Tag: Injury

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

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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.

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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.

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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 ÂŁ14 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.

Post-match analysis: Celtic 4 – 2 Hibs. That’ll be the crisis over then.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

Post-match analysis: Celtic 1 – 0 Aberdeen. Another win and Jim Brogan tribute.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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