Another international match under Alex McLeish and another defeat.
The reason I bother with these international reviews is because our players generally feature pretty significantly in proceedings.
For this one, Kieran Tierney was allowed to drop out due to a ‘loading issue’ which is bullshit football ‘tech-speak’ for him being tired due to the number of games he’s played so far this season.
No doubt Brendan’s been on the phone and requested that he be rested as opposed to being played out of position in a pointless friendly.
Leigh Griffiths, of course, hasn’t featured in the last two internationals now as he tries to improve his fitness. Of course, we know the real reason is that he can’t stand Big Eck and his banal ongoing decision to choose Johnny Russell and Steven Naismith up front ahead of him.
Craig Gordon was back in after being fairly dropped for the on form Allan McGregor and also back in the line-up was James Forrest, ludicrously not started against Israel after scoring four times for us the weekend before, and ex-Celt Stuart Armstrong. Callum McGregor also got his latest cap. Jack Hendry also got a start which was purely due to Charlie Mulgrew and John Souttar being unavailable.
On the whole, it was much better performance though ultimately another bad result as the ruthless Portuguese punished every error from Scotland, proving that even without the scandal-plagued Ronaldo why they are rated number seven in the world rankings.
Just another day at the office.
Portugal’s goals came in the following order:
Hélder Costa (43′minutes),
Macedo Lopes (74′minutes),
Tué Na Bangna (84′minutes)
Costa’s was a tap-in after an Andy Robertson mistake but the other two were fabulous goals. A great header from Lopes after a floated cross to the edge of the box and a peach from Banga just inside the box subsequent to skinning Graeme Shinnie.
Stevie Naismith posted a consultation at the death resulting from a beautiful back-heel from another ex-Celt Gary Mackay-Steven which set him up for a tap-in.
Scott McKenna had missed a stick-on opportunity to equalise earlier with a diving header that went inches past.
All of the Celtic players did okay with the exception being Jack Hendry who continues to look way out of his depth when faced with any opposition remotely resembling quality.
For McLeish, the 4-4-2 formation with an actual left back playing in position worked better and with the recalls of Forrest and Armstrong there was a lot more vibrancy to the team but the same old errors continue to be punished. Rather like Celtic in Europe Scotland look completely incapable of keeping the back door shut for 90 mins.
Anyway, Big Eck staggers onto the doubleheader with Albania and Israel next month after this sorry weekend brought his record to two wins and six losses. Willie Miller remained optimistic that his friend could pull it off in the Sportscene studios last night obviously completely oblivious to what has occurred so far under his former central defensive partner.
Finally Celtic produced a performance worth raving about after a pretty tepid opening few months to the season as they found not only their shooting boots but some actual form in Perth.
It’s been a bit of a slog so far this season with elimination from the Champions League qualifiers, no wins away domestically in the league and generally pretty monotonous and uninspiring play week in, week out.
That all changed though at a wind and rain swept McDiarmid Park on Sunday.
After a ropey start where the Saints clearly fancied their chances and decided to take it to us, no doubt believing we would be drained both physically and mentally after a second-half roasting by RB Salzburg on Thursday evening, and created a few decent chances with a Danny Swanson volley from close range stinging the palms of Craig Gordon.
For the first 10 mins, Celtic were struggling and you couldn’t help but think ‘here we go again.’
Thereafter though it was a slaughter.
Celtic rained down attack after attack on the Perth sides goal and eventually took the lead after 15 mins when an Edouard shot was saved by Zander Clark only to rebound back to James Forrest whose shot made it into the back of the net after an unsuccessful attempt by Clark to claw it away.
Edouard, who had been unlucky not score only minutes previously, then did get on the score sheet only seven mins after the opener, finishing from outside the box with a neatly drilled finish into the far lower corner.
French Eddy and Ross Callahan compare dance moves.
In the final 15 mins of the half, the floodgates truly did open as Forrest added another three to his previous effort, combining well with the majestic Rogic for each one and showing some wonderful finishing ability with both feet.
All of those three goals were special with the first seeing him finish off a 1-2 with the aforementioned Rogic which cut the Saints defence apart and then the Aussie playmaker feed him through to finish with his right foot and seal his hat-trick. Forrest’s final goal was probably the pick of the litter though as he played another 1-2 with that man Rogic again and raced through on goal from his own half before finishing low past Clark also again.
