....Always A Tim!

Celtic begin summer clearout and the season ticket debacle begins.

June 5, 2020June 5, 2020 wayofthecass

The pre-season is now officially upon us and not surprisingly due to what’s going on in the world teams are shedding players from their squads across Scotland at a rate of knots.

That would usually be the case to an extent up here in any case what with so many signed on short term contracts these days but it really is quite startling just how many out of contract players have been allowed to depart without being offered new terms from the moment the calendar hit June 1st.

As for Celtic, the club has pretty succinctly bid farewell to first-team squad players Jonny Hayes and Jozo Simunovic with fringe player Calvin Miller also exiting.

All three players were out of contract and under normal circumstances, Hayes and Jozo may have been offered season-long extensions but in these precarious times, it would appear there is no room for sentiment or a bloated squad.

After impressing at Aberdeen where he was their star player Jonny completed a dream £1.3 million move to Celtic in the summer of 2017 and went on to make a very respectable 68 appearances for the club over three seasons, some of which was impacted by injury, and scored two goals.

Mostly fitting in as a utility player on the left side he offered cover for the left-back position and from the subs bench, he was often deployed in a more attacking role.

The highlight of his time at the club was undoubtedly him scoring the second goal in injury time to secure a resounding 2-0 win over a fancied Rangers side at Ibrox on a sunny day on the 1st of September 2019.

A bit of a marmite player amongst the Celtic support no one can ever deny the fact Jonny gave 100% for the jersey and was happy to play in any position where cover was required.

Celtic's Jonny Hayes celebrates his winner during the Ladbrokes ... — *Jonny bids farewell.*

Personally, I’ll never forget the tireless shift he put in during our memorable 2-1 win over Lazio at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico last year.

Soon to turn 33 it would be no surprise to see him turn out for a top-six Scottish Premiership or English Championship side next season.

Now we move onto Jozo Simunovic, the Croatian under-21 internationalist who was the biggest signing of the Ronny Deila era after being brought in for a significant fee from Dinamo Zagreb in the wake of Virgil Van Djik’s transfer to Southampton in September 2015.

Big Jozo cost anywhere from £3.5 to £6.75 million depending on what source you read which was a considerable chunk of the initial £13 million Celtic received for Dutch internationalist Van Djik though Celtic ultimately received far more than that for the Dutchman over the years due to various contractual add-ons.

Either way, he wasn’t cheap and much was expected though sadly injury blighted much of his initial time at the club.

He nearly departed for Torino in the summer of 2016 as Brendan Rodgers was beginning his Celtic revolution but the move fell through at the last minute and it was credit to the big Croat for how he reacted throughout.

Sitting outside a sun-kissed cafe, in Turn, awaiting news on developments a Sky Sports News reporter had tracked him down and was determined for him to say something that might be a slight to the club he was on the verge of departing but big Jozo apparently well aware of the politics of football just smiled and stated he had no ill-feeling towards Celtic and was fine with returning to fight for his place should the proposed move to Torino his agent was trying to barter fall through.

In the end, it did and he spent the next four years with the men in hoops.

Often blighted by injuries and with first-team appearances at a premium due to the likes of Boyata, Ajer and laterally recent signing Christopher Jullien being preferred ahead of him he, unfortunately, committed a few defensive howlers when he did get opportunities such as in big European games against Anderlecht and Copenhagen at Celtic Park – the second of which effectively eliminated us from the Europea League knockout phase back in February – and he was sent off at Ibrox against Rangers though we recovered to beat the light blues 3-2 in any case.

Still only 25 it’s safe to say he’ll get plenty of opportunities on the continent and though he failed to live up to his large transfer fee he leaves with two great individual memories the first being scoring the goal to beat Kilmarnock in April of last year that paid tribute perfectly to the recently departed club legend Billy McNeill and then that unforgettable crunching tackle on Kenny Miller that sent the Rangers captain into orbit during Celtic’s resounding 5-1 thumping of the light blues on their own patch back on the 29th of April 2017.

Kenny Miller says referee John Beaton was too lenient | Daily Mail ... — *Jozo leaves Kenny Miller in no doubt whose ball it is.*

He leaves the club having made 129 appearances and scored five times.

Incredibly he also departs with eleven winners medals to go with the five he’d previously claimed at first club Zagreb. Not a bad haul for a guy still two months away from his 26th birthday.

As for Calvin Miller alas there isn’t much to tell and the 22-year-old probably now regrets not taking up an offer to move to Kilmarnock permanently last summer.

Instead, he decided to see out the final year of his contract at Celtic where he spent most of his time on the sidelines injured.

In total, he made five first-team appearances for Celtic.

Now onto when the game will return and it looks like it’ll be early August and barring some incredible turnaround in the coming two months, it’s pretty certain to be behind closed doors until possibly the end of the year.

Season tickets are on sale and the proposal is you can use them to watch all home games on Sky Sports with the specific details still to be ironed out.

I presumed the club would simply give all season ticket holders the right to have exclusive access to view all home games via Celtic TV like they do for foreign subscribers but it appears the deal has been done with Sky to provide coverage instead.

Rather than vainly attempt to describe how this would be possible, I’ll wait for more info to be forthcoming in greater detail from both the club and broadcaster.

With two months left before the season is proposed to begin, they have plenty of time to iron out the kinks.

Of course, English football is scheduled to return behind closed doors in two weeks time so rather like with the somewhat disastrous introduction of VAR to the top flight game down south last season, Scottish football can use the EPL and lower leagues as a Guinea Pig for what works and what doesn’t.

Things such as carboard cutouts of fans and piping in artificial fan reactions to the stadium have been proposed and could be farcical or may actually elevate it above the glorified training ground games it otherwise will inevitably be.

As Jock Stein said: “Football without fans is nothing.”

I have a feeling big Jock will be proven to be very right on that count in the coming months.

St. Mirren 0-2 Celtic: The title moves a step closer and could be wrapped up this weekend.

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

Celtic were far from at their best but still had far too much for lowly St.Mirren as we grabbed a comfortable win in Paisley last night.

There was a raft of changes from Sunday with Oli Burke and Timothy Weah starting up front and on 16 mins young Timo headed in off the underside of the bar. It was marginally over the line but over the line it was and the landsman called it right.

Image result for st.mirren 0-2 celtic — *Timo keeps it real.*

It should have been two when James Kellermann needlessly handled later on in the half and we were awarded a penalty but Olivier Ntcham did that ludicrous two-second delay thing halfway through the run-up and ultimately flopped it as his poor effort was easily saved by Buddies keeper Vaclav Hladky.

In the second half, Scott Bain produced a great save from a curling long-range effort from Cody Cooke and the wonderfully named Duckens Nazon was also through on goal but fluffed his lines and the ball was eventually scooped up by Bain.

Substitutes Odsone Edouard and Ryan Christie entered the fray from the midway point of the half onwards and both impressed with one rampaging run from French Eddy leaving several opposition players in his wake and Christie crowning his return with a fine finish from the edge of the box on 85 mins.

Just after some banger in the away end behind the goal threw an actual banger on. This led to Hladky indicating he’d been hurt in some way as my mind was cast back to images of Rapid Vienna keeper Herbert Feurer feigning injury in that infamous Cup Winners Cup tie against us in 1985 when he claimed to have been struck by a bottle that hand landed 20 metres away in an effort to get the game abandoned. In this case, the banger landed about 10-15 feet away but I’m sure Hladky got a genuine fright. Indeed in replays of the goal celebrations, it appeared that scorer Ryan Christie did too.

It goes without saying that we just don’t need things like this. It adds nothing to the atmosphere and is done out of mischief and nothing else most likely by a ‘fan’ probably not even legally allowed to drink. Manager Neil Lennon looked thoroughly pissed off with it and so was just about every other Celtic fan I know. There is a ned element to our support. Of course, there always has been but they are becoming more brazen and visible. It’s something we must tackle. How you may ask? God knows. It certainly won’t be an easy or quick fix that is for sure. We aren’t the only one with this issue. All clubs have it. But I don’t really do whataboutery.

Image result for st mirren keeper banger — *Hladky in agony. He recovered though.*

Opposition manager Oran Kearney has since claimed he considered withdrawing his players from the pitch after the incident. I’ll bet the home fans want him to do that most weeks. Oh and incidentally the BT microphones picked up the Buddies fans hymn sheet all night too most of which featured songs about paedophilia. A great wee ‘family club’ apparently.

Anyway, we now sit on 76 points, 13 ahead of Rangers with six games and 18 points to play for so the league could be won this weekend if we defeat Livingston at home on Saturday and they lose at Motherwell on Sunday. Personally, I’d prefer to win it on the pitch but I’ll still be cheering on Steelmen.

I was encouraged by the return to action of Ryan Christie and the enthusiasm of young Timo Weah who clearly hasn’t spat the dummy despite not featuring much since Neil Lennon’s arrival. On the other hand, though the continued decision to deploy Oli Burke up front is mystifying. His strength is running down the flanks at pace and not in tight situations surrounded by opposition players with impeccable close control required. The boy has a first touch like an old Artex ceiling and just isn’t a finisher.

As for results elsewhere last night the ‘Well lost out on a chance of top six football via a 3-1 loss at Pittodrie to Aberdeen who go equal on 55 points with third-placed Kilmarnock. Killie drew 0-0 with Hibs at Easter Road in a stinker whilst Hearts went down meekly to 3-0 at Ibrox to Rangers.

Dundee and Hamilton Accies both continued their awful season long form as both lost away to St.Johnstone and Livingston respectively. With their 1-0 home win, Livi officially secured their place in the top flight of the SPFL next season. So well done to them.

Shame only one thousand hardy souls turned out to see them.

Celtic 2 – 1 Rangers: When the dust has settled!

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

I was meant to stick up this post-match article yesterday but alas I partook in a little too much alcohol on Sunday during and after the match and was in no fit state.

Celtic of course claimed three points to move 13 points clear at the top of the league and with only seven league games remaining it’s all pretty much over bar the shouting.

There is plenty of shouting though. Most of it coming from Govan int he wake of the blue half of Ibrox’s 11th defeat in the past 14 encounters with the men in hoops.

To the game itself and Celtic came out of the blocks flying and laid siege to the Rangers goal. Allan McGregor produced a few decent saves and there was a feeling of inevitability about the whole thing. Morelos was effectively cut off up the park and their midfield was pinned back by our constant advances. As expected their right side was targeted with Tavernier a definite weak link in any defensive shape. I was slightly puzzled by the decision to start Jonny Hayes when the experience of Scott Sinclair or the breakneck pace of Oli Burke would have appeared more appropriate but in fairness, he put in a shift and as the half progressed his delivery from set pieces improved.

When a superb first-time pass from Forrest in his own half released Edouard you could only see it ending one way as the Frenchman put Joe Worrall on his back legs as he bore down on goal before finishing superbly.

Image result for celtic 2-1 rangers — *French Eddy makes his mark.*

Celtic continued the onslaught thereafter and just after the half-hour mark and only four mins after the goal, Alfredo Morelos underlined his fantasy £25 million price tag by lashing out at Scott Brown and receiving his fifth red card of the season. The replays showed Brown had slightly clipped his heels but to claim that it was anything more than minor gamesmanship on the Celtic captain’s part is grasping at straws. Morelos is as predictable as he is overrated and just can’t help himself.

Not surprisingly thereafter Celtic continued to dominate with Allan McGregor producing a fine first-half save from a fierce effort from Tierney and then again in the second half when he kept out Sinclair – a half time substitute for the injured Hayes – after the English winger had played a wonderful one-two with Callum McGregor on the edge of the box.

Mikael Lustig then tried his luck from distance but his effort whizzed past and from that point onwards Celtic seemed to fall asleep somewhat. With our visitors on the back feet and down to ten men as well as needing a goal – or two if they genuinely harboured any real remaining ambitions to win the league – this really was an opportunity to turn them over.

Instead, Celtic’s urgency evaporated and it looked like the cigars and brandy were out figuratively speaking.

From about the 60 minute mark onwards, Rangers came back into it and clearly sensed an opportunity. In a press conference yesterday Steven Gerrard claimed they dominated the game and were the better team for 55 mins. Absolute nonsense. The only reason they even came back into it is that we let them but still they were the better team for that final half hour.

Their best player Ryan Kent cut inside Boyata and finished well on 63 mins to put them back on an even pegging. Incidentally, Boyata had a bit of a nightmare all day and eventually limped off.

Rangers actually looked the more likely to score at that stage and Ryan Jack passed up a great chance to put them ahead when Kent cut the ball back to him from the byline but he hit it high, wide and handsome over the bar.

It was in the balance and you couldn’t help but wonder how the hell we’d got ourselves into this predicament when to our great relief that man Tavernier released a loose pass on the right flank and McGregor was onto it like a shot before releasing Edouard who set-up Forrest to slam home the winner on 86 minutes.

There was one particularly hairy moment at the end – not including the fact Ryan Kent should have got a straight red for a shove to the face on Brown in the aftermath of the Forrest goal – when Ajer had to make an incredible challenge to prevent Joe Worrall from knocking the ball into an empty net after more good wing play from Kent who had tested Scott Bain with a stinging strike.

Ajer was a real lion for Celtic all day and especially in the final five minutes or so when we had to baton down the hatches. He really had to be though as Boyata was in bomb scare form all afternoon. His injury means he is probably out for the rest of the season and therefore it’s likely the last time we’ll see him in a Celtic jersey. To be honest that doesn’t really upset me. Boyata had his moments but produced too many calamitous ones for my liking and I wish him well for the future wherever he ends up.

The three points were achieved and I guess that’s what is most important but on the whole, I’m somewhat disappointed. We had a chance to really put Rangers to the sword and put Gerrard under massive pressure. Instead due to poor game management, we let their ten men back into it and now due to the circumstances, they have emerged with a moral victory of sorts. At least that’s the vibe they are giving off.

Once again it was a close one that required a late winner and I remain completely unconvinced that Neil Lennon should be our manager next season. Metting him later on that night in Tennent’s bar where he refused to get his picture taken with me and some friends – in fairness we aren’t the best-looking bunch of guys – has perhaps coloured that a little but in truth, I just think it reeks of lack of ambition and regression. Let’s not forget Hibs deemed him not good enough to remain as their manager only two months ago. And the football we’ve seen so far since his return has been enough but no more.

Of course, if he gets it – and barring a calamitous failure not to win the treble again I think it’s a stick on – I’ll support him but I don’t think anyone should be surprised if the overall quality of the product denigrates with the appointment over the next few years. As much as we loathe him now Brendan Rodgers was a consummate professional and highly thought of within the game. Lenny just isn’t on either count and there’s only so much you can claw that back with passion and commitment to the cause.

Of course, also hovering over the game is the usual nonsense talk about sectarian violence etc. There were six arrests in and around the stadium out of a crowd of just shy of 59,000. Talk about a storm in a teacup.

In the city centre, there were some battles and three Celtic fans have ended up in hospital, one of whom is in a critical condition. That’s horrendous and he has my hopes and prayers but trying to attribute that to a game taking place several miles way is stretching it.

Scottish Police Federation vice-chairman David Hamilton has waded in with nonsensical talk about how it’s worse than it’s ever been and has even said players need to improve their behaviour. He also washes the police’s hands of it claiming they receive little back from the clubs. He forgets of course that the 59,000 or so supporters inside the stadium are all taxpayers, pay his wages and his force’s responsibility don’t stop at the doors of private property. You’re a public servant Hamilton. You’re not doing us a favour by doing your job.

Anyway, no doubt that will grow arms and legs in the coming days and weeks as the SNP once again try to force through another ludicrous behaviour bill.

In the meantime let’s take in the highly original perspective offered on events by the good people over at ‘Gers TV’. Top notch stuff:

Celtic vs Rangers or US vs THEM preview!

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

I was going to make the fatal mistake of titling this ‘Old Firm preview’ but everyone is outraged by that tagline nowadays so left it out.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon bang on noon the blue half of Glasgow visit Celtic Park.

800 or so hardy souls will make their way to the stadium at 10.30am in the morning to support them with a deadline of 11am to get into the stadium before their little corner’s doors are locked and the barriers are removed to allow the home support to move in.

It seems harsh if you think about it from the perspective of the shoe being on the other foot but this is a situation of their own making so they can’t really complain. Of course, they will and indeed have anyway but then a warped perception isn’t exactly rare amongst Rangers fans. It was the holding company that went into liquidation apparently and not the club. Must have been the club that went into administration though as they got docked points etc but hey that’s all ancient history now isn’t it?!

Anyway to the football and this is a must-win game for our visitors. With a pretty luxurious 10 point advantage at the top of the league in our favour, anything but a win for Steven Gerrard’s team means that any slim hopes of a title challenge become dying embers with only seven games left thereafter and another trophyless season beckons.

The fixture has been pretty one-sided in recent years. We’ve won ten, drawn two and only lost one of the last thirteen. Aggregate wise it’s a pretty incredible 31-7 in our favour over those13 matches. Of course, this season things have been tighter with a dominant 1-0 win earlier in the campaign at home which saw Olivier Ntcham slam home the only goal and then on December 28th Rangers claimed their solitary win in the fixture since coming back up via a 1-0 win at Ibrox. Ryan Jack scored the only goal that day in a game where Celtic were decimated by injuries that saw us lose Tom Rogic, Leigh Griffiths and Izaguirre in the build-up with Edouard and Tierney only able to make the bench meaning Mikey Johnstone was deployed up front as a lone striker and McGregor was pitched in at left-back.

Image result for celtic 5-0 rangers — *Who can forget Lustig with the police hat?*

We’ll be without Ryan Christie tomorrow but on the positive note Edouard and Tierney should be raring to go and there’s even a chance Benkovic, Tom Rogic and Ntcham – who have all been out with long term injuries – may also play a part.

There’s no doubt that Rogic, Tierney and Edouard were all missed from the starting line-up last time and their inclusions tomorrow should see a totally different approach deployed though of course with Neil Lennon now in charge that would have been the case anyway

There’s also the fact they’ll be in front of 58,000 or so ravenous Celtic supporters with an opportunity to take a vital step towards an 8th consecutive league championship.

For Neil Lennon, it’s a potentially vital match in his audition for getting the reigns at Celtic Park permanently for a second time. Him getting the job is something I have mixed feelings about but that is something that can be debated another day.

His own Old Firm record is pretty impressive having managed the club in 12 fixtures during his first tenure in the hot seat and he won six of them with two draws and four losses. That was against a very different and dollar for doughnuts I’d say a much stronger Rangers side than the one he’ll face tomorrow. Lenny’s record at Celtic Park is of particular note as he has won five of six with only one loss in the tie and an aggregate of 11-4 with four clean sheets. Rangers haven’t actually won at Celtic Park since October 2010. Long may it continue.

Lennon’s record as Hibs manager against Rangers was also pretty tasty having won two, drawn three and lost only one of his six fixtures in charge against the light blues.

Image result for lennon vs Gerrard — Neil Lennon enjoyed Hibs games against Rangers.

There’s no doubt he gets his teams up for these matches – I can’t imagine why – though so far under his second tenure I have been a bit underwhelmed by our play. Three wins and a draw isn’t to be sniffed at but we’ve needed goals at the death to win two of them and were particularly underwhelming against basement dwellers Dundee last time out on St.Patrick’s Day.

Rangers will come to sit in and play on the break with their big hope being Morelos. He is their greatest threat but also their greatest liability and in the white-hot heat of a partisan Old Firm (don’t crucify me) atmosphere, he could easily crack. If the Celtic defenders are cute enough with him there’s always a chance he’ll sabotage himself.

For me, though it’s all about the Celtic and what we do and player for player we are superior especially with an almost full catchment to choose from so I’m hoping for a quick and powerful start and obviously an early goal. I expect it to be tight though and we’ll need to be patient. Under Brendan, if it’s okay to even mention his name again yet, I was pretty confident of not only winning almost every time we played them but of posting a big score and we often did ie: 5-1, 5-1 4-0 and 5-0. Recent encounters and events off the pitch though have rained in those expectations but there’s always hope that we can give them a doing.

My prediction…….2-0.

My hope………..10-0!

International review: Scotland cap off disastrous campaign opener with a pitiful display.

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

When I’ve done international reviews in the past I’ve done it on a game by game basis. Not this time. I literally couldn’t bring myself to write anything in the wake of the Kazakhstan opener.

On the one hand, I try to look at it objectively.

Both Celtic and Aberdeen have both been over there in the past six years – three times in Celtic’s case, one in Aberdeen’s – and both failed to win. From four visits in total, there has been three defeats and one draw. Temper that with the artificial surface which the team clearly looked uncomfortable on and add it to the raft of players unavailable then there are some good reasons for it.

Scotland selection wise were effectively decimated with the loss of Andy Robertson, Ryan Fraser, Kieran Tierney, Charlie Mulgrew and Calum Paterson leading up to the game and the likes of Robert Snodgrass, Leigh Griffiths, Steven Naismith, Tom Cairney, Matt Ritchie, Matt Phillips and Steven Fletcher all unavailable too for a variety of reasons. Then there has been the retirements in the past year of the likes of Scott Brown, James McArthur and Allan McGregor. So effectively a full teams worth plus subs were absent.

The replacements were just not up to it.

For some banal reason people have been calling for Graeme Shinnie’s involvement in the national team for some time and he got his start at left back only to look hopelessly out of his depth. The young centre back pairing of McKenna and Bates also looked lost without some experience at the back to guide them – okay that would have been Mulgrew’s role but surely common sense should have seen McLeish give Christophe Berra a call – and then there was the borderline insane decision to pitch in the little known Liam Palmer for his debut at left-back. Palmer looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights all night and this was particularly frustrating considering Kilmarnock’s Stephen O’Donnell was sitting on the bench a player who has not only been capped before and has been playing well all season but who also plays regularly on an artificial surface. You would have thought that one would have been a no brainer but then again when your coaching staff have no brain……….

From midfield to upfront the team looked capable enough on paper – I’m no fan of Oli McBurnie but in fairness, he does have 18 goals in 35 games for Cardiff this season – however, everyone was bang out of form with Celtic players Oli Burke and James Forrest particularly ineffective and disappointing.

Based on what we’ve seen so far there is little evidence to support a case to even attempt to make Burke’s transfer permanent, not that there would be much point in even trying considering the ludicrous transfer fee his parent club are likely to want. It is an indictment on the modern transfer market that Burke has so far collectively cost clubs £28 million in fees considering that, to say the least, he’s a work in progress. Yes, he has pace to burn and has moments of real dynamism but his final product is generally non-existent with a poor first touch and little to no finishing ability. I hope he proves me wrong in the coming weeks but as it stands he can return to Albion with my warmest regards this summer.

To that first game itself and the Kazakhs were 2-0 up after only 10 mins which was truly incredible considering their 117th world ranking. Even more incredible was that after the match national coach Alex McLeish insisted that he thought his team had got off to a ‘bright start’.

Both goals were fine finishes – Yuriy Pertsukh’s opener, in particular, was pretty spectacular – but both were also born out of poor defending as the back line was posted MIA.

Shinnie was all at sea for the second and Scotland looked completely hobbled thereafter.

In the second half, Zainutdinov scored a magnificent header and that was that pretty much except for the fact that both Armstrong and Forrest both should have scored with the ex-Celtic midfielder failing to hit the target and the current Celtic winger’s effort a feeble attempt at close range.

I’m a huge fan of Callum McGregor but personally, I don’t think he’s captain material and so it proved to be. McGregor is a playmaker and talented midfielder but not a leader of men, not helped by his rather diminutive schoolboy-esque stature, and for me, the armband would have maybe been better with the likes of McGinn or Armstrong.

Though it didn’t really matter who had it when your team can’t string three passes together and their play is completely devoid of any conviction or fire.

Three days later Scotland rolled into Serravalle to face the lowest ranked nation in world football. Having watched Ireland’s rather woeful effort in eking past minnows Gibraltar 1-0 the day before I didn’t think international football could get much worse. Scotland did their best to prove me wrong.

A 5 or 6-0 thrashing was just what the doctor ordered in the wake of the Kazhak embarrassment but instead, Scotland laboured to a wholly disappointing 2-0 win over the minnows via goals from Kenny McLean and Johnny Russell. Up front, Marc McNulty made his first start for the national team and if he’s the answer then I’m not sure what the question is.

The old mantra of ‘a wins a win’ and ‘it’s three points’ etc will be rolled out in the coming days by the team but it was another crap performance and gives little evidence of any real cohesion and passion within this squad.

Related image — *Old ‘Gammon face’ isn’t having the best time of it.*

Elsewhere in the group Russia visited Kazhakstan and proved that it’s not so much a case of the Kazhaks actually being pretty good but instead of Scotland just being really bad as they plundered their hosts 4-0 to get their first points on the board. In their first game, they were pretty easily dispatched 3-1 by group favourites Belgium who just look a class apart. Belgium have since won 2-0 in Cyprus and look like they are going to romp this group at a canter.

Next up Scotland face Cyprus at Hampden in early June in a must-win match – though to be honest after that start they are all must win now – and then they head over the water to visit Belgium and their galaxy of stars which right now seems a somewhat terrifying prospect.

Anyway, let’s forget all that uninspiring and quite frankly depressing international nonsense as it’s back to club duty and the build-up to next Sunday’s Old Firm clash where Celtic could go 13 points clear and effectively seal the league.

Preview of that to come as we get on with the really important business at hand.

Dundee 0 – 1 Celtic: A desperate display on St.Paddy’s day but we go 10 points clear.

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

Celtic took a giant stride towards capturing an eight consecutive league title yesterday with a last gasp victory over lowly Dundee at Dens Park.

To say the least this was not vintage Celtic – indeed it’s difficult to remember the last time we saw anything I’d call vintage Celtic – and we were seconds away from recording one of our results in years but in the end we prevailed with a last gasp winner which is something we’ve made a habit of recently.

For 90 minute we toiled against a Dundee team who were very blatantly set-up to defend, absorb pressure and try and hit us on the break when they could.

Our passing was slow, our build-up play unimaginative and we seemed to lack any real hunger or energy for the game. Considering that we’d had an eight-day rest since the last match and had only played two games in 15 days there really is no excuse for this.

Dundee posed little to no threat and were happy to sit in which we should have expected considering we are 8-0 up against them over our last two encounters and their precarious position at the foot of the table.

They actually had a few decent opportunities in injury time which was a mammoth six minutes. However, both of their breaks led to nothing via poor final balls and indeed with literally seconds remaining it was the men in hoops who prevailed as record singing Odsonne Edouard played a one-two with James Forrest who had rampaged to the byline before cutting it back to the big Frencham to place it home with side foot finish from close range.

I celebrated wildly with my customary St.Paddy’s Day pint of Guinness in hand as we extended our lead at the top to an almost unassailable 10 points with only eight games to go but that acute moment of joy covered up 90 minutes of sheer frustration. We just weren’t at it and that’s been pretty much the case since Lenny’s arrival. The performance mirrored our displays away against Hearts and at home to Aberdeen last week. Insipid and uninspired are just two of the words that come to mind when describing it.

Image result for dundee 0-1 celtic — *We toiled but got the result in the end.*

We had actually won our previous 35 straight meetings with Dundee and hadn’t recorded two back to back 0-0 results in a decade so if French Eddy hadn’t slammed home late then it would have been safe to put the result in the disaster category.

But it’s done now and we won. There isn’t much more you can say about it.

The international break now looms this weekend and with the Old Firm game taking place the following Saturday fingers crossed we get through the Euro qualifiers with our squad largely intact.

Good news is Callum McGregor was back and for the first 20 mins of the game at least he certainly seemed to make us tick again. He really is a vital player for us now and of that, there is no denying. Big Filip Benkovic also appeared off the bench and he’s a class act and easily our best defender so hopefully, he’s raring to go in a fortnight. Word is that Tom Rogic could also be returning too and all that married to Kieran Tierney’s recent return to regular first team action we should be in far better fettle than we were for the last encounter with the light blues at Ibrox back in December.

Image result for rangers 1-1 kilmarnock — *It was another blue day for Stevie G.*

Of course, we gained the opportunity to go 10 points clear due to Rangers’ latest slip-up as they made it no wins in three via a 1-1 home draw with Kilmarnock. Literally, in the space of eight days, their season has imploded thanks to draws at Easter Road, a cup exit at home to Aberdeen and yesterdays result. Steven Gerrard continues to try and deflect via claims that his players need more protection – as do the Killie players also it would seem going by Connor Goldson’s scything late challenge on goalscorer Conor McAleny – and a hammering against us at Celtic Park in 12 days would really turn the screw.

That aside the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts continued to slip up throwing away the chance to close the gap on the Ibrox men and improve their chances of European football next year in the process.

Anyway, the first Euro match for Scotland comes at 3pm on Thursday in the footballing hotbed that is Kazakhstan and in the surroundings of Astana a ground we are pretty familiar with having played the local team there a few times in Champions League qualifiers in the past few years. Fingers crossed the national team transfer their Nations League form into the qualifiers and that our Bhoys get out unscathed.

St. Paddy’s Day preview and what did I miss?

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

Just back from a holiday in a far-flung place with poor internet connection where you could forget trying to upload blog updates.

Of course, there was still enough bandwidth to stay abreast of results so after Hibs picked up a surprise 1-1 draw with Rangers a week ago yesterday after being a goal down for most of the match it was pretty disappointing to see us fail to take advantage and extend our lead at the top to a more or less unassailable 10 points.

Aberdeen have been in pretty sensational away form all season and have also been tough opponents for us every time we’ve faced them this term but having won three from three against them as well as having won every home domestic game this season it was a bit of a shock to see it end 0-0.

I’ll also admit I was pretty frustrated at this ongoing nonsense of playing Oli Burke up front as a lone striker when he’s clearly a winger whilst two recognised strikers in record signing Odsonne Edouard and PSG-loanee Timothy Weah languish on the bench. This started under Brendan Rodgers and has continued under Neil Lennon and it continues to mystify me. If Burke was scoring goals for fun then fair enough but he isn’t and has proven far more adept playing in his preferred wing role and setting up strikers for goals.

Image result for celtic 0-0 aberdeen — *Lenny got the team selection wrong.*

I also wasn’t too impressed with the ‘mental fatigue’ excuse which Lenny came out with during the post-match interviews. The players had a weeks rest and if they are mentally fatigued in mid-March then that doesn’t bode well for a title run in and our efforts to capture an unprecedented treble-treble.

Just accept you should have started with a recognised striker, don’t make the same mistake again and we’ll move on.

As for this weekend we, of course, visit Dundee on St.Paddy’s day. As I actually write this our nearest title challengers are currently losing 1-0 at half time at home against Kilmarnock. Of course, if things stay that way then we can potentially put ourselves in a dream position going into the next Old Firm game on March 30th. It’s already a must win game for our opponents given the current points deficit and the fact that they were eliminated once again from a cup competition by Aberdeen through the week. But it will be a potential ground zero scenario if they fall further behind and we can go 14 points clear if we beat them which with only seven games left which makes it increasingly likely we can win the title against them at Ibrox, something which the authorities will be desperate to avoid.

Image result for steven gerrard rangers — *Reality bites for Stevie G as the honeymoon period with the press ends.*

For the first time, Gerrard is under the microscope as it has become apparent that his team generally blow the big games and that most of his personnel changes have been duds. Eros Grezda anyone?

Anyway, there is still 45 mins of football to play over there and the referee Greg Aitken will most likely be getting an itchy trigger finger soon as the game draws to a conclusion.

We should win at Dens Park tomorrow but Dundee will be throwing everything at it as they fight tooth and nail to stay up and we are not the same team without Christie and McGregor who remain sidelined along with a raft of other impact players. Hopefully, Lenny sees some sense, puts a striker on and we go out and do the business making it a happy St.Paddy’s day in the process.

Below is one of my fondest memories from the Patron Saint of Eire’s day back in the day.

The infamous and glorious ‘St.Patrick’s Day Massacre’ of 1991.

Enjoy:

Hibs 0-2 Celtic: Celtic make the Cup semis amongst flying Bucky bottles and coins.

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

Celtic survived Hibs and their fans as we secured a 2-0 win at Easter Road to make it an incredible 25 consecutive domestic cup wins and as well as 11 straight domestic wins on the bounce as we progressed to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

Not much to talk about in the first half as it was pretty stagnant stuff but we got our act together in the second half as the game opened up a little. Still, it was difficult to see where a goal was going to come from until James Forrest took matters into his own hands and fired a bullet in on 62 mins that nearly ripped the net out and sent us on our way.

Hibs didn’t have much in the way of a response and we pushed on eventually getting our rewards when Edouard set-up captain Scott Brown who glided into the box and past the Hibs defence before rifling a thunderbolt in at close range to put the tie beyond doubt on 75 mins.

