Tag: BT Sport

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

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.

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

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.

The Seven Month European Journey ends with mixed feelings.

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.

 

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

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 GarcĂ­a 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 GijĂłn 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

 

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

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.

Celtic
Kiss the badge.

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.