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Celtic v Dunfermline, Live updates

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Live updates will appear below after 19:45 GMT.

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  2. cabbageandbacon on

    No harm here, but we’re pissing about now. Really pisses me off when you see a lazy penalty like that from Ki, seriously need to get the game head back on and start putting these chances away.

  3. tictalker on

    jmbhoy67

     

     

    go on ur Facebook page?

     

     

    its linked to ur name on c.q.n

     

     

    tictalker talking tic

  4. bazflaz75 on

    Can I ask you all to read my article on CQN magazine issue 3 from October about the art of taking a penalty!!!!!!

  5. Kojo on

    Celtic are playing Brillianty..but..nae end product..

     

     

    a Combination of Bad Luck and Poor Finishing..

     

     

    Howevah.. in such a One Sided game..

     

     

    Why disnae Lenny, take the opportunity tae bring oan..

     

     

    Young Dylan..

     

     

    This young man is a Wonderful Talent Aborning..

     

     

    He is ,in Ma opinion. another McGeady type of Player.

     

     

    Kojo

  8. celtic dawn on

    i like stokes and he has done well for us but sometimes he is a bit greedy in a way that hooper isnt

  12. bazflaz75 on

    CAN ALL THE CELTIC PLAYERS READ THIS BEFORE THEY KICK ANOTHER PENALTY!!!! FFS

     

     

    The Art of Taking a Penalty

     

    “Penalties are a marriage of technique and mentality.”

     

    Andy Barton, Sports Psychologist

     

     

    Watching Celtic’s insipid performance 12 yards from goal over the last few seasons has been a constant source of frustration for all our fans the world over. The ease with which Rangers seem to win penalties is another story but we’ll put the pin back in that grenade for another issue. So now let’s try and better understand our mental block: how to take a successful penalty. If this doesn’t work we should call in Derren Brown or Paul McKenna to stop the rot!

     

     

    Did you know for example that in the 2009-2010 SPL season Celtic were awarded 9 penalties and missed 4 of them and in the 2010-2011 season – Celtic were awarded 13 penalties in the SPL and missed 3. This is a good 2 more than Rangers were awarded, yet feels like a lot less. This season we’ve both been awarded 2 penalties each at the time of writing. We’ve missed both so far! So that’s a miss ratio of over 35% in the last 3 seasons. A worryingly high number and one that needs addressing.

     

    When the penalty kick was invented by a fine Irishman, William McCrum back in 1891, three years after Celtic’s formation it quickly became known as “the kick of death”. Well here we are 120 years later and it’s killing us all, slowly. Indeed, in 1998 Gary Lineker a man who is no stranger to scoring a penalty kick or two at World Cup finals made a documentary for the BBC on William McCrum and the penalty kick.

     

     

    Penalty kicks have long been the bane of players and fans or indeed managers. Neil Lennon’s immortal words “I’m sick of it” when asked by BBC Radio Scotland after Kris Common’s recent penalty howler at home to St Johnstone is still firmly burnt into my brain. Thus the need to write this article. So too are we Neil, so too are we?

     

     

    Did you know that as it is, goalkeepers can expect to save about one penalty in four. Unless you happen to be facing Celtic that is! Not good odds, I’ll give you and they get worse during major tournaments, dropping to about one in five. It is a statistic that reflects the huge psychological pressure that haunts keeper and penalty-taker alike.

     

     

    Yet studies suggest many football teams ingore the issue, making little effort to improve their success rates through regular practice. I remember David Beckham scoring outstanding curling free kicks with impunity during his career and his success ratio was put down to practice. So why are our players sneaking off to play FIFA 11 after a light training session or tweeting and posting photos of themselves playing golf in Marbella when they should be practising the noble art of the penalty?

     

     

    Secondly, if it’s all about confidence why can Celtic not find our own penalty maestro (Ray Stewart who scored 76 out of 86 for West Ham) from the handful of attack minded players to stand up and be counted? If we cannot rely on Gary Hooper or Anthony Stokes or indeed Kris Commons who does that leave us? The only one who could hit the target regularly was Daryl Murphy and he’s been moved sideways out the door. I would like to see a ‘penalty clause’ written into their contracts deducting their salary every time they missed, wonder how many they’d miss then! But hey, let’s not be too harsh as even Henrik ‘The King of Kings’ Larsson missed a few in his time!

     

     

    What makes it even harder to stomach when we miss on a regular basis the fact there is now a wealth of hard scientific evidence on the fine art of dealing with penalties. The hardest fact of all is that unless the keeper can anticipate where the ball is going before it is kicked, the chances are it is going straight to the back of the net. So could it simply be explained by the shape OR BLATENT signposting of where the penalty taker intends to place the ball? Eye-monitoring studies by the sports scientist Dr Mark Williams of Liverpool John Moores University in England have shown goalkeepers ignore everything but the legs and feet of the striker, looking for clues on the direction of the final kick.

     

     

    Nightmares of Samaras v Rangers 2010-2011 in the Ibrox title decider anybody? Do we now need to hire a body language coach? Will our strike force be on the dating show Would Like to Meet next?

     

     

    Top penalty-takers such as Frank Lampard of Chelsea are capable of shooting the ball in at more than 80 mph with deadly precision. At those speeds, a goalkeeper who hesitates is doomed.

     

     

    Studies of elite goalkeepers show they have lots of tricks up their sleeve such as making their first move before the ball is struck. Strikers can unwittingly be fooled into aiming their shot to the left if the goalkeeper stands just slightly to the right of the centre of the goalmouth, or vice versa, giving the keeper some idea of the most likely direction of the shot.

     

    So what’s the solution? Many argue we could use sheer brute force as a ball travelling at more than 80 mph not only gives keepers little chance of reaching it, but also minimises the chances of him holding on to it or deflecting it away from the goal. I’ve always struggled with Celtic’s preferred ‘low hitting’ penalty taking compared to the more confident laid back continental types who seem to score all the time by kicking the ball at high speed at a point about 50cm under the crossbar and just inside either one of the goalposts. This takes confidence as well and something Celtic players tend to lack at the moment, which is surprising given our attacking mentality as a whole team.

     

     

    Research has found that nervous players tend to focus on the goalkeeper rather than where they are going to aim. One look at our players and you can probably tell the outcome before a ball is kicked. This makes our best players more susceptible to distracting antics and more likely to give away their intentions. We know the recent outcome of our penalties can be summed up as abject failure which is why we need to address it and build consistency and success back into ALL our set pieces and deadball game as a whole. Celtic have become woeful at scoring from set pieces lately, a hallmark of our Championship winning teams recently under Martin O’Neill where goals and confidence flowed throughout the team from back to front.

     

    In conclusion then successful conversion of penalty kicks matter greatly. As we saw last season they can win or lose you the League title and with it the bragging rights over your deadliest rivals. That is if of course your deadliest rivals are still in business in the future given their own penalty misses with HRMC lately. Again a story that’s already been well documented and discussed.

     

    Here’s hoping Celtic can turn the corner not keep putting penalties around the corner. 12 yards out surely has to be easier than 6 foot under which is where I’ll be if we keep missing!

  25. googybhoy ♥ Celtic on

    You lot are terrible to listen to the game with.

     

     

     

    When we are playing badly it is doom and gloom.

     

    Playing well it is why have we not scored more ???????????;?;

     

     

    Hail hail.

  36. tictalker on

    i posted a link on your facebook page.

     

     

    have you been on it?

     

     

    dont you know ur own page :O)

     

     

    tictalker talking tic

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