Tag: December

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

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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.

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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.

 

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

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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.

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Unbridled joy.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.