SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

What a pleasant way to spend an evening! My sisters and I were at the match last night, and were discussing how we thought the game would go as we sat in the pub beforehand.

“Best wait till we see the teams before we put the bets on”,I suggested. Like as though Lenny has ever listened to my pleas to rotate the squad! So I was more than a little surprised when I saw the line-up. EIGHT changes plus a positional one saw us line up as follows.

Gordon

Frimpong,Elhamed,Ajer,Hayes

Morgan,Ntcham,McGregor,Rogic,Elyonoussi,

Bayo

It certainly showed Neil’s adventurous side-as well as the depth in our squad-and it must have given Thistle a glimmer of hope too. And a glimmer is about all they achieved. Let there be no doubt about it-Thistle huffed and puffed,kicked and scratched. It was all they had. It was one-way traffic from the off,and not even a typical Steven McLean performance could do a damn thing about it.

Elyonoussi had a fairly frustrating evening-he was playing directly in front of me in the first half and I was watching him casually saunter around while his team-mates had the ball in midfield-then he would suddenly lose his marker and make the run! Rarely did it get spotted in time by an opponent. But it was never once spotted by a team-mate,and I’m sure that will come in time.

More impressive yet,on the opposite flank,was Jeremie Frimpong. Still only 18yo with hopefully a growth spurt still to come,he showed great ability to do it all. Take a pass,beat a man,tackle,he even won a few in the air too. Moritz Bauer has impressed me so far but this lad may scupper his hopes of a permanent deal. He went off late on to a standing ovation.

Bayo proved a handful all night and could have gone home with the matchball. He has shown improvement with every game so far and is certainly worth an extended run if Lenny can fit him into the system. He must be a nightmare to play against,all power pace and strength then suddenly with the finesse to slide a ball inside. Hopefully he is over his initial injury problems.

But it was Ollie who was most impressive on the night. He started the game impressively,bossing the midfield,spraying an impressive array of passes around,making the tackles,making the runs. He shaded towards the end of the half,the frustrating Ollie making an appearance for a while,but he came out like a train in the second half. Thistle made the mistake of getting him angry with the roughhouse stuff,and boy did he punish them.

To the goals,then. You’ve waited long enough! Fifteen minutes in,we got a free-kick on the left. Maybe 25 yards out and the same from the middle. Very difficult to do much except swing it into the danger area,which Jonny Hayes duly did. And with deadly accuracy-right onto the head of Vadoun Bayo who battered the ball past the keeper. Great cross,great finish.

How it was the only goal at half-time is a mystery,but not one which bothered us too much. There was enough to take from the display to have us quite confident in the second half,and we didn’t have long to wait till we doubled our tally. Thistle foolishly broke upfield from the kick off and lost the ball. Kris-Ollie-Vadoun took the ball to the edge of the box before a lovely pass from Bayo saw Big Tam almost effortlessly stroke it home.

Ollie grabbed the game around this time,presumably pissed off at the constant fouling by Cardle and Palmer and deciding to punish them the best way possible. For once,I won’t attempt to describe a goal. Just watch it.

https://streamja.com/5AwZ

Hit from considerable distance with barely any backlift. What a peach. His second might have been a bit better,btw-showing the best way to punish an attempted act of thuggery from behind. Picking it up deep in his own half…

https://streamja.com/K1bv

Inbetween these two goals,Broonie came on for CalMac-mainly to get Palmer told what was coming if he kept up his shennanigans. But the biggest cheer of the evening may have been for the arrival of Scott Sinclair-a clear sign from the fans to the hierarchy that we are not happy with how he has been treated this season. He wasted little time in paying us back too.

A terrible pass across the high back line saw Bayo burst clear. He unselfishly squared it to Rogic whose right footed attempt was,well,a Big Tam right footed attempt. The rebound fell to Scott who made no mistake. The goal came after a superb piece of defensive play from Frimpong-already on a booking,he never shirked his duties all night.

Scott could have had a second a few minutes later as he burst through on the left,but he attempted to present it to Bayo despite probably being in a better position himself.

Jeremie Frimpong went off with ten minutes to go,receiving a standing ovation from the crowd for a very pleasing debut. He was replaced by Jack Hendry-and I think we were all willing him to score from the waiting corner. It wasn’t to be,and the match played out to a very satisfying 5-0.

On a night when there were no failures,a Man of the Match can be difficult. Bayo was a handful all night as was TR. Frimpong looks like a real find. But Ollie was unplayable for most of the night. We all know what he has in his locker and I wish he would do this more often.

His best chance of a big money move away from us is to do it FOR us in the meantime. Over to you,son.

******

Above article by BMCUWP. As always,we are delighted when you the readers send us your thoughts for us to publish as Article of the Day. Fire them in,mail them to Mahe

sentinelcelts@gmail.com