Celtic v. St. Mirren Preview

By: Matt | September 25th, 2009

Celtic come into their first trip to the new Love Street this season on the back of perhaps their best performance of the year against Falkirk midweek in the CIS Cup. The only problem is, the team that put 4 against Falkirk featured eight different players in the squad than the normal first team. Paddy McCourt ran Falkirk ragged, including a possible goal of the year candidate. Barry Robson was the calming influence that he was last winter before he got hurt. An actual goal scorer who scored twice replaced the fat, sour pussed, Scott McDonald. Wait, what? That was McDonald in there? Oh, well…..could have fooled me. Anyways, will the fact that a totally different team is coming in likely to take on St. Mirren effect the magical momentum Celtic has? Hopefully not. St Mirren have only gotten 5 points in their first five matches and their offense has struggled so far. St. Mirren have yet to do anything other than draw at Love Street, and they are averaging half a goal in their home matches. Celtic on the road this season are undefeated with two wins so far, though they average only conceding half a goal as well. The Bhoys are averaging two goals on the road this season, while conceding an average of half a goal on the road.

The extent of Aiden McGeady’s injury is not fully known, but it is certain that McGeady will miss the match tomorrow against St. Mirren with the ankle knock he picked up midweek. Certainly Paddy McCourt’s midweek performance would earn him the start in the injured McGeady’s spot? Well, maybe, maybe not. There’s a chance he could start, but I’d still expect Niall McGinn, the natural winger, to start on the wing. Of course, Marc Antoine Fortune will still not be available with a knee injury. Zheng Zhi’s deal was officially completed this week, but Zhi will not be available this weekend, as he needs a few training sessions still. Barry Robson finally got a full shift in on Thursday and is in the squad for Saturday against St. Mirren, but I would expect Robo Cop to play a substitute role to not push the midfielder recovering from injury too much. Here is the announced squad for Celtic: Boruc, Caldwell, Loovens, Daniel Fox, Hinkel, Scott Brown, N’Guemo, McDonald, Killen, Maloney, McGinn, Robson, McManus, Crosas, McCourt, Caddis, Zaluska, Carey, Mizuno.

The Buddies will be facing some injury problems as the top of the league Celtic team comes to town. Steven Robb, Chris Smith and Mo Camara, who has had knee surgery, are all out through injury. However, new signing central defender Chris Innes will make his St. Mirren debut against Celtic.