Image result for hibs 0-2 celtic scott brown — *Goal machine!*

The victory means Neil Lennon has gone 2-0 since his unexpected return to the hot seat at the club on Tuesday with both wins coming in his old stomping ground of Edinburgh.

Off the field, the Hibs fans showed far more resistance than their players as they unsuccessfully tried to pelt Scott Sinclair with a Buckfast bottle and later on a coin as he attempted to take corner kicks in the second half.

In the aftermath, Hibs tried to deflect attention by claiming there had been a bottle thrown by a Celtic fan too. Strange no TV or press cameras picked that up.

Of course, all of this is just a west coast of Scotland problem apparently. That’s the narrative that has been put forward anyway in the last few weeks. The kids in Leith, Dundee and up in Grampian are holier than though we’re told. Mmmmmm…….I wonder how they’ll spin this latest incidence?!

Michael Stewart will no doubt be calling for strict liability which is a total non-starter and easily abused anyway but I wonder if anyone will point out the fact that the game kicked off with an early Saturday evening start time? I tend to find that in our society that that’s when people tend to consume the most alcohol. Just a thought. Others will use it as further evidence that we shouldn’t sell alcohol within football stadiums which is also absurd as the problem is being caused by people bringing in alcohol and the type of stuff you’d never be able to buy in a football ground anyway.

The draw for the semis isn’t until Monday night on BBC after the final match of the round which is Partick Thistle vs Hearts at Firhill and with Rangers playing Aberdeen at Pittodrie tomorrow, as well as Dundee Utd visiting Inverness Caley, whoever we get at Hampden it’s bound to be interesting, to say the least. Isn’t it always.

Tomorrow, of course, Brendan Rodgers begins his reign of broken promises and empty soundbites with Leicester City away at Watford. He says one day he’d like to come back and maybe manage us again once all the fury over his departure has calmed down of course in about ten or so years. What is he like?! I think I speak for all of us by saying I hope he and his new team get resoundingly pumped tomorrow.

C’mon Watford.

As for Celtic our players now get a much deserved week-long rest before being back in action at home to Aberdeen next Saturday at Celtic Park. This should give us a chance to try and get Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie back to fitness as they are definitely being missed. I’m not Nir Bitton’s biggest critic and admire his persistence and professionalism but he and Brown do not for a creative midfield make.

Anyway, that was a good win with two excellent goals that I’ll definitely put up when they become available. It had banana skin written all over what with Hibs three game-winning run under new boss Paul Heckinbottom coming in, the fact that we hadn’t won on our last three visits there and the irony of Neil Lennon being back at his old club so soon after his quietly acrimonious departure in late January.

Job done and we still have a historic Treble Treble within our grasp which seemed like it could be derailed after the past weeks pretty stunning and upsetting events in regards to our former leader.

Well done Bhoys. Keep it going.

Hearts 1 – 2 Celtic: Lenny is back with a bang.

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 wayofthecass

So ‘Neil Lennon: Celtic Manager’ the sequel kicked off last night and in some fashion.

Almost inevitably the follow up to the original which departed theatres back in the summer of 2014 was to get its big premiere at Tynecastle stadium, the very arena which has saw the Lurgan man pelted with a coin, assaulted by a fan who ran onto the touchline from the stands and where he has also recorded many a fine victory down the rough the years including a 7-0 Scottish Cup mauling back in December 2013.

Right from the get-go, the Jambos were in our faces with Jamie Brandon, in particular, kicking anything in green and white that crossed his path.

Image result for hearts 1-2 celtic fans — *The Celtic fans continue to back the Bhoys.*

Both sides had some decent passages of play and chances but it was Celtic who opened the lead with a wonderful break on 36 mins which saw Sinclair break down the left wing and feed it through to Burke who rather than go for goal himself passed it through to Forrest who placed it into an empty net due to Hearts keeper Zlamal’s attention being on big Oli instead.

On 44 mins the aforementioned Brandon got a straight red for an outrageous aerial clattering of Toljan and with that it looked all over bar the shouting.

But a suicidal pass from our keeper Scott Bain in the second half led to Ajer giving away a penalty which was converted by Oliver Bozanic.

It looked like it would be two points dropped and the heat really on as Rangers were pounding hapless Dundee 4-0 at Ibrox but a nicely dinked ball by Scott Brown from outside the box deep into injury time evaded the head of John Souttar and fell kindly for the ‘Eiffel Rifle’ Odsonne Edouard and he buried it accordingly.

It was kind of surreal seeing Neil Lennon leaping around in joy over at the touchline and you’d be forgiven for thinking he had a DeLorean parked outside so retro was the whole picture but hopefully, this is a sight we become accustomed to over the next few months that being Lenny celebrating.

Image result for hearts 1-2 celtic neil lennon — *Guess who’s back……?*

We needed that win last night after the events that had transpired only 24hrs before with the sudden departure of our manager to a mid-table club down south but Neil Lennon really needed it. If we’d dropped any points then the press would have been surrounding him like harbour sharks.

There was some irony in that it was the slow build up play from the back which Brendan Rodgers had been so insistent on during his time at the club which almost undid us.

Lennon now has a chance to get onto the training pitch and implement some of his own ideas which I hope will include ditching this mentality that Brendan introduced of the ball having to be constantly recycled at the back and any direct routes to goal being called off limits no matter what the circumstances or the opposition.

The victory means we retain our eights points lead at the top of the table with ten games left.

Anything other than a win last night would have given encouragement to our rivals – of which there is only really one left now in the title race – and would have fed into the narrative that we were a club in crisis and imploding from the inside.

Not just the win but the nature of it were important almost beyond words and this was a great way for Neil Lennon to reacquaint himself with both the players and the fans. The outpouring of joy amongst the faithful and from the team was universal.

Of course off the field much is being made about ‘sectarian chanting’ from our end and another idiot throwing a coin. Strange that they don’t mention the ‘pedo’ chants from the honourable Hearts fans or the other bile that usually emanates from the stands at Tynecastle which is trumped only by the hymn sheet at Ibrox in its venom. Yes, let’s all just pretend this a west coast of Scotland problem shall we?! Total and utter nonsense.

Anyway, now move onto another vital game – let’s face it they are all vital at this point in the season – against Hibs in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup on Saturday evening at Easter Road. Our hosts are a team that our new manager – well newish anyway – knows well as he was managing them up to only four weeks ago.

They themselves are going through a purple patch under their new manager, the unfortunately titled Paul Heckingbottom, and have won three games on the spin including a 2-1 win last night at McDiarmid Park against St.Johnstone where they came from a goal down and a sending off to take the three points.

It isn’t going to be easy. Certain players in the Hibs team will have something to prove to their ex-manager with Florian Kamberi, who was the alleged instigator of the supposed player revolt against Lennon at Easter Road, in particular, likely to be going the extra mile.

But the Treble Treble is within our grasp and at the helm, we have a man who lives and breathes the club and clearly has some idea of what he’s doing considering he had a 70% win ratio from 227 games the last time he was in charge so let’s continue to pull behind him and onto victory.

On a traumatic day, Brendan abandones us for mediocrity and Lenny returns.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

Well, what a day that was.

Probably the most deflated I’ve felt since we were eliminated by our beloved Govan neighbours at the semi-final stage of the Scottish Cup back in April 2016.

In some ways, this feels even worse. Sort of like discovering that, that old antique your dad has been harbouring in the attic for years is actually worth sod all or that your winning scratch card is a fake.

Or perhaps more accurately that your bird who you thought you were in love with and was in love with you has been having it off behind your back with some guy she met on a night out down south the whole time.

That’s what it was like to discover that the man who claimed he was in his dream job had actually found a dreamier one and that all of the things he’d said over the years about his love for the club and his ongoing commitment were all just words. All said just to keep us sweet and onside while his eyes wondered elsewhere. I guess this is how the first Mrs Rodgers felt.

Brendan of course rather unceremoniously left us yesterday afternoon drawing to an end a highly successful – domestically anyway – 33 months in charge.

Below are some pictures from the day:

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Initially, this article was about our 4-1 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park on Sunday where we maintained our 8 points lead at the top of the table in a game that saw the visitors score a highly contentious goal when they refused to honour the unwritten rule of passing the ball back to you once it has been put of play for an injury.

It was all much ado about nothing in any case as we scored two goals either side of it – one an absolute peach of a free kick from Odsonne Edouard – but then the news started to filter through that the game was afoot over at the Celtic training ground on Monday afternoon. Instead of churning that out I thought I’d wait to see how events transpired hoping of course that it was all smoke and no fire. Let’s be honest as all the rumours started intensifying yesterday young James Scott’s ill-advised decision to take advantage of the throw in situation on Sunday which seemed oh so important at the time had rather paled into significance when it became obvious that Sunday might actually have been our manager’s last game in charge.

I awoke this morning to hale of What’s App activity. It had the same kind of feeling as when the Mojo story broke back in ’89. That being that something unthinkably bad was happening.

Some sources were diving right in and announcing his departure as confirmed whilst the BBC and others held the line insisting it was still only at the discussion stage. The latter, of course, led to an outbreak of mass denial on Twitter. Countless messages read that there surely was nothing in this and that indeed it was just anti-Celtic desperate journalism at its worst.

However, even a clock gets it right twice a day and yesterday the press was on the money right down to the second. Our beloved Brendan, the man who masterminded ‘The Invincibles Season’ and the famed ‘Double Treble’ was for the offski and he wasn’t even hanging around to say goodbye.

Rumours had been circulating for some time that he was being targeted by Leicester City with their manager Claude Puel’s jacket hanging on a shaky peg for months now. But surely not to them? Not to a club who are mid-table, safely above relegation but way off any potential European places and out of the domestic cups so with literally nothing to play for?

D0YLSh3X4AATlAh — *The kind of support Brendan got at Celtic.*

But in his day and age money talks and bullshit walks and the English Premiership side have the money so Brendan did the walking.

Of their financial power, there is no doubt. Last season we broke our turnover record as we surged to £101.5 million thanks in the main to Champions League revenues but despite finishing only just above the relegation zone in their league the Midlands side made the Champions League quarter-finals and with that plus their usual English Premier League cash bonanza they hit £176 million in total turnover for the year.

That affords them the ability to pay fees and wages that we can only dream about and this appears to be the main reason that our once beloved leader has abandoned us.

That’s what it is by the way. It’s abandonment. Not just leaving us for pastures new but all out, pure, unadulterated abandonment. What the hell else could you call it when you do it on the eve of a vital league game and with a historic Treble Treble on the cards and only two and half months of the season to go?

The timing of bad news is never good but at least do it at a time when it makes sense. If Brendan had achieved the aforementioned trio of trebles goal then he could have departed into the sunset with his head held high and all our best wishes this summer.

But to do it now just smacks of both arrogance and most hurtfully indifference.

Yes, the board and in particular, serial panto villain Peter Lawwell will take a lot of flack with once again the debacle that was last summer’s transfer window coming in for renewed withering analysis but today’s decision and the stunningly awful timing of it is all on Brendan.

For him to be wearing the Leicester City tie and stiltedly reading out scripted pish from an autocue where he confirmed how much of an honour it was to be managing them and even going as far as to offer up his life in his pursuit of their success was as absurd as it was stomach-churningly hollow. Yeah, Brendan, you’ll give it ‘everything’………….until something else comes along.

D0YLTE2X4AAfbIV — *The kind of support he’ll get at Leicester.*

When Chris Sutton seemed to pretty brazenly insist he thought Rodgers was off at the weekend I laughed. Yeah, Chris, I seem to remember you predicting the Rangers signings of Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis had pushed the title race in their favour. That was obviously pish and so was this. The only thing is it wasn’t. The second prediction anyway.

Once again we are reminded that nothing lasts forever in football and that unfortunately our geographic proximity to England in this day and age often works against us. With the exposure and TV money on offer down there dwarfing what we can get up here it means that even blatantly smaller clubs whos stadiums are half Celtic Park’s size such as Leicester can come and pinch our most prized talents from top to bottom. Back at the turn of the century, it was quite literally the other way around.

As for Brendan himself, he was dominant domestically. He won seven consecutive trophies and gained a colossal 24 straight wins in domestic cup competitions. In the league, he suffered only 8 defeats from 103 matches which is quite incredible. He also only lost one of thirteen Old Firm games. But let’s be honest……who was he up against? Mark Warburton, Graeme Murty (twice) and Pedro Caixinha?? Hardly stellar tacticians. As for Europe, he achieved only 16 wins in 42 games with 8 draws, 18 defeats and 63 goals conceded. Yes, he brought us back into the group stages of the money-spinning Champions League but once there he stubbornly refused to adapt to our far more harsh surroundings and as a result, we endured some of the most degrading nights ever as Celtic supporters.

Let’s not forget that some of his predecessors such as Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon were also faced against opposition with superior resources on the continent and emerged with somewhat miraculous results by comparison. Whilst under those two scalps such as AC Milan, Benfica (twice), Manchester Utd, Ajax and of course Barcelona were taken and legendary nights were born instead under Brendan the ‘big scalps’ were Astana, Be’er Sheva, Anderlecht, Leipzig and Rosenborg, the latter on multiple occasions. Hardly in the same bracket.

In Europe, there’s little doubt he was a failure but yes domestically an overwhelming success.

He leaves with both my disappointment and mutual indifference. Personally, I hope he never darkens our door again and it’s too late now to insult us with the flattery of undying love and regret that it ended the way it has.

Ah, it really does feel like only yesterday or thereabouts that we were unveiling him on a bright Friday afternoon in May 2016. This was our response to the Rangers calamity the month before and what a response it was. It put the shitters up them so much they quite literally ‘Hibsed’ the Scottish Cup final the very next day to Hibs.

I was actually travelling down south to work in the north of England over that weekend when the announcement came through just as I was pulling into Leeds train station. As I boarded my connecting train to Dearne Valley some local oaf sitting close by announced to his mates “Why is he going up there?” with puzzled arrogance. “Because we’re Celtic!” I thought to myself with a big smile on my face.

Alas, how things change………………..

Lenny will be in the dugout until the summer. Though it’s highly likely he’ll spend much of it in the stand. I’m underwhelmed but he gets all of my support. He goes straight back into the lion’s den against Hearts tomorrow evening in what should be, to say the least, an interesting occasion. Suddenly tomorrow night is huge with only 11 games to go in the title race. After that, it’s onto his former club Hibs – whom he left in a blaze of unspoken acrimony last month – at the weekend in a vital Scottish Cup quarter-final.

This is testing time for all of us but at least we’re well and truly in the driving seat.

As for the big story, in summation…..goodbye Brendan, it was quite a ride but in the end, you discarded us with about as much empathy as a piss head at a music festival does to an empty beer can so ultimately good riddance.

The Seven Month European Journey ends with mixed feelings.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

Celtic exited Europe last night with a 1-0 defeat to Valencia in the Mestalla.

There was little surprise. Few if any held out any genuine hope of our progression last night after a pretty disastrous 2-0 home defeat at Celtic park eight days ago.

But in fairness, we did gain a fair amount of redemption for our disappointing performance in the home leg. Last night we approached the game with some belief, quite a lot of it actually and a plan. Unlike the first tie, we showed we are a capable passing team with decent game management and for most of the first half controlled the ball and looked the more likely to score. On 37 mins though Jeremy Toljan got his second yellow card and any flickering hopes of an unlikely comeback were more or less extinguished. We came under the cosh for the rest of the half and it took some fine saves from Scott Bain, who is now really starting to look the real deal, to prevent our hosts from scoring and the floodgates from opening.

Image result for valencia 1-0 celtic scott bain — *Bain looks the part.*

In the second half, Bain again was called into action though we began to grow into it again and Kristofer Ajer miscued a header from a freekick into the box that could have put us right back in it and the cat really amongst the pigeons. Alas, it went high, wide and handsome.

Substitute Kevin Gaimero tapped in the only goal on 70 minutes and that was that but we kept battling to the end determined to make sure we didn’t fall to an undeserved heavy defeat and when the whistle went we departed the continental stage at the Last 32 round with our heads held high.

In truth, we didn’t create much in the way of clear cut chances. Oliver Burke was deployed up front by himself in the first half and though his pace hurt the Spaniards his lack of a first touch certainly didn’t. Jonny Hayes had a good far post chance but scooped his effort over the bar. In the second half, James Forrest was inexplicably moved into the middle as the lone striker whilst Odsonne Edouard and Timothy Weah looked on from the bench most likely perplexed. Why French Eddy wasn’t deployed from the start with Burke out wide in his natural position only Brendan knows but a combination of lacking faith in his own convictions as well as just overrating Burke’s abilities as a finisher are the leading candidates.

Personally, I thought it was a missed opportunity last night. Valencia looked a little bereft and the home fans were on their back pretty quickly. Our passing game was much sharper with Mcgregor and Brown in particular far better than they had been at Celtic Park. With an actual striker on who knows but I guess that’s neither here nor there because Toljan getting his marching orders pretty much torpedoed our hopes anyway. The German full-back was naive but at the same time, it was the sort of sending off you get against bigger name opposition on the continent that you just know the ref wouldn’t give against them. He wasn’t shy to flash yellow cards at us all night whilst giving out warnings to the men in white shirts for identical fouls. But it’s always been that way in Europe and will never change.

Image result for valencia 1-0 celtic — *No chance he’s doing that to the number 5 in white.*

Looking back we’ve played a mammoth 16 games in European competition this season. That’s far more than the nine we played to win the European Cup in 1967 or even the 15 we played in the 2002/2003 season when we reached the UEFA Cup final after a Champions League play-off defeat. So the most in one season in our history. Of those 16 ties, we won seven, drew three and lost six. A mixed bag.

The highlight was undoubtedly the 2-1 home win against RB Leipzig at Celtic Park on a night where we defeated a team who have been sitting in fourth spot in the Bundesliga all season.

The lows were…….well take your pick basically. The Champions League elimination to Athens, drawing away in Suduva, being bowled over so easily away to Salzburg and in Leipzig or the anticlimactic displays at home to Salzburg and Valencia.

Scottish football as a whole has also seen its stock risen with the Scottish league’s coefficient rising from 25 to 20 due to this season displays. A draw last night would have actually nudged Scotland slightly ahead of Serbia in 19th spot so, on the whole, it’s been a beneficial season for everyone with not just Celtic actually delivering some points for once.

Brendan’s European record still isn’t great. 16 wins from 40 games with six draws and 18 losses isn’t horrific but could and should be better. With only 12 wins from 32 European ties Neil Lennon’s record was actually worse but his win column included the victory over Barcelona and also saw us progress to the Champions League Last 16 with a Scottish record for a club from these shores in the Champions League of 10 points, something which is unlikely to be repeated any time soon if at all.

Gordan Strachan’s also wasn’t great either with only eight wins from 26 but those were, of course, the days when we hardly played any qualifiers and, as a result, minnows, and were generally straight in with the big boys. He also took us to glory nights against Manchester Utd (1-0), AC Milan (2-1), Benfica (3-0), Donetsk (2-1) and back to back Champions League Last 16 qualifications which once again will unlikely happen in the foreseeable future.

He is of course way off Martin ONeill’s ledger which includes an incredible 26 wins in European competition from 53 European ties and had far too many glory nights to mention with the greatest of his achievements being leading us to our first major European final in 33 years.

Anyway, this seasons is done and playing in Europe after Christmas is no mean feat. That’s only the eight-time we’ve done it in the past 39 years which should put our European expectations into some kind of perspective. That and the fact that Kevin Gaimero who came on as a sub to score against us last night has won the competition we were playing in an incredible four times which shows you what we are up against.

Onwards and upwards domestically starting with a revitalised Motherwell on Sunday.

Celtic: a 5-day review, from despair against Valencia to late joy at Killie.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

It’s not ideal to be writing two post-match reviews several days late but alas I’ve been floored by a virus so have been bed bound up until today.

I didn’t fancy writing anything in the wake of the Valencia defeat anyway. Negatively abounded online and in Celtic cyberspace in particular. Ultimately it’s the sort of performance on big European nights that we’ve become accustomed to not just under Brendan but over the past six years full stop. I plan to write a preview tomorrow of the second leg anyway so will touch more on that there.

On the night itself, our passing was poor, our movement lacked conviction and after a good opening ten minutes spell we lost our way and allowed our opponents to grow into the game and ultimately take over. As a result, they scored in each half via strikes from Cheryshev and Sobrino with both goals totally preventable and born out of unnecessary mistakes on our part. That aside Scott Brown struggled badly but in fairness so did the whole team. Even the ever dependable Callum McGregor had an off night something you can rarely say about the 25-year-old. We were well beaten by a team who had extra quality but who also did the basics right.

All that being said at European level we just can’t afford to not have players the calibre of Tierney, Rogic, Benkovic as well as Ntcham and Griffiths available to us. The first three would be automatic starters and the other two would be at the very least be in contention to start and even if they didn’t would be quality options to bring on from the bench.

Anyway, it’s done and Thursday gives us a chance, however unlikely, to redeem ourselves. Like I’ve said I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

Image result for valencia 2-0 celtic — *Valencia makes it two.*

As for Sunday well it wasn’t the best performance but we got the job done and in doing so go eight points clear at the top.

Killie haven’t lost to us at Rugby Park since Steve Clarke’s arrival – indeed they’ve beaten us on each of our last two visits – and up until recently were even considered title challengers so strong has their season-long form been. They are hard working, determined and well organised. They are also capable of some decent passing movements in tight situations which they really don’t get credit for. In players like Jordan Jones and Eamonn Brophy, they have genuine attacking threats who come at you with pace.

In the early exchanges, we dominated though created little in the way of clear cut chances and then as the match progressed Killie did what they do and began to ease into the game and created opportunities of their own.

In the second half Kirk Broadfoot went in rashly on Brown with the type of challenge refs just don’t stand for these days – well most refs anyway – and got himself a straight red. It didn’t really change the momentum of the game though as Kilmarnock were already pretty adept at sitting in and frustrating. We struggled to create much as we often do when faced up with defensively minded teams down in numbers. It was kind of playing out just like it did against AEK Athens in the home tie of our Champions League 3rd qualifying round match against them at Celtic Park back in August where despite our numerical advantage when they had a man sent off we basically refused to adapt, kept recycling the ball and passing it around in front of them and refused to improvise. Then veteran defender Alex Bruce came on, we won a corner, it fell to Boyata who headed it down to Scott Brown who was just inside the box and launched one – which may have been row Z bound – and Bruce threw himself at it, with the result being it deflected off of his outstretched arm and into the net.

Broonie went delirious and after pondering it for a second decided to run into the fans who invaded the pitch and the Scottish press prepared to mount their moral collective high horse. Nobody got hurt though, it all appeared to be pretty good-natured and Brown paid the price with a second yellow and red card which actually saw us having to hold out for the last few mins.

Image result for kilmarnock 0-1 celtic — *All’s well that ends well.*

But hold out we did and what with Rangers being held to a surprising 0-0 draw against St.Johnstone – who we had decided to let out of our pockets for the afternoon – at Ibrox we stretched our lead at the top to eight points with all teams in the league having played 26 games.

Kris Boyd got pinged with a coin whilst warming up for which there is no excuse and he was decent enough not to make a big deal of it during the match at least. He’s been pretty vocal about it since and there’s no point in trying to deflect here. We are quick to point the finger when other clubs fans do it and our players or staff are affected so have to hold ourselves to the same standard. Late afternoon or early evening games always have that extra potential for stupidity from the stands due to the increased likelihood of prematch drinking and continued actions such as these bury any arguments to allow alcohol sales into Scottish football stadiums for the first time.

Anyway, we now have a healthy lead up at the top. That plus we’be now gone eight domestic games without conceding a goal, scoring 22 and winning every one. We also got to see Bayo for the first time and first impressions are he looks pretty composed but we will, of course, need to see a helluva lot more.

On Sunday after our Europa League campaign is likely finished we will face a very much inform Motherwell team at Celtic Park. Like us, they have won their last six consecutive league matches and have young players like Jake Hastie, Allan Campbell and David Turnbull on fire. Whilst we are looking to tie up our eight consecutive league title they are rampaging towards an unlikely top six league finish with the gap on sixth-placed St.Johnstone now down to only two points – it was 13 points only four weeks ago -and their free-flowing style should make for an entertaining match. After that, we’re at Tynecastle to play Hearts midweek which is always a pretty raucous and competitive affair. Get through these two and the schedule gets a little kinder for us and less so for our closest rivals. So basically what I’m saying is win these next two league matches and we can only really throw it away.

Anyway, it’s been a mixed bag these last five days. Hopefully, the next eight are full of positives and my cold goes away.

Europa League: All you need to know about Valencia in the last 32.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

Tomorrow night it’s Valencia in the Europa League Last 32 as we take a break from recent domestic action.

It’s all so different from the last time they visited Celtic Park back in 2001. Both had superior teams back then and genuine big European ambitions. We triumphed 1-0 on the night thanks to Henrik Larsson though lost out on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw.

But that was then and this is now.

We all know that we are in fine fettle domestically with seven wins on the trot, 21 goals scored and none conceded since our return to action a mere three and a half weeks ago.

The new signings of Burke and Weah have hit the ground running, giving the team dynamic energy and fresh impetus whilst the likes of McGregor, Christie and Forrest have maintained their excellent form from the first half of the season. That combined with the recent return from injury of the likes of Boyata, Edouard and potentially even Kieran Tierney the squad is looking in fine shape as the quality of the opposition gets ramped up a notch on Thursday evening against La Liga’s Valencia.

Image result for celtic vs zenit — *Expect something similar to this tomorrow.*

So let’s look a little in depth at what we’ll be coming up against, shall we?

Valencia are currently managed by 53-year-old Spaniard Marcelino García Toral or Marcelino for short. He took over in the summer of 2017 having previously been in charge of Villareal for four seasons and four pretty successful ones at that as he led them to promotion followed by three consecutive top-six finishes. In 2015-16 he guided them to fourth spot in the league and a Champion League playoff spot as a result. That same season he also took them to the semi-finals of the Europa League after an incredible twelve game unbeaten run, including nine wins before they came unstuck to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg of the semis.

So he has form in the competition. Pretty good form.

Despite all that Toral was incredibly sacked one game into the following season’s campaign after an alleged fallout with the board and was without work for nine months before taking over the reins at Valencia in May 2017.

His first season got off to a stormer with an unbeaten thirteen game league run, including nine wins and they ultimately finished fourth only three points behind third-placed Real Madrid and six behind runners up Atletico Madrid. They also reached the Cop Del Rey semi-finals where they lost to eventual winners Barcelona.

Image result for marcelino valencia — Marcelino: the man, the myth…the legend.

Emboldened by that success and bankrolled by billionaire owner Peter Lim they spent big in last summers transfer window blowing €126 million with talents such as Geoffrey Kondogbia (€25 million), Gonçalo Guedes (€40 million) and Mouctar Diakhaby (€15 million) arriving though with the exception of Kondogbia none of those three has made much of an impact. A reminder that a big transfer fee guarantees nothing.

They also signed Italian right back Cristiano Piccini from Sporting Lisbon for €7 million – a player linked with us throughout last summer – so I guess we’ll get to see tomorrow night what we either did or didn’t miss out on.

Along with that lot plus several others, they took in two big-name loan signings with Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi and Russia’s World Cup star Denis Cheryshev. Batshuayi’s form was pretty disastrous though and after only netting three times in 23 games his season-long deal was cut short and he was punted back to London. He’s now on loan to Crystal Palace.

This winter they brought in two signings in veteran Argentine central defender Facundo Roncaglia from Celta Vigo on loan and Deportivo Alavés forward Rubén Sobrino as a back-up striker.

On the pitch, it’s been uneven as they have so far failed to recreate the form of last season.

They won only one of their first eleven league matches but have been unbeaten in their last five La Liga appearances and have only lost one of their last nine. In amongst all that lot was a pretty impressive 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp against the all-powerful league leaders Barcelona and they’ve actually only lost four league games all season but to counter that incredibly they’ve only won six as well. It’s been draws galore and thus far Valencia have tied 13 from 23 league matches scoring only 24 in the process with 20 conceded.

Image result for valencia 2018 / 19 — *Our opponents.*

Despite that, they still sit eighth in La Liga which is only six points behind Sevilla in fourth spot and another Champions League play-off place.

They’ve also reached the semi-finals of the Copa Del Rey and after a 2-2 away draw at Real Betis they are red hot favourites to reach the final with the home leg still to come.

In Europe, they finished third in a tough Champions League group that included Juventus and Manchester United. They lost in two tight games to the Italians but held Man U to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford and defeated them 2-1 in the final group match the at the Mestella.

The main players to look out for are the powerful centre back Ezequiel Garay who has over thirty caps for Argentina, long-serving creative midfielder Daniel Parejo who has seven goals in 32 appearances this season, 22-year-old central midfielder Carlos Soler who already has 93 first team appearances, and the attacking trio of French internationalist Kevin Gameiro who has 190 career goals, Spanish internationalist winger Rodrigo and their top marksman the 23-year-old Santi Mina who has 37 goals over the past four seasons eight of which he’s netted this term.

Here’s the good new though…………Rodrigo has been left at home along with regular left-back Jose Gaya, Santi Mina is likely to miss out due to an ankle injury, central defender Gabriel has a thigh problem and is struggling, and new singing Facundo Roncaglia is also unavailable due to a suspension the last time he played in Europe that Valencia only realised yesterday. A shame as if they had played him we’d have gone through on default just like we did against Legia and Sion in the past. The good old pesky paperwork and rules.

Rodrigo

Mina

Roncaglia

On the road, in all cup competitions, they’ve only won once in seven games and three of their only four league defeats have also come on the road at such inauspicious places as Espanyol and Alaves as well as Sporting de Gijón and Getafe in the Copa Del Rey.

Safe to say they are a defensive minded team who struggle for goals but are tough to break down and are far better at home than away. That should bring us all hope.

Our recent record at home in European competition has been impressive with only one loss in our last eight home European ties, six wins and it’s been 15-5 on goal difference.

Last season at this stage we defeated Zenit St.Petersburg 1-0 in the home leg and though it was a fine victory against quality opposition our failure to capitalise on several other good chances that night meant we were really up against it on the road, and with our feeble away record the one goal was never going to be enough. Let’s hope we don’ make the same mistake again.

Hopefully, under the disco lights and with Burke, Forrest and Sinclair driving at them early with pace we can get off to a good start and set the tone otherwise Valencia will undoubtedly turn it into a long and frustrating evening.

It’ll be tough but it’s winnable and it could be a great night. Let’s make it happen Celtic and right the wrong of 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAz5E_LqYjI

Celtic 5 – 0 St.Johnstone: Celts smash Saints to keep the rampant unbeaten run going plus other Cup stuff.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

Another day, another article, another clean sheet but not a third 2-0 in a row instead Celtic – with a full measure of their opponents having met them twice already in the previous ten days – drilled Tommy Wright’s hapless Perth side by five to nil and there could have been a few more to boot as we resoundingly made our way into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals and the seemingly relentless march to the treble-treble continues.

It all started in only three minutes when Olly Burke rampaged to the byline and cut it back across the goal. It appeared as if there would be no takers but Scott Sinclair arrived at the back post and from an acute angle drilled it past Saints keeper Zander Clark at his near post. A mere six minutes later it was 2-0 when captain Scott Brown picked up on a loose ball and from 30 yards out sent a howitzer straight as an arrow past Clark once more and into his top left-hand corner for a collector’s item strike.

Image result for celtic 5-0 st.johnstone scott brown — *Broooooonie!*

Celtic took their foot off the peddle for the rest of the first period though another terrific run to the byline and cutback from Burke deserved better. In the second half, the men in Hoops were back at it with Jonny Hayes feeding James Forrest who placed it through Clark’s legs on 52 mins and only two mins later Scott Sinclair got his second via a tap in after Burke once again left the Saints defence in his wake and crossed from the byline. Sinclair finished it all off on 89 mins with his second hattrick of the season after substitute Edouard’s shot was blocked and it fell to the winger who turned and finished from close range. He now has 19 goals for the season which is an incredible return and is only six off his total from his debut season at Celtic when he received Player of the Year.

So it was all rather easy as we made it seven wins from seven games as well as an incredible 21-0 over the duration and even more good news with the unexpected return of James Forrest to the starting line-up and Odsonne Edouard coming on from the bench indicating both should be in fine fettle for Thursday nights huge Europa League clash with Rosenborg………..sorry Valencia

Jonny Hayes got a rare start at left-back and impressed though that was with our opposition on the back foot all day. That will not be the case on Thursday night.

Oliver Burke stole the show, however. I always thought his pace would terrify defences up here and so it has proven to be thus far. He picked up a knock but early indications are it’s not something to worry about too much. He really could be vital for us. His pace is electric.

