On Saturday, we picked up a needed three points after the shocking performance against St Mirren two weeks ago. This was not an easy victory although it has to be said that we thoroughly deserved to win and we were the only team which even tried to.
It is important, when you’ve lost a game, to win the next one whatever the competition might be, and whoever you might come up against. When you’re a Celtic boss in a league race which the press is getting feverish over again, it is especially critical.
So the win was massive.
It stopped the bleeding, in a manner of speaking, and you would have seen some heavy blood flow had we not secured it. The press would have had been filled, this morning, with questions about us and praise being showed across town.
Hatate’s winner was a beauty, and it showed the Japanese national team coach the reason this boy should be in his team.
He wasn’t the only star turn of his countrymen; I thought Maeda was excellent and his running and work-rate terrorised Motherwell. Kyogo, of course, got a goal and could have had a couple more. He’s found his touch again.
The performance was characterised by a little nervousness and some concentration lapses. The team looked some way from the blistering form of the early season, but you know what?
You have these little spells during a campaign.
The important things to remember are that we’re still top of the table, on points, and that nothing fundamental has changed in the strengths of our club and the one across town. We’re about to enter a tough period and one Hell of a schedule, and our team is stronger and more capable of handling that huge run of games.
The players will have taken heart from the win, and those who have apologised for their individual mistakes have done something important in owning those errors and vowing to do better. That’s all you can ask from them. In the end, no harm was done and everyone got on with the job and made sure that we got over the line.
So now we start a new unbeaten run, a long run hopefully, the sort that wins titles.
Minds now turn to the midweek game in Europe.
It’s good to have Real Football back.
The team have been a bit out of sorts last 2 games, tho if we’d played our strongest 11 against St. Mirren it would’ve probably been a different story imo. Could have won it by more on Sat, tho they looked nervy near the end. Hopefully they can sort it out quickly. Of course disnae take much for the deluded media and supporter hype tae start over at ibrox, their attitude changes by the week. Wouldnae put too much intae their ‘superb’ result against a hearts mob, that totally shat it once again either. Just like they did in last seasons SC final, they bricked it, end of.
We all knew Hearts would…ahem..”struggle” against their big cousins. But I suspect the playing 2nd and having to win to regain top spot had its role. The St Mirren result was a real blow for exactly this reason, so here’s hoping this managed to get us past that. Nervier than it needed to be as we should’ve been 3 or 4 up by half time. CalMac showing great leadership by taking the red to save us the game near the end after a real hospital ball from Hatate. Maybe the rest will do him some good anyway. Shame the ref wasn’t quite so eagle eyed when Motherwell played handled in his box.
We won’t win by several goals every game though so we need to relax. Especially when their goal was so utterly bizarre and had it not been for it they’d never have scored.
Motherwells gameplan aided by Beaton to disrupt the flow of the game at every opportunity, is going to be the norm when teams play us this season.
Got to convert more of the missed chances.
Get a couple of goals early doors, relax the fans, who I thought were not helping with the groans when certain players had a bad pass .
We created a number of very decent chances but failed to score. We really lack that killer touch and it shows up to a greater extent and to greater affect in CL games. Don’t know if Kyogo can emulate Larson but at the moment he’s far from doing that. I thought big Joe was more culpable than JJ for their goal; he should have been louder and clearer with his “that’s my ball”. These things of course are expected in a season and we can’t ask players to play like players two or three times their value. They’re still young some of them and have a lot to learn and they seem keen to do so. All positive. Roll on next CL match, a win against Leipzig would be phenomenal.
Some fans reckon Maeda was poor on Saturday I’m glad you agree with me that he was excellent
I played (junior) and coached football for many years.
I marvel at the comments some fans make during games. They don’t see the contributions players like Maeda make
They should support our players not criticise after all that’s what the manager gets payed big bucks for
St Mirren had two chances and scored with both of them. Motherwell had none and still managed to score. We are vulnerable defensively at the moment. I think there is a lack of confidence from the team in the guys who are covering for Carter Vickers and Starfelt. Joe Hart looks as if He’s is heading for the subs bench too if he doesn’t settle down. We are in a sticky patch just now, need to turn this around.
Hart seems to be having a nervous breakdown. That makes two of us. Warsaw, Paisley and now this. He was clearly told to come off his line at half time and then there was the bizarre falling over. He really needs to get a grip. The one good thing about Saturday were the 3 excellent strikes from outside the box. About time
I agree Hart is starting to look more like the flappable nervous error prone guy who was touring Europe on loan than the dependable leder we signed last year. Hopefully a short lived blip, but if not it’s probably time to unleash Siegrist.
Simple game football, when you get the chance put the ball in the net (not your own), not either side or over the top of the net either – in the net. If that’s Kyogo now found his touch again then we’re fkd. Our finishing is rank at times, how many chances do we need to give our Bhoys, Our defence is disorganised atm… letting opposing teams score when they eventually do get an attack in and when they don’t, they still score.
I agree you don’t go through a whole season playing as magnificently as we were so hopefully it’s just a faze from which we will return to our earlier season’s form. Two weeks ago, I was confidently looking forward to the RB game however without the steady hand of CCV I’m not so sure
Something just not right , players read papers right , orielly worth this much ? smash rangers easy, were gonna beat Madrid jota this jota that how good juranovic ! the most important player at this club is Carter vickers simple , + as for having no back up striker to 2 guys who find it easier to miss from 5 yards consistently is poor from ange + the board , as for weds night I predict a real wake up call for this team manager + board
The negativity of a section of the Celtic fan base is alarming,We’ve laughed at the Ibrox mob over the years how they’ve turned on their team when they’re struggling. Celtic Park isn’t much better. I can remember the days when Celtic Park would roar the boys on when they struggled. That’s no longer the case.
A few months ago Gregg Taylor and Starfelt were the whipping bhoys, these days its Welsh and Jenz or even Hart. One defeat in the League in a year and a 2-1 victory which should have been far more comfortable and some fans press the panic button. We’re definitely missing Carter Vickers and to a lesser extent Starfelt most teams miss their regular Central Defenders when they’re missing.