http://www.etims.net/index.php?option=c ... 9&Itemid=2
After today's pitiful team performance I headed over to Celtic Park. There was a small but angry mob of around 30 people in attendance and all in the 30 – 60 age group so no young yins and cops galore around the place.
The team bus arrived and every single player took fully merited pelters from a lot of the support standing in wait. Lennon was first off the bus and headed for the front door entrance at the main stand appearing as apologetic as a human could ever look. Then one by one the players departed the bus all to a loud chorus of boos from some but not all of the support. Keane tried to apologise but one fan was as vocal to him as the rest and Keane turned away before heading to his car. Fair play to him he still made himself available to any kid wanting an autograph and kept on apologising.
Things were bad but rapidly deteriorated when McGeady left the team bus. The heckling he received wasn’t any louder than anyone else’s but as is his way he took it upon himself to start mouthing back at the support which caused tempers to fray and the Police to move in stop small pockets of the support getting to him. That wasn’t the end of matters though as McGeady kept shouting back at punters only adding to their ire. When one considers how appalling he was today he’s about the last player who should have opened his mouth but nope he kept arguing back with two supporters comments particularly standing out. The first was a fairly clear message “fcuk aff to England ya wee £%@$” and the second more subtle from an observer in the pensioner age group; “wee Strachan had your number all along McGeady”.
A little while later Darren O’Dea was embroiled in words with some supporters asking them “what did they want him to do” which as you can imagine opened up a few ripostes from those challenging his and the teams performance that day.
Naylor, Brown, N’Guemo and others kept their heads down as they walked towards their cars but the biggest jeer was definitely reserved for Samaras who took an absolute pounding. There’s no doubt he’s a target at matches from some supporters but was he any worse than his team-mates today? No matter, he walked towards his car still willing to acknowledge any kid asking for his autograph while their Dad was questioning his parentage.
The crowd of around now 50 supporters quickly dispersed and 15-20 minutes later Neil Lennon departed the main door and walked towards the small pocket of around 20 fans remaining. Lennon apologised to everyone in attendance and in all honestly for the first time I can recollect he looked a broken man. Give him his utmost due though as he said to all remaining supporters he would openly answer every question they had as it was the least he could do.
He was asked by one supporter why Samaras continues to start and replied he believed “The wide open spaces of Hampden would suit his style plus as he had scored 15 goals this season thought he was the man to do the business today. Unfortunately it didn’t happen”. This led to an older supporter advising Lennon that “Samaras was in (his opinion) the biggest shite bag he’d seen in 60 years supporting the team”. Lennon to be fair didn’t get into an argument over this and took the persons clear point on board.
I then asked him why he doesn’t play Brown, N’Guemo and Crosas together as the midfield two is being over-run so often this season by a lot of teams. His response was he had considered that before the game but felt Robbie would be isolated as Fortune was supposed to play through the middle as a 4-4-2 with Samaras wide left in midfield. He followed this up by saying both Fortune and Samaras disappointed him and he would be unlikely to start the both of them on Tuesday.
Questions continued to flow his way and to his great credit he answered every one put to him openly and honestly, some of his answers I’m not able to repeat here and you’ll understand why at the seasons end.
For everyone’s information neither Peter Lawwell nor John Reid showed up at the stadium during this period which was just as well as they were without any shadow of a doubt the real target of anger of most people hanging around the ground.
[/center]
