New competition, new direction for the season.
As Craig Gordon puts it;
”We wanted to get into the Champions League group stages and we didn’t manage to do that this year.
“But after that we still wanted to achieve success in Europe, and this is next best competition to do that.
That is the mindset that is required this evening.
Mind you, Gordon also said , of Dedryck Boyata;
He’s been a really good player and a big part of what we’ve achieved over the last few seasons,”
“He’s come back and played quickly after injuries and done everything he could for the team and been a leader, especially among the French-speaking boys in the team.
There’s a lot of good things he’s brought to the club so, from a players’ point of view, there’s no problem in him coming back to training.
“Dedryck has been well-liked in his entire time amongst the players so it was just a case of getting back to business and him coming back in and training the way he always has done.”
Except, of course, Boyata now says he has a bad back and hasn’t traveled to Lithuania for the first leg tie with Suduva.
Neither has Jack Hendry, who understandably is feeling the pressure of supporter criticism, and to be honest, for that we only have ourselves to blame. The lad has a terrific attitude and has unfairly been scapegoated by sections of the support who seem to need someone to moan at.
There are enough people out there criticising our players without us adding to it.
Add to this the constant abuse for Mikael Lustig and Jozo Simunovic, then its no wonder the defence looks so terrified every time it takes to the pitch.
Whether or not you rate these players, they are our players, and we are their supporters.
Suduva are a much improved side from the one that came to Celtic Park in 2002. At that time they looked to be in awe of their opponents, and that will not be the case tonight.
FK Sūduva is a professional football club based in the city of Marijampolė, Lithuania. Founded in 1921, they currently play in the Lithuanian top division, the A Lyga. The team is currently the champions of A Lyga.
The club has played in the A Lyga since 2002 and have never been relegated from the Lithuanian top division. In 2006 the team won the Lithuanian Cup, a feat they repeated in 2009 with a 1–0 victory over Tauras in the final.[1] In 2017 Sūduva won the A Lyga.
The team’s colours are white and red. The club plays at ARVI Football Arena in Marijampolė (capacity 6,250).
Soviet times
Sūduva is one of the oldest and still functioning clubs in Lithuania. It is not so easy to trace its history, as in Soviet times it often changed names with every new owner that supported it.
- 1941 – Žagrė (named after a kind of plough)
- 1942 – Sūduva (named after Suvalkija, a region of Lithuania)
- 1945 – Žalgiris (local name for the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg)
- 1949 – Spartakas (“Spartacist“)
- 1951 – Žalgiris
- 1952 – KTU Žalgiris (after Kaunas University of Technology)
- 1963 – Sūduva
- 1993 – Sūduva-Žydrius (after the Žydrius automotive parts company)
- 1994 – Sūduva
It is more or less agreed that officially this club has existed under the name of Sūduva since 1968.
During Soviet times it drifted between different local leagues, producing few footballers for the above-mentioned Žalgiris and slowly building a local football community. Football was also actively played in a few smaller towns around Marijampolė, thus making the community of football lovers even stronger. Actually it was stronger than the club itself, and those who follow the team today are adding to the old tradition.
The biggest achievement of the club during Soviet times came in 1975 when Sūduva reached 3rd place at the local top division. The next year it played and lost the National Cup Final. That was more or less it.
1990–2001[edit]
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union Sūduva got few chances to go up. It played the only Baltic championship in 1990 with teams from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Next year it tried the Lithuanian top division. Both efforts were terrible – Sūduva finished both championships as the last team collecting 7 points at the Baltic championship and only 2 at the Lithuanian league.
Later the team navigated between the 2nd and the 3rd divisions for some 10 years without decent funds or a truly professional attitude. The worst was the season of 1998 / 1999. The team started well at the 2nd division but left it after half a season because it had no funds. It was not the end. The football traditions were too strong.
The team recovered next season at the 3rd division, won it the following year, went up and won again. This rise continues up to this day.
2002–present[edit]
The season of 2002 shaped the future. The team reached the top division. It also reached the finals of the National Cup and gained the chance to take part in the UEFA Cup. But the most important thing was that it also got new owners who were determined to create a normally functioning and financially predictable club. The European campaign of that year added some good emotions to the general hype.
The semi-professional team vanquished Brann from Norway during its first European match (3–2 both away and at home) and went to Glasgow to meet Celtic. This match was not so successful (actually, the result is still featured in the statistics of Celtic as one of the biggest victories in Europe). But no one cared – the fundamentals for the revival were laid.
Three more seasons at the middle of the table and the team reached 3rd place – 30 years after the achievement of the same caliber. Repeating that history, the club reached the finals of the National Cup the following year. Only this time the Cup went to Marijampolė.
Since that year Sūduva have been one of the most stable clubs of the country – both financially and on the league table. It reached 2nd position twice (2007 and 2010), 3rd position – three times (2009, 2011 and 2012) and won the National Cup one more time (2008). It went to play European cups every year receiving teams like Rapid, Red Bull and Club Brugge.
The year 2013 saw a new concept of the team. The budget was still stable but it went down. So the team expressed the wish to put more stress on integration of young local boys into the main team. Some important players of the earlier seasons left; a few foreign players came to stand along those who left and the new blood.
