Pre-Season Friendlies

1

Football’s back (apologies for the insult to Eircom League watchers). Let’s talk about the pre-season games in this thread.

A HUGE BATTLE OF BRITAIN tonight.

Southampton versus Celtic in the Claus Lundekvam testimonial.

Jackie McNamara and Tosh McKinlay in the 'Tic TV studio and 6,000 away supporters in the stadium.

Paddy ‘The Provo’ McCourt is injured unfortunately and this is the team apparently:

M Brown,
Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor,
S Brown, Hartley, Robson, McGeady,
Killen, McDonald.

Subs: Wilson, Donati, Caddis, Balde, O’Dea, Mizuno, Sheridan, Samaras, McGowan, Fox.

7.45pm kick-off - I’m away to get pissed.

2

Arsenal play Barnet tomorrow in what has become the traditional kick-off to the season for the Gunners. Wenger bringing a very young squad, not a big ask considering there are f**k all older players left at the Emirates. Debuts expected for Carlos Vela, Alf Ramsey and Jack Wilshire. It’s live on ArsenalTV.

Squad is:

Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
Nacer BARAZITE
Nicklas BENDTNER
Gael CLICHY
DENILSON
James DUNNE
Rui FONTE
Gavin HOYTE
Justin HOYTE
Henri LANSBURY
Vito MANNONE (GK)
Havard NORDTVEIT
Abu OGOGO
Aaron RAMSEY
Mark RANDALL
Paul RODGERS
Bacary SAGNA
Jay SIMPSON
Rene STEER
Wojciech SZCZESNY (GK)
Armand TRAORE
Carlos VELA
Theo WALCOTT
Jack WILSHERE

Results over the past few years against Barnet:

BARNET 0-2 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, July 14, 2007
Arsenal scorers: Adebayor 18, Barazite 61.

BARNET 0-0 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, July 15, 2006

BARNET 1-4 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, July 16, 2005
Arsenal scorers: Hleb 3, Henry 15 (pen), Bergkamp 28, Hoyte 35.

BARNET 1-10 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, July 17, 2004
Arsenal scorers: Reyes 19, 21, 42, Van Persie 29, Bergkamp 44, 67, Jeffers 53, 55, 64, Owusu-Abeyie 70.

BARNET 0-0 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, July 19, 2003

BARNET 1-2 ARSENAL
Friendly. Tuesday, August 6, 2002
Arsenal scorers: Kanu, Upson.

BARNET 1-6 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, August 11, 2001
Arsenal scorers: Ljungberg, Cole, Bergkamp, Henry, Vieira, Wiltord.

BARNET 0-1 ARSENAL
Friendly. Saturday, July 22, 2000
Arsenal scorer: Pennant

3

United are playing the band the Kazier Chiefs tomorrow.

4

Leeds beat Galway United 2-0 on Wednesday night. They play Bray Wanderers on Sunday and Shelbourne next Wednesday. The last time they came on a pre-season tour of Ireland was 2003. Shelbourne beat them 2-0 in Tolka on the same day Wexford drew with Cork in Croker. Cork hammered Wexford in the replay and Leeds were relegated that season from the Premiership.

5

Celtic beat Southampton 2-0 with goals from Killen and Robson (pen).

I was very impressed with Mizuno and Caddis who were both 2nd half substitutes.

6

good start - unusual for celtic. glad mizuno is in the plans this season.

7

Fulham tomorrow for Celtic.

Isn’t Mizuno due to go to the Olympics?

8

People who primarily watch English football scoff at Celtic and say they’d be relegation fodder or championship standard if they played down in England. I think tonight’s performance and result confirmed conclusively once and for all that Celtic would win the Premier League if they were based in England. Outstanding display and everyone looked sharp and up for it. I’m not one to make grandiose statements but we looked like a Champions League winning team tonight.

9

Too right bandage, any team that can take on the galactiocs of Southampton and win deserve of all the credit they get…

10

Agreed padjo.

