Ryan Christie is back to his very best. His movement, vision and assists are a significant reason Celtic have scored so freely in recent weeks. Added to the form of Callum Mcgregor, Albian Ajeti, Jeremie Frimpong and Olivier Ntcham, and Celtic have the basis of a dangerous team.
I had no complaints about Livingston’s penalty, defenders tuck their arms in when blocking inside the box and Kris Ajer could have done likewise. No complaints either about the penalty Christie claimed 40 seconds earlier; no player tucks their arms in after they are on the ground. Responding to going behind by scoring twice in six minutes is the mark of champions.
The second Livingston goal and the surrender of territory in the closing moments of the game were more troubling. There was a bit of movement on the ball but it did not get close to Vasilis Barkas’ post. It was saveable. Still, the keeper would be entitled to ask why Serrano was given so much time and space.
Having conceded an unfortunate goal that brought Livi to within another pot shot of taking a point, a team at the bottom of the league should never have got near our six yard box in the closing stages of the game. Their chance in added time would have been a goal were it not for the fact that this was clearly substitute Pignatiello’s first time attempting to header a football. So far, defensive fragilities have ‘only’ cost us Champions League qualification but the bill will grow if we continue to offer up so much space in the final third.
Friday’s article, Applying and Coping with Pressure, discussed what impact the potential of Celtic going top of the table on Saturday would have on Newco ahead of their visit to Easter Road on Sunday. Having given themselves a chance to ‘go 11 points clear of Celtic’ last month, Newco are only a point ahead having played one game more after yesterday’s draw against Hibs.
Neil Lennon and the Celtic players have seen this movie before. They know how to win leagues, uniquely so, in Scotland. Coping with reversals and exploiting opportunities is the attribute of the aforementioned champions.
300 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
MIDFIELD SHIELD CELT on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 3:42 AM
Welcome to the house of fun.
<4.
HHH.
Midfield Shield Celt
A warm welcome to CQN. I’m not sure your denial is strong enough though. I think we’ll have to get a lie detector test sorted for you. 🤣
Hail! Hail!
MSC……….
It’s spelt Hun…..btw ……lol
Only a hun would suggest itherwise!
I just saw — and liked — this one on a YouTube video about the speed of light:
`Light travels faster than sound. That’s why some people appear bright, until they start talking`
Why are we taking such a large squad (24) to Riga?
THELURKINTIM on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 12:55 AM
*JF the blogger….think it wasn’t published due to libel issues….I’m probs wrong….unusual but true ;-))
INIQUITOUSIV on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 1:56 AM
BGFC
My recollection was that the whole Dunfermline squad, including Calderwood, ‘jetted’ out to a very ritzy Mediterranean resort, shortly after the debacle. It seemed an incongruous, and inordinately expensive end to a lackluster season, and struck many observers as ‘a bit curious.’
========================
Ahh – thanks boys. Aye – I think it was JF right enough. Would be good to know if there was hard evidence of wrongdoing – but I guess that would really involve sticking your neck out to make any such accusations public. Completely understandable not going ahead with that one – no-one wants to get caught up in the legal system if they can avoid it.
I just have a recollection that the timing was coincidental with the announcement (I think in the DR) of Calderwood’s terrible illness that he had apparently been fighting for some years – struck me as ‘a bit curious’ too.
Probably looking for something that wasn’t there…and I’m sure the Dunfermline squad felt they deserved the break after a long, hard season.
HH
BGFC
Big Jimmy
If you want to move to Ireland, it is dead easy up to 31 Dec. After that, who knows!
As a UK citizen, you can work, claim benefits or state pension. They are pretty slick at switching all these this over (inc child benefit)
you just rock up at the revenue gaff in the city centre and get your PPS (NI equivalent) number and it all happens after that
pretty sure you would be very welcome but the beer prices may put you off
PS
Plenty of Tories in Ireland in an economic sense; not is a social responsibility sense so much
Standard stuff I hear at work all the time:
1. single mothers getting free prams, scroungers
2. government workers are lazy and the unions won’t let you change anything for he better
3. same gov workers pensions are too high
4. teachers hols and pay are too high
5. teachers have too short a day and i am doing their job with the loads of homework
6. asylum seekers getting houses first
7. if Sinn Fein or Labour/socialist coalition get in the economy will be ruined
8. why are you not sending your child private? You have the money
No point in arguing as they will never change their mind. I just drop a few thoughts here and there e.g.
1. maybe we should send them to the Nuns in the launderies?
2. maybe they do less hours because they are paid less? Maybe they don’t want your to remove their role and become a scrounger? maybe their role is to have a functioning state for you to do your money making?
3. pension is high in terms of rate but from a much smaller salary than you. what is your bonus target again?
4. if the children are not there, who do they teach? Can they take a day off to go follow Celtic in Europe?
