Tag: Top of the league

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 vs Rangers or US vs THEM preview!

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I was going to make the fatal mistake of titling this ‘Old Firm preview’ but everyone is outraged by that tagline nowadays so left it out.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon bang on noon the blue half of Glasgow visit Celtic Park.

800 or so hardy souls will make their way to the stadium at 10.30am in the morning to support them with a deadline of 11am to get into the stadium before their little corner’s doors are locked and the barriers are removed to allow the home support to move in.

It seems harsh if you think about it from the perspective of the shoe being on the other foot but this is a situation of their own making so they can’t really complain. Of course, they will and indeed have anyway but then a warped perception isn’t exactly rare amongst Rangers fans. It was the holding company that went into liquidation apparently and not the club. Must have been the club that went into administration though as they got docked points etc but hey that’s all ancient history now isn’t it?!

Anyway to the football and this is a must-win game for our visitors. With a pretty luxurious 10 point advantage at the top of the league in our favour, anything but a win for Steven Gerrard’s team means that any slim hopes of a title challenge become dying embers with only seven games left thereafter and another trophyless season beckons.

The fixture has been pretty one-sided in recent years. We’ve won ten, drawn two and only lost one of the last thirteen. Aggregate wise it’s a pretty incredible 31-7 in our favour over those13 matches. Of course, this season things have been tighter with a dominant 1-0 win earlier in the campaign at home which saw Olivier Ntcham slam home the only goal and then on December 28th Rangers claimed their solitary win in the fixture since coming back up via a 1-0 win at Ibrox. Ryan Jack scored the only goal that day in a game where Celtic were decimated by injuries that saw us lose Tom Rogic, Leigh Griffiths and Izaguirre in the build-up with Edouard and Tierney only able to make the bench meaning Mikey Johnstone was deployed up front as a lone striker and McGregor was pitched in at left-back.

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Who can forget Lustig with the police hat?

We’ll be without Ryan Christie tomorrow but on the positive note Edouard and Tierney should be raring to go and there’s even a chance Benkovic, Tom Rogic and Ntcham – who have all been out with long term injuries – may also play a part.

There’s no doubt that Rogic, Tierney and Edouard were all missed from the starting line-up last time and their inclusions tomorrow should see a totally different approach deployed though of course with Neil Lennon now in charge that would have been the case anyway

There’s also the fact they’ll be in front of 58,000 or so ravenous Celtic supporters with an opportunity to take a vital step towards an 8th consecutive league championship.

For Neil Lennon, it’s a potentially vital match in his audition for getting the reigns at Celtic Park permanently for a second time. Him getting the job is something I have mixed feelings about but that is something that can be debated another day.

His own Old Firm record is pretty impressive having managed the club in 12 fixtures during his first tenure in the hot seat and he won six of them with two draws and four losses. That was against a very different and dollar for doughnuts I’d say a much stronger Rangers side than the one he’ll face tomorrow. Lenny’s record at Celtic Park is of particular note as he has won five of six with only one loss in the tie and an aggregate of 11-4 with four clean sheets. Rangers haven’t actually won at Celtic Park since October 2010. Long may it continue.

Lennon’s record as Hibs manager against Rangers was also pretty tasty having won two, drawn three and lost only one of his six fixtures in charge against the light blues.

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Neil Lennon enjoyed Hibs games against Rangers.

There’s no doubt he gets his teams up for these matches – I can’t imagine why – though so far under his second tenure I have been a bit underwhelmed by our play. Three wins and a draw isn’t to be sniffed at but we’ve needed goals at the death to win two of them and were particularly underwhelming against basement dwellers Dundee last time out on St.Patrick’s Day.

Rangers will come to sit in and play on the break with their big hope being Morelos. He is their greatest threat but also their greatest liability and in the white-hot heat of a partisan Old Firm (don’t crucify me) atmosphere, he could easily crack. If the Celtic defenders are cute enough with him there’s always a chance he’ll sabotage himself.

For me, though it’s all about the Celtic and what we do and player for player we are superior especially with an almost full catchment to choose from so I’m hoping for a quick and powerful start and obviously an early goal. I expect it to be tight though and we’ll need to be patient.  Under Brendan, if it’s okay to even mention his name again yet, I was pretty confident of not only winning almost every time we played them but of posting a big score and we often did ie: 5-1, 5-1 4-0 and 5-0. Recent encounters and events off the pitch though have rained in those expectations but there’s always hope that we can give them a doing.

My prediction…….2-0.

My hope………..10-0!

Dundee 0 – 1 Celtic: A desperate display on St.Paddy’s day but we go 10 points clear.

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Celtic took a giant stride towards capturing an eight consecutive league title yesterday with a last gasp victory over lowly Dundee at Dens Park.

To say the least this was not vintage Celtic – indeed it’s difficult to remember the last time we saw anything I’d call vintage Celtic – and we were seconds away from recording one of our results in years but in the end we prevailed with a last gasp winner which is something we’ve made a habit of recently.

For 90 minute we toiled against a Dundee team who were very blatantly set-up to defend, absorb pressure and try and hit us on the break when they could.

