Early on it all looked so easy. Kyogo had an excellent chance saved by McCracken in the Dundee goal, then our usually prolific striker shot wide from 12 yards with the goal gaping. Dundee settled after that, although their earlier attempt, which forced a save from Kasper Schmeichel, was their only chance of the game.
Most of the grumblings around me focussed on the wings, where Luis Palma and Yang were given rare and even rarer time on the field respectively. Palma was supported by the returning Greg Taylor, while Anthony Ralston was on the right with Yang.
Most of Celtic’s play went down the left, even Ralston’s most adventurous passing found Palma. Yang was an isolated bit part to the occasion, so of course he would not be productive.
Brendan Rodgers likes to make changes soon after the hour but last night he moved after 55 minutes. Alistair Johnston, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate came on for Ralston, Paulo Bernardo and Yang. Within 5 minutes the contest was over.
At Motherwell on Sunday, Johnston scored with a well-timed run to the back post, last night, it was an equally well-timed run to the front post, were he scored from the narrowest of possible angles to the relief of the crowd.
Seven minutes later, Arne Engels carried the ball 60 yards before slipping it to Kyogo, who was tripped inside the box. Engels rolled the resultant penalty into the net to conclude the scoring. Many in the North Stand expected the penalty award to be overturned for an adjacent incident – but that will remain between us.
The walk along London Road was punctuated by news from Pittodrie that our nearest rivals had beaten the bookies second favourites for the title. No one on the packed street was conflicted. – Aberdeen do not have what it takes to win the league. A cup is another matter.
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Good morning all from Govanhill. Time to celebrate the Celtic being top of the league again. Shipbank Friday and I shall need beer to tolerate that rabble. Let the good times roll. 👍🍻
Good morning from a damp North Staffs.
Tom
Apparently he got a better job on another continent.
He’s probably top referee in Antarctica
BRRB
Welcome back – don’t get carried away
Gene
I’ll probably get carried in.
SFTB,
Scratch long enough at a Secularist view on closing “Sectarian Schools” and you’ll soon find an attitude that betrays a desire to close only one set of schools- those with RC in their title- and they will be blaming the Catholic population for their existence in the first place.
——-
I’m a secularist who has considered sending his kids to a Catholic school and I think you’re talking nonsense. 👍
” bigrailroadblues on 1st November 2024 7:47 am
Good morning all from Govanhill. Time to celebrate the Celtic being top of the league again.”
You would celebrate the Celtic having a `C` in the name.
It depends on whether you’re a Kafflik secularist or a Prodisant secularist.
Dave Allen CSC
Hot Smoked 8.22
True. 😁
‘The calm and composed Clement of his first 10 league games last season – nine wins and one draw, largely on the back of six goals for the departed Abdallah Sima and six penalties from the diminished James Tavernier’
Tom English. A well said point. The headline to the article is in quotation points – it’s like the mssm are afraid to say what fans themselves are now saying.
Just had a look on the BBC site for the League Cup games and noticed their headlines for the Quarter Final games:
Aberdeen cruised pas Spartans,
Rangers beat Dundee;
Motherwell edged out Utd;
Celtic survived Falkirk scare.
:-))))
`past`.
Good Morning Celts…
SFTBS @ 9:44 PM…
Interesting POTY competition this season JOBO and this caught my eye in the synopsis.
“…pre-match Brendan certainly wrung the changes but kept the balance of the team by doing this on both sides. On the right we replaced Johnston and Forrest with Ralston and Yang. On the left we brought in Taylor and Palma for Valle and Maeda. None of the 4 new starts showed enough to suggest they are of equal quality to the main men.”
The new starts v the main men, while in totally agreement, one wonders what players like Greg Taylor makes of it all.
Of course midfield and upfront face similar decisions, while McCowan, Bernardo, Engels all stepped up you feel the Captain regains his starting berth.
Yet that does not seem set in stone anymore, a bit like his vice-Captain in defence over the October period.
If Calmac and CCV are the main starters then who is benched? Up to now it’s been Bernardo, yet his contribution on Wednesday was immense, and of course let’s not forget Hatate, who made an impact from the bench.
