Falkirk played some good football at Hampden this afternoon and looked competitive with the bottom half if the Scottish Premier League, but Celtic scored three, hit the woodwork three times and had a good goal incorrectly disallowed for offside, emphasising how comfortable a day’s work it was for the SPL, Scottish Cup and League Cup favourites.
James Forrest reached the goal line and cut back to Scott Brown, whose shot was deflected onto the post before rebounding to Gary Hooper who made no mistake. The nearside linesman did nothing for the reputation of Scotland’s officials by raising his flag despite a second defender being inside the six yard box while the Celtic striker was 8 yards out.
Six minutes later Thomas Rogne got his head onto a Forrest corner but saw the effort rebound from the crossbar. Falkirk maintained parity for 27 minutes before conceding cheaply. Darren Dods, aware of Rogne’s potency at set pieces, hauled the Celtic defender to the ground inside the box from a Mulgrew corner. Scott Brown converted the resultant penalty.
Stokes could have made Celtic comfortable six minutes from half time when he connected with Hooper’s cutback but his shot was blocked. A minute later Falkirk were level. Victor Wanyama misplaced a cross-field pass to Cha in the middle of the field, Emilio Izaguirre had pushed forward while no one dropped back to cover.
Cha and Wanyama both had chances to get tight on breaking Falkirk players but Higgingbotham feigned a shot and rolled the ball into the path of 17-year-old Jay Fulton, who finished clinically.
Within a minute of the break Rogne had a chance to put Celtic ahead again but mistimed his header before Gary Hooper set James Forrest through with Falkirk keeper McGovern to beat but the winger was denied.
Falkirk’s best chance to win the tie arrived six minutes after then break when Fulton drifted in unattended at Celtic’s left but his half-volley from 7 yards flew over.
Thomas Rogne hit the cross bar for the second time with a deflected shot after another Mulgrew corner. A minute later Anthony Stokes put one foot in the final when he lifted a free kick over the Falkirk wall and into the side of the net. It wasn’t the hardest struck free kick but he caught McGovern mid-jump on his line, so the keeper was slow to move to his right.
Falkirk pushed forward whenever they could and Duffy got the better of Joe Ledley to setup Alston but the substitute couldn’t convert. 12 minutes from the end Fraser Forster made an impressive double save after a corner. He stopped the first from Darren Dods and then saved from Stuart Murdoch.
Ledley saw a shot from a Matthews cross deflected over before the Celtic full back cleared at the other end when Weatherston got behind Wanyama to cross.
Gary Hooper secured the win for Celtic when he collected outside the box after 85 minutes, turned his defender and headed for the bye-line. His cross was converted by Stokes with Ledley waiting if needed.
582 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 16
- »
Pod
podium
Oh yes
Treble time
PAUL67
A good summary,bar the mention of Falkirk scoring to go ahead!
ole twisty….
you can’t keep a good man down…. o))
BT
Indeed – it was the semi final too so thats me and BMCUW in the final :-))
Paul67
Too right.
5-1 to Celtic at half time would have been fare.
MWD
I am on the same page as the podium winner.
Same as Falkirk were on the same park
thought you had visitors?
yet you find time to get a podium.. 0)
Phil
As far as I am concerned that is Neil’s call.
Selecting a clearly not match fit izzy is more of a concern for me , agreed ! Taking him off before half time would be a poor decision imho.
Listen. I have ALWAYS slated Cha for 5 years before he landed at CP. He is a liability and always will be…but Lenny selects him therefore he gets my 100% support.
I thought both fb’s were bigger sub candidates than Victor who was having a stinker. Victor wasn’t helped by big Joe or izzy in the first half.
But Lenny called it right ;-)
HH
Welcome to Celtic Pawel!
BT
They left at 11am this morning.
Banknote hoy from previous thread:
Is
“The guy is no Sebo”
the ultimate put down?
tommytwiststommyturns says:
29 January, 2012 at 18:25
Aye and the “sheep” comment was in the same joke vein. Maybe you needed to hear the full joke (and I could not repeat it) ;)
Tommy J
from previous article
You are correct mate. That is a very very young average age.
10 in a row :-) ( but getting the first is the key)
Predictive text not very intelligent with Bankiebhoy
Falkirk’s goal was a massive mistake by our right back who just did not try to intercept the ball for which the cross was made to score. Mathews a must for staring at full back.
That said, apart from another ‘ honest’ mistake we did well.
Hail Hail
KINGLuBo
ps Is the fact that all Falirk’s players have the identiacal name a new record!!
Pat Nevin just said (ok 3 hours ago now) that Falkirk are the better side.
What???
What planet is he on?
MWD
We also found a penalty taker today. For that reason alone he has to start.
HH
Awe Naw….
Agree!
Alls well that ends well!
Although a wee bit worried about Izzy.
He looked off the pace for most of the first half. Maybe just needs games.
Got a Good price for Jury’s hotel in Glasow for 17/ 18th March, £120 incl breakfast. Best price direct with Jury’s is £180 excluding breakfast.
Booked through travelrepublic for those interested.
Vinny
HH
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP, ahead/level. (Phon.) Tomay-toes/tomatoes.
MWD, indeed.
