St Johnstone clipped Hibernian’s ambitions with a home win in Perth on Sunday, their first since an opening day defeat of Kilmarnock. Two narrow defeats: 1-0 at St Mirren and 2-1 at Hearts, and a draw at Dundee, suggest Celtic are in for a genuine challenge tonight.
Manager Simo Valakari took over at Saints two years ago when the ill-judged Craig Levein experiment came to an end. Relegation followed, but the club kept faith in their manager and were rewarded by a convincing run to the Championship title. Five games back in the top-flight and they look set to comfortably avoid the drop.
Every Celtic game this season has been enjoyable. That’s not always a good thing. We are getting to the stage of the season when we should be able to shut-out mid-table opponents, no great saves from Viljami Sinisalo, no hatful of chances raining down on the Celtic defence, or periods when we are pinned into our own half. Celtic have resolved last season’s lack of goalscoring talent, let’s hope tonight they can control the middle of the park.
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Every game enjoyable? Including LASKK away?
saint johns town ?
New article posted just as I already sent this, so here goes!
Terrymac on 9th September 2026 12:03 pm
A relevant quiz question for today?
What was the Sottish city of Perth originally called?
A wee clue is in the question itself without using Google!
Hail! Hail!
Terrymac
Sott?
Well done St Stivs – you hardly let me draw breath!
It was actually St John’s Toun in honour of St John The Baptist1
Hope we hand their fav football team a wee lesson tonight!
Hail! Hail!
Terrymac
Control the midfield?
We’ll see.
I live in hope.
But, seriously, let’s hope we bang in a few goals which nullifies any threat they might have.
We want the domestic league to be challenging enuff, so that the Europa league’s not too much of a step up. But not that competitive that teams we outspend by multiples of 100s could give us the odd fright.
Cos that shows up our acclaimed deficiencies.
A recently promoted team should be nowhere near our standards – surely that’s fact, not entitlement.
Beat them by x3 goals clear pls Celtic; that’s only right and just !
You can forget control of midfield if Nygren plays. We effectively play with a two.
I’d forgotten Craig Levein managed St Johnstone.
Thankfully for Scottish football he’s been put out to pasture, but he belonged to that ilk of manager who “knew the game”, was considered “a safe pair of hands” and managed to get himself on the managerial merry-go-round without delivering much success for anyone. Jim Jeffries and Jimmy Calderwood were the same and IMHO we still have modern day incarnations of these types in the form of McInnes, Goodwin and Robinson.
As such I wish clubs like St Johnstone, Motherwell and even Hibs who are prepared to think differently the best of success.
As for Celtic proving to be a bit too open and generous with chances afforded to the opposition, I agree, but I think we need to be patient. I think I’m right in saying MON has not had the opportunity to pick from a fully fit squad since the transfer window closed.
To me, the gap between the midfield and the back line is too big and that allows teams to pass through and the turn on the back four.
Close the gap by five yards, condense the play and make us more difficult to play through.
While not blessed with pace, Nygren for me isn’t the problem.
I hope we see more control of the game. Lennoxtown work should become more noticeable at this point.
Wee Jamesy for me over Tounekti tonight.
Will get more directness more defensive cover and sure wee jamesy has excellent scoring record against
st J
Sure he scored 4 up there one day.
More goals last night in the champions league and attempts than before
Could be something, could be a sign of new trends and different systems and coaching at play, could be nothing.
First six games of the last three years new group formats average attempts on goal per game
2024/25 – 22
2025/26 – 25
2026/27 – 30
Fits with my theory about trends in the game and the importance of control and what that means so I’m taking it as proof.
With the forward players we now have , goals are built in . Other than working on sharpness in that area (and perhaps Hassan’s final ball) , the bulk of our time at Lennoxtown should be spentfinding ways to plug gaps . Large gaps not only exploited by Lask but which allowed Dundee Utd a much higher Xg aginst us at Tannadice despite us winning by a deceptively handsome scoreline .
I do think we need to get our heads around what Calmac was suggesting after the game on Saturday – our new system/tactics means we’re all in on attacking play.
Commit numbers forward knowing there will be times when “the big guys at the back” will have to do the dirty work on their own
Feels as though goals scored are almost guaranteed. Tonight and ongoing
I’ll be interested on the ‘shots for’ St J
We are fairly lightweight between centre half and central midfield
We’ll get the odd anomaly in games against smaller teams, potential pumpings v better position
The game has changed. The days of playing against teams who sit back and are happy to give over possession and control of the game are gone.
We shouldn’t expect to control a game for 90 minutes against a team that is coached and trains to play the ball out from the back. A more equal share of possession has to be expected against a team like St Mirren who play every game that way.
Its not great for the nerves or ego but allowing teams even like St Mirren having spells of dominance if they are coached to keep the ball have to be expected.
Be realistic about how the system works and accept that there will be moments when we have to rely on our two central defenders to do the work, and we have to defend well when the other team has a spell.
Outscoring the opposition is how you win games, we’re doing that at the moment.
What did Brown-McGregor-Rogic have that McGregor-Ox-Nygren or McGregor-Baur-Nygren do not?
How come Brown-McGregor could control the pitch behind Tom Rogic when McGregor-Ox/Baur/etc can’t behind Nygren?
Is the difference Brown or Nygren? Or both?
