Those hurling stones at Celtic scenes of celebration just don't get it - Kevin McKenna

Being unable to find much with which to fault Ange Postecoglou, a bizarre theme has recently begun to develop after large winning margins: How can Celtic supporters take much pleasure from easy victories when their players earn 10 times that of their opponents?

What are they supposed to do? If Celtic fans began to treat such wins as routine they’d be accused of not showing opponents respect. The glee with which they’ve greeted recent away wins at Dingwall, Rugby Park and Tannadice is of itself a mark of respect for these clubs. Wins at these places are rarely routine.

At some of these grounds the sight of entire empty sections which would once have held thousands of paying Hoops supporters is a wretched one. Such is the small-mindedness of the men and women who run some of their rivals that they think denying themselves hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue each year is preferable than having a few thousand more Celtic fans twice a season.

Those empty sections look simply embarrassing and make our game less marketable to television companies and advertisers alike. These clubs don’t exactly help themselves in trying to bridge the financial gap that exists between them and Celtic.  

Kyogo Furuhashi, left, bagged a hat-trick against United

And let’s be frank here: more than occasionally the win is sweetened by the knowledge that these opponents’ supporters (and some of their executives) reserve a unique hostility towards Celtic that’s rooted in old fears and suspicions.

In the case of Kilmarnock few of us who were there will ever forget the circumstances surrounding the 4-0 victory at Rugby Park in 2003. Rangers’ improbable (but entirely predictable) 6-1 win against Dunfermline meant Celtic had to score six of their own to retain the title. The glee with which a larger-than-normal Killie home support greeted their team being easily defeated spoke volumes.

Those who take exception to celebrating wins against other clubs are also largely ignorant about the nature of the passion for Celtic and where it comes from.

When the club was founded it quickly became a source of pride for the Irish in Glasgow’s east end. These people – among them great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers – were treated inhumanely when they first arrived here. Many of them had been fleeing a famine that claimed the lives of more than a million Irish and which was exacerbated by the cruelty and callousness of the British state.

READ MORE: Did Celtic come close to Ange Postecoglou's ultimate vision at Tannadice? - Tony Haggerty

Denied employment or any parity of esteem on account of their faith and ethnicity and crushed together into disease-ridden houses, every triumph by their beloved Celtic was a victory for them too. It made them walk a little taller the rest of the week and helped ease the burdens of their day-to-day existence.

At that time too Celtic victories were treated with a disdain not dissimilar to today. They quickly attracted massive support, built one of the finest stadiums in the country and soon began signing some of Scotland’s finest players with an assortment of creative and lively inducements.

All the money for this, though, was honestly earned and freely given by a support for whom Celtic represented something a lot more profound than winning mere football matches.

You might think that little of this applies to Scotland in the 21st century - but you’d be wrong. A large part of the support remain disadvantaged economically and reside in neighbourhoods that have remained poor for one-and-a-half centuries.

There might not be as much anti-Catholic or anti-Irish discrimination but they (and many others) are unfairly treated simply because of their postcodes. They are still much more prone to disease and early mortality than residents of leafier neighbourhoods. You only have to look at the many outreaches of the Celtic Foundation to see evidence of this.

When the team wins – and win well – it eases the pain and makes life a little bit brighter. Every victory now is as sweet as those in the last decade of the 19th century and commemorates those deceased family members who were the first to watch Celtic.

Today, there are other causes with which the support identifies. As well as the outreaches of the Celtic Foundation the supporters give what they can several times a year to foodbanks. Many strongly identify with the trade union movement and strongly support their current struggles for fair pay.

More generally, they identify with the wider anti-poverty campaign and have lately begun to be much more vociferous in calling out discrimination against the LGBT community. Owing to the support's roots as a dispossessed and oppressed people they also support the cause of the Palestinians.

When Celtic win, all of these people win too.

And spare me any patronising nonsense about keeping politics out of football. Celtic was founded in a political ferment. Politics and the struggle for dignity and equality are woven into the fabric of those green and white hoops.

Celtic are one of the most political football clubs on the planet and we should be proud of that.

No victory – no matter who they are playing – is unimportant. All of them count.