{"id":8873,"date":"2016-04-03T10:22:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T09:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=8873"},"modified":"2016-04-03T10:22:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T09:22:16","slug":"thoughts-on-the-hearts-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=8873","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts On The Hearts Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uralius\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>offers a line of thinking before, during and after yesterdays 3-1 win over Hearts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking at the Celtic line-up I am a tad disappointed not to see Callum Mac starting, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Jo got the nod ahead of him.<\/p>\n

Oh Ronny are you sure sure going with Boyata against a team that has given us a hard time this season and are sitting third is the best option? What is wrong with Charlie Mulgrew?<\/p>\n

Over joyed to see the boss opt for 1 inverted winger (Roberts) and so happy to have GMS back in the line-up as a traditional wide man. Also happy to see Rogic in there as he saved our skin last game and we have missed his strength and ability to hold up the ball.<\/p>\n

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So happy in fact I sent in a comment to the Celtic TV studio saying how happy I was about the choice of wide men, no matter how unwanted my comments are.<\/p>\n

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Celtic enter the Huddle, the crowd are in good voice!<\/p>\n

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I think this is going to be a good day!<\/p>\n

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We seem to have started a little shaky Hearts are closing down our defenders and a few balls that would normally have been played out are floated up-field only to come back our way!<\/p>\n

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The camera switches to Robbie Neilson who seems to be indicating to go over the top of something…. is this a strategy he is reminding his players of? If so hopefully Ronnie has not asked our CDMs to try and be CBs in the heart of our back line….<\/p>\n

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~ 4 min we see Rogic is going to be a handful for Hearts, he holds up the ball nicely (whilst being wrestled)\u00a0to create an attacking opportunity, but it fizzles out with a misplaced pass from Broony.<\/p>\n

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Yeah a few balls from Hearts over the top into the wide…..<\/p>\n

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What the flock (of sheep)?<\/p>\n

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~ 5 min\u00a0Hearts direct a ball over the top into the our wide right area of the field Erik has to come wide to deal with it, he does not seem happy; he puts it out for a throw. The throw results in a low cross which is blocked\u00a0 by Erik and a sliced clearance from Roberts which floats\u00a0to\u00a0GMS who heads the ball away, but it falls to Souttar who\u00a0sends it back in and Lustig rises to try and deal with it, but it spins to the middle of the field 20 yards out. Erik\u00a0steps up\u00a0to deal with it, but is tugged and the ball falls to Walker, Boyata is in two minds left or right? CLOSE DOWN THE ANGLE, STEP UP!\u00a0Blistering strike from\u00a0Walker Gordon has no chance.<\/p>\n

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It’s still early I am convinced we are playing with the correct attacking 4 COME ON!<\/p>\n

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A couple searching balls up to Griffiths. He is being well looked after the Hearts defense clearly\u00a0don’t want him winding their fans up.<\/p>\n

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~10 minutes Oh finally we have started to play! Roberts to\u00a0Rogic to\u00a0Roberts to\u00a0GMS to\u00a0Tierney. Tierney fouled.\u00a0Nice delivery from Roberts from the resultant Free-Kick, but alas it comes to nothing.<\/p>\n

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~ 12 min Oh yeah Johansen is playing…..<\/p>\n

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Camera shifts to Ronny… He looks worried.\u00a0Don’t worry mate it will come good….<\/p>\n

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Free kick Celtic – What a great idea Boyata; go up and ask if we are having\u00a0 crack, then just saunter away letting everyone know not to worry about the delivery.<\/p>\n

Cracking effort from Griffiths one of his best this season. Good save Alexander.<\/p>\n

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~ 14 min Corner; the\u00a0ball is sent in to the near post it bounces around and Rogic ends up with the ball he looks to go to the byline, but opts to send the ball out wide to Roberts who flights the ball in again a Hearts player wins the header and “clears” the ball, but it falls to GMS who has been lurking on the edge of the box since the corner, he stretches out his left foot, controls the ball bringing it from his right side to his left side\u00a0and BOOM!<\/p>\n

Excellent strike! CELTIC have equalized.<\/p>\n

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Souttar’s distribution is going to continue to cause us problems if we let it. Still wish we had signed him.<\/p>\n