Elsewhere on Saturday Eddie May took over the reins at Hibs one last time as they eased to a 3-1 win over League One’s Raith Rovers. He now will make way for the big name ultra-ambitious appointment that is Michael Appleton. Expect season book sales to tumble.

Speaking of tumbling as expected St.Mirren fell to Dundee Utd, 2-1 at home. Oran Kearney claimed it was the worst first-half performance he’d seen at the Paisley club since taking over back in September so considering how poor they’ve been these past five months it must really have been bad and Partick Thistle visited Bayview to earn a hard-fought 1-0 win over another League One outfit in East Fife who’s stadium features the bizarre site of being surrounded by solar panels. A bit better than the old decaying Methil power station that used to provide the vista right enough. I was wondering what had happened to it – used to notice it on the early rounds Scottish Cup highlights show back in the 2000s – but wiki tells me they demolished it back in 2011. You learn something new every day.

Out with the old…….

…..the future’s green.

In the evening game, Kilmarnock and Rangers served up a bit of a stinker with the only highlight being a first-half penalty conceded by ex-Rangers hero Kirk Broadfoot which resulted in James Tavernier cracking it straight down the middle and off the keeper’s legs. In the second half, Jermaine Defoe dived – though nobody in the media dare talks about it – and Killie’s Irish midfielder Alan Power unsuccessfully tried to remove Ryan Jack’s head. They aren’t scared to talk about that. The match ended goalless and they will now replay a week on Wednesday at Ibrox.

On Sunday after Celtic’s rout at Parkhead, Hearts swatted away the challenge of Junior side Auchinleck Talbot 4-0 as the Ayrshire men fought bravely but alas were completely outgunned by the Edinburgh side who now seem to have most of the key players that got their season off to such a good start back from injury.

And in the final match of the day, Aberdeen won out 4-1 against the Championship’s Queen of the South but had a second-half scare when goal machine Stephen Dobbie cracked in probably the goal of the round with a 35-yard beezer that gave Joe Lewis in the Dons goal no chance in hell. Incredibly that’s his 38th goal of the season for the Doonhamers. Up the other end though Aberdeen have a goal machine of their own in Sam Cosgrove – which as just as well as his strike partner is Stevie ‘Couldn’t hit a barn door’ May – and he grabbed a double one of which was a penalty to get his 16th goals of the campaign.

🚀 What. A. Hit.

A tremendous equaliser from @OfficialQosFC's Stephen Dobbie.

(📹 via @BBCSportScot)#ScottishCup #TalkDobbieToMe pic.twitter.com/5eLhp9wwMK

— William Hill Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) February 10, 2019

Tonight will be the final game of the Scottish Cup fifth round – notwithstanding replays – as Ross County and Inverness Caley Thistle go at it in a hotly anticipated Highland Derby at the luxurious Global Energy Stadium, Dingwall. Both are doing pretty well in the Championship this season with Ross County looking to bounce straight back up after last seasons relegation from the top flight. They sit top and despite trailing them by 12 points their Highland rivals from Inverness still sit in a play-off place and have scored 10 goals in their last two cup games in the competition this season. The draw will then proceed thereafter and it’s always interesting to see who we’ll get out of the hat. At this stage of the competition, it’s bound to be tough no matter who it is so bring it on.

Celtic 2-0 Hibs: Déjà Vu at the top and pantomime season lingers on at Pittodrie.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

Another game. Another Celtic victory. Oh and another clean sheet. So that’s 6-0 now in terms of the 2019 winning streak and 16-0 on aggregate since returning from the break. These intros are now more or less writing themselves.

So last night Celtic secured another three points as the march towards eight consecutive titles rolls on. As expected a somewhat demoralised Hibs team in disarray since the departure of their manager Neil Lennon offered little. In their dugout, Eddie May continues to look as about uncomfortable as a pilgrim in an unholy land no doubt suffering flashbacks to his ever so brief yet disastrous tenure at the helm of Falkirk nearly a decade ago. Time flies. He also disclosed after the match he’d put off having a vasectomy so as to attend the game. That’s commitment. Either that or he bottled it.

Under Lennon, Hibs were a challenge every time we met them. Indeed in the last six league encounters between us and them, we’d only beaten them twice suffering two defeats and drawing twice in the process with an aggregate score of 10-10. Every game had been free-scoring save one with goals flying in at either end. However last night they offered little and Celtic pretty much did as they pleased with Timothy Weah and Scott Sinclair both going close before Jeremy Toljan cut in from the right to feed Christie in the box and the Scotland internationalist turned and buried it nicely to open the scoring on 24 mins. The rest of the half was more of the same.

Image result for celtic 2-0 hibs — *That’s the way to do it.*

In the second half, Celtic continued to create chance after chance and it should have been two when Boyata’s point-blank header was saved magnificently by Ofir Marciano. But the points were wrapped up finally on 63 mins when McGregor fed Christie from his own half and he scampered forward before releasing Burke with a nicely placed through ball that was duly executed in the box by that man Oliver Burke who finished via a deflection from the diving Darren McGregor which dinked over the despairing Marciano.

As a result, Celtic move onto 57 points with their third consecutive 2-0 win and remain six points clear of second-placed Rangers who stayed in contention thanks to a 4-2 win at Pittodrie over Aberdeen which sees the Govan based side pull five points ahead of the Dons after a controversy-filled affair. Having gone into the break 3-1 up thanks to two goals from Alfredo Morelos and the customary penalty for James Tavernier all looked comfortable before Englishman Tavernier conceded a penalty in his own box early in the second half that was converted by recent goal machine Sam Cosgrove. Then back up the other end, that man Morelos continued his pantomime style approach to the beautiful game as he raked a foot down alleged Celtic target Scott McKenna before appearing to take a stud to the face as the big Reds defender retaliated. Morelos went down like he’d been tasered by Grampians finest and both were subsequently shown red cards. Thereafter the home side dominated and were unlucky not to get another penalty when Allan McGregor unsuccessfully tried to break the shin of young Lewis Ferguson before a breakaway deep into injury time saw Jermain Defoe bury his new sides fourth goal and secure the points.

Earlier on today Alfredo Morelos red card was rather brazenly appealed by his employers. If the SPFL – or is it the SFA? – actually, entertain it never mind overturn the original decision then any last lingering shreds of credibility the ruling body have in Scottish football will be thoroughly doused in petrol and incinerated for good. It would be lunacy. So that’s probably why it might happen.

Image result for morelos mckenna — *Morelos was fine in the end by the way.*

As the candles dimmed on Aberdeens’ unlikely title challenge they were also more or less extinguished over at Dens Park where Kilmarnock were held to a 2-2 draw by relegation battlers Dundee. 2-1 down at halftime Steve Clarke’s men got it back to equal terms thanks to a spectacular free-kick from Chris Burke and then laid siege to their host’s goal before Kenny Miller raced clear on the break in the dying embers and won a penalty. He stepped up to covert but fluffed it though and Dundee passed up the chance for two undeserved but vital extra points.

Livingston stopped the rot of their recent five-game losing run by batoning down the hatches at Tynecastle and securing a 0-0 draw against their favourite team Hearts whilst the Brian Rice revolution got off to a flyer at New Douglas Park thanks to a 2-1 win for his new charges Hamilton Accies against St.Johnstone for whom the wheels have really come off recently. That’s their fourth league loss on the spin having only lost two of their previous thirteen.

The season of woe over in Paisley continues for St.Mirren and their beleaguered manager Oran Kearney. They suffered their sixth loss in a row on league duty via a 2-1 home defeat to Motherwell and that’s their 19th in 25 in what has been a truly awful campaign. Their 0-0 draw in his first match against us back in mid-September must feel like a managerial lifetime ago for Kearney and you wonder just how much longer it can go on for before the latest axe swings on a Premiership manager’s head.

As for the rejuvenated Motherwell, that’s their fifth straight league win in a row now with nine goals scored and only two conceded. Youngsters such as Jake Hastie, Allan Campbell and David Turnbull have really come into form and they now look almost odds on to catch struggling St.Johnstone for a top six place which seemed nigh on impossible going into the winter break.

This weekend it’s back to the cup and we entertain that very team I’ve just written off in St.Johnstone on Sunday. Injury wise we are still likely to be without Odsonne Edouard and James Forrest with Tierney, Rogic, Benkovic and Griffiths also still way off. Emilio Izaguirre could also struggle after suffering a heavy tackle to his ankle last night though according to Brendan it’s not as bad as first feared. Bayo made the bench last night and might see some game time but again the expectations will lie with our go-to guys McGregor and Christie as well as the new Timothy Weah / Olly Burke connection.

Kilmarnock will be hoping to repeat their recent win over Rangers in the Saturday evening game and there will be all the razmataz and glamour of the Highland Derby on Monday night. Expect Dundee Utd to also fancy themselves at a dejected St.Mirren in what could be another nail in Oran Kearney’s Scottish football management coffin.

The injuries pile up but we’re still out in front.

February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 wayofthecass

On early Sunday afternoon, Celtic extended their perfect form since returning from the winter break to 5-0 and 14-0 on aggregate.

However, unlike the previous four games, which had all been played at Celtic Park and had all been pretty routinely one-sided domestic affairs we actually had a match to contend with on Sunday.

Early doors St.Johnstone showed some ambition and created a few chances, something which they had, by and large, failed to do in 90 minutes when visiting Celtic Park last Wednesday. But then after about 15 minutes, they resorted to previous tactics of shutting up shop and playing eleven men behind the ball after what could only have been a sudden mass flashback to the 6-0 hiding they had endured on their home patch against the men in hoops back in October. Strange as we wore the away strip that day.

Anyway thereafter Celtic struggled to break them down in what can only be described as a dull and turgid affair as we passed the ball about relentlessly in front of them. Pretty apt for a dreary early February Sunday afternoon.

The game had 0-0 written all over it but fortune favours the brave and Odsonne Edouard came on for his first appearance since a substitute display at Ibrox back in December and his presence seemed to almost immediately spark us into life with Saints keeper Zander Clark saving well as French Eddy blasted a fine effort towards goal from twenty yards out. James Forrest then burst into the box and dinked one to the back post where Ryan Christie was cut in half by Jason Kerr before Clark saved again this time from Scott Sinclair and then finally Joe Shaughnessy booted the ball clear off the line, taking Edouard’s foot in the process resulting the Frenchman having to be subbed off only eight minutes after coming on.

That made you think it really wasn’ going to be our day but enter Timothy Weah as Odsonne’s replacement and he immediately set about terrorising the Perth sides defence This culminated in him taking down a speculative long ball to the edge of the box from Scott Brown rather masterfully before executing a lovely ball to the far post where James Forrest nipped in ahead of the unaware Scott Tanser to prod home the opener. A minute later Forrest was booked for celebrating with the crowd and a minute after that he walked off with a hamstring injury reducing us to ten men as all three substitutes had already been used at this point.

With ten minutes left this emboldened the hosts to venture forward and after committing everyone upfield for a corner on the 89th minute they were made to pay the price as Celtic broke through Scott Sinclair who released Weah and the 18-year-old played a one-two with Callum McGregor with the return ball seeing Weah bury it to wrap up the points.

Minutes later that Kristofer Ajer got a straight red after losing the ball to Callum Hendry who he then subsequently pulled back and as the last man a straight red was the inevitable conclusion.

So we finished with only nine men but the three points were what was most important and with that mission accomplished as we return to the top of the league and maintain a six points gap over second-placed Rangers.

That being said the bill from the match was pretty steep. Edouard only just back from injury and stretchered off, along with Forrest departing with a sudden hamstring pull and a straight red and automatic ban for Ajer. Even Christie was struggling with a rib injury near the end after the aformnetioned incident where he was scythed down by Kerr in a what should have been a blatant penalty that went completely unnoticed by the officials.

The positives were the continuing impressive showings by Weah who really has breathed new enthusiasm and life into the side with his effervescent displays. I also thought Olly Burke was doing a good job, indeed he nearly scored twice the first from a lung-busting run down the flanks in the first half and I thought him unfortunate to be subbed for Edouard when Scott Sinclair had done absolutely nothing all afternoon. He was also involved in another dismissed penalty incident in the first half which looked pretty clearcut to me and no doubt he would have got it if his jersey had a lot less green and a helluva lot more blue on it. Jeremy Toljan also made his debut after his transfer deadline day loan from Borussia Dortmund with Mikel Lustig going off at halftime with yet another injury. Toljan looked pretty accomplished and surprisingly sharp considering he has hardly featured this season for his parent club.

5c5711654546c228450891 — *The new bhoy.*

Elsewhere Rangers got three dodgy penalties as Andrew Dallas made daddy proud via a virtuoso display of breathtaking ineptitude at Ibrox with the home side winning out 4-0 in the end and Aberdeen won 2-1 at Easter Road as the reality of the post-Lennon era starts to hit home and the Dons keep up their unlikely title challenge. Hearts gained a surprise 2-1 win at high flying Kilmarnock whilst Motherwell hammered Livingston 3-0 as the men from the Tony Macaroni faltered to their fifth straight defeat. Dundee also drew 1-1 at Hamilton in a result that doesn’t do much for either side but does signal the beginning of perennial right-hand man Brian Rice’s long-awaited assault on Scottish football management.

Untitled-1 — *I take it you’ve all seen that What’s App video by now?*

On Wednesday we play managerless Hibs who are currently under the temporary guidance of ‘Mr Reluctant’ Eddie May. It’s at home and it’s pretty much a game in which anything other than a resounding win considering our opposition’s predicament would be seen as three points thrown away. Add in the real possibility that Rangers could drop points that very night as they face a resurgent Aberdeen side up at Pittodrie and a win is vital. The Dons have only lost one in their last eleven domestic games, nine of which have been in the league and that was against us on Boxing Day in an end to end affair. They themselves sit only two points behind the men from Govan.

But what the hell kind of team are we going to put out is the main question? Kieron Tierney has only just returned to light training so is still way off, both Benkovic and Rogic are facing 4-6 weeks on the sidelines, Ajer is of course suspended and then add in the three casualties from the weekend then you have a bonafide injury crisis. It could mean that forgotten men such as Bitton, Jonny Hayes and even Jack Hendry are called back into action some of whom I figured it would seem unlikely we’d ever see in a Celtic jersey again. Encouragingly though Boyata is apparently back into full training with Ntcham, not far behind him and Leigh Griffiths has been included in the just announced Europa League squad so may not be too far off it either.

For tomorrow night, followed by the cup game against St.Johnstone……..again……. at the weekend and then Valencia next Thursday it really is all hands to the pump.

Celtic 2-0 St.Johnstone: Six points clear one month into the new year plus transfer deadline day talk.

February 7, 2019February 7, 2019 wayofthecass

In the last update on the blog, I wrote that it was three wins on the spin since the return from the winter break. Well, I guess we can make that four now as Celtic coasted home to a 2-0 win over St.Johnstone which makes it 12 goals scored and four clean sheets too.

At the top of the table we remain and now we’re six points clear with a superior goal difference as well. Not a bad eleven days if you ask me. Incredible to think we’ve already played four games in that time.

Celtic dominated the first half with Saints keeper Zander Clark making a wonderful save from a point-blank Scott Sinclair header. Later on, in the half, Olly Burke produced a curling effort from the left-hand side of the box which zipped just past the far post. But that aside the visiting side kept it tight and remained encamped around their box for the whole 45 mins with only Rangers legend Michael O’Halloran looking any kind of a threat on the break.

At halftime, you started to wonder if it just might not be our night but five minutes after the restart any such fears were allayed when Callum McGregor had acres of space to advance towards the opposition box after being fed in from the right by Mikel Lustig and he unleashed a storming drive that gave Clark no chance and ended up in the bottom right corner to give the men in Hoops the lead.

A mere two mins later it got even better and the points were pretty much signed, sealed and delivered when the advancing Lustig again fed a ball in from the right, this time to the edge of the box where Ryan Christie left Saints captain Joe Shaughnessy for dead and proceeded to curl the ball spectacularly past Clark high into the far corner to make it 2-0 and more or less game over.

Image result for celtic 2 st johnstone 0 — *It’s a beauty from Christie.*

Odsonne Edouard made his long-awaited comeback from the bench and almost scored before Clark made a wonderful save from McGregor minutes later. Then right at the end, Ricky Foster produced a blatant handball whilst sliding in the box to prevent a cross from James Forrest after the Celtic winger had played a cute one-two with Lustig but the referee and the linesman had already decided Celtic had scored enough for the evening so chose to pretend they didn’t see it.

So that was that. As comfortable as you like with the Celt’s keeper Scott Bain a virtual spectator.

That’s our 13th win in our last 17 league games now, 16th win in 20 domestic games and our 12th win in 12 home league games this season.

We now visit McDiarmid Park on Sunday to face the same opposition again and let’s hope for more of the same or better still a repeat of the 6-0 hammering we dished out to them back in early October. Hard to believe that’s four months ago already. I remember it well. It was pretty much the performance that kick-started our season after a, to say the least, tepid start.

Tomorrow is, of course, the final day of the transfer window. By Celtic’s standards, it’s been a pretty active January with most of our business done uncharacteristically early via the signing of striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo and the loan deals for attackers Timothy Weah and Olly Burke. There were of course hopes of a right back arriving though rumoured interest in Atalanta’s Belgium internationalist Timothy Castagne was kiboshed by a price tag of somewhere in the region of £10 million.

Scott McKenna was also linked with some social media sources even going as far as to proclaim that a £6.5 million fee with Aberdeen had been agreed and that the big centre back was en route via a taxi all the way from Dubai. It was of course baseless. Aberdeen have got the player tied up until 2023 and have already said they think they can get an eight-figure fee from a club down south this summer. Being that they are in rude financial health these days they are under no pressure to sell and can name their price. That price is likely to be too rich for our blood especially when you consider that McKenna is far from the finished article.

Image result for scott mckenna celtic — *Perhaps the closest Scott McKenna will ever get to wearing a Celtic jersey.*

The latest name to be linked is Borussia Dortmund’s Jeremy Toljan, a right back who made 27 appearances for the current Bundesliga league leaders last season but so far none this term. Brendan was quick to dampen any hopes though prematch saying that there’s nothing in it.

Who knows what will materialise over the next 24 hrs. But with Filipe Benkovic out until at least March suddenly central defence is a concern again.

That aside defender Jack Hendry and midfielder Lewis Morgan continue to be linked with loan moves away for the rest of the season. Considering the improvement we’ve seen in Ryan Christie since his return from a loan stint at Aberdeen I’d say such moves would be good for both young players. It would also trim a very bloated squad that at his way too much dead wood with Gamboa, Hayes, Eboue and Mulumbu other worthy candidates for the dispatch box. As for Marvin Compper, well, they’ll need to carry him out.

All of this and more will be answered in the coming hours. Of course, it could be that nothing happens at all.

As is always the case with a Celtic transfer deadline day………….expect the worst…..hope for the best.

Weekend review: Celtic keep rattling them in, managerial heads tumble and them from Govan invade the pitch.

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019 wayofthecass

Another weekend and another victory as Celtic made it three on the spin since returning from the winter break.

As predicted in my last article it really was like shooting fish in a barrel as Hamilton offered only slight resistance en route to being beaten 3-0 going on six.

Young Ryan Fulton in the away teams goal had both a great game and a calamity at the same time as he produced some fine stops to keep the men in green and white out for 40 mins before letting a Callum McGregor shot straight at him squirm under his body and into the net.

His indifferent form continued in the second half as he made more good saves only to spill the ball at the feet of Ryan Christie on 77 mins with the Celtic man duly obliging to increase the lead before Scott Sinclair headed home his seventh in five games ten minutes later to give a more realistic final scoreline to proceedings.

Easy peasy and Celtic maintained their lead at the top whilst for the Accies this was their 11th defeat in 15 games of which they have only won two. It’s the kind of form that would usually see you cut adrift at the bottom but luckily for them both St.Mirren and Dundee have been equally awful this term and they actually still sit 10th and above the relegation zone.

Still, it was no great surprise to see their manager Martin Canning sacked this morning. In fairness, he’s operating with the financial equivalent of a pea shooter in the transfer market and Hamilton are a club who have punched well above their weight to stay in the Premier league since coming up via the playoffs in May 2014. This season reality seems to be really biting though and Canning has paid the price.

Image result for martin canning sacked — *Times up for Martin.*

For Celtic, that’s 10 goals with none conceded in the past three games and the break certainly seems to have re-energised them with an opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the table when they play St.Johnstone at Celtic Park tomorrow night as we finally play our game in hand.

Elsewhere Rangers avenged an earlier season loss to Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena putting them back up to second spot, a victory of such significance to the hordes in blue that they invaded the pitch in exuberant celebration. Pitch invasions for beating 8th placed Livi eh? They’ve come a long way alright.

In a clash between two of the chasing pack at Pittodrie both Aberdeen and Kilmarnock played out a disappointing 0-0 draw with the only highlight being Krois Boyd receiving a straight red. For Aberdeen, that means they’ve only lost once in eight games and remain in fourth spot one place behind Killie who have only lost once their last eleven league games.

Hearts inconsistent form also continued as they bounced back from a surprise 2-1 midweek home defeat to basement dwellers Dundee by defeating in form St.Johnstone comfortably 2-0 at Tynecastle which sees them leapfrog Tommy Wright’s team and go back into fifth place.

Over in Leith all hell kicked off on Friday night as Neil Lennon was suspended for an apparent bust-up with his squad and in particular striker, Florian Kamberi who he ironically brought to the side in the summer after a successful loan spell last season.

Image result for Neil Lennon suspended — *Lennon and Flo Kamberi in happier times.*

For some reason, Hibs haven’t actually sacked him yet though it’s 90% certain it’ll be made official sometime this week. The exact details of what happened are of course sketchy but Lenny is prone to outbursts and combined with poor results this season which have seen his team win only seven from 22 games then I guess it was the perfect storm.

Still, it’s disappointing to see. Lennon has been good for Hibs winning the Championship to get them back up in his first season and then guiding them back into Europe via a fourth-placed finish last season where they were also in contention for the second spot right up to the last few weeks. Considering his squad was decimated in the summer due to the departures of his entire central midfield in McGinn, Allen and McGeouch it’s not really a surprise they have floundered so badly this term. The incredible job being done by Stevie Clarke over at Kilmarnock with no money has undoubtedly put extra pressure on him also.

Into his place stepped youth coach Eddie May on Sunday and despite the chaos around Hibs they still inflicted more anguish on poor Oran Kearney with a 3-1 win at New St.Mirren Park.

Kearney really must be wondering what the hell he’s got himself into having come over from Northern Ireland with lofty ambitions only to have tasted the cold hard reality of trying to compete in the SPFL Premiership on a shoestring and a with squad decimated from last season by the ill-advised summer transfer antics of his short-lived predecessor Alan Stubbs.

This latest defeat keeps the Buddies bottom only a point behind Dundee who lost 1-0 at home to Motherwell. The bottom three are now trapped in a little min-relegation league of their own with ‘Well now 13 points clear of them in 9th spot and looking up the table after two back to back league wins.

Never a dull moment in the good old SPFL.

Midweek review: Celtic win, Killie keep going and it turns out we did do well in the transfer window.

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019 wayofthecass

So Wednesday was our second game back since returning from the winter break.

After a pretty easy 3-0 win over Airdrieonians in the cup on Saturday evening, we were again at home though this time in the league and up against perennial season long basement dwellers St.Mirren.

Not much to see here as it was about as comfortable as you can get with Celtic dominating proceedings from start to finish en route to a 4-0 win over our underwhelming opponents and their seemingly overwhelmed manager Oran Kearney.

I said a few weeks back during my winter transfer window piece that I thought Olly Burke would be a good singing. At 21, 6’2, with pace to burn and something to prove he looked like he was just lacking a bit of sharpness against the men from Airdrie on Saturday but still showed plenty of desire and some nice touches. On Wednesday though that extra bit of sharpness was there and he scored two goals to prove it. His first, a header on 11 mins, really should have been saved by new Buddies keeper Vaclav Hladky but there was no denying his second on the 55th-minute mark when he buried it from the rebound after Hladky had atoned for his earlier error with an excellent double save.

In between those Scott Sinclair netted a penalty on 18 mins after he had been upended in the box and that’s his 12th of the season which is pretty good going when you consider that he has generally struggled for form.

Timothy Weah then came on for Burke and the 18-year-old picked up where he left off by following up his debut goal on Saturday with another on Wednesday to make it four and put the icing on the cake. I really like the look of Weah. He plays football with a smile on his face and a rarely seen type of exuberance. You can tell he just appreciates the opportunity and is prepared to make the most of it. He missed a few chances against Airdrie and kept on coming back for more until he got his just deserts and it was the exact same against St.Mirren. Having been denied a few times he kept on making the runs and produced another lovely finish to make it two games and two goals from the bench.

Image result for celtic 4-0 st mirren weah — *Timothy can’t stop scoring.*

At half time we unveiled our other new striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo though he must be wondering how he’ll get into the team what with the scoring exploits of Messrs Burke and Weah who have both hit the ground running.

That put us top on 45 points with a game in hand over our nearest rivals and a superior goal difference. But the big question was who were our nearest rivals going to be come 10pm?

Down in Ayrshire Rangers unveiled their own winter transfer signings as they started veterans Steve Davis (34) and Jermaine Defoe (36) who according to some sources is being bankrolled to the tune of an incredible, make that suicidal, £65,000 a week.

Early doors he fired in at close range to give the light blues the lead and it looked like it might be a long old night for Steve Clarke’s men but as has been the story with them ever since his arrival they always seem to find a way and they were back on even terms after Eamonn Brophy robbed the hapless Joe Worrall and finished neatly on 22 mins.

In the second half, it got even better for Killie and worse for Rangers as precontract signing Jordan Jones ran the ancient Gareth McAuley ragged and blasted past Allan McGregor from 20 yards to make it 2-1 and ultimately secure the points. Stevie Gerrard must really be wishing they had just stumped up the cash to buy Jones now as opposed to waiting for the summer. Alas, hindsight and all that.

According to the online community of our Glasgow neighbours, Davis looks done. I could have told them that before they signed him though most, of course, insisted he would come up here and run the show. How often do we hear that about faded players brought up from down south? And when does it ever materialise? I mean Davis was a fair player in his day but he never ran the show up here when he was 27 never mind 34.

Image result for kilmarnock 2-1 rangers — *Jordan Jones listens out for Simply the Best from the away end.*

Elsewhere Aberdeen recovered from their hapless display against the mighty Stenhousemuir on Saturday by cuffing Hamilton Accies who have been pretty hopeless all season. Sam Cosgrove bagged two goals as his incredible goalscoring run continues and they now sit on 42 points alongside Rangers, only two behind Kilmarnock and three behind us.

Hearts indifferent form continued as they were surprisingly beaten 2-1 by struggling bottom side Dundee at home. Craig Levein decided to describe his new signing, Czech striker David Vanecek as ‘rubbish’ in the post-match interviews after subbing him on 34 mins. What is it they say? Praise in public, criticise in private? Obviously part of the man management course that Craig ignored whilst getting his badges down in Largs.

Injury-ravaged Hibs were beaten 1-0 by Motherwell and this season is turning into a bit of a nightmare for Neil Lennon with a cup run looking like their only possible salvation.

St.Johnstone kept up their incredible season-long form with a 1-0 win at home against Livingstone. They climb to fifth having won their third league game on the spin and their ninth in 13 games. They are also only nine points off their total for the whole of last season with still 15 games left to play.

This weekend we’ll be at home against the struggling Hamilton Accies and comparing the contrasting forms of the two teams this really could be a case of how many. Expect Martin Canning’s team to park the bus as well as all of the player’s cars too as they attempt to avoid a spanking.

Elsewhere something has to give amongst the chasing pack as Kilmarnock visit Aberdeen – the pair are separated by only three points – and St.Johnstone go to Hearts who they sit one point above. I wonder if Vanecek will start?

On Sunday Rangers go back to the Tony Macaroni Arena to play Livingston where they lost earlier in the season and Hibs visit Paisley to play St.Mirren with both sides desperate for points.

Scottish Cup weekend review: Celtic 3-0 Airdrie, Auchinleck shock Ayr and the curse of Jimmy Bell.

January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 wayofthecass

As Celtic continued their charge for the mythical treble-treble and a record third consecutive Scottish Cup we welcomed the team once named Airdrie Utd before being re-Christened Airdrieonians – in tribute to the team that were liquidated back in 2002 – to Celtic Park for the unusual kick-off time of 5.15pm on Saturday night as Premier Sports finally began their new coverage of the Scottish Cup.

It was, of course, all meant to start at the luxurious surroundings of Cowdenbeath’s Central Park the night before but Rangers kitman, the infamous Jimmy Bell put paid to that as the game was called off due to a frozen pitch allegedly at wee Jimmy’s instance. Well, that’s what Donald Findlay QC claims anyway.

Getting back to Celtic and it was as expected pretty easy-peasy as we coasted home to a 3-0 victory. Having missed a penalty and an open goal in the first half Scott Sinclair tapped in on 37 minutes to give us the lead. At the other end just before halftime keeper, Scott Bain made an incredible five saves in a row and all within the space of about seven seconds too.

In the second half, Celtic laid siege to the Airdrie goal with Sinclair tapping in a second, then was denied his hat-trick after being adjudged as offside despite two opposition defenders clearly playing him on.

Substitute Timothy Weah came on for his debut and after being fed through from Dedryk Boyata finished beautifully to make it 3-0. Another debutant Olly Burke missed a header late on that he really should have buried but that aside I thought he looked pretty good showing some nice touches. Both players injected energy and enthusiasm into the side and look like positive additions.

Over the piece, it was three going on seven and the visitors did well to keep the score down.

Considering the kick off time and lowly opposition getting a crowd of just under 30,000 inside Celtic Park for the tie was pretty impressive and the pubs were definitely rammed to boot. What is all that about January being a dead month when everyone is skint and off the booze? Not around these parts anyway.

Off the pitch, Airdrie’s lovely Section B fans showed up and after nearly being overrun by the Green Brigade outside the ground before the police arrived to save them, they were escorted into the stadium where they serenaded the home support with some classic sectarian anthems and catcalls for 90 minutes. Apparently, the Section B-boys were all ramped up by the rumoured attendance at the game of their man crush Tommy Robinson though in the end he never made it. Wise call Tommy.

In other matches, BBC 1 decided to give live television coverage of the all Ayrshire battle between Ayr Utd and Junior side Auchinleck Talbot. I get the romance of the cup and all that but this was some pretty desperate early Saturday afternoon viewing with Ian McCall’s men – who are somehow in the chase for promotion to the Premiership – looking simply woeful without the services of goal machine Lawrence Shankland up front.

The game was dire on a grey and cold day with the only highlight being one of the Talbot players rattling the upstairs window of a house behind the Ayr goal in the second half. Though in fairness the headed goal by former Ayr defender Craig McCracken on 78 minutes was well executed leaving the Ayr fans behind the aforementioned goal with their big union jack flag absolutely gutted.

Aberdeen somehow contrived to draw at home with Stenhousemuir, who currently sit bottom of League 1 and will now replay in 10 days as will Dundee who continued their season-long woeful form with a 1-1 draw at home to Championship side Queen of the South.

St. Mirren were written off by Chick Young with 22 minutes to go probably due to being 2-0 and a man down at home to Alloa Athletic but that only served to galvanise them as they charged back to win 3-2 and Motherwell continued their bleak season as last year’s runners up exited to the cup 2-1 at home to Championship high flyers Ross County.

The rest of the 4th round results pretty much went as expected save League 1’s Raith Rovers flattening Dunfermline Athletic 3-0 in the Fife derby as Stevie Crawford’s reign as the new Pars manager got off to a ‘flyer’.

On Sunday Hearts went some way to avenging their 5-0 embarrassment away to Livingston five weeks ago as they beat the men from the Tony Macaroni arena 1-0 via a solitary Sean Clare strike at Tynecastle in another BBC televised live game and another forgettable affair.

As for the draw for the 5th round – or last 16 as they say in Europe – we got St.Johnstone at home which you’d imagine should be pretty routine. Elsewhere there is a Highland derby, Auchinleck got Hearts at Tynecastle which will likely be live on the BBC and will also likely be awful, St. Mirren will host Dundee Utd in a ‘Pick’Em’ encounter and barring the worst result in their history a week on Wednesday when they finally meet Cowdenbeath, Rangers should be playing Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in what will be the tie of the round between two teams currently only separated by one point in the league though of course, Killie could be miles ahead of them by the time the tie comes around on the weekend of the 9th/10th of February.

Post-Old Firm perspective and the transfer window.

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 wayofthecass

I never got an opportunity to write an analysis of the Old Firm match which was a week ago on Saturday. To be honest there wasn’t much to say. I wrote in my preview that if we turned up then I believed we’d win. We didn’t and Rangers were clearly in fighting mood and contested vigorously every 50/50 and created far more and better chances. They deserved their victory.