Our passing was slow, our build-up play unimaginative and we seemed to lack any real hunger or energy for the game. Considering that we’d had an eight-day rest since the last match and had only played two games in 15 days there really is no excuse for this.

Dundee posed little to no threat and were happy to sit in which we should have expected considering we are 8-0 up against them over our last two encounters and their precarious position at the foot of the table.

They actually had a few decent opportunities in injury time which was a mammoth six minutes. However, both of their breaks led to nothing via poor final balls and indeed with literally seconds remaining it was the men in hoops who prevailed as record singing Odsonne Edouard played a one-two with James Forrest who had rampaged to the byline before cutting it back to the big Frencham to place it home with side foot finish from close range.

I celebrated wildly with my customary St.Paddy’s Day pint of Guinness in hand as we extended our lead at the top to an almost unassailable 10 points with only eight games to go but that acute moment of joy covered up 90 minutes of sheer frustration. We just weren’t at it and that’s been pretty much the case since Lenny’s arrival. The performance mirrored our displays away against Hearts and at home to Aberdeen last week. Insipid and uninspired are just two of the words that come to mind when describing it.

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We toiled but got the result in the end.

We had actually won our previous 35 straight meetings with Dundee and hadn’t recorded two back to back 0-0 results in a decade so if French Eddy hadn’t slammed home late then it would have been safe to put the result in the disaster category.

But it’s done now and we won. There isn’t much more you can say about it.

The international break now looms this weekend and with the Old Firm game taking place the following Saturday fingers crossed we get through the Euro qualifiers with our squad largely intact.

Good news is Callum McGregor was back and for the first 20 mins of the game at least he certainly seemed to make us tick again. He really is a vital player for us now and of that, there is no denying. Big Filip Benkovic also appeared off the bench and he’s a class act and easily our best defender so hopefully, he’s raring to go in a fortnight. Word is that Tom Rogic could also be returning too and all that married to Kieran Tierney’s recent return to regular first team action we should be in far better fettle than we were for the last encounter with the light blues at Ibrox back in December.

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It was another blue day for Stevie G.

Of course, we gained the opportunity to go 10 points clear due to Rangers’ latest slip-up as they made it no wins in three via a 1-1 home draw with Kilmarnock.  Literally, in the space of eight days, their season has imploded thanks to draws at Easter Road, a cup exit at home to Aberdeen and yesterdays result. Steven Gerrard continues to try and deflect via claims that his players need more protection – as do the Killie players also it would seem going by Connor Goldson’s scything late challenge on goalscorer Conor McAleny – and a hammering against us at Celtic Park in 12 days would really turn the screw.

That aside the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts continued to slip up throwing away the chance to close the gap on the Ibrox men and improve their chances of European football next year in the process.

Anyway, the first Euro match for Scotland comes at 3pm on Thursday in the footballing hotbed that is Kazakhstan and in the surroundings of Astana a ground we are pretty familiar with having played the local team there a few times in Champions League qualifiers in the past few years. Fingers crossed the national team transfer their Nations League form into the qualifiers and that our Bhoys get out unscathed.

 

St. Paddy’s Day preview and what did I miss?

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Just back from a holiday in a far-flung place with poor internet connection where you could forget trying to upload blog updates.

Of course, there was still enough bandwidth to stay abreast of results so after Hibs picked up a surprise 1-1 draw with Rangers a week ago yesterday after being a goal down for most of the match it was pretty disappointing to see us fail to take advantage and extend our lead at the top to a more or less unassailable 10 points.

Aberdeen have been in pretty sensational away form all season and have also been tough opponents for us every time we’ve faced them this term but having won three from three against them as well as having won every home domestic game this season it was a bit of a shock to see it end 0-0.

I’ll also admit I was pretty frustrated at this ongoing nonsense of playing Oli Burke up front as a lone striker when he’s clearly a winger whilst two recognised strikers in record signing Odsonne Edouard and PSG-loanee Timothy Weah languish on the bench. This started under Brendan Rodgers and has continued under Neil Lennon and it continues to mystify me. If Burke was scoring goals for fun then fair enough but he isn’t and has proven far more adept playing in his preferred wing role and setting up strikers for goals.

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Lenny got the team selection wrong. 

I also wasn’t too impressed with the ‘mental fatigue’ excuse which Lenny came out with during the post-match interviews. The players had a weeks rest and if they are mentally fatigued in mid-March then that doesn’t bode well for a title run in and our efforts to capture an unprecedented treble-treble.

Just accept you should have started with a recognised striker, don’t make the same mistake again and we’ll move on.

As for this weekend we, of course, visit Dundee on St.Paddy’s day. As I actually write this our nearest title challengers are currently losing 1-0 at half time at home against Kilmarnock. Of course, if things stay that way then we can potentially put ourselves in a dream position going into the next Old Firm game on March 30th. It’s already a must win game for our opponents given the current points deficit and the fact that they were eliminated once again from a cup competition by Aberdeen through the week. But it will be a potential ground zero scenario if they fall further behind and we can go 14 points clear if we beat them which with only seven games left which makes it increasingly likely we can win the title against them at Ibrox, something which the authorities will be desperate to avoid.

