Celtic racked up their biggest win of the season so far with a 6-1 demolition of Kilmarnock, despite Dorus de Vries turning the game into a handicap event after he watched a speculative long range shot sail over his head to open the days scoring.
With a more difficult game aheadon Wednesday, manager Brendan Rodgers decided to call a halt to the de Vries experiment, and replaced him with Craig Gordon for the second half, to allow the defenders some much needed practice playing with a goalkeeper.
The Kilmarnock goal has been hailed as a wonderful strike, which it was, in that it was on target. By merely getting the shot on target, Souleyman Coulibayli had exploited the keepers main weakness, and as it floated goalwards. many conversations took place around the stadium to this effect, in real time, by the way…
Fan ” Thats going in ”
Fan 2 ” Nah, keepers watching it all the way ”
Fan ” Are you watching Strictly come Dancing tonight ? ”
Fan 2 ” no, whats that all about ? ”
Fan ” Its where celebrities get paired off with professional dancers and learn to dance. Its quite good. Then every week the one who’s made an arse of it gets voted off by the viewers. ”
Fan 2 ” Oh, you mean like that Simon Cowell thing, the x factor ”
Fan “Yes, thats right, only you should see the gear the lassies wear, all posh dresses and that
Fan 2 “I’ll have a look, what times—-oh how the fuck did he let that one go in ? ”
For a keeper of De Vries’s experience and ability, his tome between the sticks at Celtic has been nothing short of a disaster. So much so, that one is tempted to think he has a genuine problem, as yet undetected , with his eyesight or motor communication skills.
He’s getting on a bit, and for most of us, deteriorating bodies are the norm. My eyesight, without glasses, is so poor that I can no longer play snooker or darts with the old specs, and driving without them is an adventure.
In that respect, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and suggest that there is an underlying problem that has come to light during the last few games.
That way, he can retire with dignity.
But, enough about de Vries, because even that goal cannot take away from what was Celtic’s best performance of the season so far.
In the past, placing nine men behind the ball has frustrated Celtic, and sometimes the tactic has seen teams leave Glasgow with a point in their pockets.
Not any more.
The movement, the commitment and the desire of this team is overwhelming at times, such as yesterday, and it was no surprise that in the time it took me to smoke a fag in disgust at De Vries, Moussa Dembele had scored twice to put the earth back on its normal rotation.
In the past, that would not have happened, and not just because Dembele only joined in the summer, but because the spirit wasn’t there.
It wouldn;t be unfair to say that any one of the outfield players had a strong case to be nominated man of the match, as most of them performed probably as well as they ever have, though there was one touch of class that was above and beyond the call of duty.
Scott Sinclair, if he scored today, would become the first Celtic player to score in each of the opening six matches of a league campaign.
Celtic got a penalty…
Sinclair agreed it was a touch of class..
1/2 Great result today a touch of class from @Leighgriff09 in giving me the pen allowing me to break the record it just goes to show how
2/2 Good the team spirit and togetherness in the squad, thanks to all the fans, roll on Wednesday! #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #celticfc
“I know the people well there. I was approached when Roberto Mancini was there, after the first season, to go in and be a No 2 and at that time I was out of work.
“I met them at City’s ground and then I was invited to Milan to speak there with them. I wanted to be a manager of course but at that time there weren’t a lot of possibilities.
“They thought because I had worked at Chelsea with big players that I could maybe come in and make an impact there but after the chats and talks I was offered the job at Swansea, so I went back into be the No 1 again.
“That was the best thing for me but I got to know about City then and I have got to say I am big admirer of them because everything they talked about then, they were developing. I was shown plans of the training facilities they were going to build and the mini stadiums, how they were going to try and roll it out throughout the world.
Seems like the players at Man City have the best of everything, except that one thing all teams need.
“People are saying that Celtic are the weakest team of the group but, believe me, this game is going to be really hard because they’re a very strong side when they play at home,”
“The atmosphere there is always incredible. I’ve never had an opportunity to play at Celtic Park but I’m really looking forward to it.
“I’ve heard from many players who have played there and they say it’s fantastic.
“I’ve seen many of their games in the Champions League on TV and also in the Scottish League and I know it’s true.
“They’ve been playing in this competition for a lot of years so we know what the Champions League means for them as well as what it means for us.
“Some people think that this group is only about City and Barca, but that is not the case.
“Of course Barcelona is one of the greatest teams ever to have played in this competition and they are in the same group as us, but we cannot forget the other two.
“We have a lot of respect for Borussia Monchengladbach and we certainly have to respect Celtic as well.
“It’s going to be very tough. We need to prepare well for all the games and make sure we can play in our best style of play because, of course, then we will have more chance to win.”
I’ve a feeling that he probably says something similar before most games.
Another ex Celt working in the media, Davie Provan , has commented the lack of criticism offered by ex-Rangers players toward the shennanigans at Ibrox which involved setting up a new club and pretending it was the old one;
“I don’t think there is any doubt that is true,”
“You would have to ask them why this is. Maybe there is an unknown code they subscribe to but it’s almost a given that former Rangers players won’t slag off Rangers.
“When David Murray was taking the club deeper into debt, you still had not one of them sounding the alarm bell even when Hugh Adam sounded the claxon. It was still, ‘That’s Sir David, steady as you go.’”
| # | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | Last 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celtic | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 8 | 15 | 16 | |
| 2 | Hearts | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 11 | |
| 3 | St Johnstone | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 10 | |
| 4 | Motherwell | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 9 | |
| 5 | Aberdeen | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 9 | |
| 6 | Ross County | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 9 | |
| 7 | Rangers | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 9 | |
| 8 | Inverness CT | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 15 | -4 | 8 | |
| 9 | Dundee | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 11 | -3 | 6 | |
| 10 | Kilmarnock | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 15 | -7 | 6 | |
| 11 | Partick Thistle | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 5 | |
| 12 | Hamilton Academical | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 | -4 | 5 |
Caption competition now, and yesterdays depiction of madness-I mean madness, because this guy would have woken up one morning and decided to head to the shop, buy some bread and then then make a hat out of the wrappers. Think about that for a minute.
gave us this answer, so obvious really,
Caption:- Ffs why are ye wearing that big ugly pointed hat?
To hide my big ugly pointed heid.
Today, we have this… taken at Lennoxtown, they tell me..
