Two first half goals enough for Cup progression/Would you score on your favorite team?

By: Matt | February 8th, 2009

Celtic progressed to the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup through the strength of two first half goals by Gary Caldwell and Scott McDonald. Queen’s Park made things interesting in the second half when they got a goal back in the 67th minute, but the home side were able to fight off their lower division foes and progress. Living up to his nickname of “HEEEIIIID!”, Caldwell got his gigantic head on the ball and was able to put it past Spiders keeper David Crawford after Darren O’Dea sent the ball back into the mixer after the initial Lee Naylor freekick was cleared. Just before the referee brought the first half to a close, Scott McDonald was able to finish the ball after Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was able to get his head on the ball initially. It was good to see that McDonald’s decision to forgo rest before his long week of travel to Japan for a World Cup Qualifier with Australia followed by an all important match against Rangers was rewarded with a goal. McDonald talked about trying to get back into the scoring rhythm before the match and it was nice to see Skippy do just that.

Credit must be given to the second division Queen’s Park side who never let up the entire game and had a few good chances in the second half. In the 63rd minute, the Spiders nearly got a goal when Steve Nicholas found a decent cross at his feet and nearly put it in, but hit the side netting. Two minutes later, Adam Coakley was able get a well deserved goal for the visitors. Celtic were able to close out the match however and secured progression to the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup. Goals from the game can be found here, thanks to 101 great goals.

On a Celtic messageboard, I saw a pretty interesting question brought up about playing these lower level teams. For some of the Queen’s Park players yesterday this was the case, let’s say you are a die-hard life long Celtic supporter (or any premier level club really) but you play for a team the size of Queen’s Park and you are matched up against your boyhood club. Your boys are playing the big boys close and you find yourself on a break all alone, with just the keeper standing in between you and the glory of scoring on the pitch that you’ve dreamed your whole life of playing on, but in doing so you’d be hurting the club you love and grew up with. What would you do? Pull a SEEEBO? Coolly slot it past the keeper? It’s an interesting question, but the answer I came up with is I would go for the goal. I am a professional and the other club is paying me to score, not to love Celtic. Besides, if I played well I might be able to secure a move to said team (although missing worked out alright for Willo Flood…hehe). Although, if that were to ever happen (in my dreams), Celtic should not worry, that given my finishing ability, I’d more likely bottle it, miss the ball completely, and end up on my arse while the Holy Goalie collects the ball and giggles at on my back. What would you do though if you were presented with the chance to score on your favorite team?

There have also been stories about a training field scuffle between Artur Boruc and Aiden McGeady. Gordon Strachan says it is no big deal and it has been settled, saying these types of things occur all the time on training pitches across the world, but the Scottish Media is not convinced. Who would have thought, the Scottish media trying to stir up controversy the week before Celtic play Rangers? Certainly something like this has never happened before…

TAL