Celtic won a hard-fought three points at Inverness this afternoon despite spending the majority of the game looking for rhythm. Inverness looked strong at the back in the early stages and were as physical as Neil Lennon would expect them to be. Both goalkeepers had a single genuine attempt to deal with in the first half; Jonny Hayes forced Fraser Forster to dive low to his right to block a shot, while Anthony Stokes couldn’t get the ball out from under his feet to do better than lob his shot directly at Ryan Esson in the Inverness goal.
Beram Kayal was booked for a needless challenge 30 yards from the Inverness goal near the 30 minute mark but two minutes later Celtic created their best chance of the first half when Hooper, Forrest and Stokes all had attempts in a goalmouth scramble.
The biggest incident of the game occurred after 36 minutes when Greg Tansey was shown a straight red card by referee Stevie O’Reilly when he jumped and put a hand into Georgios Samaras’ face. Samaras clearly took a sore one but a yellow card would not have been an inappropriate decision. Ironically, just a few moments before Tansey’s ordering off, one of the assistant referees jumped to avoid getting involved in play, raising both hands and causing some confusion as his flag was inadvertently pushed into the air.
It took Celtic a long time to make the extra man pay but Ki fed James Forrest on 60 minutes, who played a one-two-three with Gary Hooper. Hooper drew Esson from his goal before squaring a pass to Stokes who knocked the ball into the empty net.
Celtic then created a flurry of chances. Forrest beat his man and fed Stokes on the left but the striker couldn’t find space to get a clean shot away. From the resulting corner Kayal released Stokes who tried to chip Esson instead of squaring for Hooper.
On 72 minutes Hooper fed Forrest, who beat his marker but his shot was blocked and spun into the air. Stokes allowed the ball to bounce before volleying into the bottom corner to secure the points for Celtic.
Despite being two goals and a man down Inverness continued to press Celtic. Foran fell in the Celtic box under pressure from Ledley. Shinnie made the most of an awkward ball by splitting Manstorovic and Ledley but could not get space for a shot.
Neil Lennon replaced El Kaddouri, who had been booked, with Paddy McCourt, which settled Celtic. McCourt allowed Celtic to hold the ball and acquire some composure.
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myboysnowatim
Think you’ve got it bad. It means I can’t step outside the door here. <:O
Non football news………
Saif al Islam arrested trying to flee across border to Niger today. Unconfirmed right now but also believed to be in his group were a G Smith and a D Murray from Scotland
Caley player was watching sammi…
No intention to win ball
Ref saw it coming
Raised arms
Hits sammi in face
Red card?
Technically? Absolutely!
Mulgrew and laugherty square up…
Laugherty throws himself to ground clutching face without anyone near him
Big fuss by media?
Pause….
Nah
A plea to anyone connected to the Green Brigade.
Please maintain your dignity & refuse to meet with any representative of a club who sees no double standards in very public donations of cash to an organisation who glorify the sacrifices of one group of war veterans, whilst denouncing the rights of paying customers who wish to commemorate, through song, the sacrifices of another group of war veterans.
The sheer hypocrisy and appeasement shown by Celtic PLC is astonishing.
You can bet that any further debate on the matter will only be a desperate exercise to prevent a further haemorrhaging of cash to as the stands empty of the dignified-of-mind.
It appears to me that only Irish politics is deemed unworthy of crossing the threshold at Celtic Park.
The game is over. We have all lost.
Win our next 24 games we win the league.
Simples!
The Falcon. Glad to see you toeing the party line.
Keep it up.
MWD
FFM,
Sympathies mate, no rampant Huns near me.
Cults excluded.
Only joking.
Excellent combination of results today but, please, let’s not kid ourselves that today’s performance was good. We won, that’s good. However our performance, especially in the first half, was very poor.
A midfield 4 with Forrest and Samaras as the two wide men is far too weak. Puts way too much pressure on the 2 central midfielders. Given the disparity in resources between us and ICT we should not be struggling to leave Inverness with 3 points.
I note that some are already saying if we win our next 2 games we will only be 4 points behind Rangers next time they take the field. For once, can we just embrace that old football adage, take one game at a time, and focus on Wednesday’s game against Dunfermline.
Forget about next Saturday’s match until Wednesday’s game is over.
Today’s marks.
Forster – clean sheet. Good enough for me.
