It was a risk putting Sam Johnstone into the side on Sunday. He performed well at St Johnstone on his Celtic debut a few days earlier, but game’s like Sunday’s are different. The first such occasion each season also has a regular interest: how many debutants will the fixture feature. Both sides had more than I am sure they would prefer, but isolated at Ibrox, Celtic’s newish faces were the ones who did not adapt.
Viljami Silisano had made one league appearance last season (conceding twice to Livingston) before being thrust into the Newco-Aberdeen-Newco away-game triple-header. Martin O’Neill’s decision to put him in was driven by injury to Kasper Schmeichel, but Kasper carried the same injury for weeks. It was a gamble on Viljami which worked. The same gamble on Sam backfired.
It would compound that mistake to drop Sam for Thursday. He is a Celtic player who has yet to play at Celtic Park and who needs support and to settle into his new role. He will be ready for Ferencvaros and subsequent games.
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Nope.
Beyond bizarre our sweep of world football goalies to bring it stopped at Wolves Number 3.
We havent had a consistent confident GK sonce Fraser Foster
Paul 67
What larks , what larks
Sinisalo doesn’t deserve to be dropped. He hasn’t had a stinker like Johnstone had on Sunday, so a different standard would be being applied. At the same time I understand the logic of sticking with your decision and backing your keeper, so I’m not unduly bothered by the prospect of him remaining in place.
I will say that for all of his exceptional management credentials, MON’s blind spot is goalkeepers. He’s genuinely hopeless at picking them.
Is he markedly a better Goalkeeper than Sinisalo? based on what 1 reflex save, MON has never been good at picking goalkeepers, BR tried to foist De Vries on the team and that didnt work out, if it was me I would go with Sinisalo until his blunders should he make them prove too costly,he is also our player. Adapting to Ibrox you say I call it something else and they let the whole support down, Management and Players the whole lot of them.
Know getting logged out on here is a recurring problem. Now I do not have any problem logging back in. The problem is when working on a post and getting logged out at the point of actually trying to post it. Does anyone know offhand what happens to that text, and if there is any way of retrieving it via CQN/Online etc?
We’re not talking Hemingway here…….
So,another7 arrests bringing the total to 50,after the”Title Party” in Glasgow.The majority of these arrests must be facial recognition,as they were not made on the day.God only knows what the 50 were doing,to be charged.
At Ibrox on Sunday,a Policeman was assaulted,and one fan charged with Sectarianism.One fan from 30,000 belting out Sectarian filth for around 2 full hours.If Facial recognition can be used elsewhere,why not on Sunday?Not difficult,just stand there,and click away.If you arrest one fan for it,not an argument to be found for not incriminating,say,another 100 breaking the law.The old excuse that you cant have police putting themselves in danger,going in to pull fans out,has gone.As usual different standards apply.
Paul 67,
Sam Johnstone is still officially registered with Wolves, in other words he is still a Wolves player who is on a standard loan to us for possibly a season.
Without an option to buy.
He could potentially be recalled by Wolves in January if they deemed it necessary.
Similar to us recalling Stephen Welsh from Motherwell.
V Sinisalo is our own goalkeeper who waited a very long time for his chance. He is not injured and does not deserve to be dropped.
It is /was a poor football decision and an even worse management decision. ( No matter what we have promised Wolves )
HH.
Unless the midfied improves, who plays in goal don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world
our goalkeepers have mostly been excellent now for 20 years.
sam has a long way to go to convince.
sinisalo imho didnt do much wrong and is growing in stature.
big slap in the face to be dropped.
what that saying about creating your own stresses
Wur club seems to have a penchant – if not fetish – for unloved and ‘seasoned’ Ee-pee-el goalies.
Experienced Glovesmen who seem to have fallen out of favour or out of love with the game.
Joe, Kasper and, now, Sammy seem to suggest a trend or pattern; get ’em in fee-free and rehab them to where their best in certainly good enough for local comps, and esp so that we avoid those pesky buying fees.
