Celtic Diary Monday September 19: And They Moan About The Referee ?

Celtics perfect start to the league campaign ended with a 2-2 draw in Inverness. Hardly surprising, as manager Brendan Rodgers elected to tinker with the defence again, but  crucially left Dorus De Vries between the sticks, which is where he stayed throughout the game, moving only when the referee blew for half time.

In a re run of last season,the manager is struggling to find his best back line, and with Lustig shunted to the middle to accomodate that Costa Rican bloke, it was hardly a shock when Billy King ghosted down the right before cracking a shot past a desparing De Vries, who had come off his line the way he should have done for Caleys second goal, which was a header that he actually dived backwards to get, which , of course, never works due to the goal line being right behind the keeper.

At the other end, the players took it in turns to fire shots more or less stright at the Caley keeper, who will never have an easier game and come out of it looking like a cross between Lev Yashin and Gordon Banks, at least until they come to Glasgow.

Have we seen this film before, only with different actors ?

Certainly seems that way, and the guy playing Ian Andrews has got the part perfected.

It would be churlish of me to blame the draw entirely on Dorus de Vries, who with each game is looking more and more like a bargain basement second level English goalkeeper who has come up north to play out the  last few months of his career, a policy which has yet to bear fruit for any club who adopts it, and although de Vries was Nottingham Forests player of the year last season, its worth remembering that Joey Barton, at the time of writing, still with “rangers ” , was also the player of the year at his club, Burnley, though they wouldn’t offer him a two year deal….

It’s not just down to the keeper, but having just gone through months of trying to find a settled back line for Craig Gordon, it seems rather silly to now do the same thing for De Vries, who probably needs a little more help keeping the ball out of the net than the former Hearts man. Gordon has had his duff games, but he can also be relied on to make match winning saves, and frankly, the idea of going up against free scoring in form Manchester city with De Vries in goal is loosening my bowels.

In fact, I’m not that confident he’ll do a job against Alloa on Wednesday, as his weaknesses include shots and headers anywhere near him.

And don’t forget…

As for the right back, he may need a bit of time before he’s ready for the first team, say around three or four years, and again, with a rampant Manchester City on the horizon, its probably not a good idea to keep him in the team.

Erik Sviatchenko looked a little sluggish yesterday, perhaps tired, perhaps missing hs mentor Kolo Toure, the single success thus far of the retirement home policy, but then again, theres a long way to go, and its unlikely he’ll last the season.

Sviatchenko did look a little more relaxed when Jozo Simunovic entered the fray, and Mikael Lustig returned to right back, but he seemed on eggshells for most of the game, having escaped a sending off for allowing an Inverness forward to fall over in front of him.

At least, thats how i saw it, whilst everyone else reckoned it was a penalty, it appeared to me that Draper, the Caley player, ran across Sviatchenko, making a collision inevitable, and while Chris Sutton of BT Sports was adamant it was a penalty, it should be noted that Sutton was quite good at falling over in front of defenders and winning a free kick.

After the game, controversy raged as Richie Foran, the Caley boss, commented on the “penalty ” decision.

 “Going by the reaction of the Celtic players we got away with a penalty and a sending off and it was probably the turning point in the game.

Ah, wait, wrong incident. That was John Hughes speaking as well, not Foran.

Foran said;

“It was outside the box, but it was a clear free-kick which leads to a clear sending off. 

Clearly.

“You need brave referees at times like that. Ross pushed the ball in front of their player, got his body in the way and he has been wiped out. It was a clear for anyone to see.

“I was very disappointed not to get that decision. It changed the whole outlook of the game without a doubt. If they go to 10 men it gives us a big boost. It was quite obvious for the whole stadium to see. The only one who didn’t think it was a free-kick was the referee unfortunately.

“I had a chat with the referree. He didn’t think Ross had control of the ball. Obviously, we have had the luxury of seeing it back on TV but e has made the wrong decision. 

I’ve seen it a couple of times as well, it wasn’t a foul. Not as far as I can see,

Still, even if it was…

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was fairly honest in his view of the game…

“We deserved the three points. Give credit to Inverness they kept going, they kept fighting, even though we could have scored more goals in the second half. 

“We were disappointed to concede from the corner. But they tell me that notoriously it’s a tough place to come and our general performance, especially in the second half, was better.

“Their keeper made some great saves, a couple of them looked like they were certs to go in. Obviously when the game is at 2-1 and no matter how dominant you are you need that third goal to get any sort of comfort in the game so when we didn’t get it we were leaving ourselves open a little bit to the equalising goal.

