Crass Tom English finally emerges from his Derby Day silence

When Celtic issued a statement expressing their condolences following the sudden death of Shane Warne, Tom English was quickly on the case after being prompted by his Jambo mate at the Guardian. 

After winning the Glasgow derby the only thing that stirred the Chief Sports Writer at BBC Scotland onto Twitter was to correct the spelling of Carl Starfelt. It seems that the bottle throwers at Ibrox weren’t the only people taking the result badly. 

English was in the BBC Scotland studio yesterday, about a mile from Ibrox, sharing his insight into the action as the treble he predicted for Mister Gerrard in July suffered another body blow. 

Back then the Ibrox second string would have provided a tougher test than the shambles unfolding across the city. 

It’s Starfelt. And he played well today

— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) April 3, 2022

The BBC has asked me to delete a tweet I posted yesterday about Celtic’s statement on Shane Warne, as it did not meet editorial standards.

— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) March 5, 2022

English’s post-script on Celtic’s Ibrox victory reads like a real slog, hard labour after the fun and frolics of the egg-chasing Six Nations which included a trip to Dublin where ‘House Paddy’ was snubbed by the local media types. Word spreads quickly these days. 

Summing up Celtic’s success, on the BBC website he explained: 

The game, well, it was no epic, but that’s the way of things sometimes when the stakes are so high. Rangers took the lead with a terrific goal that suggested they might do to Celtic what Celtic did to them in February, but that clinical edge disappeared in short order. 

Callum McGregor helped relieve them of their lead, driving at their guts and creating the confusion that fellow midfielder Tom Rogic capitalised on with a cool finish. Centre-half Cameron Carter-Vickers scored the goal that decided it. Celtic deserved their victory. 

The fact they achieved it without hitting the heights they know they are capable of will only make it sweeter. For Rangers, it was their first league defeat at home in two years and it looked remarkably like the changing of the guard. 

Rather than a changing of the guard it looks like Celtic are about to win their 10th SPFL title in 11 years, claim the 14th of the last 17 domestic trophies. 

To most folk it looks like in freaky circumstances, in front of no fans all season, the SPFL trophy somehow made its way to Ibrox, after the shortest of stays Ange Postecoglou is close to regaining it to the dismay of English and his colleagues at the state broadcaster. 

Right you are. Succulent Tam at his very sharpest.https://t.co/S6zgk5Z5iE

— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) April 4, 2022