At one level, I see the canniness in it.
But having watched in horror on Sunday. I also see such a keeper spooked beyond his ken.
And on the bench, another net-minder wondering what exactly he’d done wrong and feeling dissed.
Introducing Skittish Sam for the hun gemme was simply unnecessary and would have kept til after the International break when he really knew his team and our (coughs) paying oot fae the back patterns better; the Motherwell tie at Fir Park woulda been better than a hate-immersion at iPox.
I’m all for a bit of Martin the Maverick; but this – plus Tounekti – was more Martin the Mindless !
WakeUpAndSmellTheGloves CSC
Oh,and the Police issued a statement saying that 30 to 40 thousand breaking the law,were” Well behaved”.Marvellous.
Glenowen,
Watching to many Black and White movies.”Wise guy,huh.”
Given our weak midfield I would like to see Martin go back to his old formation
3-5-2
To have any chance of competing in midfield we need numbers in there
Yes it’s a gamble
To keep going with 4-3-3 looks like a bigger gamble
Also I don’t think we have a left sided forward available at the mo. Tounekti is not the answer
It gets the our best 10 players on the park instead of compensating with a weaker player to fit the system
Our objective Thursday should be to stop teams having a go at us
From Dundee Utd to the Huns everyone has had a free shot
67ECW
We should’ve kept Sinisalo in until this period of games was over then introduced Johnstone afterwards. Why experiment in such high profile match(es)?
Of course, getting a keeper in earlier would’ve allowed settling in prior to, and for, big games. That might have messed with our profit though, so f*@k that.
Yet another mess of our own making. Lessons & learning & so on.
Even if, a big if, the GK position gets settled we’ll still have our Bootes Void midfield which is the main reason for our on-field woes.
Can Doohan play DM?
Paul67 et al
Sam Johnstone did seem to improve latterly in the second half, at a time when CalMac et al er didn’t and he did make some effective saves towards the end of the game. Would say ‘crucial’ but @ 2-0 or 3-0 down they aren’t really. Reluctantly I will agree with Paul67 here and give him the opportunity to play the upcoming home games. Got quite a physical presence about him and if I was to give him any advice would say, do not invite pressure on yourself, nobody will thank you when it goes awry, and second, take command of your area, decide if you want cover @ the post, or anywhere else, let your defenders know you are there, and if they fail to cover behind you a la KT for the 3rd goal…..give them hell.
If he makes a early save, stop or clearance the fans will get behind him….well most of them anyway
TB
Good spot. Had results been different, the Maltese Falcon offers “the stuff that dreams are made of”
BogartCSC
I haven’t seen the stats pack for the weekend match, but while there was much to criticise Johnstone for in terms of his confidence with the ball, none of the goals have his name on them.
We lost 2 goals from the D and one at the back post. The shots should never have reached the goal.
That said, the keeper looked ‘unconvincing’ at the disallowed goal, his crosses work was erratic and his distribution unkempt.
While Sinisalo is by no means the finished article, he has every right to feel a bit miffed at being dropped. I’m not sure it was necessary to put both keepers in this situation, but here we are.
Not the greatest mistake to give a new keeper 90 minutes,get him settled out on the pitch with the team.
The problem was the game they chose to play him in.Absolute dunderheads.Not saying more,I have said my bit on those in the Dugout.Theres an expensive Coffee shop in Chelsea,missing an old face.
67 European Cup Winners on 15th September 2026 12:34 pm
Given our weak midfield I would like to see Martin go back to his old formation…
3-5-2
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Agree ! What we have isn’t exackerly bulletproof.
And for clarity, I naturally wanted/want Sam to go on to be a great loan success and upgrade between the sticks.
It’s how he was parachuted in needlessly to a powderkeg (turned powderpuff) tie that’s the headscratcher.
