Candle light Killie Preview

By: Matt | September 19th, 2008

Sorry for the lack of post Aalborg game post. You probably saw it and know what happened and if not, friend of the Celtic Offside, Kevin G, has a good post game wrap on The Lord of the Wing. Most of the power has been restored at the University of Dayton, except of course for the three streets in my neighborhood. Apparently 100,000 people in the Dayton metropolitan area are still without power. But never fear, nothing could prevent me from bringing you, the masses, poor jokes about Celtic and Killie this weekend. In the past years, Killie has been known more for their “pies” than their football, but this appears not to be your father’s Kilmarnock. Having only suffered their first defeat last weekend at Ibrox against Rangers, despite scoring first at Ibrox, Killie and Celtic both have 10 points going into this weekend’s contest, with Celtic on top only on goal differential. Kilmarnock’s fast start has gotten gaffer Jim Jeffries coach of the month honors in August.

While Killie has yet to beat a “top tier” SPL team, part of being successful in the SPL is beating the teams you are suppose to. An impressive showing against Rangers last weekend shows that Killie “are for real” and Celtic need to come out from the get go in this game. Everyone’s favorite reverend is back, with Rev. Mike McCurry being the ~~Mason~~ Man in Black this weekend, so it could be 12 v 11 for Celtic. They will need to keep there heads and not give McCurry any excuse for a booking or red card.

It seems the Scottish Press is salivating with this tie as a chance for “Timmy” to drop more points, with a Rangers-week like story released today of a rift between Gordon Strachan and Aiden McGeady. According to the story, after the Rangers game, Strachan called the entire first team squad into his office for a film session, except McGeady who Strachan apparently placed most of the blame for the loss on. McGeady was also upset after being left on the bench for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Aalborg. Personally, McGeady performances have been a let down and not on par with last year’s Player of the Year performance. A good kick in the pants sounds about what he needs, and if he cannot take it then he is starting to travel down the Christiano Ronaldo Primadona Boulevard, and I do not usually agree with Strachan.

This is not a game that Celtic can wait around and knock a second half winner in. Killie seem to be a quality side and if Celtic are not carefully, they could be looking at the business end of third place. Hopefully the team is taking any criticism and pointers that Strachan is giving better than Aiden. The second half of the Aalborg game saw some good movement and passing and if that type of play is seen this weekend, Celtic will walk away with 3 points and the victory. My prediction: Celtic 2-Killie 1