A liquid finish from the impressive Forrest.
In amongst all of that, a Leigh Griffiths free-kick effort from 30 yards produced a wonderful save from Zander Clark who was actually having the game of his life in between picking the ball out of the net.
Nobody could have predicted 5-0 at halftime in their wildest dreams and a shellshocked looking Tommy Wright was clearly regretting his decision to play expansive football and attack an apparently bedraggled Celtic.
A beleaguered Tommy Wright demands the ref blows the final whistle.
As is often the case after that kind of first half the goals dried up in the second period with Callum McGregor tapping in a sixth after some neat build-up play on the 84th-minute mark.
Previous to that Danny Swanson got a straight red card for hacking down Forrest who was on the charge again. Swanson had clearly seen enough of that in the first half and refused to stick around for more.
It was quite a day, easily Celtic’s best domestically so far this season, notwithstanding the Rangers game, and before we unilaterally dismiss the level fo opposition let’s not forget that St.Johnstone had been unbeaten at home since late February.
So Celtic now climb to the third spot in the league, only three points off the top and with a vastly improved goal difference. Not a bad way to go into the international break and let’s just hope this is a return to the dynamic free-flowing football we had previously associated with Brendan’s reign at the club.
I held off on reviewing this one in the immediate aftermath mainly because everyone was losing all perspective including myself.
To be honest I wasn’t so much angry as vaguely disappointed as truth be told I wasn’t surprised.
Kilmarnock are an effective team under Steve Clarke who has done an incredible job there – it’s just a shame more of the locals don’t turn out to see it – and via keeping together the squad that worked so tirelessly for him last season he has a bunch of players who you feel would run through walls for him.
Losing the late goal was one of those things. I believe Chris Burke wanted to play it short so as to waste time for a point and with the Celtic defence switched off he was instead encouraged to swing it into the box where ex-Celtic defender Stuart Findlay got his head to it first and sealed the points for the Ayrshire club in dramatic fashion.
Finlay returns to haunt Celtic.
What was far more concerning was the preceding 90 mins where once again Celtic looked one-paced and totally devoid of ideas.
As was the case in the last two games – and most others before that come to think – the constant obsession with continuously recycling the ball from side to side in defence whilst the opposition sit in their own half and watch was once again on show.
Simply put our opponents know what we are going to do and are set up to deal with it.
Scott Sinclair got a rare start but is now a shadow of his former self, lacking any self-belief and looking somewhat disinterested.
Jack Hendry was put back into the starting line-up after Benkovic pulled up with an injury in the warm-up and that pretty much sealed an end to Celtic’s run of five previous clean sheets.
Hendry is a Dundee calibre defender running around in a Celtic shirt. It really is that simple. And he seems more aware of it than anyone else.
Ntcham was of course suspended with McGregor, Rogic and Forrest on the bench with Brendan bizarrely opting to revamp the entire midfield featuring Brown alongside Christie and Mulumbu with the aforementioned Sinclair out on the right. It proved completely ineffective.
Mulumbu had a decent enough first half but then got sucked in by ex-teammate Aaron Tshibola’s tough tackling in the second half and lost the plot. Looking like a red card waiting to happen he was hooked on 70 mins for McGregor.
Mikey Johnstone produced more of the same with a lot of effort but little to no end product. He went off on 79 mins for Edouard but French Eddy hardly got a touch of the ball and his baron spell continues.
Celtic somehow took the lead via chaotic defending in the first half as Broadfoot sliced a speculative Tierney cross resulting in Greg Taylor cracking it off his own post and Leigh Griffiths swooped to conquer as he headed Celtic into a 34th-minute lead.
We should have got a penalty as Boyata was wrestled to the floor by Broadfoot also in the first half but Craig Thomson was having none of it.
In the second half, Kilmarnock pressed and rather than taking advantage of the extra space in their half Celtic retreated into their own shell instead. On 64 mins Burke lashed in the equaliser from 25 yards showing the kind of endeavour which is non-existent amongst Celtic’s personnel at the moment.
And then the ending but I’ve already discussed that.
