Brendan Rodgers had to prepare a tired and injured squad in recent weeks as he competed for the League Cup, Europa League and league title. He rested players at Motherwell, bringing criticism from some quarters, but won the League Cup, qualified for the next phase of the Europa League and sits three points clear at the top of the Premiership with a game in hand.
At Pittodrie we saw Celtic move through the gears. Aberdeen are in their best form in years, but could not take a point despite two penalty kicks, one of which should have been tied in a Christmas bow it was so generous.
A little later, Neil Lennon took Hibernian to Ibrox. Neil has a significantly poorer squad than Brendan and is even more affected by injuries, but he would not be defeated. If Celtic turn up at Ibrox with the same attitude they or Neil Lennon had yesterday, they will shred Newco.
Odsonne Edouard looked like a player transformed after a short break. His contribution was critical in delivering the result. Scott Sinclair’s hat-trick thoroughly answered any questions about his form. Both are ready to do the necessary on Saturday.
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God Bless Celtic!
Fek Willie Gollum!!!!
Colloumn us a cheat
D. :)
Is a cheat ffs
D. :)
Feck it can I get 3 in a row
D. :)
https://twitter.com/Tam_Selleck/status/1077983810233479169?s=08
Knowing that no matter what happens on Saturday we will still be top of the league (barring getting pumped about 4 or 5 nil) is a great feeling.??
Now to end the Sleekit G experiment. ?
Bring on the Sevvies
D. :)
Saturday can’t come quick enough for me. I am hoping and expecting that both Glasgow and Edinburgh will be green and white.
So for all our very poor start to the season we are 2 points worse of this year(42 as opposed to 44) but 5 goals better off after 19 games! Aberdeen are 3 points less (36 now, 39 last year) and Sevco 3 points better off (39 now, 36 last year. So despite all that has been written about it being much closer this season, the gap is 2 points less than it was last season; hardly a significant difference.
After Saturday, I expect us to be on 45 points after 20 games with Sevco and Aberdeen on 39 after 21 games – Sevco the same as last season and Aberdeen 3 less than last season. We still have a game in hand on them which we will catch up in January. By the end of January I expect we will have a double figures lead in the league and that will extend as the season progresses. All this with significant injuries, no Griffiths or Dembele (who?) and a poor summer transfer window. And still in Europe!
What’s not to like?
KTF
I’m very confident we will rout them. 4-1, 5-1 and 6–1 are my predictions. Everything is set up for us and massive pressure on them. They are a very average side.
W&GP @ 11.23
Your defence of WC would suggest you have an agenda beyond football.
He was shocking yesterday because he was playing an angle.
He knew what he was doing.
His problem is that he is not a good ref and he is transparent.
He uses his 9 – 3.30 career path to expand his anti CFC agenda beyond what others can get away with. However he is not very good at hiding his agenda — his desire to continuously explain his decision making only helps expose his partial, forced and slanted application of th3 rules of football when he is in charge of our games.
The Sheep forward with the hippy demeanour — WC handling of his continual fouling was beyond parody. How many fouls can you commit before WC takes action …
He was pointing all over the pitch before he took out the card — was it 6, 7, 8 or 9?
Joke of a performance.
Just looked at table , they would have to beat us 8-0 lol to go top.
This is going to be one helluva Saturday, I will start off the predictions right now and go for a 3-1 to us score.
Although I would take any win.
D. :)
!!BADA BING!! on 27TH DECEMBER 2018 11:18 AM
50 Shades- I think most were running out of patience with Scott Sinclair, all credit to Brendan for sticking by him,and helping him get his confidence back.I have posted on here on a few occasions, saying one thing that Scott has never done is hide when he’s on the park, even when nothing was going for him,he would always look to take the ball.HH…..
@@@@@@@#
Even I was beginning to think his days were up at Celtic, but as you have rightly pointed out, he never hid,just hope he can now get back to being ” so wonderful “…
In spite of indifferent form, many of us never gave up on Scott Sinclair. We knew there was still a player in there.
More importantly BR never gave up .
It’s like a new player on the scene . Woohoo.
At Grayskull it will be his name ringing out after 90 minutes by the unbowed 800.
HH.
French Eddie dispatched that wonderful chip past the advancing sheep keeper without even looking up. His awareness is first class.
HH
DAVID66 on 27TH DECEMBER 2018 12:07 PM
They need a 4 gaol victory – if the score 4, we concede 4 so that’s the 8 goal turnaround.
Having said that they are as likely to score 8 as 4; and by that I mean VERY unlikely!
KTF
Oh! And Saturdays game, 1-0 will do me.
HH
FF and Hunmedia is one big house of fun at the moment. This constant cycle of boom or bust with their empty heads is one of the great sights to behold on the journey for them. I suspect SteevieGee will play injured players who will need replaced by half time given the runaround and absolute fatigue of their mediocre squad.
A hammering or one of those rope-a-dope wins where we allow them a lead and then deflate the bigoted balloon in the last quarter. Both do the trick….
Madmitch
Agenda outside football because we dont agree with your thought process. How dare we have a mind of our own and dont sheepishly follow the flock.
Paranoia more befitting of hun media.
The only agenda on my part is the enjoyment I get from watching Celtic.
Nevertheless HH to all.
Need to improve our game for Saturday.
Played very poorly for large parts of the game.
CG plays with the fear — any thinking or planning and he isn’t lost.
He still has his reflexes and his instinct so he still has a bit of class.
However his penalty routine give the game away.
No belief and no confidence — he shrinks when he stands on the goal line.