Matthews – hard to believe he is only 19. Probably the player of the year so far.
Wanyama – another excellent performance but before we get carried away this was ICT he was up against. Still think he is more effective in midfield.
Majstorovic – why does a player with so mnay caps for Sweden, a good quality international team, seem to struggle so much in Scotland? didn’t do much wrong but failed to inspire again.
El Kaddouri – great opportunity to stake a claim for a regular game at left back but let himself down. A poor performance.
Forrest – pretty anonymous in the first half but involved in both goals. Would he be more effective if we played a 4-5-1 aka 4-3-3 where he would have less defensive responsibilities?
Ledley – started centre mid, moved to wide left then finished up at left back. Paying the price for his versatility? Would love to see him getting a regular run in centre of the park.
Samaras – won every ball in the air in the first half but have to ask why we play the Greek centre forward as a wide left midfeild player?
Kayal – effective but nowhere as effective as he was lasts eason. Hoepfully he can play himself into last season’s form asap.
Hooper – combined well with Forrest to set up both goals but otherwise very quiet.
Stokes – may have scored both goals but otherwise was very poor. Why does he refuse to pass to players in a better position? Strikes me as Celtic’s equivalent of Kris Boyd, scores against the minnows but contributes very little to the general team performance.
A win’s a win. We needed the points.
Let’s focus on Wednesday’s game against Dunfermline and hope that Neil Lennon sends the players out with the correct attitude to ensure we get 3 points in that match.
Just out the shower, how did Rangers get on?
0-0 Paul
hee hee
Thought big Fraser played well today good save early on,handled everything that came in to the box and in 2nd half he was off his line sharp to gather the ball a snuff out any danger. Think he is growing in confidence
Also liked him coming out with his leg out towads the striker late on that will have spl forwards think twice about challenging him
Think he is turning out ok
Steve Lomas been reported by the police to the SPL delegate for a gesture to the referee
Watched the match i can understand why Lomas wasn’t happy
Alba Bhoy, Lennie stated El K played with a virus
lionroars67,
An illicit gesture?????
.
Forget The Huns..Forget thinking 2 Games Ahead..
Beat Dunfermline..
Summa
Strachans wise words are proving to be true. In answer to the query ” how do Celtic deal with the impossible task of catching ranglers ” he said “just work at getting a couple of points a month back and then the pressure mounts on thems” .
The weeman speaks and it happens -Thank you Gordon.
But I can easily imagine the wheels starting to coming off the hun bandwagon as long as we keep winning.
If things start going a little pearshaped for them lookout for a dramatic collapse.
StMichaelsBhoy2 says:
19 November, 2011 at 17:27
lionroars67,
An illicit gesture?????
Its not as if the dressing room doors were kicked in
Oh i forgot thats an ex Rankers captain Scottish footballs Mr angry who doesnt get reported
Paul67 et al
Win the next game first, that will be a five point turnaround in four days. Just shows what can happen when we win a couple of games. Hope Neil Lennon resists the (Lawellian) idea that Wanyama is the answer to the centreback position, he is not, he is the mainstay of our midfield. That said, bring on the Pars!
Looks like we have a real nugget in young James Forrest and our wizard of the dribble has a bright future as he matures at his current rate. A great three points secured at this always tricky venue – long grass and all that.
Great to see Anto Stokes in the groove and lets hope he continues banging them in and who knows he may even impress Irish boss Giovanni Trapattoni and get on the plane to Poland for the big Championships next June.
If we manage to win our match in hand the gap reduces to six points and take full points from the next derby game and the title race starts to get really interesting.again.
Paul67
Strathclyde Police have reported Ewan Norris to the SPL for illicit refereeing.
MWD canny believe they didny get a pen. Neither can Ewan Morris stating that he would at a minimum require one Rangers player to enter the opposition box.
Alistair really seems to struggle against non ex Rangers player managers. If only there were a couple more of them in the SPL.
The No.13 Shorts
I’m trying to be more positive about this now- ridiculous as that might seem.
But there’s a scenario playing about in my head that might explain things. It’s no secret DD has been intent on getting us out of the SPL. Supposing something was in the pipeline. Who would feel threatened by our Club leaving, regardless of how much they hate us. Scottish football would quite simply be worthless without a Glasgow Celtic, that’s a given.
So what could they do to stop us? The obvious answer is to blacken the reputation of the Club.
