It was a ballsy move by Martin O’Neill to make five changes to his line-up at St Johnstone last night. Yang was an enforced absence, while Carter-Vickers, Duran, Nygren were rested and Sinisalo missed out to give Sam Johnstone his debut in goal.
Moves like this don’t always work out. It sends a signal to the group that the fixture is less important than those to come. On paper, that is unarguably true, but if the result went the other way, sentiment would quickly change.
The manager’s call proved good, as Celtic maintained their 100% start to the league campaign. We discovered we have acquired a good keeper in Johnstone, who made the save of the night in the first half, while Oliver Sorensen got his first start.
As with earlier games this season, Celtic conceded more chances than is comfortable; I noticed a pattern. Most St Johnstone counter-attacks came when Celtic players challenged to win the ball but didn’t. Some were clear miscalculations – trying to win a ball that was never winnable, others were unfortunate – getting a block on a pass but it breaking kindly for St Johnstone.
These moves pulled our structure out of shape and team a porous look. Are we just over-keen to win the ball back? The decision to press should always be measured.
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From jobo
*RESULTS FROM GAME #9 ST JOHNSTONE 0 CELTIC 1 (BAUR)*
Good evening, friends.
The team lines showed 5 changes to our starting line up including a debut for goalkeeper Sam Johnstone. Against St Johnstone! Ultimately, the result was acceptable but only after what was possibly our poorest first half display of the season so far.
Most of that opening 45 was spent with the ball being within 40 yards of the St Johnstone goal. Loads of deliveries from both of our wingers but most of those deliveries were pretty useless with Høgh in particular deprived of any real opportunities to make any impact. But the clearest chance of the first half came at the other end in the 19th minute. A rare expedition into Celtic’s half saw the cross come into the box for the striker to hit it flush from 10 yards out. Johnstone’s first ever save in a Celtic jersey was a cracker, turning the attempt over the bar.
Goalless at half time and no changes made to the line up. However, we did start to move the ball a bit quicker and engineer some decent interchanges around their box. And with 52 minutes on the phone, we had the breakthrough. After a series of crosses into the box, the bobbling ball was captured by Høgh who slipped it across to Hassan. Our Naughty Boy nutmegged the defender and fired the ball back across the 6 yard box where Baur was on hand for a simple slot away to score his first ever goal for Celtic.
13 minutes later and it appeared that Celtic had a 2nd. A Tounekti lob wedge from the left hand side evaded the goal frame but was headed back into the danger area by Høgh for Hassan to slot the ball home. The linesman had flagged that Tounekti’s cross had gone out of play and with the VARs equipment unable to give a definitive ruling against that, the onfield decision stood. Just like our 3rd goal last Saturday. Oh, wait….
My own stance on this – if the linesman believed the whole of the ball went out of play (and clearly that’s what he did think) then he was right to flag as such. And if there trully wasn’t any camera angle showing that at least part of the ball remained in play then the linesman’s onfield decision must prevail. Yes, last Saturday’s treatment of that principle was completely wrong. But if the match officials in general now apply this law correctly going forward (i.e. starting last night!) then that’ll be welcome by me.
The remaining half hour saw around half a dozen good chances created, most of them involving our substitutes, particularly Forrest and Mheuka. But with none of them created, it made the closing minutes a wee bit nervy before the very welcome final whistle was blown.
It must be very difficult for our manager and coaches to integrate new players and/or try different options when we have a club and fanbase where anything less than a victory is regarded as unacceptable. I can understand why St Johnstone may have been seen on paper as being the easier of the 4 game run that was starting last night. We secured the points and hopefully learned things that will inform the decisions for our next 3 games in 3 different competitions. But I have to say that on countless occasions during the game, different individual players seemed to have no idea what they were meant to be doing – particularly when it came to applying a press against St Johnstone’s back line. If Celtic are going to apply a press, all of the pressing players must surely know what the plan is, and what the trigger to ‘attack’ is. There’s been no evidence of that in recent games. Another week, another rant – I really am turning into an angry old man!
However, we did win. Again!
Celtic have now played 9 games, winning 8 and getting battered in 1. We have scored 22 and conceded 8 (5 were in the 1 game). We sit 5 points clear of Sevco at the top of the league. Hearts are a further point adrift but with a game in hand.