We badly missed Tom Rogic and benching both Kieran Tierney and Odsonne Edouard was a strange call especially as it led to Callum McGregor playing at left-back which was quite frankly bizarre and young Mikey Johnstone was effectively thrown to the wolves being played up front on his own.

On the whole, Craig Gordon kept us in it with some excellent saves and he was one of our few players who deserved pass marks especially in the first 45 mins. In the second half, McGregor was pushed forward into his more natural position which helped greatly though at his side was Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham both of whom struggled throughout.

First-half injuries to Mikel Lustig and Stefan Benkovic pretty much confirmed that sneaky feeling that it wasn’t to be our day.

That was reinforced by referee John Beaton’s anomalous decision to ignore three definite yellow and potential red card calls on Alfredo Morelos fouls as well as a Callum McGregor’s second-half goal being chopped off for being marginally offside.

The fallout since has been significant with Beaton unsurprisingly coming under intense scrutiny for his lack of action against the Colombian striker with his decision to go out boozing on the very night of the game in the Crown Bar in Bellshill where he happily posed for pictures with delighted local punters not helping his cause.

Just about everyone and their dog believed there would be some form of retrospective action against Morelos but apparently, it’s at the referee’s own discretion if he wants to reassess his original conclusion and low and behold Beaton still believes he was spot on.

Yeah, I’ll bet you do John.

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Anyway since then some moronic Celtic fan put Beaton’s number out on social media and he has been subsequently inundated with friendly requests from other Celtic fans wishing to meet and greet him in person or words to that effect.

In no way can this be condoned and whoever it is who has threatened him should be publicly outed and banned from any involvement with the club for life as they are clearly not of sound mind nevermind intent.

Though it has been amusing seeing some elements of the Rangers support expressing their moral outrage online with the irony of the fact their own fanbase launched an online petition against the SFA back in August 2017 in the wake of what they felt was inherent anti-Rangers bias after John Beaton himself had sent off Ryan Jack during their 3-2 home defeat by Hibernian.

There was also the small issue a few years back of some of their fans sending parcel bombs to the then Celtic manager Neil Lennon as well as players Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt and even a few known Celtic supporting MSPs but hey………….short memories.

All that aside both Celtic and Rangers are now neck and neck at the summit of the Premiership table on 42 points with Celtic leading due to a superior goal difference and we also have a game in hand.

Both clubs return to domestic action the weekend after next in the Scottish Cup but the league action starts up again two weeks on Wednesday and we’re at home against lowly St. Mirren with Rangers visiting third-placed Kilmarnock. The weekend after that we entertain third bottom Hamilton Accies whilst Rangers visit Livingston at a ground where they have already lost this season against a team with the third-best home record in the division. We then play our game in hand at home against St.Johnstone the following Wednesday.

So there’s a pretty strong chance that come early February we could have a decent points advantage over them all things going well.

Until then we must content ourselves with non-stop transfer innuendo as every club in the Scottish top flight and indeed many in the lower divisions try to rebuild, reassemble or reinforce in preparation for the second half of the season.

Thus far we’ve added Scotland internationalist winger Oliver Burke or ‘Super Olly’ as I’m hoping we come to know him by. However, the signing has been met with lashings of pessimism in some quarters amongst our own support and whilst it’s true the kid failed to make much impact down at West Bromwich Albion it wasn’t so long ago he was tearing it up in the Championship with Nottingham Forest which led to Red Bull Leipzig parting with £13 million for his services. After a year and 25 appearances in the Bundesliga, he returned to the UK via a £15 million move to WBA. He’s 21, 6’2 with 80 first team appearances under his belt – 40 of which have been in either the Bundesliga or English Premiership, eight goals and five Scotland caps. That’s pedigree.

Image result for Oliver Burke Celtic — *Olly Burke in the thick of it in Dubai.*

I expect his pace and power will do well up here and I’m actually pretty excited about the signing. He can play on both sides with the right wing being his preferred domain and at the very least it should see both James Forrest and Scott Sinclair upping their games.

Also on the cards are precocious 18-year-old PSG striker Timothy Weah on an apparent 18 months loan as well as 23-year-old Ivorian striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo in a £2million move from Slovakian side Dunajska Streda where he has hit 18 goals in 23 games and provided seven assists going by my always on-point online research.

Image result for Vakoun Issouf Bayo — *Bayo scores. Hopefully, he’s doing this for us very soon.*

Both will hopefully be wrapped up in the next few days barring any last minute shenanigans ie: the sort of nonsense that harpooned our apparently inevitable move to sign John McGinn back in the summer.

Weah is, of course, the son of the legendary George who’s skill and talent I could rave about all night having been lucky enough to see him star on ITV in UEFA Cup matches for PSG and in Serie A for AC Milan on Channel 4 back in the ’90s.

He has little to no first team experience but has just signed a new contract with the Parisian aristocrats so is clearly highly rated and a similar move for Edouard last season worked out pretty well so fingers crossed he can make the same impact.

Image result for timothy weah — *“If he’s even half the player his father was……………”*

Bayo is also an unknown quantity having plied his trade in his native Ivory Coast and now in Slovakia and even with such impressive stats you always wonder if he’ll be the next Moussa Dembele or the ghost of Mohammed Bangura come back to haunt us again. Whos’ to say but hopefully, on this occasion, the scouting network have found a gem on par with Wanyama or Van Dijk as opposed to duds like Teemu Pukki or Derk Boerrigter.

Meanwhile over at Castle Greyskull Rangers have also pushed the boat out by bringing in the pairing of Southampton’s Steven Davis and Bournemouth’s Jermain Defoe both on loans. Neither has had much game time this season and they have a collective age of 70 and I can’t help but remember how we were lampooned back in the day when we brought in the likes of Ian Wright, Carlton Cole and Freddie Ljungberg at the midway points of our seasons with all three faded veterans failing to make any kind of impact but hey-ho. Stevie G knows best.

They’ve also tied up Jordan Jones and Glen Kamara on pre-contracts apparently being unselfish enough not to prize them from their respective clubs with transfer fees right now and preferring to allow them to see out their current commitments. Aye. Right.

Motherwell have also been able to secure the services of Ross McCormack which could prove the move of the window or might make no difference at all to their struggling season.

Oran Keaney is also attempting to undo the work done by his predecessor Alan Stubbs in the summer at St.Mirren by more or less releasing a whole team’s worth of players pretty much all of whom were brought in by Stubbs.

It’s only the 7th of January and there’s a long way to go in the window. And let’s not forget it’s also a time when players can be sold or released too. Personally, I’m hoping we part company with the likes of Cristian Gamboa, Nir Bitton, Scott Allen and the ultimate wage thief Marvin Compper who has done precisely nothing since his arrival at the club exactly a year ago outside of collecting the empty water bottles at the end of training.

We don’t have to sell though so don’t expect to see any of our assets leaving. Elsewhere though it might be a different story. So watch this space.

A wee preview of Bayo below and I’m hoping we actually see him the Hoops now or it’ll be more transfer window egg on our faces and calls for perennial panto villain Peter Lawwell’s head. Apologies about the music in advance.

Oh, and I hope you had a Happy New Year. I know I did. Though not as good as John Beaton’s.

Old Firm preview and Christmas Week review.

December 28, 2018 wayofthecass

Alas, family commitments have kept me away from writing up all the things I wanted to this week.

So I’ll talk briefly about the two games I missed covering in the blog before getting to the real meat and bone that being the big encounter on Saturday at Castle Greyskull.

Last Saturday Celtic coasted to a 3-0 win over lowly Dundee. Even without a host of regular starters such as Tierney, Boyata, Lustig and Edouard we still coasted to a 3-0 win as Mikey Johnston stepped up to the plate and scored twice in the first half with Benkovic adding a third in the second. There was some concern before the game that without a recognised striker we’d struggle and not only were the aforementioned players absent but Ryan Christie who’s been one of our main goal threats of late could only start on the bench as he recovered from injury but that was all rather academic with the 19-year-old Johnstone depositing two nice finishes to put us on easy street. Dundee offered little and underlined why they are bottom of the league and have been for most of the season.

It’s incredible to think that was nearly a week ago so hectic is the build-up to Christmas and the usual social and shopping carnage that follows it.

In amongst said carnage, we visited Aberdeen at Pittodrie. We’d own there 13 times out of our last 14 visits so it’s a venue that holds little or no fear for us but the Dons had won four straight and were in free-scoring form which saw them sit a mere three points behind us in the league so a tough day was expected. Certainly much tougher than what Dundee offered up four days previously.

So it proved to be as in an exciting end to end game Celtic were pegged back twice after going ahead through Scott Sinclair on both occasions by penalties. The first was a result of an awfully timed challenge by Tierney’s recent stand in Emilio Izaguirre as he decked Nial McGinn needlessly beside the byline and the second saw Graeme Shinnie produce a world-class dive that was seen as legitimate by referee Willie Collum.

Both spot-kicks hitting the net were met with riotous cheers and applause by many of the patrons of the pub I was frequenting on Boxing Day which was rather busy and somewhat split in terms of allegiances.

But all’ss well that ends well and the returning Odsonne Edouard underlined just what led us to break the clubs transfer record so resoundingly in the summer to gain his services on a permanent basis as his introduction off of the bench saw him play a part in the build-up to Sinclair’s second before scoring with a sumptuous finish to make it 3-2 and then setting up Sinclair for his hat-trick after some magnificent wing play.

Lewis Ferguson, son of Derek and nephew of Barry, of course, got his moment to shine as he netted late to make the last few minutes of injury time slightly nervy but in the end, the three points were ours and what with Hibs drawing with Rangers for the second time in the space of a week via a 1-1 draw at Ibrox thanks to a late Darren McGregor equaliser we now sit top of the league by three points with a game in hand.

Talking of Ibrox we go there on Saturday for the customary end of years clash, well customary when they are in the same league as us that is. And yes I still refer to it as the ‘Old Firm’ game which I know leads to much huffing and puffing amongst some of our support but what can I say…………..I’m a sentimentalist.

No matter what happens by 5pm on Saturday we’ll still be top of the league going into the New Year and winter break due to our superior goal difference but let’s be honest we want to beat them every time we play them no matter what the circumstances.

The form is definitely with us in just about every way imaginable. We’re unbeaten in the last 12 encounters against them with 10 wins, all of which have occurred under Brendan, and sit on an incredible 31-5 aggregate lead over that period.

In fact, we’ve not actually lost over 90 mins to them in our last 15 meetings with our last defeat against the light blues not occurring since the 25th March of 2012.

All that aside their recent form pales against ours also as we’ve only lost two out of our last 15 games in all competitions and have lost only one domestic match in our last 15 games with 13 wins. We’ve also scored 10 goals in our last three games whilst racking up nine points out of nine. Meanwhile, Rangers have won only six of their last 16 matches in all competitions with eight wins from their last 15 domestic games, four draws and three losses. In the last three, they have taken five points from nine and have scored only three goals.

There’s no doubt they are better this season under Steven Gerrard what with the fact they are second in the league – albeit having played a game more than us and that they are only three points above fourth-placed Aberdeen – plus their Europa League run which saw them emerge through four rounds of qualifying to make the group stages before taking qualification to the last 32 down to their last group game.

Image result for rangers vs celtic — *A typical recent Old Firm picture.*

Though to be honest having been pretty impressed with the early season form of their central defensive pairing of new signings Goldson and Katic in the last few months that has pretty much collapsed and what has really kept them competitive has been the incredible form of goalkeeper Allan McGregor and the scoring exploits of Alfredo Morelos who may look like a bulldog chewing a wasp but knows the way to goal as he’s hit 20 so far this season.

Katic appears to have dropped out of the first team starting favour completely having previously had ‘buy of the century’ etc bestowed upon him and his place has been taken up as of late by either English loanee Joe Worrall or the ancient former Northern Ireland internationalist Gareth McAuley who put of retirement to ‘live the dream’. His words. Not mine. Katic’s countryman Borna Barisic has also featured sparingly as of late and the much heralded Albanian winger Eros Grezda has looked exactly that…….an Albanian winger.

Going into the game Goldson along with Scott Arfield, McAuley and Ryan Jack are all struggling with injury though Gerrard has intimated he may play them anyway not that any of them present any real threat.

As for our squad, the only significant absentees will be Tom Rogic due to the nonsense of the Australian national team needing him for a friendly in preparation for the Asia Cup. The other will be Leigh Griffiths whose issues have been well documented.

Rogic will be a significant loss and LG is always capable of doing damage in these games so both will be missed but with Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard back along with Lustig and Boyata we are not far off full strength. Kieran Tierney faces a late fitness test and that is a real concern as I don’t fancy Izaguirre in these games at all. He has the experience sure but is a shadow of his former self and always has a mistake in him as seen on Wednesday up at Aberdeen.

Of course what could count against us is the crowd. There will only be just under 800 Celtic fans in the ground which will lead to intense pressure on the match officials and in that sort of atmosphere players can do silly things and get punished to the extreme. Things like penalties not being given when they should or given when they shouldn’t, harsh red cards, controversial offsides etc can’t be legislated for of course and what will be will on that front. Sometimes I also factor in the law of averages also. I mean even when we were on our arse against a good Ranges team back in the early to mid 90’s we still pulled the odd result out of the fire against them, though it rarely meant much in the grand scheme of things so the old adage ‘they are due a win’ comes to mind.

Rangers are desperate for a win against us. By hook or by crook any win will do. Having home advantage helps them but we start favourites and with good reason. If we turn up and play our game then it will be five straight wins at Ibrox for the first time since 1909. Considering how chomping at the bit they are to the point of tears and breakdowns to get it then expect Stevie G to really get it in the neck in January if they don’t.

Anyway, roll on 12.30pm tomorrow. Oh and Merry Christmas.

Here’s a little reminder of the last time we visited Ibrox around about this time of year.

Celtic 3 – 0 Motherwell: Back to the top we go.

December 20, 2018 wayofthecass

Celtic cruised to a pretty routine 3-0 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park last night.

The game was all over by halftime with Celtic going for the jugular early and it was great to see young right back Anthony Ralston getting his first start in a very long time. I actually think we haven’t seen him in a Hoops jersey since way back in September 2017 truth be told.

Motherwell held out until almost the half-hour mark when Edouard played through Ralston who put it through the ‘Well keepers legs to score his first ever goal for Celtic. James Forrest was then scythed down only four mins later by a reckless Charles Dunne challenge in the box and Scott Sinclair stepped up to put us 2-0 up from the spot. That’s actually the first pen we’ve scored in four attempts so good to put an end to that unwelcome stat. Unfortunately, French Eddy had to depart the scene with an apparent groin injury but his replacement young Mikey Johnstone came on and rattled one in on the stroke of halftime and that was pretty that.

Olivier Ntcham should have done better with an effort in the second half but by then the visitors were just playing to keep the score down.

Image result for celtic 3-0 Motherwell — *Brendan and the players take the acclaim.*

I was initially really puzzled by Motherwell’s approach to the game. This was our third outing in six days and on the back of two defeats and with several key players missing you would have thought that the Lanarkshire side would have smelt the faintest trace of blood. Instead, though they decided to drop five players from their surprise away victory on Saturday against an in from St Johnstone with star men David Turnbull, Allan Campbell and strikers Curtis Main and Danny Johnson all benched.

It would appear manager Stephen Robinson had written the game off with Saturday’s home tie against lowly St.Mirren prioritised. Fair enough and to be honest with you pretty welcome considering our recent exhausting schedule which clearly showed at Easter Road on Sunday.

What can’t be ignored though is the number of absences we now have. With Leigh Griffiths out for an unspecified period of time and Edouard’s departure early doors last night, we are now literally left with no recognised striker. The big question is how long will the Frenchman be out for?

Kieran Tierney and Tom Rogic were rested last night as they were on Sunday and Ryan Christie, Dedryk Boyata and Mikel Lustig are also being given as much time as is required to make full recoveries. There’s a good chance we’ll see them all back over the coming nine days as we face three league matches.

But news has just come down that the Australian FA has selected Rogic along with three players from Hibs for the Asia Cup next month which means they may not be allowed to be involved in their respective clubs derbies on December 29th. Hopefully, that can be resolved in our favour as I would feel much better about our chances of turning over Rangers once again in their own stadium with Tom with us, as opposed to being without him.

Talking of the men in blue they were held to a 0-0 draw by Hibs at Easter Road last night. Hibs were in our faces all day on Sunday but were rather standoffish last night in a game which generally saw them under siege and on another day Morelos could have scored a hattrick. Alas, a combination of Hibs keeper Adam Bogdan as well as the Colombian’s poor finishing saw the Leith men hold out for a draw and in doing so our victory propelled us back to the top by one point over our city rivals with a game in hand.

So back to the top we go and even with a slightly weakened side you’d think we’ll be too strong at home on Saturday against a struggling Dundee side who were hammered 5-1 at Pittodrie on Tuesday night by Aberdeen leading manager Jim McIntyre to promise a major squad overhaul in January. So it won’t be a very Merry Christmas for some of the Dens Park men this festive period as they look for employment elsewhere it would seem.

Some job Neil McCann did up there.

Celtic go down meekly to Hibs. Meanwhile, it’s Valencia in the last 32.

December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 wayofthecass

First things first and that’s Celtic’s performance away at Easter Road yesterday. Truth be told the team looked exhausted – not surprisingly after being run ragged against Red Bull Salzburg during Thursday night’s emotional rollercoaster – and as a result pretty devoid of ideas.

I wrote a piece over a week ago about how the players looked out on their feet away against Motherwell. We dropped two points that night as we wilted badly in the second half but recovered pretty sensationally to bury surprise table-toppers Kilmarnock 5-1 at Celtic Park a week ago on Saturday.

Thursday night though saw us come up against easily our toughest opposition of the season and for me the best team we’ve seen at Celtic Park since PSG clinically dispatched us 5-0 in the Champions League group stages 15 months ago.

Each one of our three domestic defeats this season have come in the weekend after a midweek European game and all have been away. So the taxing effects of European football definitely plays a part but our away record, in general, this season has been pretty awful with 15 points dropped from a potential 27 in the league and only two wins from seven away ties in Europe.

Hibs have themselves been struggling of late having gone through a period of no wins in seven league games which saw them lose four times. They arrested that decline with a 1-0 win away at Hamilton Accies last weekend but generally weren’t given much of a hope yesterday. So much so that their prematch decision to reduce the Celtic away capacity so as to allow more Hibs fans tickets looked utterly absurd as half of the stand where our support usually sits was left virtually empty.

Image may contain: stadium and crowd — *Another great call from Rod Petrie.*

Brendan decided to really utilise the squad and even went for three at the back with Ajer brought into partner Simunovic and Benkovic. Kieran Tierney was rested and in came Emilio Izaguirre with Scott Sinclair being asked to cover a right wing-back role in the absence of the injured Lustig and Gamboa.

In midfield, Ryan Christie was missing after being stretchered off with an ankle injury on Thursday night and Tom Rogic was also left at home to recover from his recent exploits. In came Brown and Ntcham to replace them with McGregor, Forrest and Edouard all retaining their places.

The last three, in particular, were noticeably quiet and looked a little jaded.

Apart from the fatigue side of things the likes of Brown and Ntcham never clicked all day and Izaguirre, who had been so impressive when he came in against Kilmarnock, really struggled with Sinclair looking pretty lost in an unfamiliar defensive role.

Hibs hit a lot of cross-field passes and balls in over the top which cost us no end of trouble and we were ultimately undone by two excellent though preventable finishes from Slivka in the very first minute and Kamberi in the second half.

The introductions of Lewis Morgan and Mikey Johnstone brought some urgency and penetration to the play in that second period but ultimately was too little too late. Johnny Hayes also appeared but did nothing of note which is pretty customary of his appearances in the hoops.

Image result for hibs 2-0 celtic — *Kamberi finally finds some form.*

The result meant that Rangers returned to the league summit due to a narrow win at home against lowly Hamilton and Kilmarnock also remain above us after a comfortable 3-1 home win against Dundee. We do of course have games in hand and no one’s really worrying especially as we can go top again if we beat Motherwell at home on Wednesday night and Rangers drop points at Easter Road which is as we’ve just discovered no easy place to go and get a result.

The likes of Boyata, Lustig, Rogic, Tierney as well as the inform Christie will also all be back soon – some as early as Wednesday night apparently – but even with that we clearly need reinforcements in January. Up front plus at right fullback are two key areas we definitely need to address.

Earlier on today there was also the draw for the Last 32 of the Europa League. Being that we would be up against one of fifteen seeds we could only hope for something winnable and I think we got that when Valencia came out of the hat.

On paper, the Spaniards did well in their Champions League campaign to gain 8 points in a group that included one of the tournament favourites in Juventus as well as the once mighty Manchester United. But the truth is they were out by the time of the final group game which they won against a struggling Man U side who had already qualified. Valencia recorded a 2-1 home victory but for anyone who keeps up with English football that’s not that great an achievement these days considering the stumbling form Joe Mourinho’s side have shown this season so far.

In La Liga, they are struggling with only three wins from 16 matches and an incredible ten draws. Two of their defeats have been away from home and they only have two wins from nine home matches with six draws and one loss. They have only 19 points and are in 14th place, four points above the drop zone. The goals have hardly been flowing either with only 15 so far in this campaign whilst conceding 13. In Europe, they have scored six and conceded six.

All this after blowing over €126 million on players in the summer which included the €40 million capture of 21 -year-old Portuguese winger Gonçalo Guedes from PSG and veteran French striker Kevin Gameiro from Atletico Madrid for a mere €16 million. Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi is also there on loan for the season from Chelsea and that deadly strike force has delivered a rather pathetic return of six goals in all competitions and their most dangerous marksman currently is, in fact, Spanish striker Santi Mina who has six this season and 35 in 114 appearances for them.

The other big summer singing was French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia who cost them €25 million from Inter Milan in the summer having previously cost the Italians €40 million from Monaco. He was injured at the weekend though and will be out for between eight to twelve weeks so there’s a good chance we won’t have to worry about him at all.

The star man is, or at least was, striker Rodrigo who’s 19 goals in 44 games last term earned him a place in the Spanish national side for the past summer’s World Cup. However this year he’s hit a measly two in twenty games and is bang out of form.

Backed by billionaire Singapore business magnate owner Peter Lim they could go on a spending spree this January in theory but based on their previous transfer dealings they have actually already spent double what they had spent in total over the two previous seasons combined plus they have only brought three players in, in total, during the past two winter transfer windows, two of which were loan deals.

All in all……….it’s doable.

There is a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and February 14th when they visit Celtic Park in the first leg but as of now, it’s a tie you’d take especially considering some of the Leviathans we could have drawn in the next round.

Let’s just hope that eight and a half weeks from now we’re top of the league, playing well with a stronger squad and that Valencia are pretty much in the same predicament if indeed not worse as they are now.

I guess that’s what I’ll be asking Santa for, for Christmas. Well, that, a pair of Diesel jeans, a significant financial windfall and a win at Ibrox.

Europa League Preview: Celtic vs Red Bull Salzburg. Win, draw or bust!

December 12, 2018December 12, 2018 wayofthecass

Tomorrow night Red Bull Salzburg visit Glasgow and we find ourselves in a tricky predicament.

The results fell for us just the way we wanted them two weeks ago on matchday five. We did what we needed to do in Trondheim and despite surprisingly starting as underdogs Salzburg maintained their perfect record in the group by seeing off Leipzig 1-0.

So going into matchday six we sit second top on 9 points whilst Leipzig are on 6. Salzburg are of course already far away and over the hills having qualified with their win at home against their Red Bull counterparts and sit on 15 points.

Image result for celtic vs red bull leipzig 2-1 pictures — *More of this will be required.*

In theory, it’s all worked out beautifully for us. We need just a draw and a solitary point to progress to the last 32. Of course, if Rosenborg can do the unthinkable and hold out for a draw somehow over in Germany then we won’t even need that and the 9 points will do us but let’s face it….that’s not going to happen. The Norwegians have been pretty hopeless thus far having lost all five group matches as well as conceding 13 goals and only scoring three. In their home fixture against Leipzig, they were spanked 3-1 and now literally having nothing to play for as they were eliminated by us a fortnight ago.

Added to that their season ended a week ago on Sunday when they sealed a historic treble by winning the Norwegian Cup final so safe to say their players have been on both party and holiday mode ever since. There’s even a chance Niklas Bendtner might already be back home in his native Denmark serving his 50 days house arrest already after he was convicted of clouting a taxi driver.

Leipzig are struggling of late having lost two of their last three league games including a surprise 3-0 hammering away to lowly Freiburg at the weekend when they played a full strength team. They’ve actually lost four out of their last six if you include their last two Europa League games and all of this comes after they had only lost only one of their previous 14 matches in all competitions and had gone 11 straight unbeaten against domestic opposition. But even with all that being said I still fully expect them to hammer an unmotivated and potentially unfit Rosenborg side and if there’s an early goal it could be an avalanche.

Our destiny is in our own hands and we really need to just focus on what we need to do. It’s a daunting task as Red Bull Salzburg are the form team of Europe. Managed by the impressive Marco Rose they sit top of the Austrian Bundesliga with a 14 point gap over second-placed LASK Linz and are unbeaten in an incredible 29 games in all competitions this term. That does include being eliminated on away goals over two legs against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League qualifiers but either way, it’s pretty impressive. Slightly terrifying actually.

Image result for salzburg vs celtic — *Less of this is also required.*

I’m looking for crumbs of comfort here but having won their first 10 straight league matches they’ve actually drawn three of their last seven and were held to a 2-2 draw away at bottom side FC Admira Wacker Mödling on Saturday.

So there’s always that.

But then I remember they’ve also scored 75 goals in those 29 games. I mean we’ve been pretty free-scoring this season but even having played five games more – 21 domestic games plus 13 in Europe – more than them we’ve only scored 64 goals by comparison. They really are an awesome attacking team.

We are of course in pretty good form ourselves having only lost one of our last seventeen domestic games and haven’t lost any of our last twelve with ten wins. More than half of our goals have come in that time too so in actual fact our recent scoring exploits have matched the Austrians, domestically at least.

In the Europa League, they’ve scored three times the number of goals we have – 15 to 5 – which is telling but despite playing five games more than them we’ve actually only conceded 20 goals all season to their 22 in all competitions.

That last one begs the question should we defend and try and hold out for a point?

My swift reply would be ‘no’. Of course, we shouldn’t bomb forward and attack them relentlessly either. They are deadly on the counter attack as we found out over there and have pace throughout the team. Israeli international Moanes Dabour was scoring goals for fun this season but only has one in his last eight however his Japanese internationalist striking partner Takumi Minaminois has stepped into the void in that time scoring six and Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Xaver Schlager and 19-year-old Hannes Wolf have also all been in pretty hot form in front of goal of late too.

Even taking how good they are going forward and our impressive number of clean sheets this season into consideration the fact is we are just not built for all-out defence. And against elite European opposition, and make no mistake Salzburg are just that, we never keep a clean sheet so any notions of a backs to the wall job are fanciable at best.

This situation reminds me of when Maribor came calling in a Champions League play-off against Ronny Deila’s Celtic back in late August of 2014. We had, of course, gained a credible 1-1 away draw in the first leg and Callum McGregor’s goal would have been enough to take us through if we’d held them to a goalless draw at home. But a home crowd on a big European night at Celtic Park demands more than just holding out for scoreless draws and Deila’s side looked like they literally didn’t know whether to stick or twist all evening. In the end, we conceded late on and there was no way back for us.

Image result for maribor 1-0 celtic — *To quote the legendary Arthur Montford: “The faces tell it all.”*

I’m stating the obvious here but our game plan on Thursday needs to try and get the balance right between defending when we need to and attacking when we can. It’s easier said than done and we may need to carry a bit of luck. In fact, the chances are we definitely will.

I’d definitely like to see the in-form James Forrest get at their veteran 33-year-old left back Andreas Ulmer as much as possible with both Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair also needing to effectively exploit the space given up by the attack-minded right-back Stefan Lainer. At the same time, Kieran Tierney needs to replicate his awesome display against Leipzig and Christie, Benkovic, McGregor and Rogic all need to translate their incredible domestic form into a continental affair.

2018-11-08T204909Z_40185208_RC16EC548E00_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-EUROPA-CEL-RBL-800x504 — *How we’d all love to see this again.*

Salzburg, in theory, could write the game off. They’re already through and have a home tie on Sunday against third-placed SKN St. Pölten which is their final league game before a two months winter break. But with only two games before such a mammoth domestic break the chances are they are unlikely to rest anyone or to drop down through the gears as they have a chance to complete the first half of the season undefeated.

As much as we may be up against it maybe we should have faith in our own form and let’s not forget the Celtic Park factor. Far bigger and well-resourced sides than Salzburg have visited Celtic Park in the not too distant past and come away with only a draw or worse. We are also on an unbeaten home run of seven games in Europe with six wins which includes the notable scalps of Leipzig and Zenit St.Petersburg.

Fingers crossed for the right result and a memorable night that will exceed anything we’ve achieved since defeating Barcelona on that famous night back in 2012.

Ryan Christie & co….it’s over to you.

Oh and don’t forget the disco lights. They’re guaranteed not to disappoint.

Weekend review: Celtic put Killie in their place and surprises elsewhere.

December 11, 2018December 11, 2018 wayofthecass

A few days late with this due to circumstances but better late than never.

Celtic faced in from table toppers Kilmarnock on Saturday with many wondering if an unlikely title challenge may be on the cards. With an opportunity to go top missed on Wednesday night if Celtic could win here then it would be back to the summit they would go.

On a horrible cold and rainy early December day, Celtic played like it was midday in May as they stroked the ball around effortlessly in the first half and scored four goals totally blowing Killie’s hopes of remaining top of the pile come 5pm out of the water in the process.

The first came within only five mins from a sweet first-time finish from James Forrest who swept it home with aplomb after a nice cross into the box from Emilio Izaguirre who had a rare start in place of the rested Kieran Tierney.

After a quarter of an hour, Celtic mounted the latest of their seemingly continuous attacks and Christie found Rogic in the box who played it first time to Odsonne Edouard and the Frenchman fired it high into the net to make it two.

It got worse for the Ayrshire side as Mikel Lustig came up with a rare goal as he stabbed his foot out to meet a Callum McGregor free kick into the box at the near post and leave Killie keeper Daniel Bachmann helpless.

Then just before halftime in-form Ryan Christie scored the latest in his sensational goalscoring run as he buried a fabulous free-kick into the back of the net from 25 yards right on the stroke of halftime.

In the second half, Benkovic made an uncustomary rash challenge on the edge of the box on Rory McKenzie leading to a penalty which Eamon Brophy scored but it was no more than a consolation and 15 mins later James Forrest netted a fantastic finish from an acute angle high into the net and delivered his 11th goal of the campaign in the process.

Celtic could have scored more with Bachmann making some good saves and Scott Sinclair hitting the frame of the post in the second half but five was as good as it got and Celtic are now back on top with 33 points.

Credit it to Steve Clark’s side who produced a near miracle just getting to the top of the league in December in the first place considering their meagre resources and where they were only a few seasons ago ie: perennial strugglers but they were thoroughly put in their place and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back.

Meanwhile elsewhere St.Johnstone’s incredible unbeaten run continued and is now up to eight with six wins as they recorded a surprise 2-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. The Dons had, of course, recorded a pretty stunning 1-0 win at Ibrox on Wednesday night and were hoping to kick on up the league. Goals remain a massive problem for them with Man U loanee James Wilson continuing to disappoint and Stevie May unable to hit a barn door since coming back up to Scotland the summer before last.

Both Hibs and Hearts finally ended long runs without wins as they both recorded 1-0 victories away at Hamilton and at home to Motherwell respectively and St.Mirren threw away a 1-0 lead going down 3-1 to Livingston who continued their sensational season-long home form which has seen them lose only one in nine and record six wins.

On Sunday Rangers travelled to Dens Park and predictably it was their former long-serving striker Kenny Miller – who only left them this past summer – who came back to haunt them as he gave the home team the lead before Dundee were reduced to 10 men and Andy Halliday equalised with a free kick, all of this happening in the first half. Rangers couldn’t make the advantage count though and Jim McIntyre’s team got a 1-1 draw and seem to have turned a corner. As for Steven Gerrard’s men, they have dropped 12 points on the road already this term and now sit second two points behind Celtic having played a game more.

So all in all a pretty fantastic weekend for Celtic as they bounced back from a tired display against Motherwell through the week with a ferocious performance.

All steam ahead now to the vital Red Bull Salzburg match on Thursday night and thankfully no injury fallout from Saturday as Celtic played a pretty much full strength team apart from Tierney.

I’ll have an article up about that tomorrow.

Midweek analysis: Punishing schedule begins to show in Celtic’s weary legs.