The lack of reaction from the Board has been frustrating this week and what upsets me the most is young Celtic supporters being used as pawns in this whole seedy game. But as always, we’ve no idea what’s really going on behind the scenes.
Tony Higgins just said today that we don’t want our Club’s reputation blackened, “espcially at this time”. What’s so special about now compared to the other countless attempts to do this.
Maybe I’m living in fantasy land though. But it gives me much-needed hope.
Anyway, delighted for Lenny and the players today. That was a difficult one, so a vital 3pts.
Paul67,
That shower didn’t do too good but they somehow managed to gain a point.
Read this headline, then the story, and see if you can find link.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2063482/Rangers-manager-Ally-McCoist-No-January-sale.html?
.
Paul67 says:
19 November, 2011 at 17:23
Just out the shower, how did Rangers get on?
Paul67..Ask Martin42..What happened when JR Ewing Got out of the Shower..
Summa ft DallasCSC
Snake Plissken, really? Excellent news.
Celtic Mac, we appear to be getting Dunfermline at a low ebb but I’ll not be happy until we have more players back from injury.
Moonbeams, unbelievable behaviour by ref at Ibrox. 90+ minutes without goal or penalty?
Myboysnowatim, oh well. I’ll settle for that.
Summa, aye, maybe not.
myboysnowatim
The North East does seem to be relatively hun-free. Remember reading in GG’s book about an OO (they may not even have been from Aberdeen actually) trying to get permission to march in Aberdeen City Centre in the 80s I think. The council caved in. They marched down Union St on the Saturday as is there want, but the people on the streets universally turned their back on them in disgust. They never returned. Love that story. If only the rest of Scotland could see the sense in turning its back on bigotry rather than trying to accomodate it.
jeez_I_thought_blinker_was_pants says @1725
I wasn’t aware of that. That would go some way to explain his performance.
Where’s Sally, surely shortbread will get a word before the twisted sister
act of jabba and anguish come on to invite the usual phone drone
of Dorric fairmer types to talk any old pash as a smoke screen the potential
talk the gash status of the club with the most monstrously ugly gorilla in
it’s pitiful trophy room.
status
bamboo @ 17:28
Agree with that. It’s on the cards. Still expecting Moisty to be shown the door by Christmas :)
The No.13 Shorts – ridiculous comments. I am an Irish nationalist and when I go to Celtic Park I am offended by people singing pro IRA songs. There is no need for it at a football match. It is a stick to beat Celtic with and there is no need to give people that opportunity. Great results today. I really like Wanyama and hae since the first time I saw him. Class act in midfield.
The day gets even better as O’Gara gets another match winning drop goal for Munster in France.
Brian Boru,
I am one of Ki’s biggest critics. I have always recognised that he is quite probably the best football player at Parkhead but too often in the SPL he is sidelined.
what a piece of justice
the hun got bugger all today
the hun commontaters were well pissed off
the tic win
and the them draw
what will we do now????
lets just bask for a moment
then back to the business of humping dunfermline mid week
the thunder is on its way back
oh…..by the way ….what a well behaved tic away support…as always
cant wait for the match commanders report
celtic , celtic, thats the team for me,………
hail hal
ramie
Laughatme just doesn’t have the same skills and experience that “Naisy” has, in fainting goat simulation. That’s want went wrong with them today I expect. Norris will be having words with Moisty about this – how can he award him penalties if he cannae get his players into the box??!
Big month of December coming up for us – away to Dundee Utd, home to Hearts, away to St Johnstone, home to Kilmarnock and home to the Horribles.
They’ve got an easier time of it – home to Dunfermline, away to Hibs, home to ICT, away to St Mirren, then they are infesting Paradise.
hun supporter masquerading as an Inverness fan accusses celtic fans of illicitly standing his name was Craig,his voice suspiciously disguised with hankerchief hanging over phone when calling shortbread
StMichaelsbhoy2
I wouldn’t say either has an easier time.
United are not as good as they were, Hearts might not have a team.
I’d be more worried about the St Johnstone and Kilmarnock games.
St Mirren away and INverness at home is no longer the pushover it might be.
A lot of football still to be played.
Fortunes Favour
Celtic have played so many big games in England at this stage and brought huge support that without any serious incident that DD has no fears in that regard if the move becomes a done deal. Celtic will possibly become the first SPL club to move south of the border.