Penalty box possession and shots from outside the area

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You thought St Mirren were a hard watch?  Livingston won three and drew three of their last six games but did not manage the majority of possession in any of those outings.  Incredibly, they beat Dundee (by four goals), Dundee United and Aberdeen with an average of 39% possession.

If they dug in against the team at the bottom of the league, they will only leave their defensive third to have a shot on goal against the league leaders on Sunday (expect them to shoot on sight).

There will be no surprises.  High crosses into the box will be successfully defended.  There will be no space in front of goal, marking will be skintight, the defensive line will be straight.  The pitch will be terrible, passing and control will be difficult – if you have a ticket, please be forgiving.

If you needed a reason to be concerned more than Celtic’s historical results against Livi, their recent form is impressive.  Livingston have collected the joint second highest points total from their last five games, just two behind Celtic.

The first objective will be to get possession inside their box.  We have the players to make any defender nervous at making a rash challenge with a penalty on the line.  Shots from the edge of the area will be important.  A ricochet did us no harm against St Mirren, against a packed defence, another is very possible.

Teams who win leagues win games like this.  Three points for Celtic here will go a long way to achieving that objective.

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543 Comments

  1. Sláinte Ange on

    “It’s underplaying them to say they will just frustrate us. Their recent form shows they have attacking threats and they will have a go at us.

     

     

    “I think David Martindale has done a great job and they’ve grown throughout the year and where they are now will give them confidence.

     

     

    “They have a good spirit and the two games we’ve played them this season was a good challenge and I’m sure this will be the same. Those previous games against them happened a while back and both teams have improved since then.

     

     

    “We prepare the same way and respect every opponent, but from my perspective, we have to focus on ourselves and if we’re convincing in our football then we’re hard to stop.”

     

     

    “Our supporters have been good all year,” he said. “I understand it’s human nature to get anxious around this time of year but they will be up for it.

     

     

    ‘Our fans can make a difference as it’s unusual our supporters will have three-quarters of the stadium.’

     

     

    “From our side though, we can’t rely on external factors. We need to focus on staying calm and playing the football we want to play.”

     

     

    He added: “The whole idea is that we’re at our strongest at the end of the season.

     

     

    ‘We manage our programme that way to get the players in the best condition for the most important part of the year.’

     

     

    “We have a healthy group apart from one or two from the January additions, so I think those things means we can be strong for that last part of the year which we have to be.

     

     

    “A lot of games are getting decided late and us being strong physically will be important for that. There’s more of an edge to games because everyone is playing for something at this time of the year.

     

     

    “Everyone is more anxious about the outcome and they mean so much more. In terms of pressure, it doesn’t change from the first game against Hearts to the end of the season.”

     

     

    In Ange We Trust

  2. Irish Men will set them Mark M’Ghee.

     

     

    Theres a place…….

     

     

    I ain’t Wim Jansen yet.

     

     

    LOVE is the LAW.

     

     

    CELTIC

     

     

    CELTIC.

  3. Madagascar CELTIC

     

     

    TONTO

     

     

    GO Josip ONTO

     

     

     

    I mean TONTO.

     

     

    My Son said it was thee WORST pitch he played on……….. What does he know? :)

     

     

    Smash them CELTIC.

  4. Good morning all from a frosty but beautiful blue sky Garngad

     

     

    That was a good read that post from Slainte Ange, if as I suspect it was Ange talking.

     

     

    Now we need to get to work today against a team that should not be in the top flight fir so many reasons, football has to be the winner.

     

     

    Big Mark McGhee update….he is still only 5ft 10inches……big for some I suppose.

     

     

    COYBIG

     

     

    D :)

  5. celticforever on

    I remember the old KEVJ account had an obsession with Mark McGhee

     

    too from being someone not taking crap from the board to standing

     

    up to the media etc etc etc

     

     

    Strange that all these PARKTHEBUS accounts have the same obsession

     

    with Mark McGhee

     

     

    On todays match I wish Celtic would just go for it and stop pussy footing

     

    around and playing to the strengths of Livingston

     

     

    If we through everything at them from the first minute we will get our rewards

  6. My son is 26 yrs old tomorrow and the has only been one close league campaign which Celtic has won which he can really remember much about. ….. the famous 2008 double win v Rangers and then ultimately that Thursday night at Tannadice of course.

     

     

    There is a whole generation of young fans who will be similar.

     

     

    9 more cup finals beginning today. Great day for it.