December 7, 2018December 7, 2018 wayofthecass

Celtic played their fourth game in eleven days last night and it showed.

Coming hot on the heels of a vital win in Rosenborg only six days ago which was followed by a League Cup final victory over Aberdeen on Sunday to secure seven consecutive trophies Brendan Rodgers decided to aptly make seven changes to the first team with regular starters such as Tom Rogic, James Forrest, Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair dropping to the bench and Scott Bain handed back the number 1 jersey to Craig Gordon in goal. Added to that both Dedryk Boyata and Mikel Lustig were ruled out through injury.

In came some impressive replacements such as Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham and Leigh Griffiths as well as big Jozo Simunovic and there were even starts for Cristian Gamboa and Johnny Hayes both of whom have been so far out of the picture recently they’ve been rumoured to be training at Barrowfield.

Our opponents Motherwell have been a bit embattled this season as manager Stephen Robinson struggles under the weight of expectation created by reaching both domestic cup finals last season whilst contending with a long injury list and the realities of losing some of their best players in the past two transfer windows such as striker Louis Moult and defender Cédric Kipré.

The club recently posted pretty stunning annual profits of nearly £1.75 million at their recent AGM but as nice as that sounds it’s on the pitch where the results really matter and the Lanarkshire club have found them hard to come by this term as they have generally floundered just above the bottom three at the foot of the table all season as well as exiting the League Cup at the quarter-final stage.

That being said they were able to a pull a 3-3 draw out of the fire at home against Rangers back in late August as well as winning their last two home games which included a 3-0 hammering of a pretty decent Aberdeen team only 11 days ago.

In the first half, we didn’t play particularly well but either did our hosts and we looked pretty comfortable without posing any real threat before Ryan Christie continued his incredible recent vein of form as he was fed a ball through by Tierney on 13 mins which saw him glide into the box and finish beautifully with the outside of his left foot across Motherwell keeper Mark Gillespie. That was his sixth goal in his last seven domestic outings for us.

Image result for motherwell 1-1 celtic 2018 ryan christie — *Ryan Christie just can’t stop scoring.*

From there on out you thought we might be on easy street and that looked validated when Benkovic cracked home a wonderful left foot finish in the box from a corner into the exact same spot that Christie had found earlier before it was chopped off by referee Kevin Clancy. The reasons remain unknown to everyone including to Clancy himself I’d imagine.

Just before halftime, Christie was felled in the box by a clumsy challenge from Andy Rose and we were gifted a chance to go 2-0 up. Up stepped returning striker Leigh Griffiths but his strike whilst powerful lacked any real width and was parried away by Gillespie.

Griffiths cut a pretty forlorn figure all night and had two free kick opportunities in the game both of which were in what looked like a perfect position for his striking talents. Alas, both failed to get past the wall and he really isn’t looking himself at the moment.

The second half was a pretty tame affair with Celtic dominating possession but not creating much even with the introductions of Rogic, Sinclair and Edouard but still, it looked like the three points were ours until Motherwell striker Danny Johnson emerged late on and lashed home an equaliser from the left-hand side of the box on 88mins. Gamboa might have been fouled in the build-up but it wasn’t given and credit to Johnson who finished with aplomb.

Fir Park continues to remain a strangely difficult place for us to get a result under Brendan. Our last three games there have been tight draws and the one before that saw us rescue a 4-3 win via a 90th-minute strike from Rogic having been 2-0 down at one point.

Celtic looked very weary and lacked any real spark or fluency. Of course, the latter is almost impossible to achieve when you make so many changes but it’s hard to criticise Brendan when you consider the number of games already played in such a short space of time combined with the number of games we have coming up. Players such as Callum McGregor look like they are running on empty and Tierney is also lacking a bit of dynamism most likely due to the punishing recent schedule.

Image result for motherwell 1-1 celtic 2018 — *Contrary to some reports Ntcham did actually play.*

Between now and our visit to Castle Greyskull on December 29th we have a pretty relentless schedule which will see us play seven games in only 21 days.

The first of these is on Saturday at home to Kilmarnock who incredibly are top of the table with 31 points after a 2-0 home win last night against Livingston as their meteoric rise under Steve Clarke continues. They’ve lost only once in their last 11 league games with seven wins. That run actually began with a 2-1 win against us at Rugby Park back in late September which saw them triumph via a last-second headed winner by former Celtic defender Stuart Findlay deep into injury time.

At that point, we were enduring a mini-crisis but since then have gone undefeated in 11 domestic games – eight in the league and three in the cup – with nine wins so it really is the two form teams in the country meeting each other.

We scuppered the chance to go top last night as the draw sees us sit one point behind the Ayrshire side – though we have two games in hand – however, Saturday presents us with another such opportunity. It’ll be tough and it doesn’t get any easier as five days later we entertain Red Bull Salzburg in our final Europa League match needing at least a point to progress to the last 32 and European football beyond Christmas & New Year which is always a bonus.

Managing the game on Saturday will be difficult. I presume Forrest having been rested last night will come straight back in and the likes of Rogic and Edouard will also have to start if we are to give Killie our full respect which considering their lofty league position they definitely merit. But in saying that our league position can always be rescued throughout the month whereas we only have one chance to get it right against the Austrian Champions on Thursday.

Personally, I’d prioritise Salzburg.

The squad players that come in though must do better. Ntcham and Griffiths for a start should be contributing much more and Sinclair continues to look a shadow of his former self. As for Gamboa and Hayes, I don’t really expect much considering their efforts thus far in a Celtic jersey and neither fail to disappoint in that respect.

After Salzburg we are away at Hibs the following Sunday – usually a tough game but Neil Lennon’s side have capitulated in the past five weeks – and then it’s two must-win home ties against Motherwell and Dundee in the space of three days before a trip to Pittodrie on Boxing Day and then the much awaited pre-New Year’s all Glasgow battle against Steven Gerrard’s temporary table toppers.

For now, I hope the players are resting and then raring to go for Saturday.

Whoever would have thought you’d see a top of the table clash featuring us versus Kilmarnock halfway through the season?

It really is a mad, mad, mad world out there.

Celtic 1 – 0 Aberdeen: Seven in a row….the treble-treble is a go!

December 3, 2018December 3, 2018 wayofthecass

It was tough, Probably tougher than expected and there were a few hairy moments but Celtic did what they always do in cup matches these days and won.

That’s a pretty incredible 22 straight victories in domestic cup competitions for Celtic now as a seventh domestic trophy was obtained.

Aberdeen were competitive, some would say excessively so as they got into Celtic’s face from the get-go. We were happy to match them and in amongst all of that the occasional passage of football broke out. Tom Rogic cracked one off the outside of the post from distance with a low howitzer in the opening exchanges.

The first half was marred by a horrible injury to ex-Celtic winger Gary Mackay-Steven just after the half-hour mark when he was rendered unconscious by a clash of heads as a result of a head clash with Dedryk Boyata. The Belgium defender had to go off for stitches pitchside but it was horrible to see GMS lying motionless, face-down on the deck before his limp body was ill-advisedly pulled over by Aberdeen striker Sam Cosgrove who was obviously unaware as to the extent of the injury.

I honestly feared the worst especially when you saw the replay and he really did take the full impact of big Dedryk’s head. Thankfully after several mins, he was stretchered off after apparently regaining consciousness. It probably would have been advisable for Boyata to have gone off as well but in a throwback to the 80’s he was simply bandaged up and thrown back on again with a new shirt.

Six minutes injury time was understandably added on and with only a minute of that left to go Ryan Christie – who spent last season on loan at the Dons – returned to haunt his old side as the man with the bandaged head Boyata played a long ball through the middle to Christie who broke into the box and fired a right foot shot at Joe Lewis before netting at the second attempt with his left foot when the ball rebounded to him.

The second half was more of the same until 52 mins as Celtic were awarded a controversial penalty when Dominic Ball headed down onto his hand just outside the box. It really was a gift and Scott Sinclair, usually pretty trustworthy from the spot, stepped up but it was a poor effort resulting in Joe Lewis touching it over the bar. Justice on this occasion was definitely served.

Boyata was finally substituted just after the hour mark and was replaced by Jozo Simunovic who we haven’t seen in quite some time.

Not long after we were almost wishing we hadn’t seen him for a lot longer as in an attempt to clear his lines he cracked the ball off his own post nearly delivering an unlikely equaliser to the men in red in the process.

Celtic had chances to kill the game as Sinclair broke free and raced through on Lewis only to fluff his lines and with us queuing up after a break late on late on Edouard choose to go it alone when he had multiple options he could have set-up instead.

For their part, Aberdeen stuck on multiple strikers and huffed and puffed a lot but ultimately became frustrated and instead of firing in attempts at our goal elected to increasingly throw the hammers instead.

Scott Brown was put on, on 64 mins to give them a taste of their own medicine and predictably they didn’t like it as he put in a few meaty challenges of his own and taunted the opposition players as they got increasingly reckless and desperate.

Image result for celtic 1-0 aberdeen — *Aberdeen players look on after losing yet another cup final.*

At fulltime Mikel Lustig also let the Aberdeen players and coaching staff know who’s boss which resulted in post-match complaints from Dons manager Derek McInnes and captain Graeme Shinnie with them claiming our players ‘lacked class’. Cleary they have forgotten about the antics from the final game of last season at Celtic Park by their very own Shaleum Logan who openly taunted the Celtic players and fans at the final whistle. Funny that.

Anyway, that’s seven trophies in a row for Celtic and Brendan Rodgers, as well as our 14th trophy in seven and a half seasons bringing our overall trophy hall to magnificent 106 and counting. We’ve also won four out of the last five League Cups. Strange to think when I was growing up we never won it for 15 years and it was regarded as ou ‘bogey tournament’. Not anymore.

Form-wise we are now unbeaten in eight matches in all competitions with seven wins and a draw and haven’t lost a domestic match since going down 2-1 at Rugby Park to Kilmarnock way back on Sunday 23rd September. We’ve won nine and drawn one since then.

The real standout stat though is our defensive record as we have conceded only one goal in our last eight matches in all comps and domestically none in our last six and only two in our last ten.

That really confirms how big an improvement Filipe Benokivc has brought to the side since his loan move and underlines why Leicester City parted with £13 million for him this past summer. He oozes composure and class and just looks head and shoulders above any of our other central defensive options. Fingers crossed we can keep a hold of him until the end of the season.

Next up we return to league action in a mere 48hrs as we visit a Motherwell team who are in very indifferent form. Indeed only last weekend they thumped Aberdeen 3-0 at home only to go down meekly 2-0 away at Livingston on Saturday.

For our players, it’s been an exhausting period with our visit to Fir Park being our fourth game in only eleven days and not to mention the international break seeing most of our players also involved. James Forrest looked particularly out of sorts the other day as he had a raging battle with Dons fullback Maz Lowe and couldn’t really get anything going. Tom Rogic also failed to make much impact despite his early dazy cutter nearly opening the scoring. I suspect there will be changes on Wednesday with Simunovic, Scott Brown, Ntcham and Leigh Griffiths all possibly coming in from the start.

Until then we have another piece of silverware in the bag and a mythical treble-treble really is a goer.

Those glory, glory days.

Europa League review: Rosenborg 0 -1 Celtic. Job done!

December 3, 2018December 3, 2018 wayofthecass

It wasn’t particularly exciting but Celtic got the job done with a pretty comfortable 1-0 win against a pretty sedate – or is that limited? – Rosenborg in Trondheim.

There were 800 travelling fans in Lerkendal Stadion last night and allegedly the best part of 13,000 + home supporters too according to the official attendance but the ground only holds 21,405 and looked about a third full to me so I think someone was being tricky with the figures.

*The Rosenborg fans message last night.*

Ultimately the Norwegians needed a miracle to go through and clearly had one eye on this coming Sunday’s national cup final where they have a chance for a rare domestic treble though despite some prematch predictions they actually fielded more or less their full strength team.

Celtic though dominated from the start and were all over the home team in the first half. Despite the constant peppering of the Rosenborg box chances were few and far between until keeper Andre Hansen saved from a Tom Rogic effort from the edge of the box that the Aussie should have done better with on 22 mins. Not long after James Forrest also broke through and tested Hansen with a left foot drive that was touched over the bar.

Forrest himself turned creator as Celtic finally opened the scoring as he crossed it delightfully to the back post from inside the box to the unmarked Scott Sinclair who had all evening to line-up his header and put it home with ease only minutes before halftime.

Image result for rosenborg 0-1 celtic — *That’ll do it.*

The second half was not quite as comfortable but the hosts never actually registered a shot on goal – the same thing happened at Celtic Park the last time we played them – and though it was frustrating not seeing us turn our dominance into more goals, in the end, we cruised to a pretty easy three points and indeed our first win away in the Europa League in 20 attempts.

For Brendan Rodgers, it was only his fifth win in twenty away games and arguably his most important. Two of those away wins have also been in Trondheim so he’ll be wishing we could play them every season.

Talking of stats this means that Rosenborg have one win from 23 Europea League matches and have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 29 Europa League games, conceding 59 goals in the process. I thought we had it bad in Europe.

We should be beating Rosenborg and we did and it puts us on 9 points and second in the group behind Red Bull Salzburg going into the final match against that very team. The Austrians secured their place in the last 32 and kept up their incredible unbeaten run so far this season in all competitions with a 1-0 win at home over Leipzig. Many, including myself, had suspected a carve up when the Germans somehow started as favourites but it was a Norweigan ironically in Fredrik Gulbrandsen who did Celtic a favour as he scored the only goal in the final 15 minutes.

So all that means that in 13 days at Celtic Park we only need a point to progress though it’s almost impossible to set your stall out for a draw at home in Europe so expect Celtic to go for the win. As for Salzburg, it’ll be interesting to see how much this unbeaten run means to them as they may elect to rest players or decide to try and keep it intact.

Either way, it’ll be interesting and most likely heart stopping to boot.

Europa League preview: Rosenborg vs Celtic – It’s do or die……again!

November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 wayofthecass

On Thursday night Celtic will travel to Trondheim for the third time in nearly 16 months and the second time in less than four months to take on Norwegian Champions Rosenborg.

I’ve used this title before but it really is apt. It most definitely is ‘do or die’ as anything but a win on Thursday will see us relying on results elsewhere and no longer having our destiny in our own hands in regards to qualifying for the Europa League knockout stages and seeing European football post-Christmas.

There are various permutations to going through but I’ll look at those later on in the article. For now, I’m going to concentrate on our opposition.

As stated, in the beginning, we know them well. Almost too well. Indeed when I heard we’d been drawn with them in the group stages I was, to say the least, a little underwhelmed considering how many times we’ve played them recently. We do of course have a pretty good record against them having not lost one of our last five encounters with them which have seen us beat them three times and draw twice. One of those wins was also at their home ground in Trondheim when James Forrest smashed in a solitary winner against them in August of 2017. Overall we have a 5-1 lead in terms of goals as well with the two draws both ending goalless.

They have just wrapped up their fourth consecutive Norwegian title – which is a record 26th overall – after completing the season with 19 wins from 30 games with seven draws and only four defeats.

Since playing us last on the 20th of September they have played 10 domestic matches – eight in the league and two in the cup – and have lost only one which was a 1-0 defeat in the league to eventual runners-up Molde. They have however also drawn three games, have only scored 15 goals and have conceded seven in that time.

Their main goal scoring threats are veteran strike pair Alexander Søderlund and the mercurial Nicklas Bendtner. They have scored 24 goals between them this season though only four in Europe. Bendtner though hasn’t seen much football in recent weeks which is something he’ll have to get used to as he’s just been convicted of assaulting a taxi driver. He’s due to return to his native Denmark to serve a 50-day jail term at an as of yet undetermined date. In recent months their veteran midfielder Mike Jensen and young Nigerian forward Samuel Adegbenro have stepped up to the plate with some important goals though neither are in double figures.

Image result for nicklas bendtner — *Bad boy Nicky outside court.*

In the Europa League groups stages this term, their record has been pretty woeful having lost all four matches thus far conceding 12 and scoring only three. Last time out they entrained Red Bull Salzburg and were ripped apart 5-2, scoring both of their goals when already down 4-0. This came on the back of a 3-0 hiding in Salzburg and to be honest their record in the Europa League group stages full stop pretty awful as they have only recorded three wins in their last 22 and haven’t played in Europe beyond Christmas this century.

All that being said we struggled to break them down in the home leg 10 weeks ago and it took a late Leigh Griffiths header to gain the victory. We also really struggled away against them in Trondheim back on August 1st in a stale 0-0 game where we only created one real chance.

But let’s also put our last two encounters against them into context. Backing August that was the second leg of a tie in which we were already 3-1 up from the home leg so it was natural that we would defend what we had and in the end we got the job done. The Norwegians were the better team on the night but they really didn’t create much and on reflection at least it was a nervy but ultimately pretty professional job.

In the September game, we still dominated and us struggling to break them down was a general issue at the time. Indeed the following weekend we lost 2-1 at Kilmarnock and as the talk of crisis loomed we began to get our arses into gear and subsequently have gone on a nine-game unbeaten domestic run with eight wins scoring 28 goals in the process and conceding only two. Europe has of course been a different story but after disappointing away performances to Salzburg and Leipzig we produced a stunning 2-1 win against the Germans on matchday four to keep our hopes of qualification well and truly alive.

The last time we went to Trondheim needing to win was in August 2017 during a Champions League qualifier. Having drawn the first leg 0-0 at home the pressure was all on us to produce and produce we did as we dominated the game with 63% possession of the ball. As mentioned earlier James Forrest scored on 69 minutes and not long after raced through on goal to score number two but fluffed his lines. It was one of the most comfortable nights I can remember Celtic having on the road against good opposition in Europe and we simply have to replicate it tomorrow evening.

Tom Rogic will be back and Filipe Benkovic will hopefully make a rare European away start for us also. We missed both badly the last time we ventured abroad and having them back in is a huge plus point.

Image result for filip benkovic — *Benkovic needs to bring the power tomorrow night.*

Interestingly both clubs have major cup finals on the Sunday following the match. For Celtic, it’s a chance to win seven consecutive major trophies in the League Cup final against Aberdeen whereas for Rosenborg it’s a chance to a secure a rare domestic treble as they go up against Strømsgodset– the team that Ronny Deila came from – in the Norwegian Football Cup final.

I wonder how much that will play into their thinking? Winger Pål André Helland is already in a buoyant mood comparing their title victory to a penis extension and manager Rini Coolen admitted that despite the upcoming tie against Celtic he allowed his players to go out and party after receiving the league trophy on Sunday.

Despite losing all four matches thus far in the group stages incredibly they still could technically make it to the last 32. They would need to beat us by two goals or more and then hope Leipzig succumbed to Salzburg before then going to Germany on matchday six requiring to beat their hosts by three goals or more whilst hoping that Salzburg defeated us. So it’s to say the very least a long shot and perhaps with that in mind players may be more focused on the big domestic cup match three days later. Some online Celtic sources seem to believe that they could even rest half of their usual starting eleven but what the actual basis for this claim outside of sheer conjecture is anyone’s guess.

Of course our own cup final is pretty important too but I’d say it’s trumped by staying in Europe beyond Christmas.

As for the rest of the permutations we basically need Salzburg to beat Leipzig which would see them qualify as group winners with a game to spare and if we beat Rosenborg we’d only require a point against the Austrians at home in the final group match to secure qualification.

A draw between the two Red Bull sides would also be pretty good news as we’d then face a likely depleted Salzburg side – owing to them having already won the group – in the final match requiring a win unless Leipzig somehow drew or lost against Rosenborg.

Defeat for us and Leipzig win then it’s over. A draw and Leipzig win and it’s as good as over. In fact, a draw for Leipzig and we lose and you’re still clutching at straws. So really we need to win and that’s all there is to it.

But here comes the back down to earth with a bump bit and it’s our away form in Europe. I know it sounds like a broken record pointing it out but it is awful. We haven’t won any of our last five which indeed includes trips to face Rosenborg as well as away to Suduva in the footballing hotbed that is Lithuania. We’ve also only won two of our last 11 away. I could extend the record even further back under Brendan and it shows only four wins in 19. Do you want to hear the goals for and against on the road in Europe too? Na. Me neither. Safe to say it’s eye-watering stuff.

There’s no doubt we struggle badly on the road but maybe on Brendan’s 20th sojourn to the continent we can get arguably his biggest win yet. And a hungover weakened Rosenborg team with one eye on their national cup final on Sunday would definitely help.

On a final note, I’ve just seen the odds for the Salzburg vs Leipzig game. The Austrians despite being group leaders with four wins out of four as well as being undefeated in all competitions this season which has seen them record 22 wins and four draws are somehow underdogs for a home tie against a team they beat 3-2 away in the group stage opener. RB Leipzig start as 4/5 favourites with the home team as 3/1 outsiders. Mmmmmm. That does seem a bit iffy. Is a possible carve up in the offing between two teams with almost identical names and badges? Surely not.

Anyway, we have our destiny in our own hands. Let’s hope we take it with both.

Weekend review: Celtic thump Accies whilst the league takes on a retro look.

November 27, 2018November 27, 2018 wayofthecass

Celtic continued their excellent recent form by putting Hamilton Accies to the sword in the early kick-off on Saturday.

A beautifully worked move from a corner on 13 mins saw McGregor play it short to Edouard who backheeled it back to him and McGregor passed into the path of Ryan Christie who stroked it home sublimely.

Chris Sutton said it was a school ground move that Accies should have seen coming. I’ll be honest I spent 12 years at school between primary and secondary and can’t ever remember ever seeing such a move executed during lunch or either breaks on the school pitches but maybe Chris’s school was different.

This all came after a wonderful one-handed save from defender Matt Kilgallon in the box during the opening exchanges that was made even better by Accies defender’s pretending it had hit his face immediately after. It all seemed pretty clear to me and everyone in the stadium and watching at home but referee Don Robertson was clearly taken in Kilgallon’s performance and waved play on.

There should have been more goals for the away team in the first half and my second half viewing was interrupted by having to attend a school Christmas fair but I recorded it and watched upon my return at 3.30pm.

Incidentally, what is it with Christmas fares in November? Was it like that back in the ’80s and ’90s? I genuinely can’t remember. Seems a bit early but I guess that’s a topic for another day and indeed an entirely different kind of blog.

Anyway back to the football and it was plane sailing for the Bhoy in the second half as an innocuous Scott Sinclair header was backheeled into his own net by the hapless Scott Martin on 68 mins and then the returning Leigh Griffiths came on for his first appearance in seven weeks and drilled home a low struck freekick from the edge of the box on 82 mins.

Image result for hamilton accies 0-3 celtic — *Celtic fan Scott Martin is about to love every fan’s dream.*

Ryan Christie nearly made it four before the end but his attempted neat finish was deflected onto the post for a corner late on and that’s all she wrote as Hamilton offered little in the opposite direction and Celtic cruised to an easy three points and retained their spot at the top of the league.

Only two points behind them are Rangers who overwhelmed Livingston 3-0 at Ibrox though the men from the Tony Macaroni Arena had their moments in the first half.

Elsewhere Hearts complete and utter capitulation of the last six weeks continued as they collapsed meekly 2-0 in Paisley against St.Mirren who recorded their first win under new manager Oran Kearney and Hibs also still can’t buy a win as they threw a 2-0 lead away to the bottom of the table Dundee in a 2-2 draw at Easter Road.

St.Johnstone and Kilmarnock are both almost neck and neck in the league sitting just behind Hearts and showed how close they are with a 0-0 draw at McDiarmid Park. The Saints are now unbeaten in six with five wins since we thumped 6-0 on their home patch back in early October and are only five points off the top which is pretty incredible. Killie meanwhile have only suffered one defeat in nine and sit one point above the Perth side as their equally incredible run of form under Steve Clark continues.

The big shock of the weekend though was Aberdeen – our opponents in next weekends League Cup final – getting battered 3-0 at Fir Park by Motherwell. The Dons had been on a four-match winning run which included wins over Rangers and at Kilmarnock and had only conceded one goal in that time. Motherwell meanwhile were coming off a 7-1 trouncing in their last league match against Rangers a fortnight ago.

Needless to say, we’ll start heavy favourites against the Dons next Sunday.

But between now and then there’s a pretty important match against Rosenborg in the Europa League that we must navigate and has to be our priority.

International round-up: Scotland 3 – 2 Israel. James Forrest Ballon d’OR.

November 21, 2018November 21, 2018 wayofthecass

James Forrest, sorry Scotland picked up from where he/they left off on Saturday night and captured a vital win that propels them into Group B of the Nations League as well as securing a play-off place – and at home none the less – for the Euros against Finland in March 2020.

Ex-Celtic Beram Kayal buried a wonder strike from about 25 yards that gave Allan McGregor no chance on the 9 mins mark. The keeper’s namesake Callum McGregor could have shut the Israel midfielder down earlier but there’s no way anyone could genuinely have expected that.

Image result for kayal israel scotland — *Kayal isn’t messing around.*

The goal aside Israel dominated the opening stages and it looked like Scotland’s destruction of Albania three nights previous had perhaps been more down to the Eastern European sides ineptitude as opposed to a resurgence from the Scots.

However, the men in navy blue gradually got back into it with McGregor almost scoring with a fantastic drilled volley from distance that was well saved by Ariel Harush and had begun to pin the visitors inside their own box by the time James Forrest lashed home the equaliser not long after the half-hour mark.

From there on the hosts dominated and a wonderful passage of play saw Steven Fletcher nod onto Ryan Christie who raced down the left flank before lobbing over to that man Forrest again who took a steadying touch before side-footing home the second.

Going into the second half it felt like there was going to be only one winner and Forrest collected from Ryan Fraser in the box before a deft chip left Ben Harush on his arse and set him up to place it in for number three and his hattrick. Similar in execution to his second on Saturday though not quite as spectacular.

Simply put Forrest is on fire right now. So hot indeed you might be able to genuinely light a fag off him.

Of course, Scotland always has a tendency to push the self-destruct button and duly obliged as Eran Zahavi was given acres of space to steady himself and blast home a possible reprieve for the Israelis with a quarter of an hour left.

Much fingernail biting ensued and I thought it only right to put a fiver on Israel to draw as it was sitting at 12/1 – hey if we’re going to blow it then I may as well make a couple of quid – and it almost paid off with McGregor having to produce a fabulous reflex save in the dying embers but Scotland held out and secured three more precious points to top the group on nine.

For Alex McLeish, it was a reprieve. His hand was forced somewhat by injuries into playing a 4-5-1 with Forrest and Fraser on the wing, a recognised left-back playing in position and in-form players getting starts as opposed to the old ‘going for experience’ chestnut. That and James Forrest effectively saved his bacon.

Christie and Armstrong’s energies were boundless and Callum McGregor continues to look very comfortable in a holding role and considering this was a squad with players such as Mulgrew, Griffiths, McGinn, Naismith and Tierney absent it’s difficult not to get excited about possible future prospects. For a start, the football over the past two games has been unusually dynamic and free-scoring for a Scotland team.

The draw for the Euro 2020 qualifiers takes place a week on Sunday – December 2nd – in Dublin and Scotland now know they will be in Pot 3 and that if one of the two tops spots in the group is not secured then they have the play-off match with Finland to fall back on in 16 months time due to their Nations League success.

That’s a long time away and a lot of water can go under the bridge between now and then. But Scotland now have both something to build on and no matter what happens in the qualifiers something to look forward too and a genuine chance of a first major tournament qualification since 1998.

Scotland actually won something last night. It might not have been much but they won something. That doesn’t happen much. So you know, let’s enjoy it as it’s inevitable calamity and disappointment is coming in the post somewhere in the not too distant future.

The New TV deal: Money talks as BT walks!

November 21, 2018November 21, 2018 wayofthecass

So finally the SPFL have come to an agreement over the new TV deal something which has been getting discussed far and wide across the Scottish footballing spectrum for the past 18 months or more.

And the winner is…….Sky. That brand that we all know and love with wonderful coverage being provided by the gorgeous Hayley McQueen flanked by the stunning pairing of Kris Boyd and Kris Commons.

Image result for sky sports scottish football — *Dream Team*

Safe to say it isn’t the winner we wanted. By we, I don’t just mean Celtic fans but all of Scottish football. A recent online poll found that 90% of Scottish football fans surveyed would prefer BT to win the rights as they generally provide superior coverage with far more in-depth analysis and passion for the game up here.

The likes of Chris Sutton, Steven Craigan, Michael Stewart and Ally McCoist might not be everyone’s cup of tea – each one’s popularity usually depending on what team you support – but they sell the game as opposed to Sky who’s coverage often borders on apathetic to the point of disrespect.

Commons was a wonderful servant to the club but he usually gets lost in his own analysis and Boyd wavers from boring to confusion then onto anger and all in one sentence. Either way, both are pretty limited pundits and would be blown out of the water by the BT guys.

Hayley does her best to fit in what she can from her meagre surroundings in the blink and you’ll miss it introduction and post-match analysis segments and there is a general air of disinterest about the whole thing. The general impression is that they can’t wait to get back to their beloved English Premier League

BT, on the other hand, are fronted by wisecracking Darell Curry who is often required to act more like a referee as opposed to a presenter in order to reel in the often hilarious quarrelling that occurs between Sutton and the rest of the panel. Added to that every game no matter how seemingly inconsequential it might appear in the grand scheme of things is given a worthy amount of build-up and analysis so in other words…..respect.

Image result for BT sport scottish football — *The BT boys delivering the goods.*

So bearing all that in mind it’s come as a surprise that BT was so easily outbid by Sky and not only that have lost all rights to the Betfred League Cup as well.

That means that BT will in just over 18 months have literally no relationship with Scottish football at all which is pretty shocking considering the effort they have put into promoting the game during these past five years.

Now as much as I would have preferred BT to have gotten the rights the facts are that they refused to put their money where their mouth is. The deal has now been unofficially confirmed as being worth £160 million over a five year period beginning the season after next with Sky Sports having inclusivity to all 48 top flight live matches.

I can’t mention my source but all I will say is that he is a board member of a Premiership club. All members were asked to take a final vote yesterday at around 2pm and the decision was unanimous. Some had earlier baulked at Sky’s offer believing the rights could be worth somewhere in the region of £40-50 million per season but the facts are that BT’s preference was to continue the current carve-up between themselves and Sky whilst individually investing less and that the likes of Amazon, Eleven Sports etc when sounded out just weren’t really that interested. Sky’s offer of just over £32 million per season was by some distance the best financial package and an initial offer of three years was actually negotiated up to five to give extra long-term security. The deal was apparently brokered by a consultant who had been involved in the English Premierships’ last round of TV contract negotiations and he was keen to point out to the members the fact that TV sports rights in the UK across the board are generally decreasing in value as opposed to increasing.

The EPL themselves have seen their own rights tumble pretty dramatically from £5.1 billion for a three-year deal to £4.775 billion which begins next summer. That’s a drop of £325 million, around about £108 million a season. Even then those figures are pretty optimistic with some sources claiming the drop was nearer the £500 million mark.

The final two packages available in the first round of bids back in February actually went unsold and weren’t negotiated until six months later when Amazon and BT picked up what was left. Not long after Richard Scudamore announced he was stepping down from his role as the EPL’s Executive Chairman which he had held (though previously called Chief Executive) since 1999. Coincidence? Hardly.

As much as I, like just about everyone else it seems, prefer BT’s coverage the facts are that they were have thrown the kitchen sink at both Champions League and English Premiership TV rights to such an extent that they have hardly any money to invest in anything else. So it shows where their priorities lie. The SPFL is not the only rights they failed to retain as they have also lost the rights to Serie A, UFC and NBA with all being picked up by the new player Eleven Sports.

This unsurprisingly goes hand in hand with the departure of chief executive Gavin Patterson who back in 2013 led BT’s assault on live sports rights. The hope was that impressive sports packages would also entice new broadband customers but this strategy has failed dramatically as the number of new subscribers each quarter having apparently collapsed. As a result at the time of the announcement about Patterson’s future, or lack of, BT’s share price had fallen around 14% over the previous four weeks alone with full-year results showing a 1% drop in revenue, not helped by the company dealing with the aftermath of an accounting scandal at its Italian division, which resulted in a £530 million write-down and a major fall in its share price last year.

Image result for Neil Patterson BT — *Neil Patterson in more affluent times.*

Shareholders at BT had wanted Patterson out for some time and with the news, any hopes of BT being capable of competing with other major providers for sports rights renewals went with him.

The new deal will see 48 matches – a reduction from the 60 shown previously between both Sky and BT – all appear on one format each season along with six playoff matches and kicks in the season after next. We can only hope that in that time Sky takes on board the feedback and improve their coverage to match a significantly increased investment.

