Smiles all round after yesterdays 4-0n win over at Easter Road. Kris Commons opened the scoring, Virgil van Dijk showed another side to his cv with a free kick that had you on your feet, and Teemu Pukki, playing without help from Anthony Stokes, scored one and earned a penalty which allowed Kris Commons to wrap up the scoring.
Hibs made it difficult, and for a while in the second half made more than a game of it, but the free kick from van Dijk took the heart out of them, and really the scoreline was a little more comprehensive than any of us would have believed possible.
All good entertainment though, and worth the admission money. If you were at the game , that is.
Despite the goal, and another assured performance at the back, Virgil van dijk has to step aside and allow the man of the match award to go to keeper Fraser Forster, for at least three outstanding saves. Neil Lennon concurs;
“I thought some of his saves were awesome, I have to say,” said Lennon. “He is one of the only types of goalkeepers who can make those saves.
“For someone who is so big — and he has a great presence in the goal — his agility is fantastic. I think he’s got a huge career ahead of him and he’s made giant strides here.
“It’s a nice treat to have. Sometimes when we are on top he’s not had much to do but he’s really earned his corn today.”
One on particular, involving a twist in midair to tip a scything shot wide was excellent, and shows the high level of concentration that Forster has adopted in his role.
Lennon also praised van Dijk, and that majestic free kick;
“He’s been threatening to do that for a while and I wasn’t happy with the way the free-kicks had gone before that,” Lennon said.
“Our two previous free-kick were lacking in imagination. I thought they were a wee bit hopeful rather than being hit with conviction but he’s gone up there and he’s unstoppable. I think if you had two goalkeepers in there they wouldn’t have stopped it.
“I think he has been so consistent and he’s a class act. He’s like a Rolls Royce when’s he playing.
“He’s technically so gifted and physically he’s a great specimen and he’s certainly had a great season so far.”
A good day all round, although Terry Butcher had a moan about the handball that led to the free kick, but he would, wouldn’t he ?
He told the Edinburgh Evening News;
“The free-kick that was given for handball was bizarre in my opinion. The same referee does not give handball for the same player in the same incident at Aberdeen and then we have a handball by a St Mirren player not once but twice to stop it going through to Sam Stanton in the last minute and it’s not given.
“The referee said he’d cautioned Michael and given the free-kick because he’d stopped the ball going through to an opponent. I don’t understand, I don’t know what the rules are and how the referees interpret it, but we are bitterly disappointed.”
Which should give the readers something to do this week as they try to fathom out what he was on about.
Elsewhere, Wolves have rejected a bid for Leigh Griffiths, manager Kenny Jackett said: “We’ve had a bid from Celtic but it’s been rejected. We don’t know how things will develop.
“I’m sure there will be further dialogue. I’ve spoken to Leigh and he’s made public his fondness for Celtic but he’s fully committed here.”
Which means that theres no big money striker coming in, and Jordan Rhodes is believed to be inconsolable, after reading on here that we wanted him.
He should know better than to believe this rubbish.
Sports Direct News claims that Sunderland have made a bid for Georgios Samaras, which might explain his lacklustre performance again yesterday, whilst presumably the Wearside scouts never saw his lacklustre performance yesterday, otherwise they wouldn’t have made a bid.
Elsewhere, Radio Scotland added to Ally McCoists woes when panellist Michael Stewart admitted on air that the jolly Ger had phoned him up to “mark his card ” after some less than complimentary remarks about the fat funster.
The podcast for the show makes for interesting listening, and even more interestingly, it shows that the gloves are well and truly off, and the podgy pie eater is now facing the sort of flak that other talentless tacticians must face.
Which should while away a few moments. Theres the proof that McCoist is no longer out of bounds. Just a shame it took so long.
Have to keep it short today, as its turning out to be a busy one.
But all in all, great game yesterday, good performance, and perhaps even the kick start to Temmu Pukkis career at Celtic that we’ve been waiting for. He scored, it was his pass that led to the van Dijk free kick, and it was his run onto a Balde flick that got the penalty. Strangely enough, it was only when Balde came on that the finns off the ball work was recognised…
A case for the two of them to start together ? Well, it certainly wouldn’t do any harm.
Davie Provan, former winger now turned whinger was the player in the pic yesterday.
Today, heres a face you might recall, but won’t know where from.
Isn’t that Stephane Bonnes?
