I know you are as delighted as I am for Callum McGregor. He has matured into a very talented central midfield player. One of our most composed on the ball, his first touch creates space and opens up play.
His 11th minute goal pure gallus, to use the local vernacular. Moussa Dembele did well with his first touch and lay-off into the hole, or to be more precise, the midfield chasm. McGregor sold the Newco defence a ticket to the movies for the afternoon, rolling the ball with the inside of his football, like a carpet bowl, past the cinema contemplating Fotheringham in goal.
Long before this, Celtic imposed their will on the game. As we broke forward, television pictures showed possession stats for the match until that point; Celtic had 85% of the ball. It didn’t stop then, either. Celtic continued to pass and move, dragging hapless shadows in their wake.
I’m going to be flippant about a non-flippant subject, for a moment.
“Right, Leigh, you’re on. Get your trackie off, go to the toilet. We’re out of milk, and you know what Broonie’s like if he doesn’t get his halftime tea, so you better nip to the shop on Aitkenhead Road before you put your top on. And Leigh, bring your lanyard to get back in. Then you can replace Moussa, he’s pulled his hamstring.”
It took Leigh Griffiths 3:17 mins to appear in the technical area after Moussa gave the substitution sign to the bench. I don’t know what was going on, but is an unacceptable delay.
We had possession a few times after Leigh pitched up, but it was a further 3:38 before the ball went out of play, and we were able to compete with 11 men again. Running aimlessly infield with a man waiting to join play offers considerably less utility than knocking it long into touch.
By the time Dembele retired after 26 minutes Newco were punch drunk. Allowing them to play against 10 men for 7:05 mins gave them a breather. They were able to pass the ball for the first time in the match, recharge batteries and get forward. They were unable to do anything with that possession, but Celtic had spent 7 minutes chasing and were not quite as dominant thereafter.
Halliday’s scissor-kick on Patrick Roberts after 3 mins would have resulted in a red card on many other occasions. Scott Brown must consider his suspension appeal stands an excellent chance, if this is the bar.
That wasn’t the end of the treatment dished out to Patrick. Beerman was cautioned for another challenge would could have resulted in more severe action, but the Newco player followed this with a cynical trip on Roberts two minutes later. It should have been a second yellow. Roberts had their number and there was nothing within the rules they could do about it.
The penalty, early in the second half, was a battle between Celtic’s pacey striker, Leigh Griffiths, and Newco’s pacey defender, Tavernier. The latter was schooled by the former. Why Tavernier lunged in so carelessly inside the box will be one of the items on their new manager’s “What’s going on?” list. Griffiths is a huge resource to have on the bench waiting for his chance. He’ll be counting the minutes until Saturday comes.
We were so much on top the temptation to showboat looked irresistible. Lustig, Boyata and Simunovic all ran out of position with the ball when straightforward options were available. As a consequence of this, and similar endeavours, play was more balanced in the final 20 minutes.
When you are so far ahead, there is a temptation to take an extra touch, but that extra touch undermined the system. The Celtic team is not filled with supermen, instead they have a hugely effective system. Stick to the system and we’ll look like supermen, go off piste and it will all get a bit indulgent looking. When we were at our Fabulous Best, we did the simple things very accurately and very quickly until the final third, where we were quicker still, and even more accurate. While we practiced this plan, we were unplayable.
Both teams should improve for the rematch in five days’ time. Newco, surely, cannot be any worse, but Celtic can make more of their dominance.
Raffle for Ibrox Tickets
Do you have a ticket for Ibrox on Saturday? Me neither, but Celtic sponsor, Intelligent Car Leasing, have again given us two tickets to raffle for Mary’s Meals. To win, make a minimum donation of £5 here, then the email confirmation you receive to me, celticquicknews@gmail.com with the word “Pedro” in the subject line. Make sure you enclose sufficient contact details, we don’t have a lot of time to arrange ticket collection.
The competition closes tomorrow at 23:00, so entries will be few. I think we’re going to enjoy Saturday, so get in there.
LIMITED NUMBER OF CQN LISBON THEMED JOCK STEIN T-SHIRTS REMAINING FROM CQNBOOKSTORE.COM – HURRY WHILE STOCKS LAST!
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What a season this team has given us. One of the most memorable in my 45 years. It’s not spoken about much, but we’ve achieved this despite prolonged injury absences to many of our key players. Griff, Moussa, KT, Big Tam, young Paddy, Armstrong etc. My point is that we’ve achieved so much despite a season where we’ve been unlucky with injuries. If we have better luck next season and bring in a couple of quality players we will be some team.
