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Last season’s Celtic edge over the line

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Shortly after Elfsborg cracked one against the crossbar last night I quickly scanned the Celtic team and had a thought.  For the second season in a row we are taking on the Swedish champions but we’re missing two of last season’s big performers and none of this season’s new signings were ready for action.  In short, this was Celtic 2012 minus Wanyama and Hooper. No wonder we looked unstructured.

Joe Ledley brought some vision to central midfield when he arrived, hopefully banishing the Brown-Kayal partnership to hidden corners of our mind once and for all.  Anthony Stokes playing at the front of a wide diamond was equally effective.  With the signing of Amido Balde, bids in for Kevin Doyle, and the addition of a wide-delivery-expert Derk Boerrigter, clearly Neil Lennon has a different plan for the months to come….. so there’s no real need for me to state the obvious.

Defensively we looked solid after a shaky opening few minutes.  I’m not the only one who was a bit nervous about Efe Ambrose after he was (again) caught underneath a long ball, but he settled quickly.  As we know to our cost, being great for 87 minutes is not how Champions League reputations are made, you are judged on your how vulnerable you become in your weak moments.

I said yesterday that Samaras and Commons were the two players who could cope at this level, which became plainly obvious during the game.  Georgios was the one player who frightened Elfsborg, they either swamped him with four defenders or fouled him before he got near goal.

Kris is simply the most intelligent footballer we have.  He is not the fastest, will never have the best stats, but he understands how games are won and is able to act accordingly.  Without these two players Celtic would be distinctly vanilla.

Thanks to those who sent over their 1254125 Great Scottish Run details, I’ll have them on the page later.
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  3. voguepunter on

    Bada ,

     

     

    Could have been worse……..

     

    You kickinthenakas,bmcuwp,emusanorphan??? etc,etc……….

  7. Hrvatski Jim on

    Neveralone

     

     

    Jimmy McGrory. 15 years as a top goalscorer and never left Celtic. That trumps even Henrik.

     

     

    Agents will ensure something like that never happens again.

     

     

    At least future generations will have all the videos they need to assess players over the ages. All I can do is to pass on stories like that to my son. I reckon that his recent knowledge and my

  8. Stringer Bell on

    What does the Rangers administration have to do with Sevco or Mather?

     

     

    Seriously. They are a completely separate outfit. It’s none of his business.

     

     

     

     

    THE FIRST RULE OF SEVCO. YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SEVCO

     

     

    THE SECOND RULE OF SEVCO. YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SEVCO.

  10. valentinesday on

    Murderwell beaten……hun on mini hun action…the

     

    day’s off wine and roses right enough……..let’s stop

     

    awe the bickering……..and enjoy these great day’s

  11. neveralone on

    Was just touring round the P Thistle website (its a slow evening) & noticed two things of interest:

     

     

    1) Match day tickets £20; concessions £14; under 16s FREE (Away under 16s £5)

     

     

    2) Friday v Dundee Utd – cash at turnstiles all areas of the ground.

     

     

    Good Lord some light at the end of the football tunnel???

     

     

    Well played the Harrys

  13. BIG-CUP-WINNERS on

    The demise of the UEFA, ECWC and latterly the Europa League is very disappointing for me. Don’t understand the rationale behind demeaning the Europa League. The catalyst for the lowly stature of the tournament seems to be UEFA themselves. Sad really, the final of the UEFA Cup in 2003 is probably my favourite memory of supporting Celtic.

     

    I’d personally be delighted if we went into the EL after the group stages.

  14. Hrvatski Jim on

    I reckon that his recent knowledge and my history makes us a good quiz team double act. Swatting up on celtic was always my favourite subject.

  16. voguepunter on

    Roy C

     

     

    Don’t believe wee man would know what a keyboard looks like.

     

     

    You dried out yet?

  18. celticrollercoaster on

    Kelvinbhoy-email this weekend re predictor. Starts in 2 weeks now.

     

     

    Jeez-despite the dodgy team selection, i thought we played u bhoys well and just tired at the end in the 5s CQN hothouse.