Bid rejected for Lee Griffiths breaking news on sky sports news. Sold again with the crap about we could spend 5 or 6 mil on a player if the right player is available. Just sign no one instead of Lee Griffiths and give Pukki and Balde a proper chance, along with Stokes and Commons that’ll do until the end of the season unless we see Griffiths as our champions league striker lol. Could’ve kept Atajic or brought back Tony Watt instead also. Complete joke, good look with your thunder lemmon.
“bogbohy” ?? How thick are you son? Stay off this site, you really are a prize arse…
Take your [so-called] support elsewhere, me thinks you really are from ‘elsewhere’ anyway.
Like a stopped clock, even Holy Sea gets it right the odd time. Leigh Griffiths is simply not good enough to be at Celtic. Think about him in the Champions League!!! We either fork out for a £5m class striker (which we don’t need at this point to win the league) or we hold off and persist with those which we have. Griffiths has form for as many front page headlines as back page and that’s the last thing we need or want.
More papering over the cracks, say he scores 25 goals in Scotland which given a run of games isn’t that hard (kris boyd) We all know he’s not good enough so after next years Champions League failure we’ll make excuses and do the same thing again, bring in more shite that are decent in a pish league but shown up in Europe. Celtic Park is dying and if the ginger genius thinks Lee Griffiths will put bums back on seats then he’s worse than even I think he is. lemmon just isn’t good enough, the board either, big changes needed, Celtic just isn’t the same. I’d rather watch on TV now than go to Celtic Park, people can give me abuse for this and it’s their opinion but in my opinion the Celtic way is being abandoned, the very thing that brought many fans. In a turgid uncompetitive league there is no excuse for at least trying to entertain. Absolutely sick of brown, mulgrew and samaras in the same team. Like watching paint dry. It’s heartbreaking given the great players that we’ve had before that these guys are seen as stalwarts and our heart.
Are you for real?
We are unbeaten this Season,have the best defence we have had in years,are creating multiple chances in every game and are averaging over 2 goals a game.
Every outfield player bar Izzy has scored this season and yet here you are moaning about the football being played?
Lenny had the spine of a very good Celtic side ripped out less than 8 months ago and sold off this squad has ans still is in transition players need time to bed in and settle and formations need to be tweaked and altered constantly as sides turn up and try to defend a point?
I take it you never watched Celtic during the 80’s and 90’s?
Catch a grip ya clown.
Stefan Bonnes
If Barmy Butcher doesn’t know the rules why’s he complaining about them?
Stephanne Bonnes, last seen in a Partick Thistle top some years back.
Looks like that guy we sent to partick Stephane Bonnes
HH,
It was one of those days yesterday, when the long suffering wife tells me that we are going here and here, so I missed the game via SS1,however we were in the car and I had the radio on…to my disgust… on comes Chic Young at half time to say that Pukki is coming on for ”THEM”….who the F**k is ‘Them’ Chic? Gonna explain your vocabulary there??? I was beyond anger, I can’t believe he can get away with that without being pulled up for or made to apologise….anyone else hear it on the radio?
Stephanne Bonnes – which apparently means Stevie GoodFanny , in French.
Speaking of fannies.Fingers crossed the Lee Griffiths deal is really off. Can you see yourself cheering some wee twat who looks as if his mammy started knitting him, but then ran out of wool?
Is it Pensionerbhoy ? When he was a boy ?
As he can do a better job than Lenny, re man management and picking the team,there must be a job their for him at
Celtic Park.
holy sea
Surely you have better things to do than seek out facetious job prospects for me. I fail to understand your obsession given there are dozens of other views expressed on here. This is getting utterly boring but if you feel you must, then, I guess, you must. On the other hand, perhaps it is time to let the bee out of your bonnet and give it some fresh air. I will certainly not be continuing with this childishness.
H H
holy sea
i for one enjoy reading pensionerbhoys posts which are full of wit,
wisdom,knowledge and are very entertaining . Keep it up old Pal much appreciated .
SPFHell is our bread and butter foholks. Griffiths scored 31 goals with a poor Hibs side so that cannot be sniffed at. He may look like an alien’s lovechild but he knows were the goal is. And who’s to say he couldn’t score in Europe?
While i’m at it guys, look at Paddy McCourt’s wiki entry photo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy McCourt
And Anthony Stokes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Stokes
Is the choice of photo coincidence?
The photos arent coincidence, on some wikipedia articles it says that rangers underwent corporate restructure, as opposed to liquidation. In my opinion, a lot of Scottish football articles are pro-rangers, and some of them can’t be edited as previous editors have linked them to the Troubles (means only certain approved folk can change them).