It’s not only the league games though that BT failed to retain. They’ve also let the Betfred League Cup slip through their fingers and into the hands of Irish broadcaster Premier Sports. Again their coverage there was spot on and they played a big part in changing the format so that it would feature regional league matches played in the summer by teams not competing in Europe. This coverage came at a cost of a measly £8 million over four years but was by all accounts much better than the previous deal in place with the BBC. Premier Sports offer whilst apparently better wasn’t significantly so but BT once again failed to invest and just as with the league games their coverage will cease to exist from the summer of 2020 onwards.

The Scottish Cup rights are a whole other kettle of fish with Premier Sports and the BBC sharing them with Sky letting them go, and of course, the BBC has also renewed their deal with the SPFL which will see them retain league highlights as well as showing 20 live Championship games per season starting in a few months, on a new channel, to be unveiled next year.

I’ve seen some people unfavourably comparing the deal to the new one signed by the EFL down south which is a £595 million contract over three years. The thing about that is it covers 130 matches per season across three leagues and 72 clubs and also includes League Cup games so actually in the grand scheme of things most English clubs have got a poorer deal than the SPFL.

All in all, it’s more money. How much more is difficult to quantify but we do know that it was widely accepted that the total pot of TV income was £21 million last season with £17.5 million of that coming from the league TV deal alone. This new deal secures at least £32 million per season and could be more when factoring in a new foreign TV rights deal with beIN sports as well as the new Scottish Cup and League Cup deals.

Is it what we wanted? No. But is it the best deal we could get……yes. And just like in every other aspect of life money talks and there was no way Scottish football was walking away from an extra £10 million plus per season.

I like BT. We all like BT. But the fact is they obviously don’t like us as much back. That and the fact that they are skint.

Weekend review: Albania 0 – 4 Celtic, sorry Scotland. What the hell just happened?

November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 wayofthecass

I took this game in on Saturday evening from the Electric Bar in Motherwell. Not my local but my other half’s who hails from that part of the country. So not dissimilar a setting to Tirana then where the game was taking place.

It proved to be an apt name though as Scotland produced a free-flowing performance, devoid of suicidal defending and where the referee Vladislav Bezborodov actually showed he had a pair and made the rights calls.

Albania tried some neat passing at the back but Ryan Christie was having none of it and stepped in to feed Ryan Christie who charged into the box before curling it past Etrir Berisha in the Albanian goal to make it 1-0 after a mere 14 mins.

Image result for albania 0-4 scotland alex mcleish — *Alex McLeish tries to make sense of that he’s looking at.*

Usually, it would be all downhill from there for the national team but then the Albanian captain, the wonderfully named Mergim Mavraj, stepped up and wrote his name into Scottish football folklore with a fabulous one-two. The first one was a challenge over the ball on James Forrest and the second was an unnecessary headbutt on Ryan Christie. He got a yellow card for each one resulting in an early bath. Did Christie milk it? Probably. But every other nation on God’s green earth does it so for me he was just being streetwise.

From there Scotland took full advantage. An Armstrong free kick on the edge of the box was needlessly handled by striker Rey Manaj and resulted in a penalty which one-time Celtic target Steven Fletcher duly dispatched on the stroke of half-time and Scotland were now really in dreamland.

I, on the other hand, had to depart to the function room next door to join in the 50th birthday celebrations for Elaine – a woman I’d never met before and didn’t actually get to meet during – but was able to get back through under the pretense of needing some fresh air to witness most of the second half which featured a dominant Scotland display that included two more goals both of which were executed by James Forrest.

The first came after the Celtic winger was released through by teammate Ryan Christie before squeezing it past Berisha and the second was a wonderful goal. Christie found Fraser out on the right wing with a beautiful pass from midfield and the Bournemouth man fed Forrest in the box who knocked it up with his right foot past substitute Kastriot Dermaku before buying it past Berisha again with his left.

Image result for albania 0-4 scotland — *Wee Jamesy scores a belter.*

There should have been more and substitute Scott McTominay should have done better with an effort from the edge of the box that clipped the bar though replays showed a wicked bobble just before it got to him.

The pub was actually eerily quiet during that second period. Most people sat, pint in hand with their jaw agape wondering what the hell was going on and when they would awaken from their slumber as only a dream state could explain what they were witnessing on the TV screens before them.

All that aside Callum McGregor was magnificent in the holding role that he has also really stood out in for Celtic recently and is a perfect example of playing a guy in a position where he is playing well in for his club and hey presto….it works for the national team as well.

I’m no fan of Big Eck and think he’s made a bit of a pig’s ear of the Scotland job thus far considering the position the national team were in when he took over but some nights it just clicks and Saturday was one of those nights.

Scotland can now win their group if they beat Israel on Tuesday. The Israeli’s have proven to be a far more capable outfit than hapless Albania and have far better players, especially in the forward positions, but are also renowned for not performing and the momentum is definitely with Scotland as well as the home advantage.

The contribution from the Celtic players was immense with Christie pivotal in three of the four goals and being smart enough to react to Mavraj’s stupidity as opposed to standing his ground and likely getting a yellow himself. McGregor ran the show and Forrest continued the free-scoring form that has seen him bag 26 goals for the Hoops in the last 18 months.

Injuries aside I’d image the exact same team will take to the field on Tuesday night in the group decider. But then again with Big Alex at the helm……..

Post-match analysis: Livingston 0 – 0 Celtic plus the weekend’s events.

November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 wayofthecass

As predicted Celtic got it pretty tough at the Tony Macaroni Arena out in Livingston on Sunday.

The rain was pouring down in Glasgow as I took my place with seven other hardy souls at an otherwise deserted Crow Tavern to take in the proceedings whilst Remembrance Sunday memorials were taking place at the cenotaph across the road that afternoon and the minute’s silence before the game was impeccably observed much to everyone’s relief.

Let’s be honest the artificial surface that has been installed out at what used to be called Almondvale is not fit for purpose and everyone knows that but fair play to Livingston who with their meagre resources have found a way to put 19 points on the board so far this season and are really well coached under ex-Celtic Gary Holt.

Image result for celtic vs livingston 0-0 dolly menga gary holt — *Holt & Rodgers. Sounds like it could be a new Netflix series.*

To the game itself and the men in Hoops looked a little tired which is no surprise given their exertions on Thursday night against a top-class Red Bull Leipzig team who incidentally hammed VfB Stuttgart 3-0 at home on Sunday to leapfrog Bayern Munich into third spot in the Bundesliga.

Indeed the team was unchanged from then apart from Kristofer Ajer replacing Filipe Benkovic beside Boyata in central defence and in the first 45 mins Ryan Christie – who has really stepped up to the plate in the last three weeks and set up Edouard for the winner against the German three days previously – should have scored but his point-blank effort was saved by Liam Kelly in the Livi goal.

In the second half, Celtic created several chances in the last 15 mins with the best of them seeing Rogic crack in a seemingly goal-bound effort from the edge of the box only for that men Kelly again to somehow touch over.

The wonderfully named Dolly Menga should have walked for the home side in the first half for a clear headbutt on Christie at a corner but it went undetected and it’s likely he’ll now receive a retrospective ban for his efforts.

Livingston ran themselves into the ground and threw themselves in front of every ball and it’s difficult to begrudge them a point. Let’s not forget they have only conceded seven goals all season with the second best defensive record in the league only one behind us.

Sadly Kristofer Ajer suffered a broken cheekbone during events and will likely be out for some time as the injury list piles up at Lennoxtown with Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham, Eboue Kouassi, Leight Griffiths and Daniel Arzani already out.

Image result for celtic vs livingston 0-0 dolly menga — *Pretty much the story of the match.*

The result sees Celtic back to the top of the league on 26 points even with Hearts but ahead on goal difference with a game in hand.

The Jam Tarts were the latest team to fall victim to the incredible spell Steve Clark has cast over Kilmarnock as the Ayrshire club left Tynecastle with a 1-0 victory thanks to a solitary strike from the previously unheard of Ross Millen. That means Clark now has a 54% win ratio after well over 50 games in charge with a team that were serial relegation candidates season upon season before his arrival. Quite incredible.

Aberdeen kept their recent strong momentum going as they defeated Hibs at Pittodrie to climb into the top six via a winning first-half strike from ex-Celtic Gary Mackay-Steven whilst elsewhere St.Johnstone also continued their stunning run of form which started when we massacred them 6-0 a month ago – by hammering Hamilton Accies 4-0.

Basement dwellers Dundee and St.Mirren battled out a 1-1 draw as respective managers Jim McIntyre and Oran Kearney still seek out their first wins in charge of their new-ish clubs.

Image result for alfredo morelos carl mchugh — *The Donegal man sees red as Morelos endears himself to no one.*

Oh and over at Ibrox Rangers thumped Motherwell 7-1 as the boys in blue bounced back spectacularly from their keystone cops performance over in Moscow on Thursday evening. The match was actually pretty even until Donegal man Carl McHugh was harshly red-carded for two yellows the first of which saw him dare to go within two yards of loveable rogue Alfredo Morelos. The Columbian then appeared to take great delight in McHugh’s second yellow for handball as he clapped in his face. Thereafter the Steelman folded like a cheap suit and the Govan side remain within touching distance of ourselves at the top of the league on 24 points as next month’s Ibrox encounter begins to really start to heat-up.

Anyway, that was the weekend that was. Top of the league so not all bad by any means. Now into the dreaded international break, we go.

Europa League analysis: Celtic superb against Red Bull and now off to the Tony Macaroni.

November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 wayofthecass

Well, that was glorious, wasn’t it?

The European performance we’ve all been waiting for from Brendan’s side.

A full 90 mins of passions, desire, precision and above all an end product.

In many ways, it reminded me of our display at home in the Champions League against Bayern Munich last season where we pushed them all the way and deserved victory but somehow came away with a defeat. However this time we got our just rewards.

RB Leipzig were a really good side. Shorn of talents such as star striker Timo Werner, his strike partner Yussuf Poulsen and playmaker Emil Forsberg they still fielded a front three of Bruma, Cunha and Jean-Kévin Augustin who cost a total of €38 million.

They were strong, accurate in the pass and aggressive from the get-go in a way that I hoped we would be but sometimes you just have to accept you’re up against a really good side who sit fourth – a point behind second – in the Bundesliga for a reason.

Celtic gradually got back into the game and a strong run by the in-form Forrest led to a ball spraying across the box where it was met on the left by Kieran Tierney who steadied himself before driving home.

Image result for celtic vs leipzig — *The Bhoys celebrate the opener.*

We then dominated most of the first half but were unable to make the pressure count and Rogic placed one over the bar from the edge of the box after it was laid on by Christie that you would usually fancy him to do better with.

In the second half, the match followed the same pattern with two talented and energetic teams going at it. The post-match possession showed Celtic with 47% and Leipzig with 53% underlining just how evenly matched the contest was though for the best part the Germans were reduced to speculative long-range efforts which whilst always dangerous never really concerned Craig Gordon. However, he did have to make a terrific save from a corner which was met well at the front post by Marcel Sabitzer.

Up the other end Scott Sinclair raced through on goal not long after but failed to pull the trigger and then Edouard harried his way into the box and you thought he’d scored only for the ball to shave the post after taking the slightest nick off keeper Yvon Mvogo’s leg.

You just started to get the feeling it might not be our night with chances like that not being converted.

And that feeling became a reality when Augustin rose to impressively head home a pinpoint cross from Konrad Laimer that caught Lustig sleeping at the back post.

But alas said feeling only lasted 14 seconds as Celtic went rampaging up the pitch from the restart and Ryan Christie crossed for French Eddy to tap home from point-blank range to make it 2-1.

There were some hairy moments thereafter with Youssouf Mulumbu entering the stage and contributing a chaotic 10 mins in which he looked miles off the pace and continuously misjudged passes and tackles. From this Leipzig were able to break into the box and Kevin Kampl nearly broke the crossbar with a thunderous strike. They say you need a rub of the green to win on nights like this and that was definitely ours.

Anyway, with a great sigh of relief, that’s how it finished and now Celtic need to win in Trondheim against Rosenborg in three weeks to go into the final group game with our hopes of qualification intact. A win there coupled with a Salzburg victory at home to Leipzig would mean the Austrians go into the final group game on 15 points with the group sewn up and likely to rest players for their trip to Glasgow. A draw actually makes them group winners as well so really Leipzig have to win that one. If they do then it’s a straight shootout between us and Salzburg in the final game with Celtic requiring to win 2-0 to progress from a very tough group where Rosenborg have thus far only been spectators. Incredibly though they too can still qualify as well. If they beat us by more than a goal and then give the Germans a pasting at the Red Bull Arena on Matchday Six then they’ll the ones to progress which would be incredible. So let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

Anyway, what a display. So many great performances. Christie is banishing all pining for the departed Stuart Armstrong with his sudden emergence, Forrest is on fire, Rogic was relatively quiet – clearly identified as the danger man and subsequently shackled – but still looks a class apart at times, Sinclair is refinding his form, McGregor is playing out of his skin, Benkovic looks terrific at the back – shame we can’t keep him – and Tierney was the star man as he relentlessly rampaged up the left-hand side all night.

A fantastic performance that conjured up memories of the heady European nights enjoyed under Martin O’Neill, Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon and the first time a Brendan Rodgers side has really put it together for 90 mins against top-level continental opposition who were really on their game.

Oh and let’s not forget the much-maligned disco lights which actually helped ramp up the pre-match atmosphere and created a pretty magnificent aesthetic.

Anyway, it’s onto tough tackling Livingston for an early kick-off at the idyllic Tony Macaroni Arena on Sunday. A nice little venue that I’ve been to a few times before though back when it was only just called Almondvale.

Livi got off to a flyer under new player-manager Kenny Miller this season that saw him leave after about 20 mins only to be replaced by blink and you’ll miss him ex-Celt Gary Holt who formed part of the memorable Hamilton Cup winning side under Lou Macari back in the balmy summer of 1994 over in Canada.

Image result for celtic hamilton cup — *That’s Gary down the front with the big trophy.*

He guided the West Lothian side to a pretty remarkable seven league unbeaten run with five wins and two draws which included drawing at Tynecastle and defeating Steven Gerrard’s juggernaut 1-0 at home.

However, they have had a recent reality check with back to back defeats at home to St.Johnstone and away to Hamilton.

Still, expect a tough and physical encounter on a pretty piss poor artificial surface that has more sand on it than a beach in Largs and more pellets than a neglected rabbit’s hutch.

Then we enter the dreaded international break that no one is interested in that will likely see Alex McLeish make more bizarre tactical decisions.

But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Until then let’s bask in the warm afterglow of our best European display in years.

Europa League preview: Celtic vs Leipzig. It’s do or die time.

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 wayofthecass

Tomorrow night Celtic will limber up for a Europa League clash with Leipzig, or Red Bull Leipzig to give them their full moniker or even RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. if you’re going to get technical.

Whatever the hell you want to call them the fact is that it’s a ‘must win’ game if we want to maintain any hopes of European football after Christmas.

There has been a general malaise about Celtic in European football so far this term. Indeed you could’ve said that about the season as a whole but since thumping St.Johnstone 6-0 just over four weeks ago we seem to have kicked on big style domestically with five straight wins scoring a pretty incredible 23 goals in the process with only two conceded. That’s made even more impressive by the fact we’d only scored 10 in our previous eight matches on domestic soil.

We are in another League Cup final and are just one point behind Hearts at the top of the League with a game in hand.

So safe to say the worm has turned.

Of course in Europe though, it’s another story. Having cruised through the first few Champions League qualifying rounds we were disappointingly eliminated by a pretty bang average AEK Athens side and then struggled away against Lithuanian champions FK Suduva before a comfortable win at Celtic Park secured the group stages.

It was a tough draw but after squeezing past Rosenborg on matchday one we have looked decidedly uninspired on the road in our two away games against Salzburg and Leipzig.

So uninspired in fact that we now require a win tomorrow night to stand a realistic chance of continuing onto the Last 32. Indeed a defeat and we’ll be out if Salzburg win or draw in Norway – which let’s face it they are pretty much guaranteed to do – as that would put the Swiss on an unattainable 10 or 12 points whilst we could only match Leipzig’s 9 points but would be out on the head to head.

Image result for brendan rodgers celtic europe — *Brendan has to get it right on Thursday night.*

It’s pretty incredible that we find ourselves in this situation of possible Europa League elimination after only four group games. I mean I’ve grown accustomed to us getting skelped in the Champions League but there you are up against top quality in the likes of PSG, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Financially they exist in a different stratosphere and although we are still somewhat outgunned by the two Red Bull teams the gap shouldn’t be unbridgeable. But in the two games, we’ve been up against them so far we’ve been pretty easily swatted aside.

Against Salzburg, we played the perfect European away game in the first 45 mins as we scored early, looked difficult to break down and almost had another on the break just before the half-time whistle. In the second half though we inexplicably changed it and lost 3-1 going on five or six. Away in Germany a fortnight ago we similarly looked decent for the opening half an hour and could have been in front before capitulating just before halftime and from there we meekly saw out the rest of the game.

Brendan’s record in home competitions is of course sensational. Only six defeats from 108 games with every domestic tournament he’s entered ending in victory. He has an 84% win ratio which is pretty incredible. However, on the continent, it’s been a different story.

Very different.

Brendan’s current record stands at a mere 14 wins from 37 matches with 8 draws and 15 defeats. A 38% win ratio. Quite a drop.

Yes, the standard in Europe is better than domestically. We know that.

But as Red Star Belgrade proved on Tuesday night against Liverpool there are ways of taking down a financial leviathan.

The problem is we try and apply our domestic tactics to our continental opposition and that’s the equivalent of taking a knife to a gun fight or in the case of the Champions League a sword to a nuclear arms race.

Just look across the city as a pretty bang average Rangers team have gone unbeaten in 11 matches in Europe and though I suspect that record-breaking run will be ending pretty soon it just goes to show that with the right tactics good results are possible.

Tomorrow night will see the return of several key players such as impressive central defender Filipe Benkovic, James Forrest – who’s already racked up nine goals this season – and most importantly midfield playmaker Tom Rogic. All three were desperately missed in the away game and will be vitally important against our German visitors.

There is, of course, an elephant in the room though. That being Leipzig themselves. They were in impresisve form coming into the last match and since then…….well they’ve continued to do pretty well with two back to back goalless draws away to Augsburg and at home to Schalke 04 followed by last weekends 3-0 away thumping of Hertha Berlin. As a result, they sit in fourth place in the Bundesliga only one point behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach and five behind unbeaten leaders Borussia Dortmund. They also won 2-1 away to Hoffenheim last week in the second round of the national cup and have suffered only one domestic loss all season, that coming in the opening day to Dortmund.

So that doesn’t bode well but there is salvation and it’s the fact that their three best players won’t feature as according to the Bundesliga website Forsberg (groin), Poulsen (muscular), and Werner (foot) all won’t make it. The thing is though that none of those three featured in the home match either and it made little difference but we were of course shorn of the three I mentioned above.

Image result for Timo Werner — *Timo floats off injured to the sidelines.*

In summation, we’ll be stronger and they’ll remain without their three-star players with Werner missing being a particular bonus as he’s scored four times in his last two matches.

Our record at home in Europe recently has been impressive – five wins and one draw in the last six – but the record against German clubs on the continent is pretty horrific winning only three of 23 encounters and none of our last 10 (D3 L7).

Scary stuff, however, I take comfort in our recent form, our returning players, the personnel they’ll have out and if we can deliver anything like the kind of intensity we produced against Bayern Munich this time last season which was the last time a German club visited Celtic Park then maybe just maybe we can win this one and resurrect the Europa League dream.

It’s a big night for Celtic but an even bigger night for Brendan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSFPzYanCI

Weekend review. Celtic rip Hearts apart and, Boydie goes crazy and it’s raining coins in Paisley.

November 6, 2018November 6, 2018 wayofthecass

A belated review of Celtic’s weekend performances against Hearts due to circumstances and by circumstances I mean a Saturday night Halloween party and being away from the house for a few days.

Celtic had their third meeting with league leaders Hearts on Saturday at Celtic Park, coming a mere six days after seeing off the same opposition at Murrayfield in the League Cup semi-final.

It was really as you were as Hearts tried to sit in and defend and just ended up getting ripped apart as a ravenous Celtic team tore into them from the first whistle and ended the half 3-0 up after Odsonne Edouard cracked in a beauty off the underside of the bar from the edge of the box followed by Filipe Benkovic rising high to power in a header from a corner – yes you heard that right Celtic scored a goal from a corner kick – and French Eddy added his second as he directed a Tierney cross home after the latest fumble from Hearts calamity prone keeper Zdeněk Zlámal who for some reason is now just referred to as ‘Bobby’.

Image result for celtic 5-0 hearts — *Benkovic rises high to head home imperiously.*

It should have been much more with other chances going a begging including Ryan Christie clipping one just past the post from close range in the opening minutes and then hitting the post as he tried to slide one home soon after the second.

Callum McGregor nearly scored one of the goals of the season in the second 45mins as he ran from his own half into the Hearts goal and rounded a couple of defenders before striking it just past the far post.

James Forrest did make it four after some nice intricate play on the edge of the box from that man Edouard again resulted in the winger turning and burying it past ‘Bobby’ with aplomb.

Forrest then was taken down in the box by Hearts striker Craig Wighton as Celtic terrorised the Edinburgh clubs goal once again and Ryan Christie stepped up to make amends for his earlier misses and stroked home the fifth and final goal sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.

All in all a resounding victory which takes us within a point of Hearts with a game in hand.

Craig Levein later admitted he’d played it safe and it had backfired though I think even if they had been more adventurous things might actually have been worse as his side went back to the capital with their tails firmly between their legs. Even Steven MacLean kept his hands to himself after the scandal of the recent ‘bawsgate’.

So now Celtic go into this Thursday evenings match with Red Bull Leipzig in pretty incredible domestic form though I’ll reserve any talk of that for another article.

Elsewhere Rangers ended their three-match winless run and once again underlined the managerial genius of Steven Gerrard as they scored twice late to rescue three points against a struggling St.Mirren at New St.Mirren Park in Paisley.

Loveable rogue Alfredo Morelos was lucky to survive a 50 pence piece being directed at his genitalia that he didn’t seem to notice and after the game St.Mirren keeper Craig Samson had collected enough coins in his goal to afford a Big Mac meal en route home as Scottish football fans continue to show amazing financial frivolity in the face of the oncoming Brexit.

Kris Boyd also got a rare runout at home for his beloved Kilmarnock against Aberdeen and scored a penalty midway through the first half which led to him losing his mind and going crazy in front of the Aberdeen support as he goaded them with reference to his weight before an off the cuff dance resulted in a five pound note being hurled at him. He later used this to purchase a lasagna and two bags of monster munch at a local Tesco express.

: Boyd goes bananas.

Clearly, motivated by Boyd’s banal celebration Aberdeen went onto win the game 2-1 with Barry Ferguson’s nephew Lewis curling in a late free kick in front of the travelling faithful who celebrated wildly though Boydie had long since departed to purchase his aforementioned post-match meal by that point.

Just another weekend in the mad, mad world that is Scottish football. Just remember no matter how all of the results turn out every club brings it upon themselves.

Post-match analysis: Dundee 0 – 5 Celtic. A massacre at Dens while it kicks off big time elsewhere.

November 1, 2018November 1, 2018 wayofthecass

Well, I think it’s pretty safe to say that we’re back to being in fine fettle now.

Domestically at least.

A rampant Celtic tore hapless Dundee apart on Halloween with four goals in the first half all started by a beautiful strike from star man Tom Rogic on the 20 minute mark followed by a penalty conversion from Scott Sinclair just after the half hour, James Forrest finishing off a sublime passing move with a neat finish on 38mins and then Odsonne Edouard tapping in the fourth just before the half-time whistle blew after some fine wing play and a cut back from Forrest.

The second half saw Celtic predictably drop down a few gears whilst Dundee put on their best guiser masks and started hammer throwing as they committed to keeping the score down.

That didn’t stop Ryan Christie bursting through on goal to finish expertly on 48 mins and Kieran Tierney should have made it six when he placed it past the post when it seemed easier to score after a fine low cross to the back post by substitute Daniel Arzani.

Image result for daniel arzani celtic — *Arzani wishes the Celtic support a hello and a goodbye.*

Incidentally, we finally got a glimpse of the highly touted Man City loanee Arzani who looked a little off the pace but still pretty tasty all before he went down in a heap on 78 mins before being taken off on a stretcher. Sadly early reports indicate ligament damage and that he’ll be out for nine months so safe to say we won’t be seeing him again. Thanks for the memories, Daniel. We’ll always have Dens.

The performance was a continuation from what we’ve been seeing from the Hoops since the mauling of St.Johnstone at McDiarmid Park nearly four weeks ago and saw us rack up our 18th goal in four domestic games.

Yes, Dundee are pretty much on their arse at the moment with their shellshocked new manager Jim McIntyre probably wondering what the hell he’s has got himself into and gave nothing going forward all night incredibly registering no shots on goal. But Celtic still put them to the sword in impressive fashion none the less.

Image result for dundee jim mcintyre — *Who’d be Jim?*

Let’s hope we can continue this on to our top of the table clash with Hearts on Saturday with victory seeing us close the gap to 1 point with a game in hand over the jam tarts.

Over at Tynecastle last night they played out an eventful 0-0 draw with city rivals Hibs that saw their keeper smacked in the chops from a Hibs fan – no way it was a punch but still was uncalled for – and Neil Lennon got coined by one of Hearts more impassioned supporters who our ex-manager would now like to meet for a friendly one to one over a cup of tea or words to that effect.

Elsewhere crisis continued to envelop Rangers as they dropped points to Kilmarnock – who in fairness are no mugs these days as we found out to our own detriment earlier in the season – just as their financial figures were released revealing trading losses of over £14 million to the year ending June 30th. Interesting that they decided to release the figures just before a home game kicked off. It’s almost as if they are trying to divert attention. Still, Dave King is very confident things are moving in the right direction and he looks pretty trustworthy.

I’m told that Europea League qualification will sort all things financial out. Strange how it’s been painted as financial salvation over in Govan yet our elimination from the Champions League and subsequent qualification for the very same Europa League has been painted as a near financial disaster. Funny that.

Anyway, it’s all going well on the good ship Celtic for the moment and there can be no doubt that the team has their swagger back.

Let’s hope the re-established domestic dominance can be translated into a positive European result in one weeks times as we desperately need to beat Red Bull Leipzig at Celtic Park next Thursday.

Anything but victory effectively eliminates us and defeat combined with Salzburg winning in Norway would confirm it.

I was disappointed we prioritised the weekend’s cup semi-final against Hearts over last Thursday nights away game against the Germans.

Europe for me is always where good Celtic teams and managers really prove their worth and by and large in the past three seasons we’ve been found wanting.

I guess I can delve a bit deeper into that quandary next week so for now, let’s just enjoy our continued return to form whilst all of our rivals faltered on Halloween night.

A review of Super Sunday: Celtic break Hearts and the Dons mug Gerrard.

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018 wayofthecass

I took in our game on Sunday from the Dolphin pub in Partick, a good Celtic boozer if you have never been. The green and white sign with the ‘EST1888’ above the door should be a giveaway.

Anyway there with a few friends, I witnessed our match with league leaders Hearts at Murrayfield in front of a crowd of over 60,000.

Due to Hearts pretty incredible results since the start of the season – which has seen them win 13 from 16 matches with two draws and only one defeat – combined with our own patchy form since the start of the term this had been built up as a near 50/50 encounter with many favouring the Jam Tarts.

Indeed they had already defeated us 1-0 earlier in the season at Tynecastle and bounced back from their only defeat of the season so far against Rangers at Ibrox three weeks ago with wins at home versus Aberdeen and away to Dundee to maintain their spot at the top of the Premiership.

But the Celtic side that lost to Hearts back in early August has fairly ramped up the performances levels since then, especially in the past month, and with the capital side also without long-term injury absentees Christophe Berra, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu I was personally quite surprised at how close so many thought it was going to be.

Still, that meant that interest had peaked for it and led to not only a magnificent attendance at Murrayfield but also a large crowd in the pub which would be otherwise unusual for any normal national cup semi-final involving us and anybody but Rangers.

Image result for celtic hearts murrayfield — *A packed our Murrayfield sees green smoke.*

The first half was pretty scrappy stuff with Hearts veteran striker Steven MacLean grabbing all the headlines via standing a mile offside as he placed the ball into the Celtic net only for it to be flagged and also grabbing a handful of Eboue Kouassi’s testicles into the bargain. He’s since been cited for it and according to his ex-St. Johnstone teammate James McFadden on last nights Sportsound he’s known for it so I’d imagine he’s facing a ban. Then again Morelos got his red card rescinded for trying to volley Scott McKenna off the ball at Pittodrie earlier in the season so who knows.

Hearts talisman Steven Naismith also walked off early doors with a knee injury and you sort of suspected any chance they had of beating us walked with him.

That aside Scott Sinclair had an excellent effort saved by the Hearts keeper but by in large it was competitive but uninspiring stuff to such an extent the guy sitting beside me announced he’d had enough and staggered out leaving a full bottle of Peroni and an untouched whiskey chaser behind him. Outrageous.

In the second half, we got a spot-kick after Ryan Christie went down under a Ben Garrucio challenge – hardly a stonewaller but the type of incident which is given all the time these days – and Sinclair stepped up to smash it home. Then the Herts keeper Zdenek Zlamal tried to gather a speculative Rogic drive which escaped his grasp and trundled over the line before he clawed it clear. James Forrest was on hand though to bury it and put to bed any necessity for the linesman to make a call. And just in case there was any lingering doubt Ryan Christie capped off a fine few days in a Celtic jersey following on from strong display away in Leipzig on Thursday night as he buried a 25-yard piledriver past the despairing Zlamal on 72 mins.

Thereafter it was a bit of a turkey shoot as Celtic rained down wave after wave of attack on the Jambos goal but a combination of Zlamal atoning for his earlier error plus some last-ditch defending kept the score respectful. Though one of my mates was gutted as he had us to win either 4-0 or 3-1 with the bookies. A sore one indeed.

All in all, it was a professional performance and Celtic have now won 21 consecutive cup ties and have booked their place in their fifth consecutive cup final in doing so. The ‘Treble-Treble’ now really is on plus we also got to shut-up serial moaner Craig Levein who despite his pre-match defiance saw his side ultimately check out with a whimper.

Of course, this was all pretty much night and day compared to Thursday night’s display away in Germany where a toothless Celtic side limped to a 2-0 defeat to Red Bull Leipzig.

Having the suspended James Forrest back was undoubtedly a factor – as was the inferior opposition of course – but also returning was the imperious Tom Rogic and central defender Filipe Benkovic both of whom hadn’t made it for Thursday nights game. No one is really talking about it but personally, I’m a bit disappointed that Sunday was clearly given precedence over an away tie in Europe and one which I honestly think would have been very winnable against Leipzig’s second string if Rogic and Benkovic had been involved. The notion that they suddenly returned to full match fitness in the space of 64 hours is, of course, total bollocks.

Europe now does seem to now be firmly regarded as a pipe dream with domestic success being given the superior status based on decisions like that.

Anway we’re in another cup final on December 2nd so the question is who would we be playing?

That game, of course, took place later on that evening at Hampden Park where Steven Gerrard’s apparently rejuvenated Rangers would battle it out against Derek McInnes’s toiling Aberdeen.

Even with their only real striking options out for this one just about everyone I knew made the Govan side the clear favourites with most regarding it a mere formality.

It proved to be anything but as the Dons produced a classic smash and grab performance that ex-Rangers manager Walter Smith himself would have been proud of as the nephew of Barry Ferguson headed home the winner on 79 mins. He’s called Lewis Ferguson by the way and he won me a not unsubstantial amount of money as I found the long odds on the reds to be too tempting not to indulge.

Even with over 10 mins plus injury time remaining my money looked safe as the toothless light blues failed to breach a pretty rock solid Aberdeen defence and 1-0 is how it finished.

Image result for aberdeen rangers — *Stevie G congratulates Goldson on their loss.*

So it’s Aberdeen in the final in five weeks. I must admit to being a tad disappointed as an Old Firm final would have been far more appetizing and despite undoubtedly impressive results at home and in Europe, the Stevie G project looks decidedly shaky anytime it’s taken out on the road with Sunday being a perfect example of that.

What with them out of the first domestic competition of the season combined with sitting only joint fifth in the league I wonder if rumours will now abound of an unsettled dressing room, player fallouts and acrimonious relationships between the manager and the board? Or is that only reserved for our manager? I think we all know the answer.

Oh, and what happened to that Richard Wilson’s tweet from Thursday evening which claimed that after Sunday was out the way there would be ramifications due to the performance and result on Thursday night? It’s Tuesday and still nothing. Maybe it will all kick off tomorrow. Or maybe it was all bullshit to start with.