So that was the year of experiments. The team was much younger, less experienced and clearly weaker. It was many seasons before Sūduva was a clear member of 2–4 teams that were clear leaders of the championship. The question was only about what kind of medals each team would get. That year the situation was much tougher for Sūduva. It was clear that the team would need a lot of effort and luck if it wanted to get its traditional silver or bronze.
In the 2015 season Sūduva started with a new head coach – Aleksandr Veselinovič. The new coach totally changed the team style from defending to attacking. In the last season game against Atlantas Sūduva needed at least a draw. Sūduva conceded a goal in the 86th minute and lost 3rd place to Atlantas.
In the beginning of the 2016 season Sūduva recalled former team players Marius Činikas and Martynas Matuzas. Multiple A Lyga champions Algis Jankauskas, Andro Švrljuga and Paulius Janušauskas were signed as well. Also signed were Croatian goalkeeper Ivan Kardum, Serbian forward Admir Kecap, Bosnian-Herzegovinian defensive midfielder Nermin Jamak and Serbian midfielder Predrag Pavlović. Sūduva finished season 3rd, also played in Cup final same year. [3]
In 2017, FK Sūduva became the first Lithuanian football club after Žalgiris Vilnius and FK Ekranas to pass three qualifying rounds in European competition in 2017–18 Europa League. FK Sūduva eliminated Shakhtyor Soligorsk , FK Liepāja and FC Sion.
In the same season, for the first time, FK Sūduva won A Lyga.
In 2018, FK Sūduva played in the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. In the first round Sūduva advanced over APOEL FC by scoring 3 consecutive goals in the first 18 minutes of play. In the second qualification round they lost to Red Star Belgrade.
See.
Told you.
We cannot take this team lightly.
I’d be happy with any sort of positive result, but frankly a good , professional performance is much more desirable.
The objective is to secure European football until Christmas.
Failure to do so is unthinkable.
Elsewhere, and Celtic will be without Scott McKenna tonight as not only is he injured, Aberdeen won’t sell him to us, a bid reported to be £3.5m was rejected by the dons, and as such Celtic have ended their interest in the player.
What is worrying is that he could not have been very high up on the list of centre backs Celtic are after, which in turn means we have failed to secure any of those above him.
One cannot help but freeze in terror at the thought of who is below him on that list…
Still, with the scouts having traveled all the way to Dundee to scout Jack Hendry, however, we can take encouragement from the fact that they’ve now widened their scope to Aberdeen, and that has to be a positive.
Still no sign of Christopher Jullien, though, despite all the hints I’ve been dropping.
Instead, Jeffrey Bruma seems to be one to watch, although he makes Marvin comperr look like Iron Man, and again, serious questions have to be asked of Lee Congerton, such as “Why don’t you fuck off ? ”
Chris Sutton has suggested Charlie Mulgrew could do a job for Celtic, but thats unlikely to happen as there are currently no vacancies in the ticket office.
Calvin Miller and Ryan Christie are interesting Sunderland , and they may well take up the new challenge down south.
It would only be loans though, as the English window is closed.
The doom and gloom surrounding Celtic Park, much of it media generated, but by no means all, could be said to have cleared a little when Kyle Lafferty joined “rangers”, apparently seeking redemption after he refused to sign a contract with them when the fledgling club burst into life out of the basket of assets bought by Yorkshire entrepreneur Charles Green.
The Ibrox support have fairly short memories-then again, they don’t need one thats capable of retaining more than six years of information-as they were fairly brutal towards him when he walked out.
But he’s back now, and all is forgiven, which in turn will clear the way for Steven Naismith to join him-and Alan MacGregor-in the Gerrard revolution.
And he’s playing the gullibillies just like everyone else does..
And yet, there’s something they’ve missed…have a look at his left hand, that tattoo…
May 21, 2016… must have been an important day for him…
The support ? Well, for peepil with such moral high standards, they are surprisingly twisty turny…
They are the people, people with many faces…
As a wise man once said,
Still, we have found an even dumber supporter than those who attach themselves to Scotlands newest club…or so we thought. There’s a neat twist at the end…
There is a food bank collection before the game on Sunday.
I’m still hoping to help out, but with the Lennon CSC having so many call offs due to the switch to Sunday football, its looking unlikely.
Season books.
Value for money as long as you can make it on a Sunday. Or, as we will see after the split, during the week.
Glasgow North East foodbank organiser Tara Maguire said;
Despite the match fixture being changed from sat to Sunday, Glasgow NE Foodbank are still getting organised for their collection before the game. Having invited the Wayside along to benefit from the overwhelming generosity of the Celtic support, they are hoping for a great turn out and donations of badly needed food items, to see them over the coming months. ‘Each and every Foodbank across the network, is struggling at the moment. And as universal credit goes live across Glasgow next month, we really are fearful for our north east community who will be impacted by the 6-8 week wait for an initial payment.’
This is what is needed;
The bit about the location of the drop off stations has, er , dropped off, but they will be at The Clover (main collection point on the Celtic Way) and theWest and East entrance areas along Janefield Street*.
Remember, but for the grace of god, we are all but a bad run of luck away from needing this kind of help ourselves.
On Tuesday, we showed this picture, inviting witty and insightful comment..
Caption “Dermot, it’s Peter here. I’ve scanned the horizon and everything is set fair.”
today..
