Celtic are back in action as for the first time in living memory we play an away game at 3pm tomorrow.
Indeed the whole Scottish Premiership card is back on at 3pm tomorrow. All six games.
Again……..when was the last time that happened?
I wonder why that is?
Could it be the return of Sky’s beloved English football?
You’re damn right it is.
Who cares though as it’s all about the Celtic.
I never bothered doing a write up about the international break.
Scotland drew 1-1 with Israel and won 2-1 in the Czech Republic in the Nations League with Ryan Christie scoring two penalties but both both games were dire and not worth talking about.
I give Scotland a slim chance of beating Israel in the Euro playoff semi-final game at Hampden next month and even if they do precisely no chance of beating either Norway or Serbia away in the final
To be honest I’m sort of past caring with Scotland now as even in victory they are garbage so the return of the real thing that being club football is a relief.
Over the international break Celtic added to their ranks as finally Shane Duffy completed a one year loan move from Brighton for a reported £2 million fee.
The Republic of Ireland internationalist is the sort of commanding presence at the back we’ve been crying out for and the 6’4 28-year-old from Derry has the right pedigree with 96 appearances in the English top-flight – 91 of which have come over the past three seasons – and 35 caps for his country.
He joins Vasilis Barkas, Albian Ajeti, David Tunrbull and the return of Mohamed Elyounoussi in what has been a busy transfer window with Celtic forking out around £15 million in the process and with three weeks left in said transfer window it might not be over yet.
All of those players were away on international duty along with the Scottish contingent, Nir Bitton and Elhamed with Israel, Kristofer Ajer with Norway and Odsonne Edouard and Patryk Klimala with their countries under 21s..
Elyounoussi scored as did Odsonne Edouard – twice – Klimala and Shane Duffy who headed in a last minute equaliser away to Bulgaria.
Thankfully none of them picked up injuries and indeed during the break both Leigh Griffiths and Tom Rogic returned to full training with the latter’s proposed move to the middle east also breaking down which personally I’m delighted about.
So that means we should have a full contingent raring to go for the away game at Dingwall tomorrow.
County shipped out six and brought in six replacements during the summer which included Celtic youth keeper Ross Doohan on a season long loan.
They got off to a great start to the season with 1-0 wins over Motherwell and Hamilton Accies before a 2-2 home draw with Kilmarnock but it’s been two losses and a draw since including a 1-0 defeat last time out at Livingston in a game that saw manager Stuart Kettlewell red-carded at full time after an on-field altercation with referee John Beaton.
Last season they finished just above the bottom two places and will be looking to improve on that with veteran striker Billy McKay and the much-coveted front-man Ross Stewart their best hopes of doing so.
The towering Stewart hit 11 goals in 26 games during the 2019/20 campaign and has two already this term but the Highlanders will do well to hold onto him beyond the window with many clubs down south sniffing around and a few six-figure bids already rejected.
At the other end of the pitch after starting off with two clean sheets they have conceded in each of ther last four with six goals going into the minus colum in total.
Though they have scored in all but the Livingston game so they are capable of goals alright.
It’s always tough on such a tight pitch and this early in the season County will be energised and enthusiastic but we have an excellent record up there winning 4-1 the last time we played at Victoria Park and with seven wins and a draw in our last eight visits that has seen us score 25 goals.
I say it in every preview but three points is a must and winning by a few goals isn’t too unreasonable an expectation either base don our recent form at their ground.
In total we face a daunting five games in the next 15 days with the rescheduled St.Mirren game coming next Wednesday evening so let’s get it off to a flyer tomorrow.
More of this will do:
....Always A Tim! 