5. Fair enough on the homework; kids are pushed hard to qualifications in Ireland. Defer to the top teacher Almore on this one
6. no they aren’t . They are in direct provision hostels and there are not that many
7. ruined economy? Like the capitalists did in 2008? How much are you still paying in Universal Social Charge on top of Income Tax to pay the bank bail out? About 5%, yeah thought so
8. because i don’t believe in a school badge getting my kid a job over an equally good kid from a state school (seen this in action every time i take on an intern)
Sorry for that Jimmy; I just can’t vent at work as i am on my own politcally
Feel great now!
Midfield Shield Celt
Welcome!
Are you in the SNP Cult or a Red Tory?
Where are you on the Poppy debate?
I’m only joking BTW, do your self a favour and don’t reply on those!!!
Very disappointed that fans in stadiums has been pushed back indefinitely.
In Germany, they have a far more sensible approach. Areas that have the virus under control can have home fans in. Dortmund had 10,000 in their 80,000 stadium. All of whom had to be season book holders and local residents from Dortmund
Celtic Park could have a crowd of 6000 in for a game. With the ground at 10% capacity it would be easy enough to socially distance on stairwells and in toilets etc.
I’m very frustrated the double standards applied to our game.
Big George’s …
Happy to stick in my tuppence worth of recollections of 2003.
In the main, I am not interested in blaming others or subscribing to conspiracy theories when Celtic fail.
2005 – our own fault. We chucked it away. 5 points ahead with 2 games remaining? Shocking.
2003 was, IMHO, the most corrupt season in the history of the SPL/SPFL.
There was an orchestrated effort to make sure we didn’t win the league.
The OPTA stats (still groundbreaking then) were instructive.
Almost every major stat showed Celtic and Rangers neck and neck.
Goals scored, shots on, shots off, crosses in to box and fouls won all REMARKABLY similar.
Two stats leapt out – penalty kicks awarded and opposition red cards – Rangers were miles ahead on both (from memory? 2-3 times as many pens, 4 times as many reds)
As to that last day – Dunfermline had 6 bluenoses in their team and had announced to their squad BEFORE the last game that they would be heading for a break in Spain the next morning.
Mr Motivator !!
At rugby park we faced 20 fouls, 4 yellows and a tackle which led to one of our players being carried off.
Rankles to this day.
TIMALOY29 on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 10:38 AM
Very disappointed that fans in stadiums has been pushed back indefinitely.
When was that announced?
I should say, it’s unlikely Glasgow would meet the criteria right now with current infection rates. But it would be nice to know there was a chance of having fans back at some point.
Its the same in Germany where Dortmund had fans in but there were no fans allowed in Munich and Cologne. Schalke’s next home game is also in danger of being behind closed doors.
Let’s not forget that the Germans were seen by many to be mad when they brought the Bundesliga back in May behind closed doors. It was an overall success and the rest of Europe followed suit.
We should be looking at this ourselves.
HOT SMOKED on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 10:46 AM
When was that announced?
____
Gove announced it this morning for England
I expect Scotland will follow suit
Tim 29
Thanks. I suspect you are correct re Scotland.
Cheerio for now.
Re the reclining Pars in 2003…Jim Jeffries was the Killie manager at that time, correct? Another who was jealous of us and our success. And Calderwood was a Hun, not a rangers fan, a Hun…his wife said yesterday that when he feels down she takes him on a drive past ibrox…it makes him feel better. A fellow Tim at the beeb told me that when Calderwood was there, mixing with the hun cohorts in the sports dept, he showed his true colours…blue and orange!
In spite of that, I wouldn’t wish that illness on anyone, not even a Hun.
BGFG 10.25.
It was this blog and it was Winning Captains who posted about it before he left for new pastures ( The Celtic Star )
midfield shield celt
Welcome to this dear green place.
Love the nom de plume, something missing in our Celtic team for the moment.
Not quite sure which line-up will solve the problem, or the best tactics for that matter.
But either way that is the area most in need of addressing, maybe signing a couple or more midfielders will do the trick.
Hail Hail
My recollection about James Forrest taking a back step about the Dunfermline allegations is that his source let him down at the last minute after promising revelations that did not stack up.
I do not subscribe to the “lay down” theory. I think the story of the Pars jetting out on holiday immediately after the game were known in advance and it was far from unknown or beyond hteir means at the time. Watching the match, I see a powerful Old Rangers team wearing them down again and again. A few Dunfermline players that were bigger names did not shine that day and their best player was a young journeyman full back- McGroarty , I think.
Celtic came close to matching them at Killie- we were awarded 2 pens in that match but only scored with one of them. Larsson hit the post too.
I could not honestly see much difference in the opposition performances. Dunfermline were playing away at Ibrox and Killie were at home. Both were top 6 teams but Killie finished 11 points clear of the Pars in 4th and 5th place respectively.
The only obvious element of unfairness that ws detectable to my eye was that the ball was in play more often at Ibrox where The ibrox club got the ball back quickly enough to prevent delays of game. At Rugby Park, I recall few ball boys and lots of lulls in the game with time wasting.
The best unfairness argument I can make is that we were asked to do as well as them in a game that lasted less long. Normally the ball is in play for less than an hour in a 90 minute match- my guesstimate is that Rangers got that up to around 65 minutes while we were reduced to 55- 57 minutes or so.