Anyone got a link to the Hooper ” goal ” ?
JJ
Philbhoy, I think Izzy’s discovered Scottish grub, shell pies and the like…. Maybe he should join the fat Bhoy slim club :>)
V
Whats not to like?
Not a fantastic performance but we are in the first final. Signed four (hopefully good players),and the treble still on. Not to mention still top of the league. C’mon ghuys chill and enjoy the rest of your sunday with a little stiffener.
Off out to see Eddi Readerat the Brig’o’doon tonight. Really looking forward to it and the result today will make my evening out all the sweeter.
hh lbb
Is Pawel a Lawwell signing?
Not sure if its been touched upon but id like to say well done to young Fermanagh man Michael McGovern.
I thought he looked like a class above the Scottish 1st division today.
I remember when he played in Henkes farewell game against Sevilla commenting on how small he was for a keeper – he has filled out well and you wouldnt have even thought about size being an issue out there today.
I hope scouts were watching because you deserve a crack of the whip somewhere better.
Guys BBC Scotland were right to give praise to the plucky youngsters of Falkirk. Their starting XI had an average age of just 23.45. While those big old bullies from the East End had a massive advantage with the far superior age average of 23.9.
We need to be able to win when we are not quite at our best and when the decisions go against us.Today’s game was a fine illustration of this. Good job Celts.
El Mad
liesdamnliesCSC
Just back from the game.
dont know what to make of that really, I suspect it looked better on TV than at the game.
A confortable win, could have been more so if linesman was not incompetant and we had been sharper in front
of goal.
We lacked width in the 1st half with izzy refusing to go for the byeline and risk a tackle, always chose the easy option and passed inside, on the other wing Forrest was poor in the 1st 45, not in the game and when on the ball not driving forward.
Brown was very good today and was involved in most things,
Cha can go anytime for me, yes he is as fast as a hare but cannot complete a cross at the end of his runs,
wanyama was flat today,ledley ok.
Why do we persist in pumping high balls up to stokes and hooper, almost won by 64 year old Dodds.
Great at times, frustrating a lot, but the job got done.
So all in all content with game, GB were on form as usual and fans did the team proud again.
Having said that we need to pick up the pace and passing sharpness if we are to get through the hearts game
unscathed.
HH
Mike
All of our three goals from today incase anyone missed them….
http://www.kirkintillochemerald.co.uk/showthread.php?p=26263#post26263
MWD
Pat Nevin also said that a petting zoo alpaca mouthed the words ‘This too must pass.’ to his son as they walked towards Guinea Pig City…
U
Happy to get through today, final beckons, so what’s not to like ?
Semi finals are on lots of occasions poor games. The playing surface always seems bigger, perhaps it’s the big wide terracings from childhood, that has my mind set to “that”, but it just always seems massive.
Reading back, I’m amazed at the number of posts stating the BBC’s commentators felt Falkirk were harshly dealt with at the penalty. Were they Hell, Stupidity Dodds, held Rogne, then continued to foul and grapple the Celt to the turf. Right enough, until that point the lump of wood, had been given carte-blanche to manhandle Celtic’s forwards everytime by the referee (Norris ?).
One worry today was the number of times Falkirk had a man spare in behind our left-back. Was Joe sleeping or being drawn inside ?
Pressley, why is he getting pelters, the guy’s the manager of thye beaten team, eh ? A professional football manager, . He’s probably still buzzing, furious……….in short caught up in the emotions of an emotional game.
Paul67-
agree we were miles ahead without ever really turning it on…job done.
btw -are you aware of posts ‘going missing’ ? ….fairly sure they would not fall foul of site rules :-)
HH
M
2nd half about to start.
Shhhh!!!!
Let me concentrate!!!
MWD
Don’t recognize the game you describe Paul67, apparently we were very fortunate to beat the Brockville Barcelona! As a Rob MacLean paradoxically put it, “the bairns were brilliant but celtic are in the final!”
The BBC coverage was an absolute embarrassment today, Dodds could hardly hide his excitement whenever Falkirk crossed the half way line and in the studio Shiels, Nevin and MacLean were just as cringe worthy
Certainly not a vintage celtic performance but we could have won by 4 or 5 in reality. Delighted that Neil and the bhoys are in another final! I believe the last time we won the treble, we beat killie in the league cup final on the 18th of March; talk about a good omen! :D
Hail Hail!
GG,
;)
I’ve had worse!
(never from a Tim tho’)
HH
When teams go on long winning runs there will always be a few under par performances – easily forgotten about when it finally results in a title or a cup. Sometimes it can be nervy for the players – more often than not for us the supporters!
While not at our best today (plus the state of the pitch and playing at a venue that needs to be full to capacity to create an atmosphere) – we did more than enough to justify our place in the final.
We created enough chances to win the game comfortably even though our passing game and use of pace was not up to par.
Happy with the result – now we can put this competition on the back boiler for the next 7 weeks (likewise if we can dispose of ICT at the first-time of asking next week) and concentrate on the real prize – winning the league.
Me – I would prefer that we take our A Game to Tynecastle when we play the minis. Racking up league wins must be our objective this season – cup wins will be a bonus.
H!H!