Post-match analysis: Red Bull Leipzig 2 – 0 Celtic. More misery on the road and rumours off the pitch abound!

October 26, 2018October 26, 2018 wayofthecass

A depleted Celtic side were easily dismissed by a more or less second string Red Bull Leipzig.

For 30 mins Celtic looked okay and Odsonne Edouard nearly even scored but thereafter it was the usual as we were battered senseless in the last 15 mins of the half conceding two goals and it could have been more.

In the second half, Celtic played to keep the score down looking passive and content with it staying at two-zip. Leipzig accommodated us by and large barring a Konrad Laimer run where he skinned half of our team whilst running from midfield before shooting just past the post and a moment when Augustin cracked a long-range shot off of the same stick.

Ntcham broke through on goal late and if he’d passed to his right to McGregor it was a certain goal but he went for glory and cannoned it off the keeper’s legs. Even if it had gone in there is little to no chance that we’d have equalised as the Germans would have just switched on again.

Right from the off all looked lost as we were without the suspended James Forrest, injured Scott Brown and in the days leading up to the match, Tom Rogic and Filipe Benkovic were also ruled out. Added to that Leigh Griffiths still isn’t available and Mikel Lustig was deemed not fit enough to start.

This meant starts for forgotten men Cristian Gamboa and Eboue Kouassi as well as the rarely seen Lewis Morgan and serial bench warmer Ryan Christie.

All that combined with our long-standing, pretty atrocious away record on the content meant that our chances were pretty much slim and none and slim had just left town.

Leipzig themselves were without their injured midfield playmaker Emil Forsberg as well as star striking duo Timo Werner and Yussuf Poulsen who were rested on the bench but still had far more firepower on the pitch.

Of course, we helped them with an awful attempt at a clearance from Kouassi resulting in a fresh air miss so bad it also confused Boyata whose own attempt also missed and it fell to Matheus Cunha who couldn’t believe how much time he had to control it and lash it home.

The second saw Marcelo Saracchi dart down the wing after a wild suicide sliding tackle from Gamboa was skipped over with ease and his resulting cross saw another woeful attempt by Kouassi to clear once again befuddle Boyata and resulted in Bruma lashing it home.

Image result for celtic fc red bull leipzig — *A familiar sight on the continent as our players trudge back to the centre circle after conceding another goal.*

It really was comical stuff. Kouassi had a blinder in just how bad he was though incredibly John Hartson labelled him as one of our better players at halftime. I actually kept an eye on him and he was passive throughout with his shoulders dipped and looked lost. Basically a carbon copy of his display earlier in the season against Hearts.

Boyata was also awful in the centre of defence. In the second half, he needlessly gave the ball away on numerous occasions, something he’s well known for, and was left in the wake of the rampaging Laimer when he nearly scored which saw a pretty pathetic attempt by Boyata to stop him.

That aside just about everyone in a Celtic jersey struggled with McGregor, in particular, going missing for much of the game.

It’s really all we’ve come to expect away in Europe under Brendan. Nothing changes tactically and his record now reads 4 wins from 19 away games with 10 defeats and an incredible 38 goals conceded.

We can’t keep a clean sheet away from home against anything resembling quality from the continent and outside of Edouard don’t to appear to have much of a goal threat on the road either.

The loss of some of our best players was definitely a factor and was felt sorely but it somewhat negated by Leipzig resting so many of their top performers yet still looking streets ahead.

The mistakes at the back happen time and again and the players brought in are clearly not good enough. Not only that but most are also Brendan’s signings.

Tactically we are way too open and the moment we concede panic sets in and our shape collapses.

Leipzig visit Glasgow in a fortnight and it literally is a must-win game. If we lose and Salzburg win in Norway as expected then we are out. That’s right we’ll be out with two games still to go from Europe’s second-tier competition. That’s the same competition where Rangers have gone unbeaten in 11 straight games so there really are no excuses.

Inevitably in the fallout, more rumours have surfaced about Brendan’s relationship with the board which seems to be par for the course after we record a negative result.

One of the main fuels to the fire was this tweet by BBC correspondent and self-confessed Rangers fanatic Richard Wilson:

If there’s any truth in this then next week should be interesting. I mean what else could ‘serious upheaval’ mean other than heads rolling and whose heads would they be?

Thes semi-final of the League Cup on Sunday against Hearts now takes on even more importance as a negative result will likely lead to further rumours of things coming to a head.

There seems to be an attitude prevalent amongst Celtic fans that Sunday was the priority which I found a bit incredible considering Europe is where we want to be but maybe shows the mentality that has crept in in recent years. That being that Europe is perceived as a pipe dream where making any significant progress is fanciable and we are almost willing fodder for the big clubs.

Anyway onto Hampden we go and on and off the pitch I think we can expect some fireworks in the coming days. Should be interesting at least.

Europa League Preview: Red Bull Leipzig vs Celtic – What horrors await us in Saxony.

October 23, 2018October 24, 2018 wayofthecass

So on Thursday night, we travel to Germany and Leipzig to be precise.

There we will be playing literally the most unpopular team in the country.

Why you may ask when Bayern Munich have been sweeping all before them for years now without any significant resistance?

Well Bayern, unlike our hosts have a real history unlike Leipzig, a club literally manufactured by the Austrian based soft drinks company Red Bull in 2009 after they purchased fifth tier German side SSV Markranstädt – or their licenses at least, it’s all a little confusing as a team called SSV Markranstädt continued to operate as an affiliate of the new entity – and from there the team we now know as RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V., was born and play in, you guessed it, the Red Bull Arena.

Most clubs in Germany are of course still primarily fan owned with the sale of significant never mind controlling share interests to large corporations or wealthy individuals generally discouraged as not being in sync with the culture of fan representation on club boards. It’s known as the 50+1 ownership rule and has led to Borussia Dortmund having 15,000 members. RB Leipzig, on the other hand, has just 17 and their ability to circumnavigate the rules has unsurprisingly led to other clubs, Bayern being chief amongst them, to call for the rule to be scrapped so that significant investment can be brought in.

The 50+ 1 rule states that: “No single person or entity may possess more than 49% of the voting rights in a German club’s professional football division, preventing the sale of a majority stake to outside investors, protecting clubs from irresponsible owners and maintaining the democratic nature of fan-owned German clubs.”

Despite this a quarter of Bundesliga clubs currently don’t follow the 50+1 rule to the letter, while some clubs have been granted certain exemptions. However, Leipzig really is the black sheep as they have pretty much discarded the rule altogether.

For more info on all of this, I’ve embedded a video at the bottom of the page featuring a short documentary on RasenBallsport Leipzig’s controversial origins from Copa90.

In the nine seasons since Red Bull created their own footballing Frankenstein, they have won the fifth tier German league – aka NOFV-Oberliga Süd- in their maiden season and then spent two seasons in the fourth tier Regionalliga Nord failing to gain promotion in each one with fourth and third place finishes respectively.

It then moved to another regional fourth-tier league the Regionalliga Nordost – God only knows why – which it won with an undefeated campaign in 2012-2013, hence promotion to 3. Liga which you won’t be surprised to hear is the third tier of German football.

It finished runners-up in its first season there leading to promotion to 2. Bundesliga and the top flight was now in sight.

The 2014-15 season saw them finish only fifth but they bounced back the following term to finish runners-up and with that, they had finally gained promotion to the hallowed Bundesliga within seven seasons, one less than Red Bull had originally targeted when they launched the new club back in 2009.

Much to every other German supporter’s chagrin outside of their own, they made quite the impact in their first top-flight season spectacularly finishing runners-up to runaway leaders Bayern whom they had now replaced as the nations most loathed footballing entity due to their somewhat artificial beginnings.

Last season was a bit of a reality check for them though as they dropped to sixth in the division however this was of course still enough to deliver them a Europa League place.

And now to this season which is of course what concerns us the most.

They are managed by veteran Ralf Rangnick who’s been in the coaching game for over 30 years, all of which has been spent in his native Germany.

He actually managed them before back in 2015/16 when they gained promotion to the Bundesliga but was replaced by Ralph Hasenhüttl despite this success but got his own back in May of this year when Hasenhüttl left and now Ralf with an ‘f’ is back in the big chair.

Image result for Ralf Rangnick — *That’s Ralf.*

They were hammered 4-1 at the Westfalen by Borussia Dortmund on Matchday One of the new season but have bounced back strongly with an undefeated run of seven games featuring four wins and three draws scoring fifteen – through six of them came in a 6-0 rout of FC Nürnberg – and conceding just four in the process and sit fifth in the division on 15 points.

In the Europa League, they have navigated through three rounds defeating Swedes BK Häcken 4-1 on aggregate, Romania’s CS Universitatea Craiova 4-2 over the two legs and in the playoff round they overcame Ukraine’s FC Zorya Luhansk 3-2 on aggregate.

Interestingly though they were undefeated in the qualifiers they never won a game on the road with three wins at home and three draws away. That gives us some hope for the home match but not much for Thursday night.

They were turned over 3-2 at home in the group match opener by their namesake Red Bull Salzburg.

2-0 down at one point they did come back to equal things up but fell to a late Fredrik Gulbrandsen strike for the visitors.

But Salzburg, as we know, are a team in incredible form this season having claimed 16 wins from 19 matches so far with no defeats in all competitions and 48 goals scored in the process so no shame in a tight 89th-minute loss to them.

We, of course, showed up pretty well against them in the opening 45 mins before being bulldozed in the second half.

Last time out in Europe Leipzig romped to a 3-1 win in Trondheim against Rosenborg, a team who as we experienced ourselves in the Champions League qualifiers are no slouches at home.

Young French striker Jean-Kévin Augustin gave them the lead after just 12 mins when he took down a cross-field pass at the edge of the box and swept it home. Incidentally, Augustin came through at PSG beside our very own Odsonne Edouard before moving to Saxony for some €13 million in the summer of 2017. The lead was doubled on 54 mins via 19-year-old French centre-back Ibrahima Konaté who stands a towering 6’4 but didn’t require his height to score as he smashed home a loose ball resulting from a corner. Another 19-year-old, Brazilian winger Matheus Cunha, then secured the points on 61 mins as he finished off a wonderful intricate passing move with a neat finish in the box and showed that the Germans are capable on the road despite only drawing in their three previous away European matches. Rosenborg scored with 12 mins to go but it was nothing but a consolation.

Anyway, aside from Leipzig’s form they also made some notable moves in the transfer market this summer. And it’ll be of no surprise to hear that like so many clubs that we come up against in Europe now they are on a totally different level from us financially.

This summer alone they spent €43 million on three players, defenders Marcelo Saracchi and Nordi Mukiele as well as striker Matheus Cunha. All are under 21 so they are definitely targetting youth with resale value, a similar policy to our own.

Uruguyuan Saracchi arrived from River Plate, Mukiele from Montpellier – where he’d made 50 league appearances in two seasons – and Brazilian Cunha from Swiss side FC Sion where he scored 10 league goals in 29 games last season.

They did, however, rake in €72.8 million primarily from the sale of star man Naby Keita to Liverpool (€60 million) along with Brazilian full-back Bernardo to Brighton for €10 million.

Another player they released was Israeli forward Omer Damari. He was a goal machine at club level in his native Israel but couldn’t hit a barn door in Germany failing to score once in his three-year stay there.

Their main men in the wake of the departure of Keita are Austrian internationalist Marcel Sabitzer who has weighed in with 23 goals from 106 games in midfield and the striking partnership of Danish internationalist Yussuf Poulsen and the star of the team, German internationalist striker Timo Werner.

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Poulsen and Werner have 91 goals between them in the Red Bull colours as well as 50 international caps with Poulsen hitting the net six times already this season and Werner bagging four.

The 22-year-old Werner though is bound for bigger things and has struck 21 goals in each of the last two seasons. It’s actually a testament to Leipzig’s financial backing that they have been able to hold onto him for so long in the face of fierce competition for his signature.

One bit of bright news is that Swedish internationalist Emil Forsberg, who generally pulls the strings from the midfield, has been ruled out with a groin strain but one player does not a team make and despite his absence they still have pretty intimidating five-pronged threat of the aforementioned Augustin, Cunha, Poulsen, Werner and 23-year-old Portuguese winger Bruma who is also a bit tasty on his day.

I mean this would be a tough ask even on home turf but away it looks really difficult. Like, really, really difficult. Just our luck we have two teams in our group that just happen to be two of the form teams on the content right now.

We are of course inform ourselves hitting 10 in two matches but this is a huge jump in opposition and despite the likes of Forrest, Rogic, McGregor and Edouard currently being on fire I don’t think it would be smart to go toe to toe with them especially in their own stadium. Something similar to what we produced in the first 45 mins away to Salzburg but this time maintained for the full 90 mins will be required which seems more feasible with Filipe Benkovic back in for the hapless Jack Hendry.

Our away form in Europe is, of course, feeble to the point of being shockingly bad and I guess there’s no point in going over all of that again.

I felt similarly pessimistic for our away tie against another German side Borussia Mönchengladbach almost exactly two years ago and that turned out okay with an unexpected 1-1 draw which could have been even better if Callum McGregor had held his nerve with a gilt-edged chance in the dying embers.

Maybe Thursday evening will be the start of a bright new beginning for us on the road in the continent. I mean stranger things have happened. Right?

Post-match analysis: Celtic 4 – 2 Hibs. That’ll be the crisis over then.

October 22, 2018October 23, 2018 wayofthecass

What a game that was.

Celtic and Hibs played out what must be undoubtedly the game of the season on Saturday afternoon.

As expected ex-Celtic manager Neil Lennon set-up his team to attack and as a result, a very open and free-flowing game occurred with Celtic’s superior firepower seeing us emerge with three points in a spectacular end to end game.

In total there were 30 shots on goal between the two teams with 12 of those on target as well as 12 corners shared and Hibs even had 46% of possession which is highly unusual for a domestic team visiting Celtic Park.

But despite the stats looking fairly even the reality was that this would have been a travesty if Celtic had not emerged with the three points. Along with the four goals the Hoops hit the post three times and the opposition goalie Adam Bogdan had one of the games of his life.

Tom Rogic gave Celtic the lead as he played a one-two with Forrest, the man whose goals he had mostly helped conjure up at St.Johnstone a fortnight ago, and lashed a curling left-foot drive past Bogdan on eight mins, a goal highly reminiscent of his strike against Rangers at Ibrox in the 3-2 triumph last season.

skysports-tom-rogic-celtic_4459122 — *“How’s about that for a strike?”*

Then on 19 minutes, Olivier Ntcham doubled the lead with a fine sweeping low finish from inside the box past Bogdan after a lovely pass from Rogic.

This was no more than Celtic deserved considering that in the first seven mins alone Edouard had crashed one off the post after chesting down a clipped cross to the back stick from McGregor and then McGregor himself nearly caught Bogdan off his line with a free-kick from distance just going over the bar.

Celtic really should have made it three and finished it off in the first half when Scott Sinclair cracked one off the post when it seemed easier to score after being the first to meet a save from Bogdan who had denied the oncoming Edourde. The rebound came to James Forrest but the less said about his attempted finish the better. Needless to say, he scuffed it a mile wide from close range.

With it all being such one-way traffic it was easy to forget that Hibs have actually been in great form this season but they served up a sharp reminder when ex-Celt Efe Ambrose floated a cross into the box that was met perfectly by Martin Boyle requiring Craig Gordon to produce a wonder save to put it past the post.

Into the second half and Hibs continued to threaten and credit where it is due as Florian Kamberi produced an absolutely wonderful finish from just inside the box to reduce his side’s deficit to 2-1.

Odsonne Edouard was determined not to be outdone though and rampaged forward, skinning three Hibs defenders in the process before his curling finish came back off the bottom off the past with Bogdan well beaten.

But any doubts it wasn’t going to be his day were erased when James Forrest burst down the left wing towards the byline, leaving Mark Milligan in his wake before cutting back for Edouard to finally deliver a well-deserved goal and restore Celtic’s two-goal cushion.

You’d have thought that would be all she wrote but Hibs were never going to throw in the towel that easy with Neil Lennon as manager and again they broke away with Martin Boyle bearing down on goal before clipping it over the despairing Craig Gordon to make it 3-2.

Frenetic stuff.

The game continued to rage from end to end and Bogdan made several excellent saves before Celtic put it beyond doubt on 88 mins when Tierney passed it forward to Edouard who backheeled it on the spin beautifully to the onrushing McGregor who floated it back over to him in the box and the Frenchman brought it down before finishing superbly past the Hibs keeper to seal the three points.

177296785 — *Brendan tells French Eddy he’s worth his weight in goals whilst KT does that pose with his hands on his hips pose that he often does.*

What a performance and there is no doubt that an ambitious and high flying Hibs team brought out the best in Celtic. Let’s not forget that Celtic could only record one win from four league meetings against the Edinburgh side last season and even that was only 1-0.

It really does look like we’re back to where we were for the first season and a half under Brendan with a pace and tenacity about the play as well as some absolutely wonderful combination play at pace as Celtic constantly looked to go on the offensive.

When you play like that the opposition will always get some chances but in fairness, both of Hibs goals were top drawer finishes the likes of which we will seldom see from visiting teams in any season domestically at least.

It would appear that we are now back to our best and that all of the nonsensical talk of divisions in the dressing rooms etc is just that. Scott Brown going off injured is definitely a blow as we clearly missed him away against Salzburg and will again on Thursday in Germany if his injury is as bad as initially feared but with the likes on Edouard, McGregor, Forrest and Rogic in red-hot form who knows.

Anyway, a review of Thursday nights opponents will follow tomorrow but at the very least we are definitely back at the races domestically.

So who does Brendan want out of the picture?

October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 wayofthecass

Just before the international break, our manager made it pretty clear that there were too many players at the club and that some were going to have to go.

The press picked up on this briefly and it was interesting listening to the Sportsound team in the wake of the St.Johnstone mauling trying to figure out who he could be making reference to.

Ryan Christie, perhaps they wondered? Even though he’s been actually making the squad quite regularly this season.

Then they moved onto Nir Bitton before apparently hitting a brick wall.

Yep, they were absolutely flummoxed as to who Brendan could have been referring to.

It actually just goes to show just how far out of the picture some of our players are that football analysts paid to research and discuss the game on national radio couldn’t even think of anyone outside of two players, one of whom is clearly not one of the individuals Brendan was alluding to.

Christie might still be moved along in January and I’d be surprised if he’s still here next season but currently, he is involved albeit sparingly.

Bitton would definitely be one on the list and of course, he hasn’t been helped by a recent spate of injuries the legitimacy of which I doubt. After all, he’s made it quite clear on social media that he is more than happy to sit on the sidelines and collect his wages until his contract runs down.

But as well as those two there are some pretty startlingly obvious candidates that must be right at the top.

Firstly Scott Allen who joined us from Hibs in the summer of 2015 and has played about 17 times all in mostly from the bench.

Like many, I presumed he would be back off to Hibs permanently after a successful loan spell there last season but it would appear that Hibs handling of the John McGinn situation hit them with the double whammy of ultimately receiving less money and not having a prayer of being entertained by the Celtic board in regards to any further transfer business.

Along with him, there is Eboue Kouassi who has been at the club since January 2017 yet has only had a total of 19 outings despite costing us a pretty hefty fee of around £3 million from Krasnodar. He’s still only 20 but by all accounts had it made pretty clear to him in the summer that he had little to no future at Celtic Park. He then did himself no favours with a shambolic performance against Hearts at Tynecastle in August as we lost 1-0 and after that, his days were numbered. But as the transfer window shut Kouassi decided he’d prefer to continue to cut a forlorn figure on the bench this season as opposed to actually playing football somewhere else.

Then there’s Jonny Hayes. Jonny has been a serial bench warmer since arriving from Aberdeen in the summer of 2017. Despite suffering a serious injury in his time at the club he has actually pulled on the hoops 20 times scoring once but has failed to make anything like an impact. He basically looks out of his depth if truth be told and it didn’t help that he was effectively taking over the position occupied by Paddy Roberts the season before. There was, of course, a marked difference in quality between the two and last seasons upsurge in form by James Forest made Hayes potential contribution to proceedings look even more redundant.

We then get to Cristian Gamboa. He arrived for a £1 million from WBA not long after Brendan took over the hot seat and after being thrown to the wolves against Barcelona in the Nou Camp for his debut in which we were beaten 7-0 he has never really recovered. Indeed since then, he has made only 19 more appearances but after an impressive showing, this summer at the World Cup with Costa Rica hopes abounded that he may be given a new lease of life especially considering the increasingly worrying displays by the faded Mikel Lustig at right back. And to begin with, Gamboa did slot in for the Swede who was still returning from his own extended World Cup duty at the start of the season with a particularly impressive display away against Rosenborg in the Champions League qualifiers coming to mind. But since then it’s been a case of ‘as you were’ with Gamboa now rarely even featuring in the squad and this is despite Lustig continuing to look a shadow of his former self.

But I do of course save the best for last. That being the fabled Marvin Compper who has now achieved a mythical status of that approaching the Yeti or Bigfoot. A man so far out of the picture rumour has it he’s training at Barrowfield. A man so seldom seen in the clubs colours they say he cites Martin Hayes and Freddie Ljungberg as his Celtic heroes.

Good old Marvin eh?! A player so good our top-notch recruitment coach Lee Congerton tried to sign him three times at previous clubs before finally reeling in his man at Celtic. Oh yes. Lee only says yes to the best.

Image result for Lee Congerton — *This is Lee Congerton if you were wondering by the way.*

Who’s to say why Compper hasn’t made it. Clearly, he had a fallout with John Kennedy back in January during our winter break training camp in Dubai. God knows what he said but it was bad enough to have him excluded from events for the past nine months barring one runout in a Scottish cup tie against St.Mirren last season. Even with a centre-back crisis for our crucial Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens Marvin wasn’t even considered. And of course, this has led to other rumours surfacing with the old chestnut that he slept with another players wife even doing the rounds though of course nobody actually knows who’s wife it was or if the player even plays for Celtic.

It could just be that Marvin is mince. His fleeting display against the Buddies would appear to give some weight to that. To be pretty blunt about it he looked pish.

The real worrying aspect though is not that he was signed but how we’ve dealt with it ever since.

Sometimes clubs sign bad players. Sometimes players get homesick and just don’t fancy it. Sometimes payers turn out to have a reputation abroad built on sand and to not actually be up to what it takes to play for a club like Celtic or any other big club for that matter. And sometimes they blatantly only want to collect a wage and couldn’t really give two-stuffs about what anybody thinks. Ian Wright anyone?

But when it hasn’t worked it hasn’t worked so you deal with it. Marvin should have been punted in the summer. If he didn’t want to leave then pay him off. Better he counts his money at another club as opposed to hanging around Lennoxtown bumping his gums about what he thinks of the coaching staff to other players and creating unnecessary levels of innuendo amongst our own support and mocking from our rivals.

I mean at least Mohammed Bangura had the good grace to go out on loan.

There are now rumours that Daniel Arzani might be returning to Manchester City much earlier than his initial two-year loan deal suggested. So another Charly Musonda then.

It all begs the question what the hell is going on with recruitment at the club?

Is it Lawwell? Is it Congerton? Who knows. Either way, it has to be addressed in the next transfer window both in terms of incoming and outgoing and before then the board has to be run over the coals for this at the next AGM.

Apparently, Marvin Compper will be in attendance. Here’s his latest picture just in case you go and can’t spot him.

International round-up: Scotland 1 – 3 Portugal. Nothing to see here.

October 15, 2018October 15, 2018 wayofthecass

Another international match under Alex McLeish and another defeat.

The reason I bother with these international reviews is because our players generally feature pretty significantly in proceedings.

For this one, Kieran Tierney was allowed to drop out due to a ‘loading issue’ which is bullshit football ‘tech-speak’ for him being tired due to the number of games he’s played so far this season.

No doubt Brendan’s been on the phone and requested that he be rested as opposed to being played out of position in a pointless friendly.

Leigh Griffiths, of course, hasn’t featured in the last two internationals now as he tries to improve his fitness. Of course, we know the real reason is that he can’t stand Big Eck and his banal ongoing decision to choose Johnny Russell and Steven Naismith up front ahead of him.

Craig Gordon was back in after being fairly dropped for the on form Allan McGregor and also back in the line-up was James Forrest, ludicrously not started against Israel after scoring four times for us the weekend before, and ex-Celt Stuart Armstrong. Callum McGregor also got his latest cap. Jack Hendry also got a start which was purely due to Charlie Mulgrew and John Souttar being unavailable.

On the whole, it was much better performance though ultimately another bad result as the ruthless Portuguese punished every error from Scotland, proving that even without the scandal-plagued Ronaldo why they are rated number seven in the world rankings.

Image result for scotland portugal — *Just another day at the office.*

Portugal’s goals came in the following order:

Hélder Costa (43′minutes),
Macedo Lopes (74′minutes),
Tué Na Bangna (84′minutes)

Costa’s was a tap-in after an Andy Robertson mistake but the other two were fabulous goals. A great header from Lopes after a floated cross to the edge of the box and a peach from Banga just inside the box subsequent to skinning Graeme Shinnie.

Stevie Naismith posted a consultation at the death resulting from a beautiful back-heel from another ex-Celt Gary Mackay-Steven which set him up for a tap-in.

Scott McKenna had missed a stick-on opportunity to equalise earlier with a diving header that went inches past.

All of the Celtic players did okay with the exception being Jack Hendry who continues to look way out of his depth when faced with any opposition remotely resembling quality.

For McLeish, the 4-4-2 formation with an actual left back playing in position worked better and with the recalls of Forrest and Armstrong there was a lot more vibrancy to the team but the same old errors continue to be punished. Rather like Celtic in Europe Scotland look completely incapable of keeping the back door shut for 90 mins.

Anyway, Big Eck staggers onto the doubleheader with Albania and Israel next month after this sorry weekend brought his record to two wins and six losses. Willie Miller remained optimistic that his friend could pull it off in the Sportscene studios last night obviously completely oblivious to what has occurred so far under his former central defensive partner.

International round-up: Israel 2 – 1 Scotland. Absolute garbage!

October 12, 2018October 12, 2018 wayofthecass

The big adventure continued under Alex McLeish last night and took the national team plus about 1500 weary souls to the cavernous and mostly empty Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa, Israel for the latest instalment of the UEFA Nations League.

There they were subjected to some of the worst football we’ve seen from a Scotland national team in a long, long time.

Now that really is saying something.

Image result for israel 2-1 scotland — *The face of the Scotland national team.*

Getting beaten by World Cup qualifiers such as Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico and hammered by the second best national team in the world in Belgium is one thing but Israel are rated 96 in the FIFA rankings and had one win in ten coming into this.

They have some very good players at their disposal such as former Celtic midfielder Beram Kayal, now with Brighton in the EPL, as well as the prolific Red Bull Salzburg striker Munas Dabbur who we know all about after his shenanigans a week ago last night against us in the Europa League.

But the fact remains that they seldom if indeed ever pull it together at national team level until they met Scotland of course.

Scotland were rubbish from the get-go. The nonsense of trying to deploy both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney down the same flank continues and nullifies the abilities of both. That aside it appeared to be five at the back with a deep-lying midfield and the two strikers completely cut off.

Scotland never pressed the ball at all until going behind in the second half and generally sat deep allowing the Israeli team to ping the ball about in front of them like a classic Brazil team and build both momentum and confidence.

A gift was handed out in the 23rd minute when Peretz needlessly barged Naismith to the ground in the box. Charlie Mulgrew subsequently stepped up and converted and you thought that might actually breathe some life into the Scotland performance but instead, it seemed to fire up the hosts who proceeded to subject the Scottish goal to wave after wave of attack for the remainder of the game.

Peretz made up for his earlier misdemeanour by equalising on 54 minutes which was long overdue and after Souttar walked for a second yellow – his first was mindless and second came from his mistake – there was only going to ever be one outcome and it happened when a hopelessly out of position Tierney scored an OG he’d like to forget with about of a quarter of an hour left.

Allan McGregor made save after save and Israel hit the bar when they should have scored and 2-1 flattered Scotland. Despite that Callum McGregor had a few chances to actually pull something out of the fire but shanked them both which was a continuation of his finishing against Albania.

Disjointed, disorganised, fatigued and ultimately dispirited just about sums up Scotland last night as they made it five defeats from seven under Alex McLeish with a first competitive defeat in 23 months.

Players such as Kevin McDonald and Johnny Russell appear to be getting games for no reason whatsoever. McDonald is playing in a Fulham team that are being trounced most weeks and Johnny Russell is playing in the retirement village that is the MLS at 28 and even then is hardly setting the heather alight.

They now play Portugal at Hampden on Monday night which will likely be attended by ten men and a dog and anyone who thinks Portugal don’t have the potential to destroy Scotland without the presence of the scandal-mired Cristiano Ronaldo are sadly mistaken. Portugal won 3-2 away in Poland last night and even without their talisman, they are a handy outfit rated seventh in the world.

Though a right hammering might not be such a bad thing as it might force the SFA’s hand vis-à-vis the ongoing farcical second reign of McLeish which hit a new low last night and considering his inability to make any actual big decisions, implement anything approaching a system and his alienation of some of the countries best players a decision really needs to be made sooner rather than later.

Under the previous manager, Scotland had gone unbeaten in seven – six of them competitive – whilst under Big Eck they have lost five in seven scoring four and conceding ten. Expect that to be even worse after Monday evening.

In the post-match press conference, Alex thought the system was actually working in the first half, that the team had kept possession okay and John Souttar’s red card was harsh. He also said he was about to bring on Scott McKenna for Souttar just before he got his second yellow even though McKenna was already on the pitch having been substituted on for the injured Charlie Mulgrew at half-time………………………………

God help us!

Post-match analysis: St.Johnstone 0 – 6 Celtic. How’s about that then

October 9, 2018October 9, 2018 wayofthecass

Finally Celtic produced a performance worth raving about after a pretty tepid opening few months to the season as they found not only their shooting boots but some actual form in Perth.

It’s been a bit of a slog so far this season with elimination from the Champions League qualifiers, no wins away domestically in the league and generally pretty monotonous and uninspiring play week in, week out.

That all changed though at a wind and rain swept McDiarmid Park on Sunday.

After a ropey start where the Saints clearly fancied their chances and decided to take it to us, no doubt believing we would be drained both physically and mentally after a second-half roasting by RB Salzburg on Thursday evening, and created a few decent chances with a Danny Swanson volley from close range stinging the palms of Craig Gordon.

For the first 10 mins, Celtic were struggling and you couldn’t help but think ‘here we go again.’

Thereafter though it was a slaughter.

Celtic rained down attack after attack on the Perth sides goal and eventually took the lead after 15 mins when an Edouard shot was saved by Zander Clark only to rebound back to James Forrest whose shot made it into the back of the net after an unsuccessful attempt by Clark to claw it away.

Edouard, who had been unlucky not score only minutes previously, then did get on the score sheet only seven mins after the opener, finishing from outside the box with a neatly drilled finish into the far lower corner.

Image result for celtic 6-0 st johnstone — *French Eddy and Ross Callahan compare dance moves.*

In the final 15 mins of the half, the floodgates truly did open as Forrest added another three to his previous effort, combining well with the majestic Rogic for each one and showing some wonderful finishing ability with both feet.

All of those three goals were special with the first seeing him finish off a 1-2 with the aforementioned Rogic which cut the Saints defence apart and then the Aussie playmaker feed him through to finish with his right foot and seal his hat-trick. Forrest’s final goal was probably the pick of the litter though as he played another 1-2 with that man Rogic again and raced through on goal from his own half before finishing low past Clark also again.

In amongst all of that, a Leigh Griffiths free-kick effort from 30 yards produced a wonderful save from Zander Clark who was actually having the game of his life in between picking the ball out of the net.

Nobody could have predicted 5-0 at halftime in their wildest dreams and a shellshocked looking Tommy Wright was clearly regretting his decision to play expansive football and attack an apparently bedraggled Celtic.

*A beleaguered Tommy Wright demands the ref blows the final whistle.*

As is often the case after that kind of first half the goals dried up in the second period with Callum McGregor tapping in a sixth after some neat build-up play on the 84th-minute mark.

Previous to that Danny Swanson got a straight red card for hacking down Forrest who was on the charge again. Swanson had clearly seen enough of that in the first half and refused to stick around for more.

It was quite a day, easily Celtic’s best domestically so far this season, notwithstanding the Rangers game, and before we unilaterally dismiss the level fo opposition let’s not forget that St.Johnstone had been unbeaten at home since late February.

So Celtic now climb to the third spot in the league, only three points off the top and with a vastly improved goal difference. Not a bad way to go into the international break and let’s just hope this is a return to the dynamic free-flowing football we had previously associated with Brendan’s reign at the club.

Kris Boyd must be raging.

Post-match analysis: Red Bull Salzburg 3 – 1 Celtic – The same old story!