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Reality bites for Stevie G as the honeymoon period with the press ends.

For the first time, Gerrard is under the microscope as it has become apparent that his team generally blow the big games and that most of his personnel changes have been duds. Eros Grezda anyone?

Anyway, there is still 45 mins of football to play over there and the referee Greg Aitken will most likely be getting an itchy trigger finger soon as the game draws to a conclusion.

We should win at Dens Park tomorrow but Dundee will be throwing everything at it as they fight tooth and nail to stay up and we are not the same team without Christie and McGregor who remain sidelined along with a raft of other impact players. Hopefully, Lenny sees some sense, puts a striker on and we go out and do the business making it a happy St.Paddy’s day in the process.

Below is one of my fondest memories from the Patron Saint of Eire’s day back in the day.

The infamous and glorious ‘St.Patrick’s Day Massacre’ of 1991.

Enjoy:

Hearts 1 – 2 Celtic: Lenny is back with a bang.

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So ‘Neil Lennon: Celtic Manager’ the sequel kicked off last night and in some fashion.

Almost inevitably the follow up to the original which departed theatres back in the summer of 2014 was to get its big premiere at Tynecastle stadium, the very arena which has saw the Lurgan man pelted with a coin, assaulted by a fan who ran onto the touchline from the stands and where he has also recorded many a fine victory down the rough the years including a 7-0 Scottish Cup mauling back in December 2013.

Right from the get-go, the Jambos were in our faces with Jamie Brandon, in particular, kicking anything in green and white that crossed his path.

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The Celtic fans continue to back the Bhoys.

Both sides had some decent passages of play and chances but it was Celtic who opened the lead with a wonderful break on 36 mins which saw Sinclair break down the left wing and feed it through to Burke who rather than go for goal himself passed it through to Forrest who placed it into an empty net due to Hearts keeper Zlamal’s attention being on big Oli instead.

On 44 mins the aforementioned Brandon got a straight red for an outrageous aerial clattering of Toljan and with that it looked all over bar the shouting.

But a suicidal pass from our keeper Scott Bain in the second half led to Ajer giving away a penalty which was converted by Oliver Bozanic.

It looked like it would be two points dropped and the heat really on as Rangers were pounding hapless Dundee 4-0 at Ibrox but a nicely dinked ball by Scott Brown from outside the box deep into injury time evaded the head of John Souttar and fell kindly for the ‘Eiffel Rifle’ Odsonne Edouard and he buried it accordingly.

It was kind of surreal seeing Neil Lennon leaping around in joy over at the touchline and you’d be forgiven for thinking he had a DeLorean parked outside so retro was the whole picture but hopefully, this is a sight we become accustomed to over the next few months that being Lenny celebrating.

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Guess who’s back……?

We needed that win last night after the events that had transpired only 24hrs before with the sudden departure of our manager to a mid-table club down south but Neil Lennon really needed it. If we’d dropped any points then the press would have been surrounding him like harbour sharks.

There was some irony in that it was the slow build up play from the back which Brendan Rodgers had been so insistent on during his time at the club which almost undid us.

Lennon now has a chance to get onto the training pitch and implement some of his own ideas which I hope will include ditching this mentality that Brendan introduced of the ball having to be constantly recycled at the back and any direct routes to goal being called off limits no matter what the circumstances or the opposition.

The victory means we retain our eights points lead at the top of the table with ten games left.

Anything other than a win last night would have given encouragement to our rivals – of which there is only really one left now in the title race – and would have fed into the narrative that we were a club in crisis and imploding from the inside.

Not just the win but the nature of it were important almost beyond words and this was a great way for Neil Lennon to reacquaint himself with both the players and the fans. The outpouring of joy amongst the faithful and from the team was universal.

Of course off the field much is being made about ‘sectarian chanting’ from our end and another idiot throwing a coin. Strange that they don’t mention the ‘pedo’ chants from the honourable Hearts fans or the other bile that usually emanates from the stands at Tynecastle which is trumped only by the hymn sheet at Ibrox in its venom. Yes, let’s all just pretend this a west coast of Scotland problem shall we?! Total and utter nonsense.

Anyway, now move onto another vital game – let’s face it they are all vital at this point in the season – against Hibs in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup on Saturday evening at Easter Road.  Our hosts are a team that our new manager – well newish anyway – knows well as he was managing them up to only four weeks ago.

They themselves are going through a purple patch under their new manager, the unfortunately titled Paul Heckingbottom, and have won three games on the spin including a 2-1 win last night at McDiarmid Park against St.Johnstone where they came from a goal down and a sending off to take the three points.

It isn’t going to be easy. Certain players in the Hibs team will have something to prove to their ex-manager with Florian Kamberi, who was the alleged instigator of the supposed player revolt against Lennon at Easter Road, in particular, likely to be going the extra mile.

But the Treble Treble is within our grasp and at the helm, we have a man who lives and breathes the club and clearly has some idea of what he’s doing considering he had a 70% win ratio from 227 games the last time he was in charge so let’s continue to pull behind him and onto victory.