Celtic-Caley Thistle: Three Points Mandatory
By: JT | February 27th, 2008
Celtic welcome Inverness Caledonian Thistle to Parkhead tonite, hoping this match will be a repeat of September’s 5-0 home demolition of the Jags and not the 3-2 loss Caley handed them on the road in December.
Since the January transfer window shut, Celtic have found their best form of the season, save last weekend’s dramatic win over St Mirren. Goals have come easily of late, and the hope is that Sunday’s lackluster performance was simply the result of a European hangover.
My guess is the Bhoys will be ready to play today, with the margin of error in the title race shrinking with each passing week. Three points are a requirement, and I see no way that the Celts don’t get them.
WGS will start his two match touchline ban today, the result of an incident earlier this season at Pittodrie. While the Wee One watches from the stands, Tommy Burns and/or Garry Pendrey will man the dugout.
With Stephen McManus out for a few days with a hammy, Gary Caldwell is likely to don the armband. Artur Boruc would be my choice, but Caldwell and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink are the vice-captains, and I don’t see WGS handing the armband to someone up front.
Darren O’Dea will fill in for the captain in the middle, with Andreas Hinkel and Lee Naylor the fullbacks.
It seems that WGS is rotating his midfield men at the moment, and with a match at Hibs this weekend, its anybody’s guess as to who sits. Shunsuke Nakamura is likely to be recalled, and Scott Brown will be in the lineup as well.
Aiden McGeady could be due for a bit of rest, but with every point being essential, he’ll be in there too. Massimo Donati looks to be back in his early season form, so I’ll say he’s going to partner Brown.
Big Jan is back from a hamstring strain, but I think WGS will stay with Georgios Samaras up front. The Greek international adds quite a bit to Celtic’s attack with his movement and creativity.
The lanky Dutchman will come off the bench around the 70th minute to test the hammy out. Scott McDonald, the league’s top scorer, will be hanging with Samaras.
Caley Thistle currently sit eighth in the table, only five points short of fifth. They haven’t won since 5 January, and starting slow has been their problem of late. Last Wednesday they found themselves down 2-0 after 10 minutes at Motherwell, and Hibs put the Jags away with two goals in the first five minutes at the weekend.
I fully expect Celtic to take advantage of the early woes that Caley have faced lately. The Bhoys will come out firing, and trying to end this match as a contest quickly.
McDonald, Samaras, and Caldwell are my picks to get on the board early as Celtic build a 3-0 lead at the half, and cruise to a 4-1 victory.
WHY INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLIES SUCK
New Scotland coach George Burley has agreed to consult both Celtic and the Huns regarding his squad for the upcoming Croatia friendly. An enormous Old Firm Derby is only three days after the stupidly scheduled international, so its probably in Burley’s best interest to ensure that Old Firm players he does select are utilized sparingly.
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Tags: Celtic, Darren ODea, Garry Pendrey, Gary Caldwell, George Burley, In the Press, Inverness Caledonian Thislte, Match Previews, Tommy BurnsSubscribe
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Comments
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Mon the Caley. With Celtic’s form lately, well, up until the weekend, we Caley fans have little hope to cling to, but we’re always troublesome when not expected to be.
As for the Scotland match, the Old Firm needs to suck it up a little. There are very few available slots for international friendlies, and the national side takes precedence on those dates. Besides, Rangers will almost certainly be more depleted than your Bhoys, unless there are some major squad changes.
Good luck catching Rangers, sincerely, but I can’t help but hope that run starts on the weekend and not tonight.
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United States
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With the Huns playing the Huns lite at Swinecastle, I think today is where we start to make up some ground.
As far as international duty goes, I understand needing players for Euro qualifiers and the such, but a friendly? C’mon…Big Mick already has a hamstring issue which I want to heal and not get re-nicked in some meaningless match for Scotland. Scotty Broon has been a little absent of late and I would like him to focus on the club as well.
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Matt, I’m thinking today is a day the Bhoys’ll pick up two points in the race as well.
Ian, while the Celts that play for Scotland aren’t the ones that score the goals for the club like the Huns, I’d argue our players are just as valuable. Caldwell, Hartley, McManus, Scott Brown, and probably Robson. Four of those are Scotland first teamers and thats 3/4 of our central midfielders and both our center halves. That’s the spine of the first team.
If you’re going to have a ten day break, with two competitive matches, or one match and one friendly even, that’s fine. But a midweek friendly with a couple training sessions before really can’t tell a coach too much. It also puts players at risk who are already overtaxed for basically no reason at all.
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United States -
I take your point, but it’s a classic club v. country thing with no real end to the argument. For clubs, a friendly is a meaningless waste of players. For country, they’re the only way to prepare a team that almost never gets to see each other. If your team met a handful of times a year, you’d defend every one of those times as being pretty damned important.
As for the other big match today, as much as I dislike Rangers domestically, I can’t bring myself to root for the Lithuanian national B side … er … Hearts.
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You can have Caldwell, Ian.
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Mikey Fraser’s going to earn his check today. Three saves in the first 20 minutes, but at least nothing conceded. That’s a better start than Caley’s had lately.
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Ian, where are you *ahem* watching this…
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Not really watching … keeping up with the gamecast thingie at ESPN.
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1-0 to Celtic right at the half. Scott McDonald from a Nakamura cross.
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Baws, me too. The usually sources for “consumption” of matches for free are not available! Seems to be all Celtic so far!
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Yeah, so far it’s Celtic 1 - Mike Fraser 0.
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GOAL! Oooh ah Samaras!
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Samaras and Hinkel were fantastic pickups for you bhoys.
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GOAL!!! Super Marius Niculae brings one back for Caley!!!
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FFS Brown! You sure you want him for Scotland!?
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Annnnd time…whew too close.
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Good match from Caley. Didn’t back down at Celtic Park, especially toward the end, and that’s all I can ask of them. 2-1 to Celtic away - not bad at all. Marius Niculae rocks, and he has the 80’s hockey player haircut to prove it.
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Ah, now this is why the pub needs wireless! I missed out on a nice running commentary of the match.
Celtic dominated the match by a healthy margin until that awful giveaway by Brown. He should be flogged. When you see it, you’ll be horrified that a professional could be so careless with the ball so close to his own goal. It was a gift, but Niculae’s finish was still top notch.
The last fifteen minutes looked like Celtic were the visitors trying to hold on. Nervy moments all over the place. In the end, they held out though.
Without Brown’s brainfart this could have been 4 or 5-0.
Samaras was Man of the Match easily in my book, and Big Jan had better be afraid, because Samaras offers so much more to the attack.
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United States -
I was at the match and a froze ma baws off watching celtic play great in the first 45 mins and then didnt get out of first gear in the second half.
We have no leader on the pitch that can grab the game by the baws and dictate play. Brown is looking a shade of what he was at hibs, donati well enuff said bout him, naka and mcgeady wasted some good chances with bad passes and bad decisions- caldwell and naylor once again liabilities at the back - and well brown for the goal ffs!!!!!
But the biggest point from last night is the inability of the celtic management to see what subs to make and how to close the game out. Bringing on Killen for McDonald instead of two midfielders to dominate that area were needed - but nope just one sub made and he was non existant as usual.
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United Kingdom -
Wow Andy, you left that comment while I was writing the match report. There is just no desire to kill teams off out there on the pitch. Not using the substitutes at all was absurd, and Killen for McDonald? Eh?
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Personally, I question the wisdom of Killen for anyone
Posted from
United States
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