In defence, if, as could well be Greg Taylor sits out the next two matches on the bench, what does the back four look like?
Is Valle a shoe in or do we go with Trusty at left CH and Scales at LB… we’ve saw a glimpse of this and the physicality and personality of that defence was quite striking.
With Idah given the all clear, it looks like Kyogo may well have extra time to find his shooting boots on the bench.
Also how different is the team picked for Saturday’s encounter at Hampden going to be different from Tuesday’s Celtic Park encounter with German’s elite once again our UCL opponents!?
Whatever way we look at it, the changes ring in…
…………………..Schmeichel
A-the ghost-J…..CCV…Trusty…Scales
Engels…………Calmac………..Bernardo
Kuhn……………..Idah…………….Meada
Hatate, Valle, McCowan subs with Forrest, Kyogo when needed.
Some tough decisions there, Palma, Taylor, amongst others looking to see where they fit in.
Hail Hail
BRRB
Try not to over indulge.
“Catholic schools welcome children from families from a range of faith backgrounds: 40% of pupils at Catholic schools are of other faiths or none.”
———–
From a practical perspective i know this to be true if my daughters past school is anything to go by.
When I attended a Catholic school it was exclusively Catholic. ( Incidentally the same order founded my school as Celtic FC. )
If this trend continues the debate over Catholic schools will be mute.
Times have changed. Possibly many vintage CQN’ers own watches but they cannot tell the time.
Hail hail.
BigchipsUK
Stats are revealing, but I read on here that John Beaton is a reformed character.
Bhoyjoebelfast 8.44
I’ll be the only sensible Tim in the Shipbank Joe. 😇
GREENPINATA @ 8:46 AM,
The same in England, I’d bet my old school has more practising Muslims than practising Catholic’s…
Could be one of the reasons they changed the name from St Bernard’s to St Micheal’s!?
Like HOT SMOKED said, there is a different attitude in England to Catholic’s, blaming Catholic schools for sectarianism is unknown down here.
It’s the same all over the world where there is Catholic schools – why is it different in Scotland?
Hail Hail
BIGRAILROADBLUES @ 9:00 AM,
Good to see you on…
Not much has changed, we’re on the top of the league looking down on the sheepies…
Remember, everything in moderation….
….including moderation!?
Hail Hail
Securalist? Is that a real ale? 🤔
Chairbhoy
Cheers! What de fook is moderation?
BRRB,
Enjoy your day. A happy day for you and the publicans of Glasgow 🍻
Enjoyable Wednesday night game v Dundee. I wish there were more occasions when all six fixtures in the league kick off at (almost) the same time.
————————————————————-
To those on the blog who remember The Exiled Tim’s many posts from sunny Bedrock, Southern Spain across the years, it was welcome to receive a message yesterday which included some words about these recent weather disruptions down their way. I trust he won’t mind me updating his friends here;
“Just got leccy & water back on this morning, worst storm since I have been here, some mess to clean up, spent all morning and got about 1/10 of it done, about 2″ thick mud/silt everywhere, outside thankfully, still needs cleaned tho,
ironic that it needs water to clean all the mess that the water made……
Spent a fair bit of time in the spring and summer making a garden, that got washed away, Pool needs emptied as well, such is life, thankfully the Mrs is a bit better.
Great results last night, cheered me up no end.”
————————————————————————–
We hear the music, We feel the beat
Good morning all from Alfredos.
Majestic Hartson. 😁👍
Hot Smoked on 1st November 2024 8:38 am
“Celtic survived Falkirk scare.”
My personal favourite is that we “belatedly” beat Dundee. I’m pretty sure that even if we were 3-0 up at half time we can’t actually beat a team until FT and we beat them when the full time whistle went.
It makes you wonder if the “journalist” even knows what he is writing (“later than should have been the case”) but even if I ignore the actual meaning and read what I think he meant to say it still reeks of entitlement / clutching at straws to dig us out.
It was far from a vintage performance / victory yet it could have been much more comfortable but for Kyogo’s missed chances in particular and hopefully over the season the squad rotation will help.
QB
Completely confident in our squad rotation and constructive use of subs.
When was the last time that was the case ?
HH. IBWT.