Ralph
We may have been a little lucky yesterday and 4-0 is flattering if truth be told. However, these are the games that will keep Scottish football alive. I would give anything for more of it and to blazes with records etc. If they are to be achieved, then let it be as a result of good competitive football rather than because of poor opposition. As for Butcher, that was his opinion based it would seem on a self confessed ignorance of the rules. Not too humourous today but I suppose there were too many genuinely good things to talk about.
H H
It was flattering but it was good to see that when Hibs were making Forster work for his money that we didn’t sit back, let them come at us and grind out a 1-0. We looked to turn the screw.
Thought Fisher had his worst game so far but it was good to see Broony having a wee word with him, as opposed to shouting at him. Lenny might play the young guys more later in the season, they will have to learn and that will include making mistakes so, hopefully, the fans, management and senior players can be patient and not get on their backs too much.
Doc
I think you are spot on. All players will make mistakes and the young ones may be more prone to them. But surely that is what the learning process is all about and we need to take those risks if we are to give them a chance to progress. I can suffer a few of Darnell’s mistakes and even the odd poor performance especially if he is going to improve season on season as he most definitely looks to be capable of doing. As for the game itself, personally I felt that if Hibs had scored with any of those chances, we would probably have found another gear. It was good to watch some real old fashioned end to end stuff. Not the classiest football but good entertainment.
H H
Agree, now is the perfect chance to bleed in a batch of youngsters if we can’t attract top notch players. Must be heartbreaking to be a young gun and see the likes of Griffiths brought in or the likes of Mulgrew and Brown keeping you out of midfield not to mention fannyflaps, tho hopefully he’s gone. It would be exciting for the fans too and isn’t that what football is all about.
Ohhh Missus, there’s a tension in the air today….hope we don’t go the way of some of those other sites, that would be very sad indeed.
F.F.S. let the wee man dae his joab ya buncha feckin’ turkeys,WE ARE on course for a potential double. wi’ a scottish cup final @ celtic park,& you lot are greetin’ an girnin’ STAY CALM AND WATCH THE SCABBY ONES MELT INTAE ADMIN 2 , & let’s get ready for next seasons UEFA CHAMPS LEAGUE while les guttersnipes fae hunland stoat aw’ o’er ra place like a rabid dug HAIL HAIL AND GOD BLESS WEE NEILLY LENNON
SO SWALLY IS NOW THREATENING PEOPLE WHO SPEAK OUT AGAINST HIM ,HE IS A SUN FECKED DORK
Griffiths will score plenty of goals for us but I would rather see the young bhoys get a good run in the team.Radio just said deal still been worked on.
Above photo Stefane Bonnes a Barnes signing saw him against Nairn County in a friendly, he was the worst player on the park. The Nairn midfield dominated him totally.
Meet Danny Magrain after the game in my mind the greatest Celt (equal with Paul Macstay)
of my lifetime
Griffiths will score a barra load of goals for us, there is no doubt about that, we just need to keep him out of trouble off the park.
I wish all you moaners would try and support the team instead of complaining about everything and anything that comes up. The team are starting to play a bit and show signs of being a team. Remember this is a work in progress and that is what we are witnessing progress. We are also seeing plans for the future loaning out some of our prospects to gain valuable experience. Please provide the support to the famous Glasgow Celtic and let everyone know who the best fans in the world are.
HH, Keep the faith
Had to laugh last night at Clyde…Hugh playing the old shit-stirrer card and saying Celtic fans might be raging at no £6m striker or one established in Champions League
Yeah, because we always buy recognised strikers dont we? Only Sutton ( in the doldrums at the time) and Hartson ( Rengers reject no less) were big money established strikers…the rest have came from smaller european leagues or Scotland. Was big Pierre, big Jan established, nope. And of course, some of the best successes, MacDonald and Henke both viewed with suspicion when purchased.
I agree about the “be nice to see youth getting a change” call, see latest podcats for that chat but if he arrives, lets give Grittiths a chance, the one thing he does is shoot, which is something our ‘forward’ players bar Commons seem to be lacking in at present.
Spot on Desi.
Our best signings in recent times have been the cheap ones.
Henke Lubo McDonald Wanyama Emillio Commons all cost less than a £1m
Lustig Mathews Mulgrew Ledley were all brought in on a free.
Forster Stokes Ambrose Kayal all cost us less than £2m
Only Hooper Bangura Virgil and Pukki have cost Neil more money
in the market so buying big is not actually that important?
Buying quality is though and Griffiths can finish so I can see why he’s interested especially given the fact Stokes and Pukki seem to have forgot where the net is?