Over on the dark side all they have to look forward to is misery, a never ending purgatory unless they go bust again. Most of their energy will be directed towards the courts, with most of the action there. Craigy Whyte, Mike Ashley, TAB, Warbs et al, EBT appeal…
What a time to be alive. My two old grandfathers wouldn’t believe it if they were by some miracle able to return to the living….
BRTH
Yes, I am sure you are all aware, I get the feeling a great deal of fun is ahead and squeaky bum time for some.
minutes of fun with this , WILLIAM HILL FANPIC, 360 degree interactive, you can find yourself in the crowd, tagged yourself, and have a chance of winning cup final tickets.
i also took one for the team and scanned the blue and orange sections of the crowd in my duties as van helstivs, zombie finder general.
i need to report back, that as i found an almost human like visog, with some teeth and both noses, i tagged the unlikely chap as
“a. hansom hoon”.
the very sophisticated software however was able to see my deception and replied
“there is not one”
http://fanpic.co/wh2/
Dear Pat Bonner,
Listen to yourself back on Radio Scotland and critique.
Ranting rabid nonsense about Scott Brown.
Shut up now!
Loved you as a big amiable Irish ambassador for Celtic, but 1 year on Radio Scotland and you’ve turned into Andy bloody Walker!
How good does this feel compared to this time last year , fecking great so it is and only going to get better
Ewan MacGregor in The Guarduian…
Rangers were woefully passive in the first half – a wild Andy Halliday lunge, which merited a red card,
A snapshot of Rangers’ ragged state arrived 25 minutes from time, Jason Holt playing a free-kick back towards his centre-half Danny Wilson, who promptly passed the ball out of play. This comical, desperate stuff
Only the background din and level of policing rendered this an Old Firm fixture; had the Rangers players instead worn the colours of Motherwell, the on-field spectacle would not have been any different.
over on rangers media, the perennial paranoid purple people are saying “dont tag your name, its a police scotland trick to catch people who were singing songs”
SOAL, not seen you post since I started posting hope a have not scared you off m8 ps you know me
Wee Bawwy on sportsound reckons wer’e not a great team , sevco just made us look like a decent team !!
yorkbhoy – pretty harsh stuff there about motherwell from the guardian – that was the poorest team we’ve played all year !!!
DESSYBHOY on 24TH APRIL 2017 6:37 PM
I read on the twitter feeds from the High Court, that the wee tax bill was known to RFC 1872-2012 in January 2011, so they had outstanding social taxes and a license granted to play in Europe when this was overdue and unpaid.
Im sure Celtic and the RES 12 leaders are aware of this and will act accordingly
The wee tax case matured as tax evasion in 2005 when the Hun responding to an HMRC request, denied having side letters. That is the long and short of it, everything else is dressing it up as n excuse for inaction.
that interactive william hill zoom in function is magic, you can pick out rod the mod and gerry butler.
you can see the absentee landlord now taking an interest.
but you can also see halloween cake john mclelland on the rangers side with jabba trayor (quite ugly pairing if ever there was one).
mcclellands role in the destruction of the first rangers has also never been fully talked about.
I know very few if any will believe me but I think I saw a handsome Hun.
I was on Hols in Playa Blanca last week, This big lad was walking against me and I clocked he had a tattoo on his chest consisting of a an outline map of the 6 counties, coloured in with a Brit Flag. My first thought was that would make a handy target if I had my old armalite but banished the thought & looked at the guy. I’d like to say, I looked him in the eye but he was a foot taller than me.
Think he spotted me looking at the tattoo & grinned as he walked past but much as I hate to admit it this guy was a fair good looking dude.
Canamalar
Thanks for the clarification on that, so this bill was due and unpaid in 2005,why did the Sheriff’s Officers not act then or was it being contested until 2011?
The reaction on FF to the game has been very telling.
Usually after we hump them there is uncontrolled fury – towards us, the officials, or their own players. Since yesterday all I’ve noticed is resignation – sad, quiet, resignation.
Indicative I think of a growing realisation that their problems are not temporary or cyclical – but structural. Someone has posted how much it would take to buy out King and take control of a loss-making club/company, before they could even spend a penny on the team. It is perhaps the most sensible post I’ve ever read on that site and has been greeted with numbed silence.
Make no mistake – the penny is dropping. They can see our title wins stretching towards the horizon. What happens next will be very interesting.
