Happy Birthday...? Celtic coach Stevie Woods deletes Twitter account

By Euan Davidson

February 23, 2021

On Celtic coach Stevie Woods’ birthday, he might’ve expected some kind words.

After all, he’s the man who made Fraser Forster a star. He revitalised Craig Gordon’s career, helped Artur Boruc and – presumably – watched in horror as he punted crosses at Dorus de Vries.

Given that he’s been at the club since 2007, he’s surely due a happy birthday from the club who love to wish salutations. If Cillian Sheridan isn’t due best wishes from Celtic, surely Woods is. And so it proved!

And now, on his own birthday, Woods received such vitriol that he’s deleted his account.

Stevie Woods (R) is also part of the Scotland set-up / (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Celtic coach Stevie Woods won’t be the last to delete his social media

Poor Woodsy. It’s not his fault he was born.

Joking aside, it shows the sheer volume of disillusionment at the club just now. Given the radio silence after the Ross County defeat on Sunday night, Woods felt like a sacrificial lamb. After 24 hours of nothing, the club could’ve tweeted a cure for Covid-19, and the responses would still have been “Lennon Out”.

It’s fair enough; the Celtic supporters are very right to be angry, just as we are on 67 Hail Hail. The club have failed us on so many levels that it’s becoming incalculable. We’ve turned from 9IAR champions to embarrassments in such a short space of time, you’d need goalkeeper-like reactions to make sense of everything that’s gone wrong.

Still, though; leave Stevie out of it. The former Motherwell stopper has been nothing but a positive influence at Celtic, helping mediocre keepers become good, and good keepers become great. It isn’t necessarily Woods’ fault that Barkas hasn’t worked out at the club.

Nor is it his fault that we couldn’t get Fraser Forster back on loan. If anything, it’s largely down to Woods that Forster is a Premier League goalkeeper.

So, for the meantime, no more tweets from Stevie Woods. Neil Lennon doesn’t have an official Twitter account either, while Shane Duffy has only recently turned his phone back on. Given the abuse he’s taken in recent days, it’s a small wonder why he deleted his Instagram in the first place.

Yes, the club need to listen to the fans, and social media is the main outlet for that with us all stuck at home.

Until change comes, nobody associated at Celtic will have as good a birthday as they’d like. At least, not on the internet.

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