Cracking display from Celtic today after the 120 minutes in midweek which might have had a detrimental effect on most teams. I thought Strachan picked the right team from the start with Sno deserving a chance to play alongside one of Donati/Brown and Hartley and Riordan both deserved a shot at the starting eleven while Naka and Aiden could use the rest. Naka went straight from the Asian Cup to the SPL and Aiden has played a game more than most due to his involvement with Ireland in Denmark the other week.
The performance itself was excellent from back to front. One or two nervous moments at the back (another cross to the back post created a great chance for St Mirren in the first half) but other than that we looked fairly sound defensively. Naylor started sluggishly but improved as it went on and I thought Wilson and the centre halfs were very good.
Midfield was what it was all about today. Pity about Sno being ill because I thought he took up really good positions in the first half where he found loads of space. It was obvious he hadn’t played a competitive game in a while because he was a touch slow on the ball but he still plays lovely football which is always encouraging and he showed a decent turn of pace at one stage in getting back to cover behind Naylor. Hartley worked hard and might have had a couple of goals on another day but a couple of passes were a yard out from finding him in the box. Riordan was the better of the two and always looked dangerous but more than just that he never gave the ball away that I can remember.
Scotty Brown deserves a paragraph on his own because he was out of this world. Got his goal from a trademark run forward and from then on he just owned the midfield. He ran at them tirelessly all day and his acceleration with the ball at his feet from a standing start is phenomonal. The more he plays with the quality players alongside him the better he will get. Some of his runs today were untrackable and he loves winding players up without getting invovled in the aftermath himself. Legend in the making.
Up front Scott McDonald ran tirelessly and took his goal very well which was reward for his chasing a 50/50 ball. Did well for Brown’s goal as well but might have played a few guys in as the game went on but clearly fancied scoring again himself. Jan was a huge problem for them and they weren’t able to cope with him in the air. If we’d had wingers or Naka he’d have had a field day but he settled on the one goal.
Of the subs, Donati strolled through it, Zurawski looked lively and dangerous which was encouraging and Killen looked like he had a decent touch but he’ll need to get himself into more shooting positions.
Overall that was excellent stuff after a tough match during the week.
[url=http://f.flvmaker.com/mc.php?id=0axcQpY4__GKUTAF6Eq.PMqehLcwBpXXjEYGJBYeIHBtcf/CMgTEYY_6tqRiiiDPOecPWAbbkKcd6SG.ikKix]First half goals
[url=http://f.flvmaker.com/mc.php?id=rRxcQpY4__GKUTAF6Eq.PMqehLcwBpXOjEYGJBYeIHBtcf/CMgTEYY_6tqRiiZDPOecPWAbcknAYRQJ8dkKix]Second half goals
Scott Brown and Miranda:
Post edited by: therock67, at: 2007/09/02 19:35