Joe Ledley scored the only goal of the game as Celtic restored their four point lead at the top of the SPL but although the visitors didn’t force a save from Fraser Forster this was a tight encounter for most of the afternoon.
The opening minutes firmly belonged to Celtic. Georgios Samaras had a first minute shot deflected wide and Victor Wanyama headed narrowly over from the resultant Charlie Mulgrew corner kick. Inverness’ first venture up-field forced Mulgrew into an important interception on the edge of the area to deny Nick Ross.
The best move of the game resulted in the only goal. Gary Hooper combined with Adam Matthews before James Forrest collected wide on the left. The winger raced forward and fired the ball across the face of goal for Joe Ledley to meet it at the back post and knock the ball home. Back post runs have been particularly profitable for Ledley this season.
Four minutes later Charlie Mulgrew worked the goalkeeper with a free kick from just outside the angle of the box but Ryan Esson turned the ball over.
At half time Celtic could have reflected that despite enjoying the vast majority of possession their lead remained narrow; twin strikers Georgios Samaras and Gary Hooper didn’t have much of an opening.
Early in the second half referee McLean had his first major decision of the day when Richie Foran wrestled Scott Brown to the ground, after play at stopped, with an arm around Brown’s neck. The incident deserved a yellow card but Foran was already booked and the ref took no action. Five minutes later Daniel Majstorovic ambled towards a ball played over his head but Inverness striker Jonny Hayes flew past the Celtic defender forcing Majstorovic into a sliding tackle five yards from his box. Despite making clear contact with the ball, and no protests from Hayes, who continued to chase, the assistant referee indicated to the ref McLean that Majstorovic fouled. McLean showed the Swedish central defender, who was the last man, a straight red card.
Inverness pressed forward and forced Celtic to defend deeply but the visitors were unable to create a genuine chance. On 73 minutes an Adam Matthews free kick from near the corner flag was cutback to Ki, who mishit his shot, which appeared to be going out for a throw in but Georgios Samaras chased the lost cause with some effect.
Catching the ball on the line Samaras spun and darted past Williams, who, already on a yellow card, bundled the Celtic striker off the field. The referee, perhaps mindful of his earlier trigger-happy moment with Majstorovic and failure to punish Foran, gave Williams a second yellow.
Back on an equal man-count Celtic were never again put under pressure although Hayes caught the defence napping to latch onto a 40 yard pass but fired over.
Jinky Samaras could have wrapped up the points late on with a mazy run but he was unable to convert.
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Lenny confirmed on RC that the players told him that it was the linesman that decided re the Dan foul, even though HIS FLAG DID NOT GO UP.
Surely the first thing a linesman should do if he sees an infringement is raise his flag. This is stramge…..
Heading home, always going to be a hard game. Delighted with 3 pointts. Ref was a Hun, HH
El Diego Bhoy,
Sorry for interrupting….
Do you think Guardiola’s poition would be under threat if they lost the title?
He has managed what many believe to be the greatest team in the 150 year history of football on planet earth for the last three years, achieving unimaginable success and truly astonishing, aesthetically beautiful football.
I don’t think Barca will ever sack him, though he may choose to leave at the end of the season.
Hail Hail mate
TJ
Half time.
EDB, if they give up on Pep for losing one league to the multimillionaires of Madrid they would be mental, especially as they could still successfully defend their Champions League title.
The only criticism I have heard of Pep is that he will not change the way he sets the team up. They will always play the same way. Apparently, some of the anti-football crowd are working out ways to counter it now and some Barça people would like to know what Plan B is. Pep doesn’t seem to have one or want one.
Only seen the sending off on a feed on the computer,my take is that there is
no way the mib could have seen enough to warrant giving a foul let alone
a sending off,as those at the game said the assistant never flagged,i think the mib
only took so long making a decision cause he was thinking can i get away with this,
obviosly decided he could
Not sure what all the fuss is about the non flag.
the referee blows for the free kick immediately so has called for the infringement.He obviously has a discussion with the lino before issuing the red card.