Or neither
Terrymac on 9th September 2026 12:19 pm
Well done St Stivs – you hardly let me draw breath!
—————–
I was up around taymouth last weekend, so I make a point of reading every plaque and history notice,
St Johns Toun was mentioned on something. So fresh in my head.
Something I found a wee bit bizarre, at Aberfeldy when you cross wades bridge there is a memorial to him on a building there.
Then again, it is a blackwatch town, I need to see if it has a chapel at all.
Some research coming up.
JC2
100% – fed up with Tounekti not taking his man on.
https://youtu.be/jjYCA5tHsoI?si=8hsFzEuD_DH3uN7A
I watched LASK and Athens last night. A competitive match between two even sides, Athens deserved their win.
LASK recorded an XG last night of 0.8.
They reached 4.8 against us in Austria.
I know MoN is on record dismissing modern concepts like XG but I’m hoping that was the pundit trying to stir up some controversy.
I would be worried if MoN and Shaun are so flippant as to ignore our lack of defensive cohesion.
Controlled possession football ?
Sure the blogs were full of how boring Brendnas battaltions were.
I prefer that than gung ho daftness we had against LASK.
I think it is allready forgotten how our defensive performance at the badgers hovel to progress in the cup tie was acheived, that was just back in March.
Btw, Sebastian started in that game.
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 9TH SEPTEMBER 2026 1:54 PM
Is it the personnel or the system, or both?
The game is different from 5 years ago. Vertical progression and transitional threat versus structured build up and purposeful progression.
France in the world cup, Arsenal this season as opposed to last.
Listen to Martin and Calmac after the game on Saturday.
For me we lost control of the game after half time for a spell, I thought we controlled it better than in the second half
But both Martin and Calmac said they were much happier in the second half Calmca said we played well when we moved the ball forward quicker with one pass.
Its an interesting thing for Calmac to say given that he seemed to be the one who wanted to retain possession and pass the ball around the back last season, but its what he said.
This is stage of the season where we could introduce Machiavelli….
Wasn’t plain and simples out-shooting the opposition not a core tenet of the ole derided Wilfball ?
OhYouNancyBhoys CSC
Janetjackson CSC
QUADROPHENIAN on 9TH SEPTEMBER 2026 2:31 PM
Wasn’t plain and simples out-shooting the opposition not a core tenet of the ole derided Wilfball ?
Brother Wilfred also had a 3-4-3 as a core tenet of his tactical thinking which gave us Antony Ralston playing centre back for 6 games.
I don’t get where any trepidation of our domestic opponents comes from, our record against them all is top heavy positive.
Our team now has bags of goals in it so go out & score some. Let the newly promoted provincial club with a tiny budget worry about us. Like we do when facing CL teams with massive budgets.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Joel at some point.
🍀🍀🍀
“When exciting Celtic games are not a good thing”
So says the article title.
Kinda get where you are coming from, Paul.
Fewer gulp moments against mediocre opposition.
Conceptually though your tenet is nonsense, IMHO.
Competition needs jeopardy & uncertainty
Otherwise it will descend to the level of Joe Louis and the “Bum of the Month” club.
Saint Stivs on 9th September 2026 1:58 pm
Terrymac on 9th September 2026 12:19 pm
I was up around taymouth last weekend, so I make a point of reading every plaque and history notice, St Johns Toun was mentioned on something. So fresh in my head. Something I found a wee bit bizarre, at Aberfeldy when you cross wades bridge there is a memorial to him on a building there. Then again, it is a blackwatch town, I need to see if it has a chapel at all. Some research coming up.
*Wasn’t St John the Baptist the Patron Saint of the Knights Templar, so mibbees they settled there when kicked out of France
HH
Hopefully our Glasgow rivals get a psychological kicking and drop points to a late St Mirren goal. We are meantime hanging in at Perth and turn on the afterburners with the Chelsea lad scoring in the last 10 mins to win.
Nygren justifies his place in out team as a result of his goalscoring and his assists. The fact he does this from Midfield is doubly impressive
The Celtic midfield is much maligned as often porous with Central Midfield in particular with multiple chances for the opposition through the middle.
Its about time we had the discussion of our central midfielder McGregor who plays in Central Midfield.
Bernardo and Hatate were sold off as they were judged as not up to the task by MON. Now our website lists only 5 midfield players. McCowan has been recently written off after poor performance.
Recently Calum was ill and was out the team and we had a midfield of Oxlaide- Chamberline, Bauer and Nygren.
I think this should be our starters..
Calum slow, sideways and back play harks after a possession based model and not a team like us fast on the break. The forwards we have are rapid when facing the goal and want the ball in front of them
Now Calum has been a great player for us and will be much missed, but, is he already on the down slope
This season or next we need the discussions on his replacement
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cyvzn5d97y3o
Brand new Scotland team coaching group.
2 foreign guys (Belgium this time) plus an existing coach, Alan Irvine, for continuity
.. All nicely anchored by two guys who used to work at Ibrox.
Plus ca change
CELTIC: Johnstone, Donovan, Murray, Trusty, Scales, McGregor, Baur, Sørensen, Hassan, Høgh, Tounekti.
Subs: Sinisalo, Lotomba, Nygren, Duran, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mheuka, van den Berg, Forrest, Tierney
No ccv
Strong bench