Sunday, February 19, 2012

SPL Today: Hibs host Celtic's party

Hibs, not so much always the bridesmaids as always the sailor-suit clad page boys of Scottish football, have some experience of hosting parties for visitors.

Rangers and Aberdeen have won league titles under the noses of a bemused and bewildered Easter Road support. It feels a bit like spending the night standing next to the fridge, alone and uncomfortable, at your own house warming party.

Today is not - officially at least, in reality this is a race that's been run - Celtic's title clinching game.

For Celtic fans though, forever enthusiastic at Easter Road anyway, today offers a reason to party like never before.

A 14 point lead in the league is one thing. Rangers losing at home to Kilmarnock yesterday is one thing.

Rangers in administration, apparently adrift on a sea of financial turbulence, a club battered by the ownership of successive rogues, that's another thing entirely.

Rejoice. And the Celtic fans surely will today.

For every 37p in the pound Rangers offer their creditors, Celtic fans will spend £10 on bunting, booze and Iceland vol-au-vents.

Will Hibs be joining them? Some might. Some won't. The Hibs fans I've spent time with this week are bemused by the scale of Rangers' woes, unsure what the future holds for Scottish football and quickly re-appraising their views on the stewardship of Rod Petrie. Never has the presence of that well groomed moustache seemed so reassuring.

Mixed emotions. And a huge sense of foreboding.

Celtic are on a 12 game winning streak in the SPL, they seem determined to win the league at the earliest possible opportunity.

Hibs are joint bottom of the league and struggle to win at home.

If there's something worse than facing Celtic at this stage of Hibs season it's probably facing Celtic when they've spent a week drawing strength from the weakening of the auld enemy.

Is there any hope?

Glimmers: Hibs are improving, Pat Fenlon's new signings have formed the core of a new team, a better team if not a finished team.

Hibs were the last Scottish team to stop Celtic winning. A 0-0 at Celtic Park in October. One of those "how the hell did he do that?" results that sporadically punctuated Colin Calderwood's "I'm not waving, I'm drowning" management.

Celtic win, win and win again. But they don't always look irresistible.

And the most alluring scripts often deliver a twist. Yesterday the stage was set at Ibrox for Rangers to draw strength from the stands. They failed, the show of defiance tapered away in a meek surrender to Kilmarnock and, reportedly, a support blowing their chance, seeking solace in their Cromwellian songbook.

Kilmarnock were the party poopers at a wake. Is that easier or harder than the task Hibs face today?

Easier, I suspect, because this Celtic team is very different animal to the current, inferior incarnation of Rangers.

I am by nature a pessimist. I don't see a half glass full, I see a glass that's probably still got a lipstick stain on it.

Hibs have a hell of a task today. For this observer at least, it would be nice, just this once, if they could find it in themselves to rain on someone else's parade.

> Before festivities get going in Leith Aberdeen host St Johnstone.

St Johnstone were befuddled as Dundee United blew them away last weekend and bemused after Hearts knocked them out of the Scottish Cup on Tuesday.

They remain fifth but Aberdeen are chasing them. Eighth, but on something of a roll, they could go sixth today and have both St Johnstone and Hearts in their sights.

I saw the new, improved Aberdeen draw 0-0 with the new, improved Hibs last week. It was a much better game compared to the clash the two had at Easter Road in September.

Same result though. 0-0. Which may show the ephemeral nature of "making an improvement" in this dysfunctional league of ours.

A draw today. A draw that won't delight anyone but won't really depress anyone either.

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