Another really brilliant turnout at the polls, so thank you again for that. For this latest game, 109 provided their nominations. 8 games out of 9 have seen the 100 barrier breached so that’s £24 already to the Glasgow City Mission.
The total votes cast for each player (with my own nominations asterisked) are as follows –
Johnstone*: 53
Donovan*: 51
Murray: 8
Trusty: 0
Scales: 5
McGregor: 3
Baur: 94
Sørensen: 0
Hassan*: 83
Høgh: 6
Tounekti: 8
Nygren: 3
Duran: 0
Forrest: 12
Mheuka: 1
Tierney: 0
Unused subs: Lotomba, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sinisalo, Van den Berg
And so, the *POINTS* earned by each player for the game against St Johnstone are as follows –
25 – Baur
22 – Hassan
19 – Johnstone
16 – Donovan
14 – Forrest
12 each – Murray and Tounekti
10 – Høgh
9 – Scales
8 each – Nygren and McGregor
6 – Mheuka
4 each – Duran, Sørensen, Tierney, Trusty
1 each – Lotomba, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sinisalo, Van den Berg
And the *CUMULATIVE POINTS* after 9 games played are as follows –
155 – Duran
125 – Donovan
114 – McGregor and Nygren
108 – Yang
96 – Baur
89 – Carter-Vickers
87 – Tierney
81 – Hassan
74 – Sinisalo
70 – Høgh
69 – Scales
64 – Trusty
63 – Tounekti
54 – Oxlade-Chamberlain
52 – Forrest
33 – Murray
30 – Engels
26 – McCowan
21 – Johnstone
18 – Hatate
17 – Johnston
16 – Mheuka
14 – Sørensen
13 – Osmand
9 – Ralston
6 – Doohan
3 – Kenny
2 – Balikwisha, Lotomba and Van den Berg
1 – Kennedy
Our next test sees us playing at Ibrox in the quarter final of the League Cup. A High Noon kick off on Sunday against Triggers Broom FC with the game being covered by Premier Sports.
Hail Hail!
Maybe not too many lessons to be learned from the Bodo set up after all…..
Bayern 5-0
As effective as a chocolate fire guard it would seem.
Not to worry. No doubt some primary school playground logic and “toe-to-toe” cliches await.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c99dm80e2r0o
Dale Johnson put his name to the article.
Usual p15h from the Blue Broadcasting Corporation editorial team.
Celtic images prominent in a negative story
“Celtic and Rangers” in that order – only ever used in a negative story.
In the body of the article there is this …
“With Celtic and Rangers’ five-year coefficient falling due to poor performance by Scotland’s clubs”
Factually incorrect on two counts.
1. Individual team coefficients rise or fall based overwhelmingly on their own individual performances.
The performance of other clubs from the same nation …
… while heavily impacting the national coefficient?
… only contributes a small slice to a club’s.
2. Celtic’s coefficient is rising.
We were ranked 58th last year, are 51st this year with more points still to gather
R2ngers were ranked 38th last year, have already slipped to 50th year and …
… having already been papped oot of 2 competitions (which the article does not mention for some reason)
… will gain no further coefficient points this season and will likely slip to around 60th.
Given the plethora of data available online, this is incredibly difficult to get wrong …
… but Fail Johnson somehow manages.
Morons from both sides stormed the pitch, clashed with police and lobbed flares and bottles at one another during disgraceful scenes that were beamed to millions of TV viewers across the world.
From todays DAILY RANGERS.
Only huns had face coverings
No bottles were thrown .
Only one flare was thrown BY A HUN ;it did get thrown backwards and forward a few times.
Good morning CQN
A bright and pleasant morning made all the more bright and pleasant by waking up a Celt.
Just back from a break in Chester and looking forward to the next group of fixtures through September.
Watched first half of Bayern – Bodo last night.
On that showing, 5-0 FT was really harsh.
Caught highlights later.
Bayern simply sped up their attack, scored two worldies, plus another two from hitting second phase balls breaking around the box.
Diagram drawers across the football industry might worried about their jobs, perhaps?
PS – if staying in Chester in future, the Google search suggestion for a tavern showing Celtic matches (Saint Werburgh’s)
… didn’t deliver.