Blackburn - 2003.

Liverpool - 2003.

Manchester United - 2006.

Now add, Southampton 2008.

Today, it’s Fulham at Craven Cottage. I just woke up half an hour ago to watch this but it doesn’t seem to be on Setanta or 'Tic TV.

More on last night:

Mak Brown is gash and we better have a decent 'keeper on our radar given the possibility of Boruc leaving. Brown flapped at every cross and his handling was rubbish.

The back four were more or less untroubled with the exception of Naylor getting caught out a couple of times. Hinkel looked sharp enough and was one of only 2 players, along with Hartley, to play the full 90 minutes.

Midfield was good. Robson played on the right hand side and Brown was excellent in the centre for the half he played. McGeady showed real glimpses of class and got an hour.

Scott ‘Sumo’ McDonald was good and linked up well with Killen and McGeady. Killen missed two sitters but then scored with his hardest chance.

O’Dea came on at half time and defended fine but his distribution was poor. Cillian Sheridan also got a half and nothing went right for him. Samaras did excellently to go by a few players and win a penalty but combined that with falling over and losing the ball cheaply too. Caddis came on right midfield and was really, really good. Mizuno replaced McGeady and showed good ability and awareness. Mark Wilson and Donati also got a half and were grand. Balde and the young 'keeper Scott Fox got the last 15 minutes.

11

Same starting team as last night with the exception of Donati coming in for Hartley.

Half time score:

Fulham 2-1 Celtic

Barry Robson with a freekick just before half time after we were 2-0 down.

Strachan has 45 minutes to save his job and Celtic’s season.

12

Full time:

Fulham 3-1 Celtic.

Just cut up my season card and fooked it out the window.

Strachan out.

If form holds true then I’d expect Fulham to win the EPL this season.

13

Arsenal came from behind to beat Barnet 2-1 in a famous victory for the North London club. Goals came from Simpson and Barazite. Caught the second half online and was very impressed with Jack Wilshire. Arsenal fans will be delighted with this start.

14

Was a bad enough performance from United today. Rooney never got going and Fletcher and Eagles offered nothing on the wings. Granted Eagles scored but his touch and passing at times was shocking.

15

Anybody see this incident from the Fulham game:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/f/fulham/7518182.stm

Apparently Healy mimicked playing the flute, ala Gazza.

16

[quote=“The Runt”]Anybody see this incident from the Fulham game:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/f/fulham/7518182.stm

Apparently Healy mimicked playing the flute, ala Gazza.[/quote]

I think it’s a bit of a joke and I’m not sure why the lad’s had to apologise twice already for it. If Celtic supporters made an issue of it during the game and complained to stewards or police then I’d be pretty disappointed but I can’t think of any other reason why it’s still in the news. The whole context was different to Gazza, who did it without any provocation (although Gazza’s stupid and McCoist apparently dared him to do it and he didn’t know what it meant). Celtic supporters were singing ‘Where were you on the 12th?’ to the tune of that ‘Where were you when you were shit?’ song and Healy turned around and mimicked the flute playing. He was over signing autographs and the end of the game and most supporters saw it as banter as was obviously intended. From reading Celtic supporter sites, hardly anyone took it offensively and nobody’s really sure why it’s still being talked about.

17

Cool. That’s fair enough if he was only having the craic, but you know you will always have someone who will lodge a complaint regardless.

18

West Ham beat Columbus Crew from Ohio 3-1 in their pre-season friendly before the big game against the MLS all stars. Seemingly there was crowd trouble at half time as the 'Ammers fans didn’t take lightly to all the soccer mom’s in the crowd and it all kicked off.

Hammers rule!!

19

Hibs are getting pumped by Barcelona. It’s 4-0 after 43 minutes. Just started watching it on Setanta Sports 2 but Messi apparently got a cracker - I’ll see the goals at half time.

20

6-0 now, Bojan and Toure. Eto’o’s just on now!