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Celtic 2 Ross County 0; Match Report.

Jack the lad reports on the first game of the season; 

Here we go, 10 in a row!

The next step in the Bhoys’ journey to the mythical 10 in a row is well underway after a somewhat uncomfortable 2-0 victory over Ross County at Paradise.

Kieran Tierney made his first competitive start for the Champions in what was a largely unchanged side from Wednesday night’s win over Qarabag, with the exclusion of the on form Griffiths replacing Ciftci, who served the first of his six game ban for following through with the cannibalistic threat he made towards Dundee’s Jim McAlister in the final Dundee Derby last season- ‘Am gonny eat yer legs.’

The 2015/16 season had barely kicked off when that bastard (Willie Collum) made a rather out of character decision in awarding the Hoops a stone wall penalty. Griffiths managed to turn his man on the edge of the six yard box before being clipped by a County defender, and was duly awarded a penalty.

Griffiths himself, only four minutes after being re introduced to the starting eleven, drove the ball low into the right hand corner under Fox’s body, who should have saved comfortably.

The Bhoys’ upped the tempo in the next 10 minutes, and were unlucky not to have a second, after Forrest took the ball from deep in the County half, skipped past four defenders and forced Fox into a low save at his near post. Ah, the agony of the final product.

Not a minute later, there was cause for concern as Leigh Griffiths appeared to be struggling with a leg injury. He evidently couldn’t continue, and was replaced by the Serbian lothario, Stefan Scepovic.

Consequently, Celtic dropped off the pace, with County enjoying longer spells of possession in the Celtic half.

Celtic were nearly punished for a series of sloppy errors. Boyata, who had his worst performance in the hoops to date, misplaced a pass on the half way line. With the whole Celtic team pushed forward, Jackson Irvine latched on to a through ball and raced past the advancing Craig Gordon, who brought him down on the edge of the box.

‘Who’s the ref again? That bastard Collum? Got to be a red.’

What happened next was inconceivable, Willie Collum turned down the chance to send a Celtic player off when he probably should’ve been. Gordon escaped with a yellow card, incensing the County players. The resulting free kick was saved by Gordon who pushed it wide for a corner.

On the half hour mark, the impressive Tierney fizzed a cross in from the left hand side, which found GMS who miraculously failed to convert, as his effort was saved by Fox.

The Hoops did, however, double their advantage five minutes later. The ball broke to GMS on the edge of the box who, evidently reluctant to have a shot at goal after the ignominy of his last effort, teed up Johansen who cooly slotted past the helpless Fox.

There was time for laughter in the 42nd minute, as Efe Ambrose Balon D’or was viciously attacked by a sprinkler as he attempted to cross from the right. The Parkhead groundsmen failing to remind the enigmatic Nigerian that he canny hit a barn door, as his cross ballooned over the bar. The half time whistle gave the soaked right back a chance to dry his hair and return for the second half.

The Bhoys made a decent start to the second half, but after struggling to carve out any clear cut chances, their frustration turned to sloppiness and the Highlanders were able to counter attack.

County hit Celtic on the break after picking up possession in the midfield, and it took a smart save from Gordon to deny Curran from getting the visitors back into the tie. The Bhoys countered the County counter- try saying that 10 times faster- as the sexy Serb Scepovic played the ball into the path of Armstrong, whose effort was cleared off the line after he rounded the advancing Fox.

On the hour mark Celtic made a double swap, Janko came on to replace the impressive Kieran Tierney to make this league debut for the Champions, which resulted in a position change for utility man, Efe Ambrose, who moved over to left back. Kris Commons also entered the field of play in place of Johansen.

County continued to apply pressure as Celtic began to look laboursome on the ball, resulting in a corner for the Highlanders which made its way to the edge of the Hoops’ box, before Michael Gardyne fluffed his lines and blasted over the bar.

It wasn’t two minutes later before Ambrose turned suspect, as the ball was fizzed across the box from the left hand side, before Gordon was on hand to make a superb save from De Vita’s strike. Big Efe clearly suffering from a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the sprinkler incident.

Five minutes later, it was Commons’ turn to shoot from distance, as his sizzling shot forced Fox into awarding a corner.

