Falkirk Preview

By: Matt | August 22nd, 2008

When you mention Falkirk to most outside of Scotland, many think of them as one of the bottom feeders of the SPL, constantly fighting for survivial. This was not the case last year, with Falkirk losing to Aberdeen on the last day before the split to just barely miss out on the top of the SPL. The Bairns then went onto finish the season strong finishing 7th in the SPL. Looking to build on last year’s results, Falkirk has had a tough schedule to start of the season, opening against Rangers and Hibs, leaving Falkirk with 0 points out of the first two games. The task doesn’t get any easier, with Falkirk traveling to Celtic Park on Saturday to take on the defending Champions. Making the task more challenging for Falkirk will be the fact that they will be missing up to 10 first team players on Saturday, including playmaker Russel Latapy. Falkirk will also be missing Graham Barrett, Steve Lovell, Carl Finnigan, Burton O’Brien, Neil McCann, Arnau Riera, Dean Holden, Tam Scobbie and Brian Allison. There will be lots of new faces for the Bairns on Saturday, which could make their task in Glasgow a daunting one.

New signings Glenn Loovens and Shaun Maloney have been named to the squad for Saturday’s match and both have a good chance of getting significant playing minutes on Saturday. Gary Caldwell has picked up an injury (see Ian) and might not be fit for Saturday, if so then new Bhoy Loovens will get his first run in Celtic Park. Paul Hartley also missed the Scottish National Team’s friendly with Northern Ireland and might not be ready for Saturday’s match either.

Last season saw Celtic take all three matches, most by sizable margins. Celtic defeated Falkirk last season 4-1, 4-0, and 1-0. Celtic have also won the last five match ups between the two teams and look to continue their dominance on Saturday. After two matches where Celtic struggled to create offensive chances, Celtic will hopefully finally break out of their shell and score some goals. My prediction is Celtic 3-0, with returnee Shaun Maloney trying to look less like a money grubbing twat and netting two, with Scott McDonald opening his account for the season as well.

Speaking of Maloney, and being a money grubbing twat, after being officially signed today and paraded around Lennoxtown, Maloney has been putting forth lots of quotes about his huge mistake of leaving Celtic. “I shouldn’t have come to a situation to leave Celtic,” Maloney said. “I knew it was not the right move and I really struggled - in my heart of hearts I knew Villa was not the club I wanted to play for.” Perhaps he realized that when he got a good view of Martin O’Neill’s receding hair line from the bench in Villa. I am not one to hold grudges, and while I have my doubts about why Maloney came back, if he scores goals like this against Rangers then I think most Celtic fans will forgive and forget.

Finally, it appears that Celtic will not have to worry about Polish Keeper Artur Boruc being winded from his international play because it seems for the time being, the Holy Goalie has been dismissed from the Polish National Team. It seems that the Holy Goalie and some Polish teammates went out for a drink after a friendly with Ukraine. The only problem is that the Polish National Team coach imposed a curfew for the team that Boruc and his Polish counter-parts wanted no part of, so thus they were dismissed and will likely miss a few more friendlies and World Cup qualifiers. Anyone who saw the Euro tournament knows that Boruc kept the Polish team afloat more often than not. But Poland’s loss is Celtic’s gain, especially with some important matches coming up.