Al in all an awful day with the only bright spark being Lewis Morgan’s substitute appearance for Sinclair on 65 minutes. He looked bright and effective showing the kind of determination and desire that is generally lacking at the moment. Ryan Christie also produced a moment of sublime skill in the second half as he weaved his way into the box and almost curled into the net only to be denied by a superb save from Jamie MacDonald.
Anyway onto Wednesday night we go as we play St.Johnstone at McDiarmid Park in the League Cup quarterfinal. They got taken apart 5-1 by Rangers on Sunday so, in theory, should be there for the taking but then they probably think the same about us.
Brendan has been cuttingly honest in the last few days admitting that Celtic fans “should be worried” which has raised some eyebrows but for me, he’s just being honest.
He looks concerned.
It’s our worst start to the league in 20 years since the days of Dr Jo Venglos. Though the real issue is our away form. We’ve played eight home games this season winning seven and drawing one with 16 goals scored to three conceded. Away, however, it is only two wins from eight with three draws and three losses. Nine goals have been scored away and seven conceded. Though six of the goals we have scored came in the two away wins to Alashkert and Partick Thistle.
Rugby Park and Tynecastle will be tough places to go this season but we should still fully expect to win there no matter if it’s on plastic or how long the grass is. But I also fully expect other clubs around us to drop points at those grounds as well.
In the past few months over in America, I noticed that chat show darling Ellen De Generis has rolled out George W Bush like he’s some old cuddly darling grandad of American politics.
This is, of course, an attempt to use the political elite to have a go at Donald Trump’s presidency. Like we need George W to tell us how much of a shit show that all is.
In amongst all the fawning over the ‘good ol’ president’ everyone conveniently forgets of course that Mr Bush and his UK cronies took us all into an illegal war in Iraq which cost the death of hundreds of thousands and created the legacy of Isis and complete destabilisation in the middle east. And all based on a huge lie as confirmed in the Chilcoat report which has also been conveniently forgotten about.
It’s funny how easily and selectively people forget.
In the past few days, it appears George Peat has emerged from his crypt.
Good old George eh?
He was president of the SFA during that glorious period for Scottish football between 2007-2011 just in case you forgot.
Right before he did his latest interview with BBC’s Sportsound which was broadcast via their podcast on Monday I swear I could hear the Adams Family theme playing in the background as we once again got a glimpse of Scottish football’s very own Uncle Fester.
As the interview unfolded George wheezed out all the old dust that had accumulated in his lungs over the past seven years and then wiped off some of the cobwebs from his SFA / bowling club blazer to give us his earth-shattering insights into the state of Scottish football.
George being ‘ironic’.
To sum up the highlights………he negotiated a big SFA TV contract with Sky before he left his role the money from which has not been used satisfactorily – if at all, the current SFA are incompetent, he threw Gordon Smith – his appointment as SFA chief executive – under the bus and then claimed a prominent Scottish club chairman had contacted him requesting the SFA didn’t help Rangers as the 2007/08 season reached its climax.
That last one in particular really stuck in his throat apparently.
George wouldn’t identify the chairman directly of course. Instead, he relied on winks, nudges and general innuendo.
But then Goegoe once said that he was the “kind of guy if someone asks me a question, I will give them an answer”.
That is until the question is: “So who is the chairman you are making these rather serious allegations against?”
In this instance, the reply is: “I’m not saying but you can guess.”
Yeah, the thing is that isn’t an answer George. But then George always was a coward.
Originally an accountant by profession he spent 22 years on the board of Airdrieonians FC. They, of course, were liquidated due to financial mismanagement.
“Then the club went out of business. And the ultimate irony is that far from being held responsible for a club going to the wall, Peat pulled another club’s blazer on at Stenhousemuir, kept his privileges with the SFA and went on to become the top man in the game.” – ex-Airdrie defender Chris Honor, Daily Record, 12/06/2011.
George doesn’t talk much about his time at Airdrie. I wonder why.
Many years back I remember writing an article for the Celtic Underground. It related to George’s handling of Neil Lennon’s six-match ban which had just been handed down at the time.
Here’ an insert:
“Perhaps Celtic should devote more time to their own responsibilities and discipline than questioning others.” George Peat.