Consequently lots to do for Saturday.
They will get lucky sometime plus the MIB factor will be in play.
VFR – of course, I am still not with it, too many libations yesterday and Christmas day?
D. :)
A few year back when shug dallas was still in a job in scotland and young Willie Collum was an up and coming cheat with a whistle, there was a picture in one of the daily rags showing young Willie carrying his own and shug’s bag while the bold shug strode on in front with a huge grin on his coupon, some folks will do anything to appease their masters.
Re WC
Reffing a football game is not easy , especially when one team is moaning in your face from the get-go , claiming everything and then developing an inability to stay on your feet. WC has been by and large OK reffing our games , the odd mistake here and there , Shinnie should find himself on a charge ala Alex Schalk.
Aberdeen’s attitude against us has been very poor the last 2 games, you’d think they are a bit pissed about getting the smile surgically removed after last game of last season ….
Gerard will go with 2 up top and pay a heavy price 3 or 4
Sevco, in my opinion, are no better than they were under Warburton, Pedro or Murty. They have been beautifully played by the glib and shameless one. The appointment of Gerrard was a master stroke to allow them to dream, and part with their season ticket money. He fits them perfectly, arrogant with a superior and condescending attitude. This, as we all knew, will not end well. As for Saturday, we should win comfortably but we should also have won comfortably at other away venues this season. Take nothing for granted Bhoys.
GP @ 12.20
You are not arguing against me you are arguing against reality.
WC was shocking yesterday because he was working to an agenda.
Your defence of his performance has to me some sort of loyalty to the individual.
It is the only way I can rationalise your comments.
He was a disgrace to football yesterday.
It came as no surprise to me — the only issue was how blatant it would become.
We were lucky to finish the game with 11 players on the field.
Surprised no one got a second yellow for back-chat.
English FA bottle it with Mo Salah. A blatent dive given the thumbs up.
Either that or they are protecting their own professional officials from allegations of cheating. ?
Their Europa League group , filled with a CGAF Villereal and 2 awful teams in Vienna and Moscow has overinflated the progress under Stevie Gee.
He’ll either park the bus (which they are incapable of doing) and suck the life out of the bigotted hordes as they defend wave after wave or he’ll go with for it with his army of DMs and play hoofball towards the human giraffe hoping More or Less gets a nick.
Stick or twist. He has neither the gumption, the players of tactical nous to do it.
We turn up, we have the right attitude agaiun and we win. Well.
A great wee lunch time choon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBOVMWDTfDU
South of Tunis Hope you ar well and not been affected by the volcanic activity around Etna
Stay safe
KINGLuBO
When Saturday comes ? their, arguably, two most productive players will be too busy defending to be effective in the game, namely Candyass and Tavernbeer, the latter being a piss poor defender.
The raging drug mule will be busy barging, fouling, diving and generally cheating and getting away with it with full approval of the officials.
I’m not going to predict any sort of rout for us because of our stuttering away form but if we turn up on the day there will be only one winner. ?????????
Common sense says if we show up we should win fairly comfortably. If Edouard plays like he did yesterday we will score 3-4. If Sinclair and JF run at them from the start, they will be on their knees before half time.
But . . . I am still a bit more nervous about Saturday than most of you seem to be.
It will be the first time for all of these players to go there (or anywhere in Scotland) and not see a wall of green and white and be lifted by a non-stop massive vocal backing. How much of an impact does that have on the players? I’d like to think not much, if at all, but it still makes me nervous. The players always say it really lifts them. Will the atmosphere mean they treat it more like a European game rather than lording it over them? The ref doesn’t have to worry about any decisions getting booed down either. A quick yellow for Brown and/or Boyata will mean 50,000 screaming for a red after every subsequent tackle, and easy to see Beaton giving one if required.
Another thing that makes me nervous is that even when they play poorly, they create a few chances against us that Morelos normally misses or Bain/Gordon do well to save. One day his luck will change. service to him will be good, especially f KT isn’t playing as he keeps Tavernier pegged back.
Any win and I’ll be happy.
MM,
Its a blog, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Cheers and HH.
Willie Collum had a good game yesterday?
No he didn’t.
He made numerous, incorrect game changing decisions that benefitted one team – and that team wasn’t Celtic.
Such nonsense.
HH. ?
GP @ 12.43
Fair point — let’s see what WC does next.
Deniabhoy
I predict that their mob will be quiet from the first setback, be on top of their own players failings and the only noises our players will hear will be our magnificent 750 in the corner.
Weather the first ten minutes of blood and snotters on and off the field and go after their fragile psyche about playing us (Tavernier must be gutted about Scotty’s new found confidence), being knackered and carrying injuries.
Big win away from home against our perennial rivals. Great opportunity on Saturday to extend our lead to four points going into the break.
Odsonne for Tom the only change if KT doesn’t make it.
Or start with Hayes at LB?
Rumours Boyata has agreed a pre-contract with Roma
Just pished the bed when the FF team are chucking this aboot ???
I completely believe that with better luck with injuries, we’d be well clear of Celtic right now.
Murphy, Kent, Barisic, Dorrans, Arfield and McAuley are currently injured. McAuley aside they’re all guaranteed starters. No wonder we’re struggling without so many key players.
A team of say:
McGregor; Tav Goldson Katic Barisic; Dorrans Jack Arfield; Candeias Morelos Murphy/Kent
That team runs riot in Scotland, the tims and all.
With a decent January window and a bit more injury luck, we can do this this season. If not, we’ll do it next year anyway.