Celtic 3-0 Stirling Albion: Bhoys Advance

By: JT | January 14th, 2008

Celtic coasted to a comfortable 3-0 victory over First Division side Stirling Albion over the weekend, opening up the defense of their Scottish Cup in a bit of style. While it was not quite as easy as the scoreline indicated, the Bhoys looked like the superior outfit who were coming off of a layoff.

Lee Naylor’s cross set up Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink for a thumping header in the 37th minute to get the scoring underway and dent the visitor’s dreams of a famous performance at Celtic Park.

Naylor created the second goal as well (ain’t it great to have fullbacks again?), setting up Scott McDonald to easily slot past the Beanos’ keeper in the 70th minute, slamming the door shut on the rapidly tiring boys from Forthbank.

While Naylor could have easily taken man of the match honors with his aggressive play on the left flank, the real story of the contest was the return of reigning SPL Player of the Year Shunsuke Nakamura and the debut of German international right back Andreas Hinkel.

Naka trotted out for his first match in three months following a knee ligament injury complete with a side of nerve damage. He looked lighter, fitter and faster than when he was last seen laboring on the pitch in the fall.

His return was capped when he picked up a loose ball which the Beanos failed to clear from the top of their 18-yard box. Naka paused for a second, weighed up his options, and unleashed a wicked left-footed blast into the top left corner of the net:

The Japanese maestro was substituted immediately after his 75th minute strike, and as he walked off the pitch, every Celtic supporter had to be saying, “Now that’s what we’ve been missing.”

The competition for playing time in the midfield is going to be fierce, so we should be seeing some great performances from the five or six guys in contention because they’ll know any dip in form can see them consigned to the bench for long periods of time if they give one of the guys on the bench a chance to show what they can do. And thats a good thing.

Hinkel was the online Man of the Match for the Celts, with an energetic debut following his move from Sevilla. Much of the early pressure that the Hoops were applying came through Hinkel’s advancement up the pitch, and his ability to link well with Nakamura.

I’ll admit I was concerned that Hinkel wouldn’t be match fit for a while having not seen much time the last few years in Andalucia, but from my vantage point, he looked ready to roll. After the match, he seemed content with his performance, but made sure that we all understand he’s only just settling in and the best is yet to come. You’ve gotta love that kind of positive attitude.

Celtic advance to meet the winner of the Airdrie United-Kilmarnock tussle which has been scheduled for Tuesday 22 January after this weekend’s match was postponed due to a frozen pitch. Celtic will travel to the winner’s turf on 2 or 3 February.

In the league, Celtic host Kilmarnock next Saturday. Hopefully there will be some fun transfer rumors during the course of the week to nosh on, because next weekend feels really, really far away at the moment.