“But we have to defend it better. I still feel there is a lot of work to do on the standard of our game, both offensively and defensively. It’s a team formed over the course of the summer and there are still changes because of the level of the games we’ve been playing and the football we are trying to play.” 

He’s going to persevere with that keeper, isn’t he ?

On a lighter note, Scott Sinclair scored again, earning him comparisons with the late great Jimmy McGrory as he was the last player to score in the opening five league games…Sinclair played this down post match, instead reflecting on his own performance;

‘Somebody told me after the game, It’s a good achievement but, at the same time, you want to be coming off the field having scored the goals and won the game.

‘Personally, I haven’t really looked into it. I just go into every game looking to create and score goals. The main thing is getting three points.

‘When I look back, I scored 27 goals for Swansea City but that was going back five years ago — a long time ago.

‘It’s great for myself getting into that run of consistency and my confidence is growing with each game. When you add them both together, you can say I’m enjoying my football.

‘I said when I first came here I wanted to both score goals and provide. If I’m doing one or the other, then I’m doing my job. It’s just basically to help the team.’

I suppose its a good thing that these old records are being challenged. With Moussa Dembele hitting a hat trick against a team from Ibrox, something the likes of Henrik Larsson and Kenny Dalglish failed to do, combined with Sinclair and his five in a row run, -although I’m sure Charlie Nicholas did something similar-or better- back in the eighties, though it may not have been at the start of the season, and the McGrory comparisons, its no surprise to learn that Ian Andrews is now concerned he’ll be usurped in the all time Celtic Diddies team.

For younger readers, Ian Andrews played for Celtic against Rangers, and this is more or less what he looked like for most of the game;

He played a total of five games for Celtic, conceded something like two hundred goals and failing to catch the ball on any occasion, or even get in the way of it as it hurtled goalwards.

I’m kidding, but by god he was bloody awful. Even defenders used to try and knock him out of the way when the ball went near him.

These days, he’s got his own business, where he is under strict orders to keep his arms crossed and not to pick anything up.

He’s in physiotherapy and sports medicine…

where he uses the most up to date scientifically proven methods.

No, I’ve no idea either.

So, with five games gone, one less than the chasing pack, Celtic are three points clear at the top of the league , with that game in hand. Hearts, St. Johnstone and Aberdeen follow, with newly promoted “rangers ” now starting to find their level in the top flight.

The gap may be a little distorted as the fixtures computer has had all of the top four playing against each other, presumably to provide some good games early on to catch the publics imagination.

With fifth placed “rangers ” still to play Hearts and aberdeen, it doesn;t look good for their supporters , especially as Joey Barton, the self confessed best player in Scotland, almost certain to be either on his way out, or on his way to a relaxing few weeks in front of the telly on full pay.

Apparently, according to the Record, after his bust up with Andy Halliday and Mark Warburton, he’s got to beg for forgiveness in order to have any chance of ever playing for “rangers ” again, which I’m sure the shy, humble scouser will have no problem in doing.

Warburton, now feeling the pressure as his team is forced to play full time opposition, is starting to crack. He stormed out of a press conference when tepeatedly asked about the Barton situation, and then went on to descrobe the 0-0 draw with Ross County as the best performance of the season, which it may have been, but its hardly something to shout about.

After complaining of negativity from the press, it seems he is being a little defensive, and this could be, as Chris Sutton on BT sports pointed out, because the job is too big for him, and sutton so far is the only one to break ranks on Warbsy, which has, in turn , brought him a little grief from the gullibiliies, who still have faith in the magic hat.

Oh wait, thats not him. Thats another comedian who’s best days are behind him.

That’s him. Another comedian who’s best days are behind him.

At Ibrox on Saturday, ahead of the Ross County game, they did their usual Armed Forces day, with troops abseiling into the ground, cannons roaring and national anthems blaring, all of which they do to show their support for the Army, Air Force and Navy, althougb they do actually stop short of paying the taxes needed to maintain them.

Still they did donate a quid from the sale of their match programmes, which became £4.50 for the day, instead of the usual £3.50, showing a financial transparency that deserves praise.

Speaking of transparency, this is worth a read, from the Offshore Game…

offshire-game-on-transparency

Who would have thought it ? A negligent SFA !

Can anyone help me out here. I’ve just come across this prediction for the season from a chap called Kenny MacDonald, who I confess I am unfamiliar with. Does anyone know who he is?

And more importantly where he is, as its imperative that he doesn’t miss any of his medication and its only fair we keep an eye on him.

As for a caption competiton, her’s a blast from the past..