Corkcelt 7.45pm
I don’t believe you, your making that up :-)
cork, and how much had you had to drink ? that and the sunglare can do funny things to a 60 yearl olds vision,
Italiabhoy,
dont be too sure,there are a few that think a £3 million spend next year will see them challenge for the title
Three weeks tonight I will be sitting in Sean’s place,happy days;/)))))
Dessybhoy,
The side letters were not discovered until the city of London polis raid regarding the boomsong transfer in 2009 I think, the info on side letters was passed on to HMRC which confirmed evasion, rather than charge with evasion they tried to recover the money and hit them with fines.
Clogher Celt
If you are about, when Grace was getting belted out yesterday I received a few texts and the old bhoys I was watching the game with mentioned it being “my song” which is obviously a lot of rubbish, BUT due to you and the link you out on here a wee while back I could talk about Grace Gifford and how her husband was tactical when it came to serious things even though he wasnt a well Bhoy :-)
Corky,
Did you count his toes, there’s always something amiss :)
Saint Stivs, 60yr old is being kind more like 70yr old I’m afraid.
Naw I was sober, I swear and I’m sure the guy wasn’t wearing a mask.
Oh and Sincair was shite :)
Fairhill Bhoy
We might be in Sean’s place in the first week of August would be magic if our paths ever crossed in the ole Sanat Pee
(I hope that’s the Sean’s place you typed of)
Any news on when Dembele is likely to be able to play again?
TT
PARK ROAD 67
Guy at work today said Celtic were lucky to escape with a draw .
Trying to hold my laugh back i said , did you see the game ? No just the highlights,Rangers could’ve scored 3 in the second half …yes but Celtic could’ve scored 4 before that and if Rangers went down to nine well …thats when i pished myself laughing and had to walk away …..delusion does’nt sum these guys up.
I would’nt be surprised if they narrow the pitch next week so they can get closer to our players …i fear the worst . If they cant stop us winning they can certainly stop 1 or 2 of our players playing in the final ….
CORKCELT
I’ve read some crazy stuff over the years on here, craaaaazy stuff but that takes the biscuit my man.
A handsome hun, strong medicine indeed you musta been on:)))
HH
Fairhill Bhoy,
I will be in SP 3 weeks on thursday,stag do for 4 nights,
you can buy me a beer if you see me ;-)))
H/T,
Just back on. Trouble with my internet connection. Seems to be happening more often.
Anyway, I realise what you were saying. You’re right too, of course. It’s just that I think Jinky’s treatment by Atletico was the worst I ever saw meted out to anybody.
Corky outing himself :-)
This comment comes under the heading of every cloud has a silver lining.
If big Moussa is out till the end of the season, maybe it would be good.
It will mean that we will have him through the qualifiers etc and earliest sale will be January 2018 as he proves his fitness.
Just a random thought.
HH
Tiny Tim
With Leigh there was a small year and he wasn’t fit for a couple of weeks. Moussa will probs be ok tomorrow :-@)))
Likely out for couple of weeks although I haven’t heard anything official.
Corky
Could you tell if he was a Hun or was he a right good blue nose? Me I can’t tell the two apart. All Huns.
MWD
The worst treatment I ever saw dished out to a player was when big Mulgrew blew on Laughatme. That was dreadful. Laughatme still hurting from the speeding C2O.
MWD
CMcGregor is a talented modern midfield player who can be very effective played in the right formation and position.
The difference when he plays more central is in stark contrast to when he is played out wide and his talent is nullified.
He has great game intelligence with his movement and runs plus excellent shooting ability.
His downside is he couldn’t tackle a fish supper.
In Ronny’s side he was hampered by a playing style and team modeled on the Standing Stones of Callanish.
In Brendans team our movement and creativity free up space for McGregor to exploit with his skill and intelligence.The goal yesterday was a good example of this as Moussa pulled the centre half’s out of position and the full back could not come across to cover as that would have left Sinclair all alone with a clear sight of goal.
He is a pass and move player who can shoot and will only get better as Brendan’s systems fluidity and intelligent players really grasp it.
TET
yir a bad mhan ;)
Turkeybhoy-last night at 9-19pm,feck me you do like the sound of your own voice
Yorkbhoy or anyone else
Know best place to watch game on Sat in York
Saw Oneills but know how badly out if date some of These Celtic bars are
Down south on sat and mightgo through to York for game
Might depend on whether my sister who we are visiting lets me
: >[