Tag: Timothy Weah

St. Mirren 0-2 Celtic: The title moves a step closer and could be wrapped up this weekend.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Celtic: a 5-day review, from despair against Valencia to late joy at Killie.

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It’s not ideal to be writing two post-match reviews several days late but alas I’ve been floored by a virus so have been bed bound up until today.

I didn’t fancy writing anything in the wake of the Valencia defeat anyway. Negatively abounded online and in Celtic cyberspace in particular. Ultimately it’s the sort of performance on big European nights that we’ve become accustomed to not just under Brendan but over the past six years full stop. I plan to write a preview tomorrow of the second leg anyway so will touch more on that there.

On the night itself, our passing was poor, our movement lacked conviction and after a good opening ten minutes spell we lost our way and allowed our opponents to grow into the game and ultimately take over. As a result, they scored in each half via strikes from Cheryshev and Sobrino with both goals totally preventable and born out of unnecessary mistakes on our part. That aside Scott Brown struggled badly but in fairness so did the whole team. Even the ever dependable Callum McGregor had an off night something you can rarely say about the 25-year-old. We were well beaten by a team who had extra quality but who also did the basics right.

All that being said at European level we just can’t afford to not have players the calibre of Tierney, Rogic, Benkovic as well as Ntcham and Griffiths available to us. The first three would be automatic starters and the other two would be at the very least be in contention to start and even if they didn’t would be quality options to bring on from the bench.

Anyway, it’s done and Thursday gives us a chance, however unlikely, to redeem ourselves. Like I’ve said I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

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Valencia makes it two.

As for Sunday well it wasn’t the best performance but we got the job done and in doing so go eight points clear at the top.

Killie haven’t lost to us at Rugby Park since Steve Clarke’s arrival – indeed they’ve beaten us on each of our last two visits – and up until recently were even considered title challengers so strong has their season-long form been. They are hard working, determined and well organised. They are also capable of some decent passing movements in tight situations which they really don’t get credit for. In players like Jordan Jones and Eamonn Brophy, they have genuine attacking threats who come at you with pace.

In the early exchanges, we dominated though created little in the way of clear cut chances and then as the match progressed Killie did what they do and began to ease into the game and created opportunities of their own.

In the second half Kirk Broadfoot went in rashly on Brown with the type of challenge refs just don’t stand for these days – well most refs anyway – and got himself a straight red. It didn’t really change the momentum of the game though as Kilmarnock were already pretty adept at sitting in and frustrating. We struggled to create much as we often do when faced up with defensively minded teams down in numbers. It was kind of playing out just like it did against AEK Athens in the home tie of our Champions League 3rd qualifying round match against them at Celtic Park back in August where despite our numerical advantage when they had a man sent off we basically refused to adapt, kept recycling the ball and passing it around in front of them and refused to improvise. Then veteran defender Alex Bruce came on, we won a corner, it fell to Boyata who headed it down to Scott Brown who was just inside the box and launched one – which may have been row Z bound – and Bruce threw himself at it, with the result being it deflected off of his outstretched arm and into the net.

Broonie went delirious and after pondering it for a second decided to run into the fans who invaded the pitch and the Scottish press prepared to mount their moral collective high horse. Nobody got hurt though, it all appeared to be pretty good-natured and Brown paid the price with a second yellow and red card which actually saw us having to hold out for the last few mins.

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All’s well that ends well.

But hold out we did and what with Rangers being held to a surprising 0-0 draw against St.Johnstone – who we had decided to let out of our pockets for the afternoon – at Ibrox we stretched our lead at the top to eight points with all teams in the league having played 26 games.

Kris Boyd got pinged with a coin whilst warming up for which there is no excuse and he was decent enough not to make a big deal of it during the match at least. He’s been pretty vocal about it since and there’s no point in trying to deflect here. We are quick to point the finger when other clubs fans do it and our players or staff are affected so have to hold ourselves to the same standard. Late afternoon or early evening games always have that extra potential for stupidity from the stands due to the increased likelihood of prematch drinking and continued actions such as these bury any arguments to allow alcohol sales into Scottish football stadiums for the first time.