October 5, 2018October 5, 2018 wayofthecass

Sometimes it’s great to be proved right.

This isn’t one of those times.

As predicted Celtic were pretty emphatically swept aside by Red Bull Salzburg in the Red Bull Arena last night.

Like most, I had approached the game with little to no belief that we could get something due to a combination of our opponent’s red-hot form and our own indifferent performances thus far this season. That plus the fact our record away in Europe is generally God awful.

So I was pretty shocked when after about 90 seconds Odsonne Edouard got the better of Andre Romalho and then finished expertly after a hopeful ball over the top from McGregor.

Image result for red bull salzburg celtic — *French Eddy wheels away.*

Thereafter we actually played the game pretty well with a good defensive shape and looked pretty tasty at times on the break.

We reduced Salzburg to some speculative shots from distance and right before half-time we looked to have increased our lead after another stampeding run at their goal from Edouard ended up with the same player scoring again after Salzburg keeper Alexander Walke saved well from a James Forrest effort but alas French Eddy had strayed offside.

Then came the second half and well…………….as the title alluded to we completely capitulated.

Salzburg went through the gears and we got deeper and deeper with Craig Gordon saving well from Dabbur and you hoped we had weathered the storm but then bang on 55 mins the same man was left standing alone in the box and with Jack Hendry marking thin air five yeards away he received a cutback from Hannes Wolf and swept it home for the equaliser.

From then on out there was only one team in it and wave after wave of attack resulted in a second Salzburg goal as Japanese internationalist Minamino almost waked in with Boyata missing wildly with a sliding challenge and Hendry again taken to the cleaners.

An inevitable third came when Dabbur swept home a penalty after Forrest was adjudged to have taken down Andreas Ulmer with 18 mins to go. It looked harsh, to be honest, but what the hell Forrest was doing in that position in the first place is anyone’s guess and it very much was a winger’s tackle.

Substitute Junuzovicat smacked one off the post late on and Celtic provided little to nothing going forward in the whole of the second half so it was a relief to hear the final whistle.

Performance wise Leigh Griffiths was an empty jersey all night, Ntcham was absolutely wretched, Lustig continues to add weight o the belief that he is a spent force and Hendry as previously stated is lost in a Celtic jersey.

We desperately need Benkovic back in defence and sorely missed both Rogic and Brown, the latter especially in the second half as the team looked absolutely rudderless.

Yes, we didn’t expect a win or even a draw and yes Salzburg now remain undefeated at home since November 2016 in all competitions – which included rattling Lazio 4-1 in the quarter-finals of this very competition last season – so on the face of it, there is no disgrace.

But they were nowhere near the level of the Champions League teams we’ve faced in recent years ie: Barca, PSG, Bayern Munich etc yet in the second half we folded against them in almost identical fashion.

Brendan’s record in European football at the club is pretty poor, to say the least.

It currently stands at 14 wins from 36 matches for a 39% win percentage with 14 losses and 8 draws. In those 36 matches we’ve conceded 55 goals and scored 54 but it’s away from home where it really comes eye-watering.

You see on the road that was our 18th away tie under Brendan last night of which we’ve won four with five draws and nine defeats scoring 18 and conceding a pretty remarkable 36 so an average of two a game.

Too often we looked disjointed, confused and hopeless at the back and it’s been going on for three seasons now with no end in sight.

Our next two Europa League games are a doubleheader against RB Leipzig with the first game two weeks next Thursday so three weeks to try and get the likes of Benkovic, Rogic and Brown back and try and find some form as well as an actually feasible gameplan for playing away in Europe.

This really is turning into one long hard season.

Europa League Preview: Red Bull Salzburg vs Celtic – The full lowdown on the original Energy Drink FC!

October 3, 2018October 3, 2018 wayofthecass

So on Thursday night, it’s off to Austria we go.

And what awaits us is not just the best team in the country by some distance but also arguably the form team of all of European football.

Yes, that is how daunting the task that awaits us is.

Their form so far this season has been incredible having claimed 13 wins from 15 matches with no defeats in all competitions and 42 goals scored in the process so yeah…………..a tough one.

Firstly some history on the club and though they have actually existed since 1933 they were taken over by Austrian soft drinks manufacturer Red Bull as far back as 2005 and subsequently renamed as Red Bull Salzburg.

A name change was no stranger to them as they had been rebranded several times before in their history due to various sponsorship deals with their traditional name being SV Austria Salzburg.

They had also been pretty successful pre-Red Bull having won the league three times in the 90’s when known as Casino Salzburg but things have really taken off since being snapped up by everyone’s second or third favourite energy drink.

Indeed since then, they have captured nine Austrian Bundesliga titles and five Austrian Cups. The current Austrian league champions they have won the last five championships in a row and look odds-on for a sixth straight title.

Of course, we played them in this very competition only four short years ago and actually did quite well against them nicking a 2-2 draw – anyone remember the sensational Mubarak WakasoSmail Prevljak??? No? – on their patch and then going down 3-1 at home though we were unlucky to not get something that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_c_0TatCW0

Officially after company restructuring Red Bull are just the sponsor now so that both they and RasenBallsport Leipzig, also owned by Red Bull, could both play in continental competition at the same time – last years Champions League and this seasons Europa – so as to satisfy UEFA’s competition laws but there is no doubt who is still financing them as the chocolate fireguard that is UEFA sits idly by.

To go along with their imperious domestic form in Europe, they have been no slouch either and made last season’s UEFA Europa League semi-final where they lost out 3-2 on aggregate to eventual runners-up Olympic Marseille. Along the way, they eliminated Real Sociedad, Borussia Dortmund and Lazio.

Their home ground is the imaginatively titled Red Bull Arena in the picturesque setting of Wals-Siezenheim just outside Salzburg. Built in 2003 and renovated two years later by the new owners it holds just under 32,000.

Their manager is the 42-year-old German Marco Rose who gained the hot seat in the summer of 2017 – the tenth manager since Red Bull took over – and has suffered only six defeats in 74 competitive games. His previous experience was mainly with the Salzburg youth teams where he enjoyed incredible success including winning the Europa Youth League title in 2017 after beating Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona en route to the final.

The men to watch out for are numerous but I’ll stick to the strikers for now.

Israeli internationalist Moanes Dabour scored 29 goals in 52 games last season whilst his Japanese internationalist strike partner Takumi Minamino has 46 goals in 145 games in total for them.

Dabour already has 13 goals so far this season so safe to say he’s pretty tasty and Norwegian internationalist striker Fredrik Gulbrandsen popped up with a late winner against Leipzig last time out in the Europa League. There’s also Bosnian internationalist marksman Smail Prevljak who has six goals in nine games this term.

No doubting they have firepower then but the midfield and defence are packed with talent too and that’s even considering they lost two of their best players in the summer, defender Duje Ćaleta-Car to Marseille for €19 million and influential midfielder Valon Berisha for €7.5 million to Lazio.

Other players to be mindful of are Mali internationals Amadou Haidara and Diadie Samassekou as well as Austrian internationalist Xaver Schlager. All are 22 or under, products of the youth academy and play in their pretty relentlessly attacking midfield.

They also added a bit of steel with veteran Austrian midfielder Zlatko Junuzović joining in the summer after he has spent six years with Werder Bremner where he played over 200 games to go with his international 55 caps.

Image result for dabur salzburg — *Dabour aka ‘Goal Machine.’*

An exciting and dynamic team they play a preferred 4-4-2 formation with a diamond midfield, a compact defence and a high and organised press leading to comparisons with Jurgen Klopp’s exciting style that has been deployed at both Borussia Dortmund and now Liverpool.

This season they have won nine straight league matches and are seven points clear at the top as well as winning two cup matches.

Their most recent outing saw them pummel Wolfsberger AC 4-1 in front of what looked like a car park at the back of an athletics track. Highlights if you’re interested are at the bottom. And we complain about Hamilton Accies stadium.

They have also gone unbeaten in Europe in five games beating KF Shkëndija, the Champions of Macedonia, 4-1 on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers before going out on away goals to Red Star Belgrade of Serbia in the play-off round after a 2-2 home draw following on from a 0-0 away result. They actually threw that one away having been 2-0 up after 48 mins only to concede two goals in 60 second midway through the second half.

In their Europa League group opener, they defeated Leipzig 3-2 winning it in the 89th minute having thrown away another two-goal lead in the second half.

So what of our chances?

Realistically slim and none.

We’ve won twice in our last nine away games in Europe suffering five defeats and conceding 20 goals in the process. Though we have scored 12 goals ourselves it’s just that when we do we tend to concede far more goals up at the other end of the pitch.

If you go further back the grimmer it becomes and even domestically this season we are struggling on the road having not won a league game away in three attempts and only won one on the road out of four in the continent as well.

It will be interesting to see a team have a real go at us right enough as this season we have dominated possession whilst up against teams that have by and large played 11 men behind the ball and asked us to break them down. On their home patch, in particular, expect RB Salzburg to come out of the traps fast with a high tempo game. Our passing obsession could in theory totally derail that and frustrate them though it could equally collapse in the face of their likely furious pressing.

I really think it is a game for Rogic to make an impact with his running on the break from midfield and Brown will have to play out of his skin to contain them in the opposite direction. Though in saying that every one of our players will have to play out of their skins going by the form book.

In theory, we should at least be able to compete and lets no pretend that Salzburg are on the level of what we came up against last season in Bayern and in particular PSG but still, history tells you that we shrink more often than not in foreign climbs no matter what the opposition and this particular team are confident, winning and basically are on fire so like I said before it is going to be tough and expectation levels for what is undoubtedly going to be the toughest game of the group will be low but hey at least we are getting the one we dreaded most out of the way first.

Though you never know………but you probably do.

Post-match analysis: Celtic 1 – 0 Aberdeen. Another win and Jim Brogan tribute.

October 1, 2018October 2, 2018 wayofthecass

I didn’t get to see the game.

In fact, I’ve only just seen the highlights.

Aberdeen played well and Gary Mackay-Steven nearly came back to haunt us in the first half with a mazy run where he then typically fluffed his lines when through one on one with the keeper. Good save from Gordon in fairness.

Niall McGinn also had a decent effort from distance whizz just past the post but down at the other end, Edouard was unlucky to see a wonderful effort crack off the post from 25 yards.

He later had to go off after being assaulted on the edge of the box by Scott McKenna though Bobby Madden ludicrously adjusted it to be nothing more than a 50/50 challenge when in reality it was a wild attempt at a WWE style drop-kick from the Aberdeen defender.

Image result for scott mckenna edouard — *You can clearly see he’s focused purely on the ball.*

That aside Celtic were a bit wasteful and Aberdeen remained a threat with Leigh Griffiths having to head one off the line from a corner.

Scott Sinclair came on for French Eddy and conjured up a wonderful goal via a back heeler midway through the second half.

An important three points and it maintains our pretty incredible home record this season of eight wins and one draw from nine matches, with six clean sheets.

It was also vitally important for Scott Sinclair who as we all know has been bang out for form recently which just isn’t acceptable for one of the highest paid players at the club.

Image result for scott sinclair goal celtic aberdeen — *Niall McGinn knows what’s coming.*

Before the match, the players dawned black armbands for the second time in the week and observed a minutes applause along with the fans for Jim Brogan.

I was at Jim’s funeral that morning and was disappointed to hear that the club had made no official contact with the family outside of flowers sent to the crematorium where Jim was finally laid to rest after a Requiem Mass at the Cathedral earlier which was attended by many Celtic greats such as Danny McGrain, Davie Hay, John Clark, Dixie Deans and Bobby Lennox to name but a few.

Hopefully, they can resolve that in the coming days and weeks though it’s another example of how disconnected clubs are in the modern day from the people who have played such a pivotal role in their history. Alas……

I was able to stream the game onto my phone and show some of Jim’s family the round of applause just before kick off as well as his picture on the big screens.

Thankfully we got the right result in the end.

It was tough and hard fought but the win was ours. A fitting tribute to Jim.

Life Under Kennedy: the agony continues at Ibrox and beyond.

April 30, 2021 wayofthecass

I haven’t been very active on the blog recently.

Party to do with a new job which has been taking up a lot of my time and party due to the fact there isn’t much to write about.

After the 6-0 crushing of a lame Livingston team three weeks ago tomorrow – which I noted at the time was as much due to the visitors meagre efforts as opposed to a sudden upturn in fortunes by us – an element of our support had convinced themselves that we were going to turn over Rangers in the cup eight days later.

There really is a section of our support who are in complete denial about where we are right now.

Managerless, 20 points behind in the league and out of every other cup competition before they even really got started a 6-0 skelping of a team with not much to play for doesn’t change any of that.

Having already secured a top-six place, lost in the League Cup final and been told by UEFA that even if they were somehow able to catch fourth-placed Aberdeen that they wouldn’t qualify for next season’s new European Conference League anyway as a result of abandoning their youth academy the team from West Lothian really had pretty much heehaw to play for.

Taking them apart proved little.

Anyway to Ibrox we went and predictably we were once again overawed by the men in light blue jerseys with an opening goal from Steven Davis after 10 mins and an own goal 24 minutes later by on loan Jonjoe Kenny sealing our fate.

Rangers are in Celtic's heads claims Charlie Adam as squad unrest blamed for weak derby performances - Daily Record — Frenchy Eddy’s Ibrox contribution in a nutshell.

In the second half, we created a cacophony of chances which included a penalty being won by Leigh Griffiths only to be pathetically executed by Odsonne Edouard who had already shinned an earlier attempt over the bar with the net gaping in front of him.

No surprises when you consider this is the same Edouard who preferred to dive than put the ball into an open net against the same opposition at Celtic Park only weeks before.

Mohamed Elyounoussi also missed a sitter but really it all means nothing.

Not of it was even remotely surprising when you consider the personnel on the pitch and the big wet blanket in the dugout.

In the days leading up to the game, John Kennedy had produced his latest cracker by claiming that we were a better side than the Ibrox men.

Apparently being 20 points behind after 30 odd games somehow is tangible evidence of superiority.

This is actually identical to the same sort of eye-watering pish that was being spouted by ex-Ibrox manager, serial loser and unrepentant fantasist Pedro Caixinha some years ago.

It was embarrassing coming from them but even more so when our own ‘manager’ blindly wades down the same dimly lit path.

And just like with Pedro these bold predictions always end up blowing up in your face and leaving you looking like a total imbecile.

The following Wednesday we rolled into Pittodrie and drew 1-1 with Stephen Glass’s Aberdeen.

The home side were the better team and missed some absolute sitters before Leigh Griffiths equalised with a header seconds before the ref blew for full time giving us an undeserved draw.

Another dismal display and another two points dropped against a team who were then turned over 3-0 at home by Dundee Utd four days later in the Cup.

John has put a hold on his long term chances.

Of course, the dropped points thing aspect means nothing now.

The title race was over long ago and we aren’t playing for pride either as our current squad have none.

With our tenth draw of the season, we are on course for our lowest points tally in 22 years that being the infamous Barnes / Dalglish campaign of ’99/2000.

Jeez. Did we ever think we’d return to those dark days again?!

That time around we could only muster up a measly 69 points so at least we’ve eclipsed that total though not by much.

On Sunday we’re back at Ibrox for another round of torture.

The only saving grace is that none of our fans are having to pay for the ‘privilege’ of seeing it live in the ground due to ongoing restrictions.

Off the field, the situation also remains the same.

No manager and no director of football.

Howe continues to be rumoured but God knows.

The Howe to Celtic storyline feels like it’s been a longer running saga than the OJ Simpson trial.

He remains the favourite but at this stage, nothing surprises me.

At least Kennedy has been given enough rope to hang himself.

The board’s fantasy of him taking on the reins permanently have been well and truly sunk by the big man’s total ineptitude in the dugout since coming on as ‘caretaker’ and that’s all he’ll ever be.

Safe to say his time at Celtic is done in any capacity now.

I take cold comfort in that but at this stage, anything is better than nothing.

Maybe by the next time I write something, we’ll have beaten Rangers and have an actual manager with a backroom team and DOF in to take us forward.

But I’m not holding my breath and neither should you.

Honestly how did it ever get this bad?

Oh yeah………………………Lennon, Lawwell, Desmond, Barkas, Ajeti, Duffy, Nick Hammond, Ferencvaros, Ross County, Dubai……………………………..

After a shambolic exit in Europe to Copenhagen, the Celts prepare for St.Johnstone in the cup.

February 29, 2020 wayofthecass

Well, Thursday night was a bit of an unmitigated disaster.

Image result for celtic 1-3 copenhagen — *Yep…..this just about sums it up.*

On a night eerily similar to our capitulation against Cluj in the Champions League qualifiers way back in August Celtic showed once again that in European competition we still completely lack game management when ahead in a knockout tie.

Just like against Cluj we were ahead due to an away goal yet couldn’t see out the tie.

And also just like gainst Cluj we shot ourselves in the foot more than once.

After a pretty dominant first half where a patient Copenhagen refused to show their hand and where we passed up several good opportunities, you could only see one team progressing.

Six minutes into the second half though Jozo Simunovic had a ‘Jozo moment’ as he dithered on the ball and allowed Michael Santos to mug him before big Chris Jullien then panicked and ultimately Santos put the ball in the net.

A total gift.

Though how we ever allowed ourselves to be in a two on two situation in the first place at home in a tie where we were ahead is beyond me.

From then on we struggled and you just knew it wasn’t going to be our night but then out of nowhere we got a penalty thanks to VAR after Ragnar Sigurdsson had needlessly handled in the box.

That man Odsonne Edouard stepped up and executed the spot-kick with aplomb and suddenly we were back in this.

But in almost identical fashion to the game against the Romanian champions over six months ago, we then handed the advantage back to the visitors who scored through Pep Biel only two minutes later with Celtic’s defending completely shambolic.

Dame N’Doye then farcically sauntered through our meek backline minutes after that to make it 3-1 and complete the embarrassment.

So that’s that then.

A campaign that showed so much promise with a superb display in the group stages ultimately went the same way as the last three times we’ve gone into the Last 32 stage that being with us going out with a whimper.

To make matters worse the tournament has totally opened up too with big names like Benfica, Porto, Ajax, Arsenal, Sporting Lisbon and Red Bull Salzburg all exiting as well.

Indeed Copenhagen have been drawn against İstanbul Başakşehir in the Last 16 which looks at a totally winnable tie and could have been us but alas………..

Oh and of course Rangers quite comfortably navigated their way through earlier in the week against far tougher opposition. On the bright side, it means we have a week of rest leading up to the next Old Firm game whilst they don’t but that’s scant consolation.

So it’s back to domestic action and the pursuit of the ‘Quadruple-Treble’ as Celtic visit McDiarmid Park tomorrow afternoon.

Image result for tommoy wright st.johnstone — *Big Tommy is waiting.*

We should be pretty confident considering we’ve won our last seven ties against St.Johnstone with an aggregate score of 26-0 which has included a 7-0 and 3-0 in our last two games against them.

They are actually in pretty good form at the moment with no losses in their last six games and only two losses in their last 15 domestic matches with seven wins and six draws.

Sixteen goals in their last eight games also shows their recent attacking prowess and Stevie May has refound his shooting boots during that period netting five times over that spell.

Their last game saw them battle to a 2-2 draw at home to Rangers too so they’ll go into this tie confident based on recent form and also hoping to take advantage of our European hangover.

I foresee us returning to a 3-5-2 with Griffiths starting upfront with Edouard and on reflection, we should maybe have gone with that on Thursday night from the start but everyone has a degree in hindsight of course.

Alas, a chance for our longest European cup run in sixteen years is gone.

More domestic trophies will have to suffice.

Celtic smash seven past saints, the other results plus Cluj Champs League preview.

August 4, 2019 wayofthecass

Celtic got their title defence off to a flyer with a seven nil massacre of St.Johnstone at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon – Saturday afternoon at the time of publication.

In my last article, I had predicted a romp for Celtic based on the Perth sides woeful League Cup group section campaign throughout July which had seen them lost to newly-promoted Ross County though more pertinently to League One sides Forfar Athletic and Montrose.

Before the game, I listened to their manager Tommy Wright passionately defend his record at the club on BBC Sportsound which is telling as no one had actually called it into question and is more of a reflection of the pressure Wright must himself feel under and his frustrations at the fact they have lost nine first-team squad players over the summer with only a couple coming in and a striker badly needed.

Celtic-7-St-Johnstone-0-Ryan-Christie-nets-hat-trick-as-780x405 — *Joy for Christie and Johnstone but not so much for Tommy.*

As much as I expected an inform Celtic, fresh from a 7-0 aggregate dismissal of Nomme Kalju in the Champions League qualifiers, to put them to the sword I could never have predicted a 7-0 skelping which is the men from Perth’s worst result in 21 years and even eclipses the 6-0 scudding we gave them at McDiarmid Park last term.

Ryan Christie kept up his sparkling recent form with a hattrick. His first a beauty from the edge of the box and his third an even more spectacular finish with the one in the middle being a tad fortunate with Saints keeper Zander Clark not exactly covering himself in glory.

Mikey Johnstone had opened the scoring with a nice finish of his own after only nine mins and Ntcham, Edouard and Griffiths also delivered the goods with each executing fine finishes in the second half.

Hatem Abd Elhamed also made his debut and looked pretty good – let’s be honest if you can’t look good when your team is winning 7-0 then you never will – but sadly limped off in the second half. Let’s hope it isn’t too serious.

Image result for celtic 7-0 st.johnstone elhamed — *Hatem in action.*

A perfect way to start the title defence on a day in which our eighth consecutive title flag was fittingly unveiled by Liz McNeill and Sadie Chalmers, the wives of the legendary Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers, two immortal club legends who we lost earlier in the year.

Elsewhere over the weekend Livingston and Motherwell burst my coupon with a meandering 0-0 draw whilst Hibs stuttered before scoring late to beat struggling St.Mirren at Easter Road thanks to a Scott Allen goal. It’s early doors but from what I’ve seen thus far I’m not too impressed with Paul Heckingbottom’s English League One level purchases. Last seasons Championship winners Ross County re-entered the top flight in style as they easily dismissed perennial relegation candidates Hamilton Accies 3-0 up in Dingwall.

Earlier on today Aberdeen won a rabble-rousing encounter at home to Hearts 3-2 with the Edinburgh side literally grasping defeat from the jaws of victory after throwing away 2-1 lead and seeing young 17-year-old Aaron Hickey sent off before Clévid Dikamona needlessly gave away a penalty which was converted by goal machine Sam Cosgrove before new singing Ryan Hedges blasted home a late winner.

Rangers also continued to provide further evidence that we have little to worry about this term as they struggled to a 2-1 away win at a Kilmarnock team coming off the back of a shambolic Europea League exit. Killie look like a pale imitation of the well-oiled machine Stevie Clarke had moulded them into last season but still dominated large swaths of the game and were unlucky to concede late to a Connor Goldson header.

But now let’s get back to our next European opponents in the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League.

They are of course CFR Cluj of Romania who have won back to back national titles and are managed by former Chelsea star Dan Petrescu.

He’s had great success on these shores before both as a player with Chelsea and in a coaching capacity with the now-defunct Unirea Urziceni who he led to a 4-1 Champions league groups stage hammering of Walter Smith’s Rangers back in 2009 at Ibrox.

Image result for dan petrescu cluj — *Cluj manager Dan Petrescu thinking about Celtic.*

Cluj themselves are currently enjoying the most successful period in their history having been formed way back in 1907 they only won their first top-flight title back in 2008 and very first national cup that same year.

They’ve won four more titles and three more cups since and have established themselves as the second biggest club in the country beyond the famous Steaua Bucharest.

So far this season they’ve won three and drawn one in the league and currently sit top of the division after hammering AFC Chindia Târgoviște 4-1 away yesterday. They’ve scored ten goals conceding only three in the process.

In Europe, the success story has continued as they bounced back from a 1-0 loss in Kazakhstan to Astana to win 3-1 at home to progress 3-2 on aggregate before then eliminating Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel 3-2 on aggregate also after gaining a 2-2 draw away following on from a tight 1-0 home win.

Their squad isn’t full of stars and indeed Petrescu has boasted that both Astana and Tel Aviv had superior budgets so they haven’t achieved what they have by simply splashing the cash.

Experience is heavy in the team.

Attacking winger Ciprian Deac is 33 and has 20 caps for Romania. Defensive midfielder Ovidiu Hoban is 36 and has 30 caps for Romania. Their Portuguese captain Camora has no caps for his country but at 32 has played 240 games for Cluj. Recently signed striker Mario Rondón is 33, has over 100 career goals at eight previous clubs and 13 caps for Venezuela.

Veteran Argentine midfielder Emmanuel Culio is in his second spell at the club, is 36 and has played for 15 clubs in total and has been described by Petrescu as ‘the best player in Cluj’s history.’ Though apparently, he’s struggling to makes Wednesday nights encounter with fitness issues. So that’s good.

Image result for Emmanuel Culio cluj — *Cluj’s ‘greatest ever player’ in action.*

Up front, the ones to watch out for are big striker George Țucudean who was the leading striker in the Romanian top flight last season with 18 goals from 24 games and his strike partner, Frenchman Billel Omrani whose also a six-footer.

They haven’t made any big-name additions this summer but held onto the majority of their squad with no significant departures. It’s certainly an ageing squad but also a successful one and very consistent.

Last season despite their domestic success Malmo eliminated them from the Champions League qualifiers and in a big shock, Luxembourg’s F91 Dudelange put them out of Europe all together at the Europea League play-offs stage 5-2 on aggregate.

Currently, in the UEFA association coefficients, Romania sits at 29, nine places behind Scotland which gives you an idea of the sort of impact or lack of that their clubs have been making in Europe recently.

But their recent form has been good and this will be a definite step-up from what we came up against in the first two qualifying rounds.

They lost only one home game in the league last season but did lose two of their three home European ties and at home in the semi-finals of the national cup to former Celtic European opponents Astra Giurgiu so there is hope for optimism.

I think it’ll be tight but as much as I’d like to go with the ultra optimism of a comfortable win I’m going to go for a score draw at the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium on Wednesday night with us bringing them back to Celtic Park for a classic European home tie the following Tuesday.

It’s definitely doable and we’ll find out in the morning who we could potentially get in the Play-off round.

It’ll be the winner of Rosenborg vs Maribor, APOEL Nicosia, Young Boys or Slavia Prague.

The only one that makes me wary there is Young Boys. They won the league last season over Basel who’ve already eliminated PSV from the Champions League this season so safe to say that the Swiss champs will be pretty tasty.

Exciting times.

Celtic cruise into the Champions League 3rd Qualifying round and Cluj profiled.

August 4, 2019 wayofthecass

Celtic swatted aside Estonian Champions Nõmme Kalju 2-0 in Tallinn’s wonderfully named A. Le Coq Arena last night to progress rather easily 7-0 on aggregate.

Of course, after last Wednesday night’s romp at Celtic Park progression was never in any doubt but an away win is never a guarantee for Celtic on the continent no matter who the opposition is and it was also important to keep up the winning momentum which now sees us having won four on the spin since returning to competitive action in the 1st Qualifying round against FK Sarajevo last month.

Bizarrely the host’s manager Roman Kozhukhovskyi thought his side suffered ‘an injustice’ last night but hey managers will say the strangest things to either shield their side from criticism or keep up morale. But the reality is that’s just complete and utter nonsense.

Celtic dominated possession all night, restricted the home side to few chances and should have scored more themselves.

Our new £7 million centre back Christopher Jullien made his debut and was towering, composed and comfortable on the ball all evening. He’ll have far more testing games than this of course but it was a nice start and he could even have scored at one point.

Image result for celtic nomme kalju 2-0 christopher jullien — *Big Christopher shows his power.*

Both Callum McGregor and James Forrest were rested for the night with the likes of Bain, Ajer, Edouard and Christie dropping to the bench and in came not only Jullien but keeper Craig Gordon, Lewis Morgan, Mikey Johnston, Olivier Ntcham and in a real surprise Tony Ralston at right-back for a rare appearance.

Celtic took the lead on 10 mins when a Ntcham advanced to the edge of the box before feeding Johnston on the left byline who’s drive across the face of the goal evaded the keeper and looked to be tapped in by Leigh Griffiths only for it to be diverted into the net by the sliding Aleksandr Kulinits. As much as the Celtic TV commentary wanted it to be Leigh’s I’m afraid it has to go down as an own goal.

Thereafter the game pretty much had a malaise about it with Celtic happy to dominate possession and the Estonians happy to keep the score down. That was until the second half with Craig Gordon required to make a few half-decent saves before Celtic went back through the gears in the closing stages.

As mentioned earlier Jullien missed a chance with a header from six yards and then on came sub Marian Shved who within seconds of stepping onto the pitch was through on goal only to be denied by keeper Pavel Londak who began replicating some of his outstanding shot-stopping form from last week.

Both Lewis Morgan and Scott Sinclair were also denied by two wonderful saves from Londak who has certainly been Nõmme’s outstanding player over the two legs and Jullien had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for a high boot.

But just when it looked like we would have to settle for only the one up stepped Shved to score on his debut with a pearler into the keeper’s top left-hand corner of the net from the edge of the box in what turned out to be the last kick of the match on 93 minutes.

Image result for celtic nomme kalju 2-0 marian shved — *Shved is off to a flyer.*

In the end, it was all rather easy peasy. If only all European ties were like that. Alas, they’re not and we’ll have a far sterner test in the 3rd Qualifying round in the form of Romanian Champions CFR Cluj.

Managed by Romanian football legend Dan Petrescu they have won their last two league championships back to back and five in total in their history.

Formed in 1907 they were really just a provincial club for their entire history until a major investment in the early 2000s by local businessman Árpád Pászkány helped push them back into the top flight where they have not only remained ever since but been frequent title challengers and trophy winners.

They nearly went to the wall back in 2014 due to financial insolvency but staved off liquidation and in early 2017 were taken over by wealthy business magnate Marian Băgăcean who subsequently appointed Petrescu that summer and they haven’t really looked back since.

Last season they pipped the far more well known Steaua Bucharest to the championship by two points to retain their title.

They lost only 3 out of 36 games, drawing 11, scoring only 54 but conceding a mere 20 so safe to say their tactics are to defend and keep it tight.

Though this approach seems conservative as a manager Petrescu certainly wasn’t as a player scoring 71 goals in club football alone as an attacking full-back and 12 for his country.

He played for the great Steaua team of the ’80s where we won four league championships and was a European Cup runner up playing alongside the legendary Gheorghe Hagi in 1989. He was also part of the team that eliminated Rangers from the 87/88 European Cup Quarterfinal a tie which featured Graeme Souness’s shocking challenge on Iosif Rotariu.

After a spell in Italy, he then spent eight years in England enjoying great success in an exciting Chelsea team alongside the likes of Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola.

As a manager, he had success previously in his homeland with the now-defunct Unirea Urziceni who won the league under his stewardship as well as in Russia with Kuban Krasnodar who he led to the second tier title and promotion and in China with Jiangsu Suning whom he guided to the national cup in 2015.

He’s visited Glasgow before in a management capacity having led Unirea to a 4-1 pasting of Walter Smith’s Rangers at Ibrox in the Champions League back in the autumn of 2009.

Anyone else remember that?

Well, that was a nice stroll down memory lane but back to the present and we’ll be visiting Cluj’s compact and picturesque Dr. Constantin Rădulescu’s stadium next Tuesday for the first leg. It’s in the capital of Transylvania would you believe so expect the press to make a lot of vampire references in the lead up to the match as Celtic attempt to the put ‘a stake through the heart of Cluj’s Champions League hopes’ before ‘sinking their teeth into Cluj the following week at Celtic Park’ and so on and so forth.

So far this season Cluj have toppled Astana – who we know well and are no slouches – and Israeli Champions Maccabi Tel Aviv en route to the 3rd round so they’ve had a far harder route than we have.

But I’ll go into their European pedigree and players to watch out for next week in my preview to the first leg tie.

In the meantime, we prepare for our eighth consecutive flag day on Saturday against visiting St. Johnstone who have had a woeful build-up to the league kick-off so far which has seen them eliminated from the League Cup already after pretty shocking losses to League 1 sides Montrose and Forfar as well as to newly-promoted Ross County.

A slow summer has seen half a dozen first-team players depart – including the mercurial ex-Celtic Tony Watt – and only a few arrivals with the expected capture of former star striker Stevie May back to the club also recently collapsing.

So they don’t have their problems to seek and hopefully, we can capitalise on that and really turn them over.

Unfortunately, big Christopher Jullien won’t be able to make his domestic bow though as he’s carrying over a suspension from his time in the French top-flight last year which means we should see a partnership of big Simunovic and Ajer or Bitton returning to a back three. Either way, the emphasis should be on the attack and I’m pretty confident it will be a good send-off for Romania.

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