Celtic Diary Saturday January 16: Total Football The Celtic Way

Friday night isn’t when football should be played.

But the prospect of a weekend off seemed to fire Celtic last night as they swept to a 4-1 win over Dunde United.

And it wasn’t a bad performance either.

With Nir Biton joining Scott Brown on the sideline, the midfield looked a little lightweight, but happily the Arabs let Celtic have the ball back every time they lost it, so it didn’t really matter, except for when they ran down the middle of the park and scored, but they hadn’t done that before, didn’t do it again, so you can’t really blame Celtic for conceding.

Before that, Leigh Griffiths pounced on a defensive slip to “smash the ball between the keepers legs “-his words-to claim his fitieth goal in sixty starts.

An astonishing return for a player many didn’t think had it in him, and manager Ronny Deila, acknowledging the fact that Griffiths has done his fifty quicker than any other modern era striker, used that word “legend “…

 “It is a very good performance to get to 50 so early.

“I am delighted with the way he plays. He has a five-year deal here, so there is a good chance, if he keeps scoring like this, that he can be a legend. When you say those names and say he has scored more goals than them in the same period then he has a big opportunity to really make a mark in Celtic’s history.”

Griffiths seemed happy about it when he scored the landmark goal, but played down the managers praise;

“To score 50 goals at such a big club is special To get mentioned in the same breath as these guys, Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and John Hartson, I am a long way off that. These are icons of this club. If I can be half as good as these guys I will be happy. But I need to keep working hard on the training field and try to keep moving forward.”

but referee Bobby Madden wasn’t as pleased, as he had Kris Commons down for first goalscorer, and so the Griff paid the price …

Of course, excessive celebration was the real reason for the booking, and Kris Commons and Stefan Johansen were careful not to even smile.

Griffiths, though, reckons it was worth it;

“Was the T-shirt worth the booking? One million per cent. There was an added incentive to get that goal and I knew when the chance came my way that as long as I put it on target I’d score. I texted 
Stevie the kitman this morning to get a T-shirt made up for me. Broony was giving me a bit of stick saying I should have had one saying ‘51’ as well.”

That would have been interesting. Even Bobby Tait or Tiny Wharton drew the line at sending players off for scoring twice. 

You can tell Madden doesn’t like Griffiths, as this clip shows, and frankly, if the exchange had been the other way round…

Booby has a message for Leigh

Jozo Simunovic followed the opener with a powerful header to make it 2-0, and credit has to go to Kris Commons for the slightly outswinging free kick which left the keeper in no mans land, allowing the big defender to get a good run at the ball.

United pulled their goal back before the break, which would have given them a little encouragement to at least come back out for the second half, but Griffiths again and then a spectacualar effort from an in flight Commons rounded of the scoring.

Playing one up front has its failures, but if we’d had two strikers scoring twenty five each in sixty games, we’d be over the moon. Griffiths did it himself, and maybe putting someone alongside him would just mean less room for him to exploit.

His mobility and finishing are his strong points, let him get on with it.

Pre match, manager Deila pointed out that he wasn’t playing one up front, he was playing three, maybe four, and as the game progressed, that seemed to be the case. Everyone middle to front looked lively, and capable of scoring, and the movement and passing showed further improvement.

At the back Efe Ambrose, having been roasted by the manager, is showing that he is the clubs best defender. He was immense last night, and will get better as his confidence and concentration continue to improve. Even Mikael Lustig is starting to look like his old self, so it must be nearly time for his injury, but on the whole, I’m quite looking forward to my trip up next week, for the St. Johnstone game.

The margin would have been greater had the League appointed a couple of linesmen who actually understood the offside rule, as they combined to get absolutely everything wrong.

but we should have seen that coming…

The ugly issue of pyrotechnics raised its head again , and no doubt we will see the same voracious campaign to eradicate it, penalise the club and have the fans shot as we did last week..

Mind you, if we are to penalise ugly issues that raise their head at football matches….

He’s a brave man sitting in the crowd after what he’s done to Scottish football, or not done, depending on how you see it. Especially in Dundee, where its a bit rough.

I remember once, on my way down to the ground,  being accosted by a bird sitting on a wall with the customary cigarette hanging out of her mouth

Its rough round there.

And its going to be a rough weekend.

No football worth taking any notice of, although Anthony Stokes making his debut for Hibs might be worth a look when they play Falkirk, Bt sports showing that there are other sides worth covering in the second tier.

I’ll be spending the weekend probably shopping with the wife.

Which reminds me …

Why did my wife cross the road ?

To go back into the first fucking shop we went into three and a half hours ago.

Sory about the language. she hates it when I use words which are mean or offensive. She’s got a point. I should try a little harder to remember her name.

I won’t be here all week, I’m appearing at a working mens club some time in the seventies.

The man , dressed rather eccentrically in yesterdays picture was the original Ronald MacDonald, the character used to persuade children they aren’t eating enough sugar and preservatives.

Heres a photo of a player who , bearing in mind his surname, was never going to be a big favourite with some sections of the support.

Who is he ?