Anyway, we now have a healthy lead up at the top. That plus we’be now gone eight domestic games without conceding a goal, scoring 22 and winning every one. We also got to see Bayo for the first time and first impressions are he looks pretty composed but we will, of course, need to see a helluva lot more.

On Sunday after our Europa League campaign is likely finished we will face a very much inform Motherwell team at Celtic Park. Like us, they have won their last six consecutive league matches and have young players like Jake Hastie, Allan Campbell and David Turnbull on fire. Whilst we are looking to tie up our eight consecutive league title they are rampaging towards an unlikely top six league finish with the gap on sixth-placed St.Johnstone now down to only two points – it was 13 points only four weeks ago -and their free-flowing style should make for an entertaining match.  After that, we’re at Tynecastle to play Hearts midweek which is always a pretty raucous and competitive affair. Get through these two and the schedule gets a little kinder for us and less so for our closest rivals. So basically what I’m saying is win these next two league matches and we can only really throw it away.

Anyway, it’s been a mixed bag these last five days. Hopefully, the next eight are full of positives and my cold goes away.

The injuries pile up but we’re still out in front.

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On early Sunday afternoon, Celtic extended their perfect form since returning from the winter break to 5-0 and 14-0 on aggregate.

However, unlike the previous four games, which had all been played at Celtic Park and had all been pretty routinely one-sided domestic affairs we actually had a match to contend with on Sunday.

Early doors St.Johnstone showed some ambition and created a few chances, something which they had, by and large, failed to do in 90 minutes when visiting Celtic Park last Wednesday. But then after about 15 minutes, they resorted to previous tactics of shutting up shop and playing eleven men behind the ball after what could only have been a sudden mass flashback to the 6-0 hiding they had endured on their home patch against the men in hoops back in October. Strange as we wore the away strip that day.

Anyway thereafter Celtic struggled to break them down in what can only be described as a dull and turgid affair as we passed the ball about relentlessly in front of them. Pretty apt for a dreary early February Sunday afternoon.

The game had 0-0 written all over it but fortune favours the brave and Odsonne Edouard came on for his first appearance since a substitute display at Ibrox back in December and his presence seemed to almost immediately spark us into life with Saints keeper Zander Clark saving well as French Eddy blasted a fine effort towards goal from twenty yards out. James Forrest then burst into the box and dinked one to the back post where Ryan Christie was cut in half by Jason Kerr before Clark saved again this time from Scott Sinclair and then finally Joe Shaughnessy booted the ball clear off the line, taking Edouard’s foot in the process resulting the Frenchman having to be subbed off only eight minutes after coming on.

That made you think it really wasn’ going to be our day but enter Timothy Weah as Odsonne’s replacement and he immediately set about terrorising the Perth sides defence This culminated in him taking down a speculative long ball to the edge of the box from Scott Brown rather masterfully before executing a lovely ball to the far post where James Forrest nipped in ahead of the unaware Scott Tanser to prod home the opener. A minute later Forrest was booked for celebrating with the crowd and a minute after that he walked off with a hamstring injury reducing us to ten men as all three substitutes had already been used at this point.

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Kiss the badge.

With ten minutes left this emboldened the hosts to venture forward and after committing everyone upfield for a corner on the 89th minute they were made to pay the price as Celtic broke through Scott Sinclair who released Weah and the 18-year-old played a one-two with Callum McGregor with the return ball seeing Weah bury it to wrap up the points.

Minutes later that Kristofer Ajer got a straight red after losing the ball to Callum Hendry who he then subsequently pulled back and as the last man a straight red was the inevitable conclusion.

So we finished with only nine men but the three points were what was most important and with that mission accomplished as we return to the top of the league and maintain a six points gap over second-placed Rangers.