Referee is 100% responsible for the decision
Mclean was the 4th official that reported Lenny when he got the 8 game ban!
Watched it again,no way straight red card for Dan.
fekincheetinmasonicbassawhosupportaclubthatisnomore.
My tuppence worth, decent performance but the centre backs were poor and young James looks tired. I get Mulgrini back to CB asa quick as possible, he is ponderous and lacks focus at left back. In the middle he reads the game better and does not allow the runner in behind him,as he did frequently today. Hin and Rogne must go straight back in, and we need Ledley in the middle so it is essentail we get Izzy up to speed,before the split we have Hibs and The Orcs away,plus the Arabs in the cup.
The MIB showed today why we need to be ruthless and accept therer will be no easy games.
France v Ireland 6 nations game called
re Dan sending off
the ref did not blow for a foul immediately …from where i was sitting
i could be wrong
….PFayr says:
11 February, 2012 at 19:30
Croppybhoy
re KW …has always looked soft to me
quick …that`s about it
he looks well short of all other attributes required.
happy days 1-0 every week!
CultsBhoy loves being 1st says:
11 February, 2012 at 20:02
happy days 1-0 every week!
———————————-
You’re at it,thought 10-0 would be your wish.
….PFayr says:
11 February, 2012 at 20:01
re Dan sending off
the ref did not blow for a foul immediately …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2OJF6_ZMw0
7.23 onwards
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16965526
“Referee Steven McLean says Scotland’s top officials will reap the benefit of their week-long training camp in Spain.”
Oh Aye. They were much better than usual.
What’s the chances he shared a room with standside linesman, Stuart Macauley?
paul67 et al
Rugby Union shows how it is done. Wait until the teams are ready to go out and play the match, and then call it off! You could not make it up! Well actually you could, but then I would not have been able to say that you couldn’t.
Pfayr
Absolutely correct
He waited at least a couple of seconds and the blew whistle
Today’s referee is one to watch.
He will follow follow in the footsteps of the linesman who made the red card decision.
Macauley has precious in not seeing thing like everyone else
Remember the Ricksen kick a Guess who the lineman was?t Aberdeen a number of years ago?
Remember the Huns game at Ibrox against Dundee Utd where Utd had a legitimate goal chalked off for offside when it hit Weir?
Remember the same game the stone wall penalty Utd should have had which would have seen a Hun see red?
The same linesman every time. Always unlucky for Celtic and lucky for the Huns.
Let Andres Iniesta weave his magic,
Let it be 3-2 Barça!!!!
lapsed Barça & St mirren fan
Watchin Barca has reminded me
When are the huns due to pay their next wad of cash to UNICEF ?
Highlights from todays victory over Inverness , apologies if posted earlier
http://www.kirkintillochemerald.co.uk/showthread.php?p=26769#post26769
Mr. McLean you are an embarrassment to yourself and your officiating peers after that display. A blinkered and incompetent display to say the least. The fact is however, we saw the game through and if indeed you have an ulterior motive you must be feeling sick as we speak. How does it feel to stew in that soup?
My shiny new Celtic FC iPad app proclaims we have 7 days 18 hrs 51 min till our next game and every hour will be important to the players after they were kicked from one side of the field to the other.
Still, 4 points clear and the heart shown by the team must have Lenny and Co bursting with pride. I do certainly have an added spring in my step these days and a genuine sense of pride in my team and the players that represent Celtic FC.
Win the league for us Bhoys and the champions league awaits! I’m sure Hootsmon will be delighted to have such and exciting, talented and enthusiastic team represent them in Europe.
The good thing is we have discovered that Celtic are a team who can truly take it on the chin and make the best of what is happening on the pitch. Hats off to our Bhoys!
Voguepunter 19.36
I look down from the north stand,cannot remember seeing flag from north stand linesman,big Dan made an erse of it but still recovered to get ball cleanly. Dirty masonic orange cheatin bastard did not get same view,
Exactly the same as my view and I agree wholeheartedly.