Does Johnstone have better distribution or is he a better passer then Sinisalo? Definitely not on the evidence of Sunday. Our triangle of keeper and two CBs became very deep and affected the game. Talk of being spooked does my nut in. Spooked at what, some noise from the Ibrox hordes. Gie’s a break. You don’t have the character, you shouldn’t be at Celtic. Sorry to say, young Tounekti doesn’t appear to have much of it, also. I’d like a formation change for Sunday but I don’t really expect it. Also, do we rest KT and keep hime for Sunday. I hope the boy from Chealsea is good, as we need him.
On balance, I agree.
Stevie Woods is obviously an experienced goalkeeper coach so if he thinks Johnstone is better than Sinisalo that’s good enough for me.
The decision to throw him in at the deep end is perhaps debatable and whilst he wasn’t responsible for any of their goals, his general play couldn’t have done much to settle the nerves of his teammates.
They say something like if you fall off a horse the best thing to do is get right back on it so he’s fortunate another game follows so quickly.
Unfortunately he’ll be under immense pressure and scrutiny, but thems the breaks when you play for Celtic.
If he’s considered the best keeper at the club he should retain the gloves.
‘Godwins Law’ is a well known maxim which states that sooner or later in any debate Hitler and or the Nazis will be invoked to support their view……
I hereby propose to introduce the “Tounetki Law” in view of the fact that it is only a matter of time, regardless of the subject matter on here, in this case goalkeepers,…….when someone, one of the usual suspects er usually, comes on to blame Sebastian……..for all things wrong Celtica…..
Also, Tierney is getting stick for their second goal, the scorer unmarked at the back post.
To be fair to Tierney, he did the orthodox thing – both centre halfs went to the ball, leaving Neil alone in the centre of the goal. Tierney shuffled across accordingly, leaving the back post uncovered.
It was Scales who migrated out of his zone and onto CCV’s back that screwed up the shape. Tierney did what was expected given the circs.
The Keeper got caught up in the horror of the occasion.Imagine,everywhere you look,surrounded my ugly,snarling,salivating,horrific monstrosities,unleashed from the bowels of Hell itself.
In other news,a touch of precipitation,wil do your Roses the world of good.
TURKEYBHOY @ 12:29
I read there were 4 arrests,not sure before,at the game or after.
Celtic Mac
That would work. We could also have Brendans Law – that one could even be reserved for the headline article
Celtic Mac
If it pleases you we will all refrain from heaping the deserved amount of abuse,on the aforementioned Tounetki.
In future he,as you put it,will be named” Sebastian”.
BJB
A bit mudled reporting.Not sure if the arrest at the Bristol Bar was included.
Just another example.A street brawl,one arrest.
Stevie Woods is obviously an experienced goalkeeper coach so if he thinks Johnstone is better than Sinisalo that’s good enough for me.
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and yet, something bothers me.
how long was kasper carrying the injury and kept fist place
Neither are good enough. A selection headache of a bad kind.
turkeybhoy
I should have introduced ‘Donovans Law’ earlier…….
Too late now….
Gordon was a top GK,after Forster
the battered bunnett
If you think KT’s actions count as good defending…….stick with it
In betwixt and inbetween …….does not cut it
3-5-2.
Sounds good,but who do you drop.When fit,AJ,and KT.Up front ,when fit,Jota,,Hassan.
If you play both FBs,you are losing a winger.If you play a winger,lose a FB.What you are getting is all our best players in or out,the middle 3 in the midfield,our problem,remain in place.Do we have the 3 at the back to do this.I am all for change ,but now, have not a shred of confidence in who would implement it.
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2026/september/15/celtic-football-club-statement–danny-mcgrain/
My favourite ever Celtic player
glenowen
Taken as said
Ye gotta roll with it
We need runners and tacklers in the midfield ,like Sutton has said we are small and technical with little physicality , we don’t half miss Maeda for his pressing and work rate from the front, Sorensen and the Dutch lad need to play so we see what they have, we cannot continue with the present 3 .