Number One Champion American Bhoy: Auston Trusty at Celtic FC

Trusty starts! Today is the day, Celtic hosting Hearts, win or stay home (in second place) - a draw won’t get the job done.

 

Exciting match, 1-1 at HT, Hearts scoring first at 43’ and Celtic answering with a PK in stoppage time.

 

Still 1-1 at 78’. Trusty came off at 73’, as part of a double substitution, having earned a yellow card at 58’.

Edit: Celtic push in front 2-1 at 87’

Edit2: Celtic win 3-1, scoring deep into stoppage time.

 

A pitch invasion for your 14th title in 15 years is genuinely embarrassing.

 

From the Athletic …

“Hearts had been on course to win the league for the first time since 1960 and end 41 years of Celtic and Rangers dominance in Scotland before Daizen Maeda’s 88th-minute goal put Martin O’Neill’s side 2-1 ahead. As Hearts pushed for an equaliser in the final stages, Celtic broke away and Callum Osmand rolled the ball into an empty net to secure a 3-1 win and a fifth successive Scottish Premiership title for the Glasgow side, triggering a pitch invasion from the home fans at Celtic Park.”

Osmand, who assisted the match-winner and scored the clincher, subbed in for Trusty.

 

I imagine the way the season happened had a lot to do with that. Being crap and the fans likely giving up and then improbably creeping back and then rushing at the end isn't like most of their title seasons where it's over with many games to spare. The fans actually got to feel like a lesser team for most of the year where a title is a shock.

 

Celtic fans may be celebrating, but a title handed to them by such egregiously incompetent officiating is more than a little devalued. I mean, the jibes - Hearts can't even buy a penalty but Celtic get theirs handed to them; an Italian ref has to be bought but a Scottish one just rolls over, etc. - write themselves, don't they, but today's scenes leave a sour, sour taste:

From the Guardian

[the invasion was] the trigger for hundreds of supporters to flood the pitch, not only in celebration, but to goad and confront the shattered Hearts players. There was still stoppage time to play, but Hearts headed for the tunnel and never re-emerged. Within 20 minutes, and with players still in their kit, the visitors were on their bus back to Edinburgh under police escort.
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Shameful

 

I watched. There were some close calls but thats life, no need for conspiracy theories.

 

"Egregiously incompetent" officiating doesn't mean the refs/VAR officials were bought, just that they're so spinelessly stupid - cack-handed village numpties in Brae Scots - that results are gifted to the Old Firm by reflex.

The footballing equivalent of "God fights with the big battalions", etc.

 

How did Trusty do?

 

I wasn't talking about the officiating today, which was quite good IMO and you're right about Hearts' game management on the day, but the Motherwell-Celtic and the Hearts-Motherwell penalty calls.

No way way on earth was the first a penalty for Celtic - "might be the worst VAR decision I’ve seen (and there’s a lot of competition)" according to Gary Lineker - but they got it after barely a moment's review (17 seconds to be precise) and the second was a stonewall Hearts penalty but you knew they were never going to get it.

And I'm not arguing that there was a conspiracy. Just that you get these outrageous decisions when the big teams are so much richer than the rest of the league and there's no league where that gap is as big as it is in the SPL

 

BTW the VAR official who decided to stick his oar in to Celtic's benefit at Motherwell goes by the name of Andrew Dallas, son of this guy:


Apologies for the traumatic memories dredged up from the depths of 2002

 

While I watched, Celtic was CLEARLY the better team. By a lot. Hearts couldnt put 3 passes together so I'm not buying what you are selling here. .

 

Started in cup final:



Up 2-0 at the half.

Match is on ESPN+.

 

Again, I think most of the complaints are about Celtic's second to last game of the league, not the showdown with Hearts.

 

Exactly. Hearts simply didn't show up on the day, which is going to hurt them individually and as a team for some time to come - but the argument is that Celtic were given a lifeline by that penalty decision.

With that decision, any victory would have done Celtic. Without it, Celtic would have needed not just to win the final game at Parkhead but to win it by a sizeable margin to overhaul the GD disadvantage, making their job a whole lot harder.

Given their home form under O'Neil, the air of inevitability before the game was startling.

 

Maybe you could try reading what I wrote?

Just a thought.

 

As for Trusty - anyone remember him? - he's been one of the standouts for Celtic this season, and playing alongside him has enabled Liam Scales to look reliable.

At the moment it's hard to see anyone spending the kind of money it would take for Celtic to sell, but I think he might turn a few heads at the WC if Poch decides to go for him as a starter. If not, he's on track to become a Celtic icon