And a happy ‘All Saints Day’ – just back from Mass where we sang that old favourite ‘ Faith of Our Fathers ‘
The last verse is worth noting
‘Faith of our Fathers! we will love Both friend and foe in all our strife: And preach thee too, as love knows how By kindly words and virtuous life’
Have a great feast day
Gene
Faith of our Fathers
My old man’s favourite hymn.
One of the best for sure. For many years it was out of fashion. Thanks for sharing.
Alístair Johnston seems to be following what is now a pretty well-worn path to succes in a Celtic shirt.
Signed in Paul67s sweet spot – age, number of club games, international recognition, the right market – in one of our “disastrous” transfer windows, two years down the line we have a player who has developed into an excellent Celt with the help of two managers and the right environment.
He’s only just 26 but already an important leader in the dressing room, a tough, durable winner and a future Celtic captain. He’s a keeper, proof that not everyone needs to be sold when they start excelling.
Credit to everyone at Celtic involved, it’s what smart planning and execution looks like
GuyFawkesaforeverhero on 1st November 2024 9:17 am
Thanks for the update from TET,Glad to hear he is alright and survived that downpour.also good to have an update of his wife’s health.pass on best wishes to K in his cave
HH
AJ needs to be offered a better deal than is on the table,would say the same for Taylor, good full backs are hard to find,and expensive
!!BADA BING!! on 1ST NOVEMBER 2024 10:55 AM
“good full backs are hard to find,and expensive”
Especially ones that will come to Celtic and be good enough.
Look at what we paid for Bernabei, someone who never looked like he’d make it but is doing really well in a tougher league.
Johnston and Bernabei show how difficult it is for Celtic to sign and develop top quality players
Signed in the same season for roughly similar fees from markets thousands of miles away their development paths couldn’t have been different. From signing until now both played in environments and under managers that have improved and developed players but AJ has become one of our standout performers while Bernabei totally failed in a Celtic shirt but is a good enough footballer to be excelling in a better league than ours. He’s developed quicker in Brazil than you’d have expected him to here under Ange and Brendan.
It’s paper talk but there’s talk of €10m transfer fees.
Signing and developing younger players instead of “proven” older ones always comes with risks and “failures” are pretty much guaranteed, but the overall success is pretty obvious.
And the risks of signing young unknowns are often mitigated by their age – you rarely pay a lot in wages and there’s always some sell on value as we’ve seen with a lot of our “failures”
Majestic Hartson
what I said as SFTB
Scratch long enough at a Secularist view on closing “Sectarian Schools” and you’ll soon find an attitude that betrays a desire to close only one set of schools- those with RC in their title- and they will be blaming the Catholic population for their existence in the first place.
——-
You said as MJ:-
I’m a secularist who has considered sending his kids to a Catholic school and I think you’re talking nonsense. 👍
———————
More clumsily expressed than nonsense. I was trying to say that those secularists who believe that “Religious” schools should be closed, have this view. It would be mad to say that every secular person or non-Catholic wants to change our school systems.
Greenpinata’s point about the changing nature of Catholic schools is well known to everyone and is completely separate from any expressed desire to discontinue the name and nature of the schools. Evolution and change is not the same as forced discontinuation.
——————–
Apologies to the Shipbank Crew- I won’t be making it in today. Say hallo to the crew for me.
Let them have a wee laugh about this new proposed Sevco chant to get rid of Philippe Clement- which must be from a spoof Imposter account, surely?
A few wee swearies for anyone of a sensitive disposition
https://x.com/ns_1872/status/1851965620432031873?s=48&t=oiD8aZog5JQtwOtbfMckow
Some scientists have too much time on their hands
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c748kmvwyv9o
GuyFaukes: Thanks for update on TET. Glad he and his good lady are safe.
Kilmarnock’s Derek McInnes is the bookmakers’ favourite to become Rangers manager should Philippe Clement lose his job, with former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez and Malmo’s Henrik Rydstrom next in the betting. (The Scotsman)
McInnes would be good for them considering where they are as a club but I’m not sure the support would accept him.
Engels and McC to start at the weekend? I think BR will want Hatate in
SFTB
interesting that the chap is English (not Tom English who’s Irish)