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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lennon and Flo Kamberi in happier times.Â
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.
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.
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, ÂŁ65,000 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.
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.
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.
Good night John?
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.
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 ÂŁ13 million for his services. After a year and 25 appearances in the Bundesliga, he returned to the UK via a ÂŁ15 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.
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 ÂŁ2million 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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
....Always A Tim! 