enough to give Celtic a valuable three points at the Falkirk Stadium this afternoon.

Robbie’s fourth and fifth goals since his arrival will go a long way to repay the reputed £65,000,ooo a week Celtic are paying him( Or is it £66M?).

And, Artur was instrumental in the Hoops defence keeping a rare clean sheet, despite Mogga making four forced changes from the side that started last week

Hopefully, we can string a few wins together and get some momentum going towards a day out at Hampden on the last day of the season.