     

     

    HH

     

     

    CRC

  19. !!Bada Bing!! on

    neveralone-Would like to see a cash gate at CP,asking guys to queue up for a ticket, then queue again to get in the ground isn’t great.

  21. Can I Have Raspberry On That Champions League Ice Cream on

    stringer bell

     

     

    21:46 on 1 August, 2013

     

    What does the Rangers administration have to do with Sevco or Mather?

     

     

    Seriously. They are a completely separate outfit. It’s none of his business.

     

     

    THE FIRST RULE OF SEVCO. YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SEVCO

     

     

    THE SECOND RULE OF SEVCO. YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT SEVCO.

     

     

    The third rule of sevco, if you haven’t sold enough season tickets…..blame someone else and got the zombies pawning there sovereigns.

  23. Stairheedrammy on

    I dont care if its the CL or the UEFA cup- if the Celts are in it then I’m going. Do supporters only support their team in certain competitions? If so maybe there should be different levels of season ticket- supporter and part time supporter maybe?

     

    Off oot as they say

  24. neveralone on

    !!Bada Bing!!

     

     

    I think it would be worthwhile having ‘exact fare’ gates. With no need for change etc. it would be only marginally slower than ticket gates.

     

     

    There would be security issues of course but perhaps we’d then see police/security actually earning there fees.

  25. Pod I on

    Doc is Neil Lennon @21:42

     

     

    Went to the channel any no signal.

     

     

    Appears (when selecting the help button) that they have detected I don’t have a BT Home Hub 3 or above connected, so I don’t get a picture.

     

     

    Oldhubsarerubbish.

     

     

    P

  29. clunks on

    Thank feck everyone on here seems happy tonight!

     

     

    Lurking this morning am sure we got beat last night, so angry was the atmosphere.

     

     

    Long may it continue,

     

     

    Hail Hail

  30. voguepunter on

    Roy C

     

     

    Was indeed mhate,need to get you a bike for the dash back to Ruggie pub chase.HH

     

    ;O)

  32. Che on

    patrick27

     

    21:07 on 1 August, 2013

     

     

    I live in Glasgow, this year for personal reasons I was unable to renew my SB

     

    Therefore no I won’t be able to get to the CL games if we qualify.

  33. Doc is Neil Lennon on

    CRC, ‘mon the Auldies!

     

     

    Knackered at the end tonight.

     

    When you said there were fifteen minutes to go I thought you were taking the pash.

     

    Same when you said five, four, three! Each seemed like an hour.

  34. Burghbhoy on

    Remember as a young bhoy my dad taking me through to Celtic Park to pick up the Burgh CSC ticket allocation.

     

    These were the days of the Old facade and Jin Kennedy at the ticket office just inside the main door.

     

    Anyway , he also took an old neighbour probably in his eighties and not in the best of health.

     

    Jim introduced the auld neighbour to another auld man coming out of Paradise.

     

    ‘ you’ll probably know this mhan ‘ Jim said.

     

    It was none other than Jimmy McGrory.

     

    They spoke for about 10 minutes replaying past glories.

     

     

    I remember asking ma faither ‘ why is auld Tommy greeting?

     

     

    On the way back home he said it was the greatest day of his life!!

     

     

    James Edward McGrory of Celtic , native of the Garngad , hero to thousands!!

     

     

    Hail Hail

  37. johann murdoch on

    Wonder of the ” penny” will drop for tam Cowan and co about the mullets cup records ..still nearly as good as super Sally’s

     

    #fingerscrossed

  40. Hrvatski Jim on

    So many players come in and out now and we have access to so much international football. This makes it difficult to keep track of who plays where. Still, there are exceptions like Lampard, Giggs, Scholes, Gerard who have stayed loyal to one club.

     

     

    A player needs at least 5 years at Celtic to be a “legend” in my book although I would break my own rule for Lubo.

  41. Patrick27 on

    Che

     

     

    Fair enough, it’s a shame the sky monopoly have all CL control, if we get an English side though ITV/STV might show a game or two.

     

     

    HH

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