Had to bribe a Leeds fan from Sweden in the Lock Keeper pub with a free pint to switch the TV from Stamford Bridge to McDiarmid Park.
(probably did him a favour)
Have a good day, all.
Remembering the 10 men and boys killed in the Kirkintilloch bothy fire
https://x.com/JeanFind/status/2098056143419408659
https://achilltourism.com/experience-achill/history/kirkintilloch-fire-disaster/
HH
Really can’t get my head around why the Rangers can host a Cup match and not allow opposition fans to attend. For whatever the reason for this, this advantage should not be permitted by the governing body. Pretty confident we’ll beat them handsomely, but still, it shouldn’t be allowed. I’m sure we’ll receive half the gate receipts – right?
What’s happened to CQN? Only four posts since last night.
I will paraphrase Frank Zappa…CQN is not dead, it just smells bad…
CQN is quiet because there is nothing really to moan about on the footie front.
Apart from Europe ( Where we have the oerfect opportunity to redeem ourselves in the Europa) we are winning, albeit not completely convincingly.
If we get beaten in the “lesser” cup game on Sunday, then expect an avalanche of posts.
Remembering the nearly 3000 direct victims of the terrorist actrocity of 9/11. Many of whom came from these Islands.
HH.
PS : I don’t think we will get beaten on Sunday.
What were the punishments, demotions, or warnings, for whoever was in charge of the crowd control in and outside the Huns ground, for the Scottish Cup game by Police Scotland? Can we find out? por cierto.
Mncelt @ 10:23am
Yip. Delicious irony that we get half gate less admin cost.
They get an advantage this season to reward their errant behaviour (fans and board)
3 lock outs of away fans versus our two.
Important to not forget who started this whole thing.
That uncomfortable fact, and its root cause, are NEVER reported by SMSM imbeciles
What do we do with Kasper hogh stick or twist, imo he doesn’t fit our style of play, he has to improve and adapt to our playing system and quickly or he could easily become the next whipping buoy .
The teams from weaker nations and those who came through the qualifiers to CL really did take a pounding this week.
TBH it could have been so much worse for some had it not been for teams like PSG and others taking a more relaxed approach when ahead.
I think we will see the them and us and the big divide accentuated this season.
Listening to the Celtic AM pod with Hamish, he had a coupla chelski blog types discussing our new loanees.
Apparently Mheuka sometimes played on the left wing for the Pensioners.
Wouldnt be the worst idea to let him or Hassan have a tussle with a hun RB.
Our starting mids will shirley be Cal, Mika and Benji, ideally with Sorensen coming on with a bit of bite if we get to see the game out.
Aside; time for Tony and Luke to join Hibs on loan at the next available opporchancity. HH
kasper to score on sunday.
duran and hassan either side.
half the gate receipts, surely a cool million.
see mcinnes talking loser like shite again.
Quad
What about Ox for Nygren initially ?
new article posted.
AN DÚN on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2026 12:08 PM
In isolation, the game last night is one that is very common for Celtic. Mid week, 5 changes, away from home, 3 points. Those are the games that add up to a league trophy come May.
Mon and Shaun have been in place now for near 9 months, not including their 8 weeks prior to Nancy.
Two transfer windows, a preseason and 9 months working at Lennoxtown, I do expect to see better.
We’ve no obvious patterns of play. We don’t look a drilled, coached football team, one that knows what they’re doing.
We’re relying on the big players for a moment of magic to see us through these games.
I think back to BR having Sinclair, Dembele, Forrest etc and we literally broke all football records. That’s what happens when great players are well coached.
I remember reading Rangers fans going absolutely mental everytime we cut the ball back for Kyogo to score under Ange. Do teams not watch us play was their continued enraged question. The point lost on them was that teams couldn’t do anything about it because we were a coached machine.
Mon and Shaun should be getting better out of Hassan, Hogh, Duran, Baur etc
Mon admitted last night that we still need to improve our play but at this point, I have big doubts as to whether himself and Shaun are capable of delivering those type of performances.
This is quite like Lennon football. Reliance is very much placed on the players to come up with something independently as opposed to coaching patterns of play.
——————_———
100% agree – we are not a well coached team IMHO