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Looks like this is going to be a physical scrappy match, which will likely suit Hearts.<\/p>\n

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~ 17 min Celtic win the ball in the Center Circle the ball is passed to Rogic who plays Griffith through perfectly, just the keeper to beat! Unlucky Griff.<\/p>\n

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~ 21 min Rare sight of Ronny shouting instructions, we are looking a tad shaky, this is exciting stuff, the crowd are loving it.<\/p>\n

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Seriously Juanma? Rolling around until you see the yellow card then suddenly you jump up! Get a grip!<\/p>\n

Free kick bounces off the bar, but Gordon had it covered anyway.<\/p>\n

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~31 min Oh yeah Johansen is playing….<\/p>\n

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Seriously Juanma? Kieren won the ball fair and square he hardly touched you and there you are rolling around. Congratulations you are now enemy #1 for the rest of this game ya skunk haired Jesse!<\/p>\n

Oh now you are complaining to the Ref? He already gifted you 2 free kicks; why are\u00a0you are complaining?<\/p>\n

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~34 min Juan(crying home to ma)ma has a brilliant opportunity to put Hearts in front, but he blazes it over the bar.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if he wasn’t too busy worrying about whether or not someone was near him so he could dive he might have scored….. Karma son!<\/p>\n

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~ 34 min Rogic wins the ball out wide right and\u00a0dribbles inside. Griffiths looks over his right shoulder towards the center of the field seeing Patrick Roberts there not 2 yards from him\u00a0he darts towards the right corner flag dragging a defender with him, Roberts runs into the space created, Rogic’s pass is perfect and Roberts\u00a0sublimely chips the keeper to put the ball inside the left of Neil Alexander’s goal.<\/p>\n

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From certain angles Walker looks like Jackie McNamara<\/p>\n

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~ 40 min Oshineewa…… actually I am speechless…….. hold on……. What on earth was going through his head when he ran in and head-butted Rogic? In days gone by that would have erupted into a complete brawl between the 2 teams! Completely out of order! Yeah you had better stay down that is easily a red-card! Lets see what the ref does. Good to see Rogic up again.\u00a0Oh there is the brawl.<\/p>\n

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What a YELLOW? Are you kidding me?<\/p>\n

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~ 45 Min Oh yeah Johansen is playing……<\/p>\n

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~ 45 +1\u00a0Min Rogic off and Bitton on. presumably Johansen will push forward into the #10 role.<\/p>\n

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~ 45 +2 min Johansen is through HIT IT! Johansen plays it to Roberts, Roberts tries to improve his angle, but is disposed! Well done Johansen!<\/p>\n

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~ 45 +4 min Couple of fouls by Hearts (too many in my opinion) Griffiths takes 2 decent free kicks. Neil Alexander is up to the task.<\/p>\n

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Half Time:<\/p>\n

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~ 46 min Nice delivery from a corner from Roberts, Boyata rises to head the ball ,but doesn’t get enough on it Griff is there to help the ball on….. Alexander saves, but\u00a0only just.<\/p>\n

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~ 48 min Beautiful touch by Johansen with the outside of the foot, sends the ball out to Roberts. Rossi is not keen to go in on him due to his yellow card; Roberts cuts in and drives the ball past Alexander. What a brilliant goal! Happy to see Johansen making an impact in that #10 role and totally stoked to see Roberts get another.<\/p>\n

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~ 51 min Juanma finds himself in the box with an opportunity, but again he just dances around hoping for a tackle that he can go down easily from. Well actually some brilliant defending prevented him from turning and before he knew it there were too many Hooped shirts for him.<\/p>\n

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Counter attack from Celtic ends with a shot going wide from Griff, Johansen had made a great run into the box and a pass probably would have resulted in a goal. Hind-sight is 20-20.<\/p>\n

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Celtic support are in good voice. So happy that there has been a coming together of team, support and management.<\/p>\n

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~ 59 min Bitton plays a nice through ball that is snatched just before Griffiths can take a touch, it rolls to Alexander. Griffiths keeps up the chase and tackles the ball sending it goalwards, but it trickles past the post much to the relief of the Hearts Goalie.<\/p>\n

