These Invincibles Deserve To Be Lauded

LET there be no ifs, buts, maybes or even whitabootery around it. By any standards, for any club to go through an entire domestic league season unbeaten is a phenomenal achievement.

The 2017 Invincibles celebrate

The accolade: 'The Invincibles” has descended on few sides - “Proud Preston”, the Scots-laden original 'Invincibles' who completed the first English league and cup double in 1888-89; the Rangers side which won the Scottish League by going unbeaten through the 18-match 1898-99 Scottish League season. More recently, there was the Arsenal “Invincibles” squad of 2003-04 – Vieira, Bergkamp, Henry. Pires & so on. Now, the 2016-17 Celts have joined that elite group, and, they deserved all the praise which will come their way.

As I wrote above, we must keep whitabootery out of it – the fact remains, they have beaten their contemporaries in Scotland, to borrow a phrase from across Glasgow - they are: “Simply the best”. Argument over.

To use an expression being freely bandied about in political discourse, their current situation of having 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster held by their MPs could be “peak SNP”. An unbeaten league season, a probable domestic Treble, this might well be “peak Celtic”. Surely, even before Saturday's cup final, the other Scottish clubs know what they must do:–

1. Bridge that 30-point gap between Celtic and second-placed Aberdeen, or, at the least, cut it back considerably.
   
   
2. Try to have a club name other than Celtic inscribed on the two knock-out trophies.

3. At least make the league race a bit less of a one-horse one.

For Celtic, the aim has to be to build on this domestic success and do better than of late in the Champions League, at the very least, advancing to the knock-out stages has to their next goal.

One thing is certain, the 2017 Celts have marked the 50^th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions in great style.

SPEAKING of winners – this wee, neglected former mining village in East Ayrshire, wherein I reside, has wakened-up this morning with a collective hangover. For, Glenafton Athletic, on Saturday, clinched the McBookie.com West of Scotland Premier Division title in style, via a 2-0 win over Rob Roy, at Guy's Meadow, Cumbernauld.

New Cumnock exiles were appearing out of the woodwork at the game. We out-numbered the Rabs fans, and, by the way, kudos to the guys from Kirintilloch who have made the trip across to Cumbernauld to follow their team since they were decanted from their ancestral home of Adamslie Park.

It takes commitment, and, they are following a good side. If the Rabs had taken their first-half chances, the game might well have been over by the break. But, and how often do we see this in football, they didn't score when they were on top and paid the price as the Glen roared back.

Once the Glen went up 1-0, there was only going to be on outcome. Now, the boys can relax and prepare for the even-greater challenge of beating the Talbot in the Junior Cup Final, at Rugby Park, on Sunday, 4 June.

Talbot lost 3-0 at Beith on Saturday, to end their league title hopes. As my old school friend, the Sudentenland branch of the Tabot Supporters Club, after his near half-century living in Brighton, mournfully wrote on Sunday: “I think we are on the slide”.

Maybe so, but, you can never discount the 'Bot in a cup final, particularly a Scottish Junior Cup final. Anybody in New Cumnock who speaks confidently of a league and Scottish Cup double, is quickly slapped-down. We don't count chickens, particularly when the Talbot fox is still loose.

Mind you, some of the boys were looking forward to next season and the Glen's first tilt at the big (senior) Scottish Cup.

“Who do we want to draw, boys”? Was one question posed as the league win was celebrated.

The guy who suggested: “Rangers”, was soon slapped-down. We want a tougher test than that.