The Bhoys began to reassert their dominance on the game, as Armstrong’s strike from distance deflected narrowly past the post.

Michael Gardyne managed to break for County, before being brought down by Virgil Van Dijk in the penalty area. That sound bastard Collum decided it wasn’t to be, and told Gardyne to get his feet. There must have been something in the water at Parkhead.

Celtic kept possession of the ball for the final 10 minutes of the game, but continued to struggle in their attempts to break down the County defence. A few mazy runs from GMS appeared to cause problems for the Highlanders, but none resulted in more than a corner kick.

The game faded out to what many would have seen as a foregone conclusion at the start of the match; a victory for the Champions.

A win on the opening day of the season is always a must, and the Bhoys managed to deliver just that. Although at times sloppy, Deila must be relieved that an average performance was enough for the three points. Still, a big improvement will be needed for the second leg in Azerbaijan on Wednesday. The Efe Ambrose sprinkler system would no doubt provide a kick up the arse!

On a more positive note, Griffiths injury doesn’t look to bad according to Ronny (See @celticfc twitter) and he should be available for Wednesday.

Happy days.

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timbuffy
8 years ago

That wee shite Neil McCann couldn’t wait to insist that Craig Gordon should have been sent off during the half time discussion on Sky. And he was just as quick to peddle the same biased, bigoted crap at time. Charlie Mulgrew did well not to lamp him – hopefully he did when they were off air. McCann is an odious little toad who is using his privileged position to promote his anti-Celtic agenda. Time his paymasters pointed out the error of his ways before handing him his P45.

andybhoy
8 years ago
Reply to  timbuffy

An insignificant,deluded,hun monkey,tax dodging little skitter.

Tourtenay
8 years ago
Reply to  andybhoy

Yes Andy but what about the parts you don’t like!
HH

Morto
8 years ago
Reply to  Tourtenay

And he didn’t feel the need to bleat on (McCann, not Andy!) about the County player who fouled Griffiths not receiving any card at all.

BondiBrian
8 years ago
Reply to  andybhoy

dearie me …whuts with the hun ‘monkey’ nonsense? Really. When did ‘mokley’ become an awrite expression? Hun: ah get that, bit of a laugh but ‘monkey’ FFS.

8 years ago

other obvious chages from Wednesday nights starting side were am rose in at full back and Forrest in on the wing

Doc
8 years ago

You could get a job on CTV with that match report.

Vinnie.
8 years ago

Usual quality comments ETims, thanks for all you do.
Even if I don’t agree with everything, it’s well done and often borders on riotously funny. Good comments too, mostly.
I read your Diary daily and love it.
I’m going to try to copy and paste some notes I made on your recent posts and hope they make sense to you and your readers. My point’s only another one of the very many you get, and therefore singularly unimportant, but please, don’t ever give up on the Diary. It’s vital. My wee grandson will be fed on this Diary when I’m story-telling and also bed-time reading when he stays overnight. He’ll be a Tim come hell or high water. His Dad’s a Man U. fan now, but that’s another story.
I once had a wee dig at PB on here for long posts. I await a dig back if this is included. Vinnie HH.
Was it a yellow ? Was it a red ?
Let’s start with, was it even a foul ?
Craig Gordon ran out to challenge. He’s allowed to.
Close to Jackson Irvine, Gordon tries to pull out.
Hence, no intent and minimal (if any) contact.
Other-hand, what about Irvine’s antics ?
Aye, watch it again, closely.
So yellow is right.
But for Irvine for diving, not Gordon for making a legitimate attempt to protect his goal.
McCann’s response (on Sky) is typical hun. Frothing, seething, bigoted bile. Fuckim.
Good on Charlie for keeping his cool, and, by fuck Charlie is cool.
(BTW, I binned Sky many years ago, I refer (above) to a link to their website)

On another note, Scepovic shouldn’t be at Parkhead. He’s fucking useless.
James Forrest has stalled severely, and, like Aiden before him, it’s time to move on.

Celtic TV is absolute shite, just like our CEO.
Bin both and get professionals in to cut costs and improve products.
Also, it would allow club to pay the living wage. What do you think Brother Walfrid ?

