What a way to celebrate the 125th birthday of Rod Stewart!
Paul Doyle guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 November 2012 11.24 EST It happened. It really happened.
Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
BHOY WONDERS What a setting, what a scoreline, and what a way to celebrate the 125th birthday of Rod Stewart! More than a club? The Queen's Celtic are that, thanks partially to triumphs such as the one masterminded by Neil Lennon last night and executed by a band of players who will probably never grace the cover of a market-leading console game but showed Barcelona that if you can't do the basics then you've no business calling yourself the best team in history. The Catalan Art Project conceded one goal from a corner, another from a mighty punt upfield, could have had two players sent off for fundamental incompetence and failed to find any flaw in Lennon's ploy of allowing them to have the ball in wide areas as often as they liked. Therefore Tito Vilanova's glitterati deservedly lost to a side glued together for a cumulative cost of £3.50 and a crate of Tizer. It was a Queen's Celtic display that prompted an intoxicating mass outpouring of emotion from their fans, an intoxicating mass intake of lager by their fans and numerous intriguing questions, such as: aren't Celtic's scouts canny? Why did Newcastle let Fraser Forster go? How long before Barcelona try to sucker them into swapping Alex Song for Victor Wanyama? Did Kenny Dalglish think he was signing Georgios Samaras when he forked out £35m for Andy Carroll? And are you watching, the Pope's O'Rangers? "Good defensive tactics, an amazing performance by Fraser Forster in goal, a partisan crowd and a pinch of good luck," summed up Angel LD Maza in Marca after a match that proved that even 99.9% possession is only nine-tenths of the law. "With these ingredients, [the Queen's] Celtic cooked up a night on which Barcelona were unable to offer their best," continued the scribe before praising the atmosphere conjured by the locals. "There is perhaps no greater home pitch advantage in all of football than a match at Parkhead." "It was an enthralling fight between two different schools of football, similar to what has happened in the last few Clasicos ," added AS's Alfredo Matilla, continuing: "Neither team's style of football is necessarily more dignified than the other's: one is direct, the other more elaborate, but both can lead you to victory." Vilanova and his players were similarly fair-minded in defeat, diluting their disappointment with tributes to the Queen's Celtic's valour and their fans' fervour.
