{"id":793,"date":"2012-09-28T13:51:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T12:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=793"},"modified":"2012-10-01T12:21:25","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T11:21:25","slug":"motherwell-v-celtic-spl-match-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=793","title":{"rendered":"Motherwell v Celtic SPL Match Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Saturday, 3pm…the day the world officially stands still. Celtic start an away game on a Saturday at 3pm. I repeat, Celtic start an away game at 3pm on a Saturday. There are kids looking at their dads and asking ‘Why are Celtic playing at a daft time?\u2019\u2026they have never known such an occurrence. Enjoy it while you can kids, it wont be coming around again soon no doubt.<\/p>\n

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I say enjoy it but that\u2019s unlikely, its not as if such a glamourous game is on TV, heaven forbid. You cant catch this\u00a0 Mc Classico\u00a0live, \u00a0unless you go to somewhere like bet365 for beamback or use those dodgy sites like firstrowsports.eu. We know however that our respectful readers will do the clever thing and tune in to a quality Radio Station like \u00a0Clyde 1 and listen to folk listening to other folk or watch the ticker tape while Charlie Nicholas get excited about another West Brom corner in the Sky TV\u00a0studios.<\/div>\n
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As for the game itself well what to say. Its the SPL Leaders against our Bhoys. You didn\u2019t know it was the SPL Leaders? Where have you been? This is the great Motherwell side of Stuart McCall. No-one can stand in their way, theyre like a football juggernaut slamming through any challenge and driving the ball into the net at will with constant forward motion.<\/div>\n
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This Motherwell are NOT<\/strong> to be confused with Motherwell F.C who played against The Rangers midweek. That insipid, dire, limp, impotent, embarrassing, cowardly and shameful team were just a bunch of likeable lads from out in the sticks who were scared witless playing in front of big city Zombies who were led by someone called ‘Fat Sally’ ( Copyright BBC & the The Rangers Website). Who can blame the poor wee mites for being so scared that they never managed to put up any sort of challenge against such rampant teenage acne and Lee McCullochs elbows.<\/div>\n
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It will be a different Motherwell at Fir Park come 3pm Saturday (Let it go! – Ed). It will be the usual Murderwell and we look forward to seeing the sad sight of\u00a0 Stuart McCall\u00a0pleading (see feature image above)\u00a0 with\u00a0the referee\u00a0“But its only\u00a0Lasleys 5th\u00a0bad challenge..hes usaully allowed 8 before you talk to him!”\u00a0after\u00a0yet another\u00a0 potential-leg-breaker from\u00a0the angry snarling\u00a0hacker. To be fair to Lasley, he isnt selfish, he always graciously spreads those brutal challenges\u00a0amongst\u00a0\u00a0the spine of the Celtic side. Yes Keith, we have noticed!,\u00a0\u00a0Lets hope the referee notices too but we wont hold our breath.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The Motherwell side will have renewed vigour after their no show at Ibrox and the lumpen Michael Higdon cant play any worse than he did at his Managers favourite ground in midweek. Celtic’s defence will have to make sure the Motherwell main man is marshalled and kept away from the penalty box as his shots from range don\u2019t appear to be his strongest attribute. That\u2019s about it for Motherwell, stop Higdon and their game should be nullified.<\/div>\n
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As for Celtic, well did we mention everyone is fit? Honest, look at the Celtic Doctors office –<\/div>\n
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Yip, Manager Neil Lennon has a full box of toy Bhoys to choose from and as far as we can tell, only a few guaranteed starters are likely, but in a good way.<\/div>\n
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Forster, Matthews, Hooper\u00a0, Wilson ( whodathunkit\u00a06 months ago?) and probably Izzy\u00a0should be straight on the team sheet in their usual positions. The rest is a ‘Well I never!” scenario as Lenny looks at the players and then\u00a0tries to jumble players on form, \u00a0players returning from injury andneeding game-time,\u00a0A certain big\u00a0game in Moscow and of course the expected rigourous demands\u00a0of a ‘professional’ game in Motherwell against\u00a0 such ‘dogged and determined’ Opposition.<\/div>\n
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In defence the Celts should see Forster, Izzy ( oh for the old Izzy to return) and on the right Matthews who will be buoyed at talk of an extended deal with a wage increase. Maybe now he can move out of Joe Ledleys wee room? In the centre could be any 2 from 4 really with the rejuvenated Wilson looking to partner Rogne, Mulgrew, Ambrose or Wanyama although the latter 3 could also all make the Celtic midfield.<\/div>\n
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Midfielders starting\u00a0should be James Forrest, Kris Commons and in addition to any of the solid players above who don\u2019t make it into defence we also have Scott Brown, Joe Ledley, Kayal, McCourt, McGeough\u00a0available although all of these midfielders are to an extent\u00a0 still a little tender.\u00a0Its expected that\u00a0at least 1 or 2\u00a0should see some game time over the 90 minutes.<\/div>\n
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Up front there will be super 4 goals in the Cup Hooper and possibly Tony Watt or Lassad. Also available are Sammi and star signing Miku but both of these Bhoys will probably be saved for Moscow and of course saved from Lasley. Again, its envisioned Lenny will try and get a run out for some where possible\u00a0 during the 90 minutes but its doubtful any\u00a0bar\u00a0Hooper, and at a push Watt, \u00a0will start.<\/div>\n
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The line up world is literally Lennys oyster and he has every option available to him. To paraphrase Big Jock only a fool would try to predict how Celtic will line up.<\/div>\n
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I’ll go for a 4-4-1-1<\/div>\n
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Forster<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Matthews Wilson Rogne Izzy<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Forrest Wanyama Ambrose Mulgrew<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Commons<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Hooper<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
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E-TIMS Prediction<\/strong> – Just need to weather a tough first half hour and we should stretch away to record a comfortable 3-1 win. Being only human some Hoops players minds will drift to Moscow and we can see Motherwell getting a late penalty consolation after a Hooper first half Double and a Watt tap in at the back post sends Celtic top of the league come 5pm Saturday night. Yes, that\u2019s Saturday night ( you’re fired! – Ed)<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Saturday, 3pm…the day the world officially stands still. Celtic start an away game on a Saturday at 3pm. I repeat, Celtic start an away game…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-cN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}