  7. The gut says play GG up front today but is that playing into Livingston’s hands? If we play Maeda is there room on a tight pitch to slide the right passes into his sprints? If it is Maeda do we play three playmakers in the middle of the park? If it’s GG does Maeda take a seat on the bench or come in off the wing? Who’d be a manager! Glorious day for a game of football though.

  8. Big game today. Also my first away game of the season.Had to purchase Hospitality ( Celtic end ) for this game as it’s almost impossible getting away tickets.

     

    Two years ago my Daniel went to his last Celtic game Livy away on the 4th of March and watched us score in the last min with a Rogic equaliser.

     

    This was just before Covid and his illness.

     

    So my other lad and I are off hopefully to watch a stress free comfortable victory where we can all sit and relax us hammering Livvy!!

     

    Fingers crossed.

  9. DANDAN on 6TH MARCH 2022 8:53 AM

     

     

    A lovely post ( and I share your hopes ! ).

  10. Dan Dan @ 8.23am – Beautiful post. R.I.P Daniel.

     

     

    I hope you and your Bhoy have a great day.

     

     

    HH

     

     

    D :)

  11. I have only just seen this:

     

     

    “WINNINGEMMELL on 5TH MARCH 2022 8:42 PM

     

    Think we’ve played Livingston 38 times and lost twice. We lost twice to Leith Athletic in 15 games.”

     

     

    Are the Livi stats accurate? If so, maybe we are more concerned than we should be. Did have a plastic pitch for many/all of those games?

  12. Ray Singh-Carr on

    Good morning from a bright and breezy Torbay. Got a positive feeling about today, let’s have an early goal or two Celtic please and spare my fingernails and BP. I’m going for 2-0 to the good ghuys, Jota and GG. COYBIG ☘️

  13. Hot Smoked we are more concerned than we need to be.

     

     

    But we should not be. We should have more than enough to beat them today in personnel. It is which formation and the pace we start the game at that will dictate the outcome.

     

     

    No profesional sportsman should feel they are jinxed when they come up against an opponent otherwise you are giving your opponent a start. Psychology has a massive part to play in sport and you should be walking onto that park thinking “I’m the fucking man” no one passes me today. Auch you get what I mean. :)

     

     

    3 – 1 The Leather Belts

     

     

    D :)

  14. LIONROARS67 on 6TH MARCH 2022 8:17 AM

     

    ‘Houses of Parliament Westminster loyal orange lodge’

     

     

    ###

     

     

     

    Would I be correct to assume that the membership is exclusively Scots and Ulster Scots?

     

     

    I don’t suppose they’ll be happy that the Prime Minister is a Catholic.

  15. Every pre-game I have the same thought. Surely today is the day it clicks and we give the opposition a drubbing.

     

     

    And today is no exception.

  16. I reckon the squad, and the manager, will be as fired up for this game as they were for the huns game.

     

     

    They have a point to prove and Livi could be in for a drubbing.

     

     

    An early goal and the park the bus tactic is in disarray.

  17. Good Morning all from a glorious, sunny silvery Tay. An omen, I hope, for a long overdue result against Livingston, I hope.

     

    COYBIG HH

  18. Sorry more politics Feel free to scroll by.

     

    From a French journalist.

     

    About that part of Ukraine that we seem to have totally forgotten about or really don’t care about. I think it is probably the latter.

     

    https://youtu.be/AEOy0eRcJxo

  19. Almore – last night,

     

     

    Thanks for getting back to me. Tell him Gerry Hart’s ”bhoy” was asking for him 👍🏼

     

     

     

    DANDAN,

     

     

    I hope you and your son have a lovely day.

  20. Sláinte Ange on

    Sorry if posted alrady, but for all you lovers of EPL ~ statement from hesgoal:

     

     

    We dediced (sic) to stop putting any link of the English Premier League matches on the site “www.hesgoal.com” any more .

     

     

    Sorry for that but we respect the English Premier League holder’s rights .

     

     

    You can continue Watching The English premier League on the official channels TV/Satellite/internet like SKY SPORTS (UK), BT SPORTS (UK), SUPERSPORT (SA) , SPORT TV (PT), BEIN SPORT(AR) …

     

     

    Some useful Sites :

     

     

    https://www.skysports.com/watch/sport-on-sky

     

    https://www.bt.com/sport/watch/tv-guide

     

    https://www.sporttv.pt/guia

     

    https://supersport.com/tv-guide/

     

    https://www.bein.com/ar