Celtic’s failure to score 8 goals on the 8th Flag Day in a row left absolutely no fans with a bad taste in their mouth, despite the Press dying for something negative to say about one of the most exhilarating performances seen at Paradise in many a time.
From the outset it was clear that Celtic had a plan of attack in mind and it was as effective as it was glorious to watch. With Mikey Johnston running riot up the left and Hatem Abd Elhamed, making his dynamic debut ( before a dead leg forced him off) rampaging up the right, there was only the middle for St Johnstone to hide.
Sadly for the Saints, that’s where Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard had placed themselves and the pair played their best games in the Hoops. Not only did they play amazing as single players, but their link up play, flicks, runs, turns, it was all superb. It really does bode well for the season ahead to see such players so comfortable on the ball and around each other.
Praise should go to everyone concerned for what was a truly great day.
The Stadium entrance looked great.
Inside the place was rocking with fans in a great mood and the flag ceremony went very well
The goals flowed and special tribute to the manager for showing faith in opener Mikey and telling Ryan Christie to shoot on sight. That really paid off. Nice substitutions with Ntcham scoring with his first touch pile-driver and then Griff scoring with a great low drive and feeling the applause of everyone and celebrated with team mates.
The highlights of course were Christie and Edouard
Its a treat watching a player like Christie, a smile on his face with a steely will to win. 2 of his finishes were of the highest order whilst even his 2nd goal saw him just smile whilst feeling sorry for the inept Saints keeper who spilled his daisy cutter. The highlight for me though was one moment in the first half.
A Celtic attack had just broken down near the Saints box…Christie then chased, harried and won back the ball to help launch another attack. As Celtic fans clapped in applause, so did our new right back Hatem Abd Elhamed who was clearly impressed.
As for Edouard. It seems like we have a different Eddy this year. He looks leaner, meaner, quicker, fitter and play wise, he was simply unstoppable on Saturday. It was great to see him get his goal as he really deserved it. The dribbles, the passes, the making space, truly sublime and his ability to now lead the line and play with his back to goal has really came on strong.
With these two players ( as well as Griff, Mikey, Jamesy etc…) SPFL defences beware!
Ratings
Scott Bain – 7 – Good catches and made a brilliant Cruyff turn..then went to sleep for 89 minutes.
Elhamed – 9 – Impressive debut. Some great runs and looked very decent indeed. Dead leg from some “choice” St Johnstone tackles and taken off early in 2nd half.
Ajer – 7 – Eased through the game and £15m from Leicester might buy 1 leg.
Bitton – 7 – Unsung hero so far this season. Plays quietly and effectively.
Bolingoli-Mbombo – 8 – Really gets involved and must be due a goal soon. Some folk in media seem to want to run him down but the guy can run all day. Doing well in a pressured position with all the KT speculation.
Brown – 8 – Makes it all look so easy which we all know is the hardest thing of all. Laughed at big daft Murray Davidson trying to throw himself about.
Calmac – 8 – Learning from Broony all the time whilst providing great passes, darting runs and an out whenever needed. Pure class.
Forrest – 7 – A somewhat quieter game but made some great space and appreciated having an overlapping right back in the side again. Needs to turn and get running more with ball at his feet now that he should have that space created.
Johnston -8 – Gave the Saints right back nightmares, in fact turned the poor guy 3 times before slotting home the winner. Some good combinations with Eddy and Boli so bodes well for future.
Christie – 10 – 3 goals and a standing ovation from Celtic Park. Wonderful.
Edouard – 10 – 1 goal but made so much of the wonderful play on view. The twinkle toe dance along the Saints 18 yard line to beat 4 blue jerseys was amazing to watch.
Subs
Ralston -5 – Tried his best and one good run attempt but in honestly a replacement looks far more likely than Ralston getting to stay on the bench all season
Griff – 6 – Scored a cracker and made a cracker. Looking good and looks comfortable in himself and his place in the squad.
Ntcham – 6 – First touch..boom…great goal and if he is still here come September, its doubtful anyone will complain.
Manager
A big fat 11 out of 10 for Neil. Brilliant tactics, brilliant approach and brilliant man management and squad selection and circulation. As he put it in post match interview..”Perfect!”.
Great round-up Desi. I hope Elhamed will be ready for Wednesday.
Overall the forward movement was excellent, the team can only get stronger, thought Eddie strolled through the game, as for the younger players absolute class
It cannot be better than a Lenny treble, how they hate him
Now for Cluj then Slavia, Celtic already written off by the Scotch media, St Johnstone Rubbish, as they try to excuse the knuckledraggers actions of the Sevco mob In Kilmarnock. No action will be taken by the SPFL regarding pitch invasion, stadium break in, or the sectarian bile the that spewed from their anuses.
eddy proving he is our best forward player… he has it all..
7-0.No tippy-tappy shite here.