Barca 3-1 down.
Who cares!
The ref was shocking.
We weren’t at our best today but decent performances
by Joe and Sammy.
We have all seen examples of incompetence amongst Scottish refs.
We have also seen, too many, examples of gross incompetence i.e. the sort of thing which causes ordinary mortals their jobs.
What I witnessed today went beyond any degree of incompetence It was pure “makeituppery” i.e. make up your own rules as you go along to best fit your agenda.
In retrospect I can only assume the only reason Joe Ledley (what a player) didn’t get a straight red for the heinous crime of scoring for Celtic was because it was still early and the numpty in the middle assumed he still had time to redress the balance.
Question – is Mclean Collum’s mentor, is it vice-versa or are they twins in some unspeakable way?
Performance not the best today? How could it be?
As a soon to be 70 year old, 1.72m shortarse, even I can stop Sammi winning headers by pushing him in the back – never penalised.
Our attempts at playing football were too often broken up by foul-play, as opposed to nasty or dangerous, by opponents who quickly recognised an extra team mate in a different coloured outfit.
Can see this team/squad following the Big Jock doctrine – performing well enough, with guts and skill – to beat the 12 (or 13, 14) in front of us.
Good young players usually become even better players with experience. One year on I don’t see this lot buckling under pressure, rather expect to see them continue to improve.
Chers
Alex
…sounds like the boul’ lino blue the whistle right enough…….
4-3 then
AAFG
Correct,it’s amazing how these world class referees(c) dallas,cannot see blatant fouls
against Celtic,yet Celtic player’s are a bunch of dirty
fouling so n so’s.
Alot of baffling decisions today
however the one towards the end of the fh
in the corner at the Celtic end was just blatant.
said to a girl in work today that its the wee decisions,eg the huns free kick for their 2nd goal,
that would cause us problems,never realised we would see as blatant an example of cheating
as we did today,suppose the LL will bring up the mini huns non goal to claim its all swings
and roundabouts
All week we have been hearing about how Celtic are getting all the big decisions.
Well apart from-
The penalty for Hearts at CP for, er, exactly nothing
The offside goal at St Mirren, a mile onside
Falkirk Hampden ditto
Today’s red card.
Aye, we are getting everything.
Peter Lawwell, get the finger out, get it sorted.
Gordon
was that the FK that went to ICT when Ledley was fouled
With total disbelief Chick Young announces his contender for manager of the year on shortbread today, was it a guy who has numerous continuous victories – no, a guy who may win the league with a 19 point turnaround – no, or perhaps a guy who may win the treble – no.
No he states Stuart McColl – no joking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stringer Bell says:
11 February, 2012 at 19:18
After watching the huns game today, a though struck me…….
I would love to be a fly on the wall should Kyle Bartley ever make it back to Aresenal..
The look on Vengers face as the once promising pupil of that school of soccer excellence resumes training, and starts halfing everyone in sight in two and shelling diagonal balls 80 yards.
Then there is the now expected turning of a blind eye by officials.
Think Arsene will put back on the first Mega Bus to Glasgow…………..
——————————————-
Everytime I have seen bartley play I have wondered the same thing.
They must put him in a room filled with hate (think clockwork orange? visions of massacres on TV’s, lots of screaming, strobe lights,smoke, LSD and goats running around in fear) to get him prepared for a game.
Then at 2.55pm they unplug him and let him loose. His ‘therapy’ for the next week depends on ‘friendly banter’ he manages and how much has ‘put himself around’
He is a disgrace
Paul67 et al
Just noticed on the SPL site that they have brought forward the match postponed due to the League Cup Final being played on Saturday March 18. That means that we will now play Dunfermline at Parkhead on Wednesday February 22. In effect, if results continue to go our way, we can, in theory at least, open up a nominal seven point lead way in advance of the League Cup Final. Weather permitting of course, there is a real opportunity for us over the next couple of weeks.