That being said the bill from the match was pretty steep. Edouard only just back from injury and stretchered off, along with Forrest departing with a sudden hamstring pull and a straight red and automatic ban for Ajer. Even Christie was struggling with a rib injury near the end after the aformnetioned incident where he was scythed down by Kerr in a what should have been a blatant penalty that went completely unnoticed by the officials.

The positives were the continuing impressive showings by Weah who really has breathed new enthusiasm and life into the side with his effervescent displays. I also thought Olly Burke was doing a good job, indeed he nearly scored twice the first from a lung-busting run down the flanks in the first half and I thought him unfortunate to be subbed for Edouard when Scott Sinclair had done absolutely nothing all afternoon. He was also involved in another dismissed penalty incident in the first half which looked pretty clearcut to me and no doubt he would have got it if his jersey had a lot less green and a helluva lot more blue on it. Jeremy Toljan also made his debut after his transfer deadline day loan from Borussia Dortmund with Mikel Lustig going off at halftime with yet another injury. Toljan looked pretty accomplished and surprisingly sharp considering he has hardly featured this season for his parent club.

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The new bhoy.

Elsewhere Rangers got three dodgy penalties as Andrew Dallas made daddy proud via a virtuoso display of breathtaking ineptitude at Ibrox with the home side winning out 4-0 in the end and Aberdeen won 2-1 at Easter Road as the reality of the post-Lennon era starts to hit home and the Dons keep up their unlikely title challenge. Hearts gained a surprise 2-1 win at high flying Kilmarnock whilst Motherwell hammered Livingston 3-0 as the men from the Tony Macaroni faltered to their fifth straight defeat. Dundee also drew 1-1 at Hamilton in a result that doesn’t do much for either side but does signal the beginning of perennial right-hand man Brian Rice’s long-awaited assault on Scottish football management.

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I take it you’ve all seen that What’s App video by now?

On Wednesday we play managerless Hibs who are currently under the temporary guidance of ‘Mr Reluctant’ Eddie May.  It’s at home and it’s pretty much a game in which anything other than a resounding win considering our opposition’s predicament would be seen as three points thrown away. Add in the real possibility that Rangers could drop points that very night as they face a resurgent Aberdeen side up at Pittodrie and a win is vital. The Dons have only lost one in their last eleven domestic games, nine of which have been in the league and that was against us on Boxing Day in an end to end affair. They themselves sit only two points behind the men from Govan.

But what the hell kind of team are we going to put out is the main question? Kieron Tierney has only just returned to light training so is still way off, both Benkovic and Rogic are facing 4-6 weeks on the sidelines, Ajer is of course suspended and then add in the three casualties from the weekend then you have a bonafide injury crisis. It could mean that forgotten men such as Bitton, Jonny Hayes and even Jack Hendry are called back into action some of whom I figured it would seem unlikely we’d ever see in a Celtic jersey again. Encouragingly though Boyata is apparently back into full training with Ntcham, not far behind him and Leigh Griffiths has been included in the just announced Europa League squad so may not be too far off it either.

For tomorrow night, followed by the cup game against St.Johnstone……..again……. at the weekend and then Valencia next Thursday it really is all hands to the pump.

 

Celtic 2-0 St.Johnstone: Six points clear one month into the new year plus transfer deadline day talk.

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In the last update on the blog, I wrote that it was three wins on the spin since the return from the winter break. Well, I guess we can make that four now as Celtic coasted home to a 2-0 win over St.Johnstone which makes it 12 goals scored and four clean sheets too.

At the top of the table we remain and now we’re six points clear with a superior goal difference as well. Not a bad eleven days if you ask me. Incredible to think we’ve already played four games in that time.