Despite there being less time wasting, the match at Ibrox went on a minute or so more, allowing them one more goal (penalty?) to emphasis the gap but I think they would have won anyway without that goal, which, at best, could be argued as an insurance award against us scoring a 5th in Kilmarnock.
So, I do not think that, despite the Huns in charge, thet Dunfermline, as a club, were guilty of mucj more than being under-par (no pun intended), with one eye on their holidays, and forced to run around for longer than the match should have lasted.
Our team were Lions that season and did not deserve what happened to them. No-one ever has or should blame Alan Thompson for the missed penalty or Larsson for his miss or Sutton for his outburst. They had played magnificently and were cruelly robbed of every prize. It hurst badly and some lashed out with bitterness.
I am sure that Rangers were helped to their title but that final day was not a blatant example of it. No doubt Calderwood & Nicholl will have wound up Celtic supporters ever since about the “Lay down” jibe but I really doubt strongly that they ever attempted to mess up their team and prepared them to lose. Maybe did not try their hardest- which team does when you are losing badly- but I doubt they went out to deliberately lose. They did score after all but they were outmatched and derved to lose 4 or 5 goals.
JNP is right
It was Winning Captains- not James Forrest the blogger- apologies
midfield shield celt
By the way, you do not want to be posting in the wee wee hours, lest ye be judged by the company ye keep.
Moonhowlers and er Melbourne Mick
BGFC, A unrelated issue but your recollection sparked another in my head, possibly someone can tell me what the result of that was? On this very site there was an allegation made against Bobby Madhun which promised to reveal more but then went eerily quiet? the basic Gist was that he was a ex-Ibrox season-ticket holder, bus convener, member of the Orange Lodge (possibly Mason) & a Massive In financial trouble gambling addict!
All huge in itself but nothing came of it, is my old memory playing tricks or did this article actually happen?
MIDFIELD SHIELD CELT
Welcome to the madhouse 😁😁
2003 we lost the league on Goal difference.
When we played the Huns first game after split we were 2 up at half time. I thought we would batter them in second half and put goal difference out of the equation.
Huns scored with half hour to go, we won 2:1 but goal difference played on my mind.
Martin O’Neill said that the league would not be decided on Goal difference ( for some bizarre reason
We played Motherwell at Fir Park on a Wed.
It was on TV , but I was away on a work training course and was getting regular text updates and calls from my mate Bheaver ( of this parish)
Motherwell had a man sent off and we were 4 up, with about 25 mins to play. Motherwell looked like they had chucked it.
I went back in to finish my meal with my colleagues.
A few minutes later my mate was on the phone, going off his nut because Martin O’Neill had taken off our strikers and settled for 4 goal win…” because the league will not be decided on Goal difference ”
We disagreed.
The week before Seville we played Dundee on the Wednesday , we were 6:1.
I was beginning to relax slightly about our goal difference.
Dundee got a very late free kick close to edge of our box, Lenny took up poistion to be a one man wall, he looked over his shoulder to check where our defenders where, by the time he looked back, the kick had been taken down the wing , ball crossed into box, Dundee scored.
I started to worry about goal difference again.
I try not to agonise over what could and should have been, however that was a league title that we should have won.
We don’t make DVD’s of seasons where we lose the league and it is possible that my memories are blurred a little but that is how I remember it)
The Onlooker
CONEYBHOY on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 10:27 AM
…………..
Good stuff mate…although at 64 9 nearly 65) years old…Ive missed my chance to move to Ireland.
The Price of Beer in Ireland wouldnt put me off…not by a long way !
LOL
HH.
ERNIE…
Cheers for the Mary Black Link.
HH.
Pubs and Restaurants in England to close at 10pm from thursday.
I think Scotland will follow suit …….although I doubt it will make much difference to Covid rising again.
just as well Ive decided that travelling to England…maybe Blackpool for a wee holiday is OFF for the moment…maybe later in the New Year ?
HH.
new article posted.
I have always thought that goal difference should not be the deciding factor, when teams level on points.
Most leagues use head to head ( as it does away with the goal difference driven by how many you can score against minnows)
2002/03 We still would have lost the league using head to head against DeadCo.
We each won one game Home and Away
Using the confusing Celtic site format of Celtic score first ( rather than home team first!!!).
Both our wins were by 1 goal, their wins were by 2 goals.
H 1:0 W
A 0:2 L
H 0:2 L
A 2:1 W
Have I broken the blog?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3il9rf6lPE
KINGLuBO
MIDFIELD SHIELD CELT
Welcome to CQN 🇮🇪🍀
This is funny because it is true
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo
KINGLuBO
CELTIC MAC on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2020 11:30 AM
midfield shield celt
Welcome to this dear green place.
…………..
Never mind the “Dear Green place etc”….Welcome to NATIONAL LAMPOON HOOSE !
LOL
HH
big jimmy
You’re not wrong there.
Oh and another thing Marks & Spencers denims do not shrink to fit …..
Unless you buy the shrinkfit versions that is…