8 mins to go. Caldwell just put a shot over the bar.
Killen coming on now for someone.
Header from big Jan and a good save. Should have done better with the header maybe but he was leaning back and could only cushion it towards the corner.
RIORDAN!!! 1-1
Cracking ball from Sno on the inside left channel who let the ball run inside him and then played the long diagonal over their left back to Riordan running on who took the touch with him and then lifted it past the advancing keeper.
Killen on for Jan. 5 to go.
Brown fouled near the touch. He gets up to take a quick free and the full back kicks it away from him. Charlie Richmond speaks to both.
+3 mins added time.
Goal kick to Celtic. Ball in the 6 yard box and Mark Brown brings it to the other side inexplicably. Then kicks the ball straight to their striker short of half way.
Celtic have a throw in their half now.
Celtic free kick about 30-35 yards out. Riordan wants to hit it. Looks too far and too central. Needs to hit the target.
Chipped it straight to the keeper. Needed to skid it low to give us a chance. 50 seconds left.
Offside. All over. Shit performance.
Cheers for the updates.
Seems like it was a load of scheidt.
Ratings:
Brown 2
Caldwell 3
Pressley 5
McManus 5
O’Dea 5
Hartley 2
Brown 4
Jarosik 5
McGeady 5
Jan 4
McDonald 4
Sno 7
Riordan 5
Killen not on long enough.
A few further thoughts on today’s performance:
Mark Brown isn’t Celtic class as a goalkeeper I don’t think. Having said that he’s a reasonable keeper and to be honest it would be very difficult to persuade anyone better to be Boruc’s understudy. He was only partially at fault for the goal too and we should have put a few past them so the fault with the performance lies elsewhere.
As a defensive unit the back 4 were solid again but it really stifles our attacking play (as it has done in the last 3 games) to have 4 centre halves at the back. At the moment it looks like our only option, unless we give Caddis a shot, but it’s having a huge impact on our abilities further up the park.
The midfield is where the problems lie. The quartet of Aiden, Brown, Hartley and Jarosik is designed to be strong in Europe and that’s what they are. Of course that’s not what is always required against ultra defensive SPL sides - or even when the likes of Shakhtar come to visit. Donati offers much more when he plays, though he obviously has his defensive limitations. Scotty Brown needs to take on more of the ball and in fairness to him he did make a few driving runs today but his passing continues to let him down. We’re badly missing Naka because opposing teams have figured us out at this stage. They just shift everyone onto Aiden because that’s where the creative force is - on the other side they know they’re in a fight with Jiri and while he’s been playing well lately, he’s very individualistic. His main goal going forward is to shoot every time and that’s a problem when you’re asked to play on the wing.
Riordan is not the solution to this problem. He had 3 chances to cross the ball today when he came on (two of them corners) and he hit the first man waist high with all 3. His passing was sloppy, which is forgivable given the lack of games, but he’s yet to convince in a Celtic shirt and he’s a million miles from the great white hope he’s proclaimed to be. Having said all that, in the absence of Naka we are very predictable and he does offer goals and chances so he should be considered for SPL games when we’re short width. Jarosik didn’t deserve to be dropped but the same XI need not play every week. Our consistency has become predictability and that needs to be addressed by freshening up the system.
Up front the form of Jan continues to worry me. He won one lovely flick on today for McDonald but that’s not even nearly enough against a side the class of St Mirren. The trouble is that there’s nobody better at the club at the moment. Jan isn’t a major problem with the team but he’s evidently not on form and yet we’ve nowhere else to turn. McDonald had a poor game today. He didn’t get involved enough and he snatched at a couple of half chances. He’s been banging them in for weeks though so one bad game isn’t a worry.
The most pleasing aspect of today was Sno when he came on. He looked purposeful on the ball, which is unusual and he showed great strength a few times to get the ball with his back to goal and just shrug off an opponent as he turned and played a pass forward. It was only a cameo but it was encouraging and he was easily our best performer today. The fact that he was only on the pitch for 20 minutes tells you more about the other players than him unfortunately.
Oh and just to add to that tactical assessment I haven’t mentioned yet how bad Hartley was for the goal. Beaten for pace and strength by Billy Mehmet at left back. Wasn’t really sure of the logic of the move. Bringing Sno on for O’Dea was a positive change but it wasn’t clear whether it was compensated with Hartley going left back or was he just covering there from a midfield role. Either way he was awful for the goal. He’s played well as a holding midfielder but he’s no full back - emergency or otherwise. Didn’t have a great game throughout actually but that was in keeping with everyone else.
Obviously I didn’t see the game but I’ve been on a few Celtic sites for the past half an hour and Vennegoor of Hesselink seems to be getting pelters from all quarters. I’m getting extremely concerned that we’ve seen the best of him as he’s looked a complete passenger to me since he came back from his latest injury.
I thoroughly agree that we don’t need to play the same team for every game and since the Benfica game teams have figured out that our attacking threat is stifled and almost nearly diminished fully if they put 2-3 men on McGeady all the time. Jiri’s done well since coming back in and he adds solidity and experience in Europe but he doesn’t threaten on the outside and doesn’t have any real pace so our lines of attack have become predictable.
In addition, we don’t need to have a holding midfield player at home against the likes of St Mirren, especially when they have 10 men behind the ball for the whole game. Hartley should have been bombing forward along with Brown and it’s fair enough to expect the back 4 to deal with their lone front man and whatever support runners are coming from midfield.
Our problems at full back are also highlighted and fully magnified when we’re playing a team that sits back and lets you have possession. In such scenarios the full backs will be getting on the ball all the time and so players like Caldwell and O’Dea will naturally look awkward at times given their unfamiliarity with the position.
Overall, that’s a shocking enough result as teams like St Mirren should be brushed aside before half time irrespective of what kind of match schedule the team has had lately.
Just saw the goal we conceded. What a shambles. I’ve no idea what Hartley was doing / trying to do and Brwon should be parrying that out for a corner on his near post rather than knocking it inside for their lad to tap in. Shocking.