Tag: Scott Sinclair

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 thump Accies whilst the league takes on a retro look.

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Celtic continued their excellent recent form by putting Hamilton Accies to the sword in the early kick-off on Saturday.

A beautifully worked move from a corner on 13 mins saw McGregor play it short to Edouard who backheeled it back to him and McGregor passed into the path of Ryan Christie who stroked it home sublimely.

Chris Sutton said it was a school ground move that Accies should have seen coming. I’ll be honest I spent 12 years at school between primary and secondary and can’t ever remember ever seeing such a move executed during lunch or either breaks on the school pitches but maybe Chris’s school was different.

This all came after a wonderful one-handed save from defender Matt Kilgallon in the box during the opening exchanges that was made even better by Accies defender’s pretending it had hit his face immediately after. It all seemed pretty clear to me and everyone in the stadium and watching at home but referee Don Robertson was clearly taken in Kilgallon’s performance and waved play on.

There should have been more goals for the away team in the first half  and my second half viewing was interrupted by having to attend a school Christmas fair but I recorded it and watched upon my return at 3.30pm.

Incidentally, what is it with Christmas fares in November? Was it like that back in the ’80s and ’90s? I genuinely can’t remember. Seems a bit early but I guess that’s a topic for another day and indeed an entirely different kind of blog.

Anyway back to the football and it was plane sailing for the Bhoy in the second half as an innocuous Scott Sinclair header was backheeled into his own net by the hapless Scott Martin on 68 mins and then the returning Leigh Griffiths came on for his first appearance in seven weeks and drilled home a low struck freekick from the edge of the box on 82 mins.

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Celtic fan Scott Martin is about to love every fan’s dream. 

Ryan Christie nearly made it four before the end but his attempted neat finish was deflected onto the post for a corner late on and that’s all she wrote as Hamilton offered little in the opposite direction and Celtic cruised to an easy three points and retained their spot at the top of the league.

Only two points behind them are Rangers who overwhelmed Livingston 3-0 at Ibrox though the men from the Tony Macaroni Arena had their moments in the first half.

Elsewhere Hearts complete and utter capitulation of the last six weeks continued as they collapsed meekly 2-0 in Paisley against St.Mirren who recorded their first win under new manager Oran Kearney and Hibs also still can’t buy a win as they threw a 2-0 lead away to the bottom of the table Dundee in a 2-2 draw at Easter Road.

St.Johnstone and Kilmarnock are both almost neck and neck in the league sitting just behind Hearts and showed how close they are with a 0-0 draw at McDiarmid Park. The Saints are now unbeaten in six with five wins since we thumped 6-0 on their home patch back in early October and are only five points off the top which is pretty incredible. Killie meanwhile have only suffered one defeat in nine and sit one point above the Perth side as their equally incredible run of form under Steve Clark continues.

The big shock of the weekend though was Aberdeen – our opponents in next weekends League Cup final – getting battered 3-0 at Fir Park by Motherwell. The Dons had been on a four-match winning run which included wins over Rangers and at Kilmarnock and had only conceded one goal in that time. Motherwell meanwhile were coming off a 7-1 trouncing in their last league match against Rangers a fortnight ago.

Needless to say, we’ll start heavy favourites against the Dons next Sunday.

But between now and then there’s a pretty important match against Rosenborg in the Europa League that we must navigate and has to be our priority.

 

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 £14 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.

A review of Super Sunday: Celtic break Hearts and the Dons mug Gerrard.

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I took in our game on Sunday from the Dolphin pub in Partick, a good Celtic boozer if you have never been. The green and white sign with the ‘EST1888’ above the door should be a giveaway.

Anyway there with a few friends, I witnessed our match with league leaders Hearts at Murrayfield in front of a crowd of over 60,000.

Due to Hearts pretty incredible results since the start of the season – which has seen them win 13 from 16 matches with two draws and only one defeat – combined with our own patchy form since the start of the term this had been built up as a near 50/50 encounter with many favouring the Jam Tarts.

Indeed they had already defeated us 1-0 earlier in the season at Tynecastle and bounced back from their only defeat of the season so far against Rangers at Ibrox three weeks ago with wins at home versus Aberdeen and away to Dundee to maintain their spot at the top of the Premiership.

But the Celtic side that lost to Hearts back in early August has fairly ramped up the performances levels since then, especially in the past month, and with the capital side also without long-term injury absentees Christophe Berra, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu I was personally quite surprised at how close so many thought it was going to be.

Still, that meant that interest had peaked for it and led to not only a magnificent attendance at Murrayfield but also a large crowd in the pub which would be otherwise unusual for any normal national cup semi-final involving us and anybody but Rangers.

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A packed our Murrayfield sees green smoke.