Are you being serious George? What like how you dragged your heals over Hugh Dallas’s sacking, relegated Dougie McDonald to 4thofficial status for a few weeks after he’d admitted to doctoring post-match reports and how no investigation was conducted into the circumstances surrounding the resignation of assistant referee Steven Craven amid claims that the head of referee’s (the aforementioned Hugh Dallas) bullied and intimated Scottish referee’s and asked him to lie in his post-match report in regards to the previously mentioned incident involving McDonald? – Celtic Underground, 13/01/2011.
Apparently, the events above didn’t stick in George’s throat too much.
But a chairman having the temerity to request that he was “not to help Rangers in any way” did.
The thing is George that you were the president of the SFA. You could have moved the cup final – which would have seen Rangers’s opponents in said cup final Queen of the South go without a competitive game for four weeks in the lead up to it by the way but I guess that’s life eh? – but being that you had no involvement with the SPL at the time you couldn’t have done anything to reschedule their league games. Nothing at all in fact.
The SPL, under the leadership of Lex Gold did, in fact, extend the league season by four days, with the final games played on Thursday 22 May, instead of the previous Sunday.
So to sum up George has decided to conjure up a ten-year-old issue for nobodies benefit but his own. You see George always did love the attention.
“He’s now trying to portray the SFA changes as some kind of victory for him. Yet he doesn’t see the irony that his stewardship contributed to the game needing a total overhaul. All that tells me is he never loved the game – he just loved the power.” ex-Airdrie defender Chris Honor, Daily Record, 12/06/2011.
George’s selective memory doesn’t stop there. He also has a dig at the current SFA leadership for the way they handled the failed Michael O’Neill appointment. Yeah George, because your appointment history was just bang on, wasn’t it? Let me see. First, you appointed George Burley and then it was Craig Levein. Both were unmitigated disasters but why dwell on that when you can have a dig at the current men in power?
No love loss.
Then there’s also his recollections of Gordon Smith’s time at the SFA. Smith has persistently claimed that his decision making power was limited when the chief executive of the SFA.
So, does he regret taking the job?
“No, I think I was right to.” Adding in his experience in business, he thought he was well-qualified. “If I hadn’t taken it, I think I would have regretted not having a go. The one regret I have, what I didn’t check beforehand, was the scenario regarding how much control you actually have as chief exec.”
Does he mean how little?
“Well, an awful lot – nearly everything goes to committees or the board. I mean, I was able to offer my opinion on certain matters, and I was happy that a lot of things were accepted, but if I’d known about the procedures I might have thought: if I’m going to do this job properly I’d like to have a bigger say. I didn’t get the final say.”– Gordon Smith, The Scotsman, 02/10/2010
George though remembers it different of course.
“I thought it would do Scottish football good to get a football man in. Unfortunately, it didn’t come off because Gordon lacked the business experience………”
How much power does that man actually have?
“He has a lot of power. At the end of the day, a lot of the decisions have to go to the board. But if the chief executive strongly recommends something, nine times out of ten the board will approve it. It’s only if something unforeseen happens that the board would turn down a recommendation.” – George Peat, BBC Sportsound, 17/09/2018.
George also claims that Hampden needs an overhaul. The thing is George it needed the same overhaul ie: bringing the stands closer to the pitch, back in 2007-2011 too but you did sod all about it.
He also takes credit for securing the Sky TV deal before his departure. Though the sum part of George’s involvement was signing off on the offer that Sky had made the SFA. Any delusions by George that he was a tough mediator locked in a room all night with hard-nosed negotiators from Sky’s London office trying to get the best deal for Scottish football are utter fantasy. I believe the meeting went something like this:
“Come in George. Sorry for the delay.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I was just admiring your marble staircase and how it reminded me of ……..”
“Okay so sign here please.”
“Eh, yeah. I mean everything looks in order. Can I…..”
“Just sign it George.”
George glances eagerly at the large oak table in the middle of the room on which a buffet lunch has been laid out.
“Yeah, sure. Are the sandwiches and mineral water free?”
Anyway, George has grabbed the headlines once again in a sad attempt to live out former glories.
He’ll be relevant for a few days and then it’ll all calm down.
Rangers will make some noises about it but there’s little they can do because, as they are often keen to point out, this is really a matter for the ‘old club’.
....Always A Tim! 