Kilmarnock vs Celtic - Wednesday, March 4

41

[quote=“Bandage”]I’ll give my ratings too:

Boruc - 6. Not tested.
Hinkel - 7. Pretty composed.
Caldwell - 6.5. Has played better lately.
McManus - 5.5. Getting done by a piece of skill by Kevin Kyle was a new low!
O’Dea - 7. Impressive, got drawn to the ball for their goal though.
Naka - 7.5. I thought he was a joy to watch at times tonight.
Brown - 7. Good drive and runs interspersed with some sloppy play.
Crosas - 7.5. Classy player, he’s gonna be a good 'un.
McGeady - 8. Excellent for both goals, also the move he started where he hit the bar and put Brown in for his chance too.
Samaras - 3. A wasted jersey.
McDonald - 9. Sensational second goal. Took the first one excellently too. Hold up play improved noticeably and worked his balls off.[/quote]

Good to see McGeady showing up well. The opposition have to be taken into account though. When Kevin Kyle is getting a game you know they are awful.

42

[quote=“therock67”]Super win and a cracking game of football.

Ratings:

Boruc 6 nothing to do, no chance with goal, cleared his lines when he needed to

Hinkel 7 got forward, used the ball well again
Caldwell 6 didn’t have a great game. Gave away a few free kicks and lost some challenges. Decent passing though
McManus 5 Bullied by Kyle.
O’Dea 6.5 Poor for the goal when he was positionally unaware but did very well otherwise. One crucial tackle. Passed it well throughout and as is his style he even found himself playing up front when he felt like it.

Naka 6.5 Some decent passing but didn’t really get all that involved. Hit the wall with two decent thefreekick.com chances.
Crosas 7 Not as dominant as in previous games but never gave it away, kept things ticking over and got forward in support a few times. Needs to demand the ball from Brown a bit more because he’s a far better passer.
Brown 7 Plenty of drive and put himself about well and got on the ball alot. Too many stray passes but had at least three decent shots on goal and he is definitely getting more chances for himself.
McGeady 8 Thought Aiden was magnificent. Bit of bite in his game which I think should be encouraged in a winger and he had two men on him the whole time but was still involved in both goals as well as his own chance and Brown’s chance in the second half. A fucking joy to watch.

Sammy 6 - Just didn’t get involved enough. Ran about well enough but still relied on McDonald to do most of the running down the channels. Seemed to improve a bit in the second half but not enough really.
McDonald 9 - Two very well taken goals and worked his socks off. About two or three early misplaced passes when he should have done better but he knuckled down and played very very well. Just before his first goal we hadn’t had a decent passing move in ages but he got on the end of a long ball, held it up, we knocked it about and eventually it came back to him to finish a minute or so later.

Hutchison looked shit slow.

Conor Sammon played like a Celtic fan. Appalling touches.[/quote]

great game
Celtic played well, up the Ra , hail glorious St Patrick
the fingalian played well

43

any links to the Celtic 2nd goal

44

Have a gander on the BBC website,the goal is a cracker.

45

It’s on TFKTube

46

That’s only available to pricks like you based on in BBC territory, Manus. We get a ‘not available in your territory message’ but, as Rocko says, it’s been TFKTubed in any case.

On another note, fair play to me for ending those unlucky ‘big, big month’ threads that brought nothing but bad news. Back we went to a specific match thread and positive stuff all round followed.

47

When Skippy is bad, he is very very bad. But when Skippy is good…Essential now that McDonald keeps up this run of form as he’s by far the most important source of goals.

Hoping that their defeat last night might psychologically feck them up so much that they’ll drop a few more points in the near future. Still think they’ve defintely the better run of fixtures between now and the end of the season and it’ll still probably be in the balance by the time of the last derby. But encouraging signs from Strachan in the last couple of games re team selection. A good settled team particularly in the midfield is essential for the run-in and the signs are that we are beginning to get it right there. March isn’t a particularly full month at all as regards the league so Robson and Maloney will hopefully be back for the last nine or ten games too to give options.

48

[quote=“sid waddell”]When Skippy is bad, he is very very bad. But when Skippy is good…Essential now that McDonald keeps up this run of form as he’s by far the most important source of goals.

Hoping that their defeat last night might psychologically feck them up so much that they’ll drop a few more points in the near future. Still think they’ve defintely the better run of fixtures between now and the end of the season and it’ll still probably be in the balance by the time of the last derby. But encouraging signs from Strachan in the last couple of games re team selection. A good settled team particularly in the midfield is essential for the run-in and the signs are that we are beginning to get it right there. March isn’t a particularly full month at all as regards the league so Robson and Maloney will hopefully be back for the last nine or ten games too to give options.[/quote]

It’s gas the way the overwhelming majority of the support have been calling for the midfield that he’s belatedly chosen in the past two games and things have clicked again once he’s finally gone with it. Giving Willo Flood his debut in a derby and leaving out both Crosas and McGeady was utterly bizarre, as we mentioned at the time, and it looks even more odd now.

This will come across as a bit John Giles but I’m not too concerned about the fall of the fixtures or who has the harder programme left on paper. We just need to take each game on its merits (cringe!). For example, they’ve lost to Caley Thistle and St Mirren this season - both games they would have expected to win easily - so you can’t take anything for granted.

But I’ve been checking the stats on the games Crosas and Brown have played together and it’s Played 10, Won 9, Drawn 1, Lost 0. The draw was the League Cup semi-final that we won on penalties against Dundee United. The whole team flows so much better with that pairing and it positively affects the wide men and the front two in terms of quality and speed of delivery they get. We’ve been ripping teams apart at times with those two together and it’s 30 goals for and 9 against in those games.

Motherwell 2 Celtic 4
Kilmarnock 1 Celtic 3
Celtic 3 Aberdeen 2
Celtic 4 Hamilton 0
ICT 1 Celtic 2
Celtic 2 Dundee 1 (Scottish Cup)
Celtic 3 Hibernian 1
Celtic 0 Dundee United 0 (League Cup, Celtic won 11-10 on penalties)
Celtic 7 St Mirren 0
Kilmarnock 1 Celtic 2

Celtic have the best squad in the league and they should put out their best team and play good, attacking football all the fooking time. The frustration with Strachan, and I’ve mentioned this a lot, is he sometimes still manages with the mindset of a Coventry or Southampton manager going to Anfield or Old Trafford.

‘Oooh, we’re away to Motherwell today. I better get some physicality in the team and bring Loovens in and move Caldwell into midfield and be prepared for a battle.’

Fook off! Get the best players on the park and keep the ball and you won’t need to lower yourself into a clogging, tackling style game.

The little ginger bastard better have learned his lesson! And that is:

Naka, Brown, Crosas, McGeady.

49

[quote=“Bandage”]That’s only available to pricks like you based on in BBC territory, Manus. We get a ‘not available in your territory message’ but, as Rocko says, it’s been TFKTubed in any case.

On another note, fair play to me for ending those unlucky ‘big, big month’ threads that brought nothing but bad news. Back we went to a specific match thread and positive stuff all round followed.[/quote]

And theres me trying to be helpful!

Ungrateful fucking cockend.