The first half was pretty scrappy stuff with Hearts veteran striker Steven MacLean grabbing all the headlines via standing a mile offside as he placed the ball into the Celtic net only for it to be flagged and also grabbing a handful of Eboue Kouassi’s testicles into the bargain. He’s since been cited for it and according to his ex-St. Johnstone teammate James McFadden on last nights Sportsound he’s known for it so I’d imagine he’s facing a ban. Then again Morelos got his red card rescinded for trying to volley Scott McKenna off the ball at Pittodrie earlier in the season so who knows.

Hearts talisman Steven Naismith also walked off early doors with a knee injury and you sort of suspected any chance they had of beating us walked with him.

That aside Scott Sinclair had an excellent effort saved by the Hearts keeper but by in large it was competitive but uninspiring stuff to such an extent the guy sitting beside me announced he’d had enough and staggered out leaving a full bottle of Peroni and an untouched whiskey chaser behind him. Outrageous.

In the second half, we got a spot-kick after Ryan Christie went down under a Ben Garrucio challenge – hardly a stonewaller but the type of incident which is given all the time these days – and Sinclair stepped up to smash it home. Then the Herts keeper Zdenek Zlamal tried to gather a speculative Rogic drive which escaped his grasp and trundled over the line before he clawed it clear. James Forrest was on hand though to bury it and put to bed any necessity for the linesman to make a call. And just in case there was any lingering doubt Ryan Christie capped off a fine few days in a Celtic jersey following on from strong display away in Leipzig on Thursday night as he buried a 25-yard piledriver past the despairing Zlamal on 72 mins.

Thereafter it was a bit of a turkey shoot as Celtic rained down wave after wave of attack on the Jambos goal but a combination of Zlamal atoning for his earlier error plus some last-ditch defending kept the score respectful. Though one of my mates was gutted as he had us to win either 4-0 or 3-1 with the bookies. A sore one indeed.

All in all, it was a professional performance and Celtic have now won 21 consecutive cup ties and have booked their place in their fifth consecutive cup final in doing so. The ‘Treble-Treble’ now really is on plus we also got to shut-up serial moaner Craig Levein who despite his pre-match defiance saw his side ultimately check out with a whimper.

Of course, this was all pretty much night and day compared to Thursday night’s display away in Germany where a toothless Celtic side limped to a 2-0 defeat to Red Bull Leipzig.

Having the suspended James Forrest back was undoubtedly a factor – as was the inferior opposition of course – but also returning was the imperious Tom Rogic and central defender Filipe Benkovic both of whom hadn’t made it for Thursday nights game. No one is really talking about it but personally, I’m a bit disappointed that Sunday was clearly given precedence over an away tie in Europe and one which I honestly think would have been very winnable against Leipzig’s second string if Rogic and Benkovic had been involved. The notion that they suddenly returned to full match fitness in the space of 64 hours is, of course, total bollocks.

Europe now does seem to now be firmly regarded as a pipe dream with domestic success being given the superior status based on decisions like that.

Anway we’re in another cup final on December 2nd so the question is who would we be playing?

That game, of course, took place later on that evening at Hampden Park where Steven Gerrard’s apparently rejuvenated Rangers would battle it out against Derek McInnes’s toiling Aberdeen.

Even with their only real striking options out for this one just about everyone I knew made the Govan side the clear favourites with most regarding it a mere formality.

It proved to be anything but as the Dons produced a classic smash and grab performance that ex-Rangers manager Walter Smith himself would have been proud of as the nephew of Barry Ferguson headed home the winner on 79 mins. He’s called Lewis Ferguson by the way and he won me a not unsubstantial amount of money as I found the long odds on the reds to be too tempting not to indulge.

Even with over 10 mins plus injury time remaining my money looked safe as the toothless light blues failed to breach a pretty rock solid Aberdeen defence and 1-0 is how it finished.

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Stevie G congratulates Goldson on their loss.

So it’s Aberdeen in the final in five weeks. I must admit to being a tad disappointed as an Old Firm final would have been far more appetizing and despite undoubtedly impressive results at home and in Europe, the Stevie G project looks decidedly shaky anytime it’s taken out on the road with Sunday being a perfect example of that.

What with them out of the first domestic competition of the season combined with sitting only joint fifth in the league I wonder if rumours will now abound of an unsettled dressing room, player fallouts and acrimonious relationships between the manager and the board? Or is that only reserved for our manager? I think we all know the answer.

Oh, and what happened to that Richard Wilson’s tweet from Thursday evening which claimed that after Sunday was out the way there would be ramifications due to the performance and result on Thursday night? It’s Tuesday and still nothing. Maybe it will all kick off tomorrow. Or maybe it was all bullshit to start with.

 

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.