Celtic dominated the first half with Saints keeper Zander Clark making a wonderful save from a point-blank Scott Sinclair header. Later on, in the half,  Olly Burke produced a curling effort from the left-hand side of the box which zipped just past the far post. But that aside the visiting side kept it tight and remained encamped around their box for the whole 45 mins with only Rangers legend Michael O’Halloran looking any kind of a threat on the break.

At halftime, you started to wonder if it just might not be our night but five minutes after the restart any such fears were allayed when Callum McGregor had acres of space to advance towards the opposition box after being fed in from the right by Mikel Lustig and he unleashed a storming drive that gave Clark no chance and ended up in the bottom right corner to give the men in Hoops the lead.

A mere two mins later it got even better and the points were pretty much signed, sealed and delivered when the advancing Lustig again fed a ball in from the right, this time to the edge of the box where Ryan Christie left Saints captain Joe Shaughnessy for dead and proceeded to curl the ball spectacularly past Clark high into the far corner to make it 2-0 and more or less game over.

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It’s a beauty from Christie. 

Odsonne Edouard made his long-awaited comeback from the bench and almost scored before Clark made a wonderful save from McGregor minutes later. Then right at the end, Ricky Foster produced a blatant handball whilst sliding in the box to prevent a cross from James Forrest after the Celtic winger had played a cute one-two with Lustig but the referee and the linesman had already decided Celtic had scored enough for the evening so chose to pretend they didn’t see it.

So that was that. As comfortable as you like with the Celt’s keeper Scott Bain a virtual spectator.

That’s our 13th win in our last 17 league games now, 16th win in 20 domestic games and our 12th win in 12 home league games this season.

We now visit McDiarmid Park on Sunday to face the same opposition again and let’s hope for more of the same or better still a repeat of the 6-0 hammering we dished out to them back in early October. Hard to believe that’s four months ago already. I remember it well. It was pretty much the performance that kick-started our season after a, to say the least, tepid start.

Tomorrow is, of course, the final day of the transfer window. By Celtic’s standards, it’s been a pretty active January with most of our business done uncharacteristically early via the signing of striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo and the loan deals for attackers Timothy Weah and Olly Burke. There were of course hopes of a right back arriving though rumoured interest in Atalanta’s Belgium internationalist Timothy Castagne was kiboshed by a price tag of somewhere in the region of ÂŁ10 million.

Scott McKenna was also linked with some social media sources even going as far as to proclaim that a ÂŁ6.5 million fee with Aberdeen had been agreed and that the big centre back was en route via a taxi all the way from Dubai. It was of course baseless. Aberdeen have got the player tied up until 2023 and have already said they think they can get an eight-figure fee from a club down south this summer. Being that they are in rude financial health these days they are under no pressure to sell and can name their price. That price is likely to be too rich for our blood especially when you consider that McKenna is far from the finished article.

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Perhaps the closest Scott McKenna will ever get to wearing a Celtic jersey.

The latest name to be linked is Borussia Dortmund’s Jeremy Toljan, a right back who made 27 appearances for the current Bundesliga league leaders last season but so far none this term. Brendan was quick to dampen any hopes though prematch saying that there’s nothing in it.

Who knows what will materialise over the next 24 hrs.  But with Filipe Benkovic out until at least March suddenly central defence is a concern again.

That aside defender Jack Hendry and midfielder Lewis Morgan continue to be linked with loan moves away for the rest of the season. Considering the improvement we’ve seen in Ryan Christie since his return from a loan stint at Aberdeen I’d say such moves would be good for both young players. It would also trim a very bloated squad that at his way too much dead wood with Gamboa, Hayes, Eboue and Mulumbu other worthy candidates for the dispatch box. As for Marvin Compper, well, they’ll need to carry him out.

All of this and more will be answered in the coming hours. Of course, it could be that nothing happens at all.

As is always the case with a Celtic transfer deadline day………….expect the worst…..hope for the best.

 

Midweek review: Celtic win, Killie keep going and it turns out we did do well in the transfer window.

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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.

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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.

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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.