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Juanma falls over his own feet again and wins a free kick somehow.<\/p>\n

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~ 63 min\u00a0Nice one-two between Johansen and Roberts ends in a nice shot from Roberts, but it’s easily dealt with by Alexander.<\/p>\n

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~ 64 min Hearts have a shot on target, but it’s no trouble for Gordon<\/p>\n

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~68 min Wee Mac on for GMS<\/p>\n

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Hearts pass well for a moment and get the ball forward, but Boyata is there to mop it up.<\/p>\n

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~ 73 min Boyata does brilliantly to break up a Hearts attack, but for some reason Hearts get awarded a\u00a0free kick just outside the edge of our area.<\/p>\n

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~ 76 min Erik floats a ball to the edge of the Hearts box with amazing accuracy, finding Griffiths he brings it down onto his chest and drills it low, but\u00a0Soutter slides in and blocks the\u00a0shot. Wish we had signed him….. oh wait I already said that didn’t I.<\/p>\n

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~ 77 min \u00a0Griffith off Kazim-Richards on<\/p>\n

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~\u00a080 min Johansen gets the ball 25 yards from goal, passes the ball perfectly to Callum Mac who forces a save from Alexander. Unsurprisingly Kazim-Richards slips as the\u00a0rebound flies past him.<\/p>\n

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Is Scott Brown still playing? Did he go to the same guy as Anthony Stokes for his hair?<\/p>\n

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~ 83 min Oh suddenly Juanma can ride 2 challenges before Scott Brown steps in….. Ah there he is.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Kitchen if you hurt Tierney!!!<\/p>\n

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~ 87 min Bitton takes a free kick which is a doddle for Alexander to deal with.<\/p>\n

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Celtic Park is in a huge huddle now! The support are loving it!<\/p>\n

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~ 88 min Boyata returns a clearance with his head up towards Kazim-Richards, the big lad does well dribbling into the box, holding up the ball and passing it to Roberts who has made it to the edge of the box, but a Hearts player gets a touch which results in the ball passing Roberts. unlucky lad. Best thing I have seen Kazim-Richards do in a Celtic Jersey, there may be a player in there after all…..<\/p>\n

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~ 89 min Hearts attack down our left flank to the byline the cross is flighted in, meets the head of a Hearts player, but Craig Gordon stretches to the rescue and touches the ball over the bar.<\/p>\n

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Patrick Roberts named man of the match and I am totally jealous of his side-burns having never been able to grow any myself.<\/p>\n

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~ 90 +1 min Oshin-awa ye go ya cheating so an’ so. Gets the red card he should have got for his foul on Tom Rogic in the first half. Why are ye arguing lad? You got a free 45 minutes; down the tunnel you go. Although I don’t know if that was much of a foul, but wait the name Juanma springs to mind.<\/p>\n

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Come on ref. blow the whistle…<\/p>\n

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Full time Celtic 3 -1 Hearts<\/p>\n

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Closing comments:<\/p>\n

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The times are\u00a0not accurate (~) CelticTV did not have a clock….<\/p>\n

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Prior to the start of the match I mentioned the use of 1 inverted wide man\u00a0and 1 traditional wide man: Hearts\u00a0did not park the bus on this occasion. Therefore it is my opinion that\u00a0it\u00a0made very little difference\u00a0because there\u00a0was plenty of space anyway. What is more important is the form and creativity of the wide men overall in this instance.<\/p>\n

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I also mentioned that I was worried about Boyata, I think he actually played quite well. I felt he could have stepped towards Walker, for the goal, but I don’t know what instructions he had, therefore I will not blame him.<\/p>\n

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I gave the holding midfielders a tough time. Probably unfairly so. Their job is often thankless covering large areas of the field\u00a0while more attacking players attack\u00a0and it is quite difficult to even see what they are doing while watching TV. I am sure that both players were working hard for the full 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

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As stated earlier the support were great from what I could hear and I know from\u00a0some that were at the game the atmosphere was brilliant!<\/p>\n

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More of the same Bhoys!<\/p>\n

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Hail, Hail!<\/p>\n

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