Up yours rodgers
Looks like KT is a crock.
PISH
In 2 seasons KT played enough games for 4 seasons. How dare you!
Well said!
Good to have a right back to bring balance, I hope we don’t lose Ajer ir Ntcham. If we could keep a squad like this together …..remember Julien, Shved and Rogic weren’t even on the bench. It is hard to keep a big squad happy. Just because we need a big squad for four trophies doesn’t mean guys with a relatively short career and oddles of talent will be content to be bench warmers.
we will see what we are all about on Wednesday
slavia a bit of a nightmare draw, no point thinking about it until this round is dealt with
Exactly bgbhoy one game at a time.
The squad looks to bein a good place and looking forward to see how we do in Romania
I’m sure it will be tough but a good level to see where we are at. Signings still required to enhance the team especially if Jozo looks like he is off.
bgbhoy,
Exactly, tough games ahead but they will be thinking the same about Celtic.
His name is Jimmy Bell 🙂
in Saturdays game he was excellent as the front man when often he has looked lost and heavy footed.
Agreed he looked in good form and able to lead the line.
How do you account for his two breakaway goals when he was furthest up the field one against one the huns and one against Hearts? I think he probably takes his instructions from the manager and tries to follow them. I have no concerns about his ability in leading the line or following in – he seems to do both well to me. Can he develop his game of course he can he’s young and that said he’s doing just fine to warrant continued selection
I see mister pish is up early,what a fucking headbanger.has he blessed cardinal pell yet?
On the game yesterday Scott Briwn was yellow carded for scoring a late winner against Killie last season. Having an.been given a yellow card earlier in the game this meant a red card.
How many sevco players left the field of play yesterday and should have been yellow carded ?
Benny Saiz,
Mike Bassett 🙂
Yes Miss Diane……
Urallis a crock used to mean long term injury or sickness,dont be influenced by mister pish I think he went to a proddy school.
Everything will become clearer on Wednesday. We cannot get carried away as St Johnstone look as if they will be contenders for relegation. They have been thumped by loads of lower league teams in the League Cup. Great performance by Celtic but we need to not get carried away.
Noticed young McKenna looking absolutely gutted when hearts scored. Still was surprised to see he has now handed in a transfer request.
Was also surprised that BBC Sportscene commented on the sevco fans yet again invading a pitch and trampling their own didabled section in the process. Congrats to the sevco fan who got crushed calling out the idiots that invaded the pitch , though mysteriously his comments have now disappeared from all the media reports. Honest journalism , lol.
‘disabled’
I’m unsure if “everything” will become clearer on Wednesday. That will be one game. At some point we will have a poorer game than we have had so far – will that be the cue for everyone to rubbish the team and the manager? I hope not. So far we have played what is in front of us and played it well. Lets hope and trust this might continue even if the opposition is seen as stiffer tests. Hopefully we will find out soon.
Broxburn
I agree to say ‘everything’ will be clearer is an overstatement. everything will not be clearer until we are about 8 games into the season and have faced a few challenges. however, we will have a better idea on Wednesday as Cluj appear to be a better standard of opposition than we have played so far. Some reason for optimism though.
John/ Brox I too think we will face tougher opposition that St J on Wednesday but Celtic being Celtic will have a few wobbles over the course of the season. I just think Lenny is showing what a mature manager he has become in setting up his team motivating them, building and ( hopefully) retaining a really impressive squad. Strange thing is last season we struggles but won a treble, this season we are starting off much better, hopefully same outcome.
Thanks Sooside Scum for once again lowering the bar……discipline on and off the pitch,atrocious.Wait till Ashley’s compensation bill comes in…don’t think we’ll be seeing over the top celebrations down Liebrox way…..comedy gold….
Better test on Wednesday, an even bigger one if we get through to face Slavia but if we cannot do them the group
stages would be embarrassing though the money would be good. Looks our strongest pool in a long time and we seem surprisingly fresh given the short break so we may have it harder later in the season.
Eddie like all our attacking players was brilliant on Saturday. Those who can never be pleased should remember , we bought him for £10m or less . Useless strikers who have none of Eddie,s strengths are currently going for £40 m and more . We can’t expect Eddie to have expertise in all parts of his role .
If we want that tell PL to fork out £100m for a new striker .
Frankly I am happy with Eddie
We played it well with Maryan Vasylovych Shved`s suspension from the Ukraine Football League.
By all accounts no paper-work was sent informing the SFA/SPFL of said suspension.By all accounts?
Only under a month(2 September until midnight) till silly season`s over.
So far i`m a happy manicured Celt.
Jose Cifuentes…take a punt Pedro!
Enjoy.
(daylight savings sucks)
Hatem Abd Elhamed, weclome to Celtic FC.
Having a knot in your thigh massaged out is bloody painful.
I only experienced the one but FFS,I wanted my Mammy.Took two physios tag teaming.