“Football is nothing without the fans”, now pick up your jotters and fuck off Mr Lawwell,
and take all your Capitalist Cronies with you. You’re no fans of Celtic. You just don’t get it.

We’re More Than A Club, and better off without your kind.
Vinnie.
HH

pensionerbhoy
8 years ago
Reply to  Vinnie.

Vinnie

When you get to my age you want to get in as much as you can in the short time left even if it is mostly pure…..!! Now, when it comes to ranting, there should be no limit on time or length and yours is quite some rant. What worries me is I agree with a hell of a lot of it, especially CTV. I have suffered that apology of a production for about six tears now as my only non bigoted, though far from unbiased, source of game commentary. So I beg you to try to understand when criticising my verbosity, now that you know what torture I have endured over many years.

As for your comments on the Dairy (I think I might be over-milking this now), they are absolutely spot on. It has a good chance of becoming as important as the Bible or Harry Potter even. I am not as yet prepared to do a Shankly and say more so – not just yet anyway.

Keep reading and fill that bottle to the very top with this indispensable dairy product to ensure your grandson grows tall and proud and green all over, of course.

H H

pensionerbhoy
8 years ago
Reply to  pensionerbhoy

“tears” instead of years – if ever there was a justifiable malapropism!!!

H H

Vinnie.
8 years ago
Reply to  pensionerbhoy

Thanks PB. I too have many ‘miles on the clock’ and I think earlier today I blew my head gasket in the “rant”. It’s mostly how I genuinely feel though. Anyway things now are rosier as I believe both Nir Biton and Leigh Griffiths should be fit for Wednesday T-time in Baku and I hope they both start. I’d like to see Kris play a part too as I just sit noisily watching by a stream.
HH
PS Tip for CTV audio-only. It works best for me with the sound switched off.

charlie
8 years ago

there is nothing the dafties like better than a soup taker mc cann is a soup taker extraudinaair i pity him

Vinnie.
8 years ago
Reply to  charlie

I don’t pity him, Charlie, but I’d piss on him.
Then again, no. I want no contact, not even that, with the hun.
Zombies may well carry even more poison than their dead parents.
HH

8 years ago

Another classic post from Ralph. Love my daily fix from ETIMS & The Clumpany

pensionerbhoy
8 years ago

Jack

I know it is a tall order but having reports like this on all the games might just give me my first season of FACTUAL and RELEVANT commentary. If you could……

Thanks for this one and I look forward to many more.

I would not want to criticise Desi’s past reports but he is a Celtic supporter 🙂 – naw! naw! Tam Dawson. I’m only joking!

H H

Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  pensionerbhoy

Sob…sob…sob

pensionerbhoy
8 years ago

Ralph

“The Norwegian said: “Our relationship is fantastic. We’ll be friends forever – we’re more like a couple now!”

I have just seen this quote from Ronnie about him and John Collins. Once again you were way ahead of the field. I remember you reporting on this when the pair first started to go out together. You predicted then they would tie the knot. It looks like they have really fallen for each other. One hopes they took their vows for life and don’t end up in the divorce courts.

You are simply a genius, my boy. I wonder how in Stoke 🙂

H H

davielindsay
8 years ago

McCann really should remember where he came from and who he was

8 years ago

Actually, Gollum gave us 3 or 4 penalties last year. Maybe he’s picked up Mad Skillz lately …

Carl Bigginslater
8 years ago

We’re deluded if we think this team will compete in the CL. The Europa League will be plenty for them. Do not be disappointed when we fall through that particular trapdoor. The quality in the final third is shocking. Scepovic is an embarrassment. Only when Puff came on did we look like a Celtic team with real bite. Armstrong got MOM for what? Well done Tierney. Impressive debut.

Admin
8 years ago

Virgil got MOTM yesterday. Armstrong the other week agsinst Icelanders..for no known reason.

Carl Bigginslater
8 years ago
Reply to  Desi Mond

Well that’s Sky for you. They told us it was Armstrong.

Joesy H
8 years ago

Kieron Tierney made his full time league debut against St Johnstone on the second last game of last season in Perth

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