Bring on the main course
There was excitement in the air once the team-sheet was made public, as predicted Arne Engels got the nod, with Bernardo the victim.
There was a pre-game tribute to the latest member of the 500 club, Jamesy, the teams came out, the whistle went and there was,,,not much to write home about overall.
It was one of those days, I was thinking we need to watch these first ten minute slow starts when it seemed we had found our feet, but it was an illusion, we never really found our feet at all, rather we were the better of two poor sides on the day.
I’m more than prepared to cut some slack and overlook the performance if the points are captured, teams need games like that sometimes. I can understand a lot of the reasoning behind such a performance, whether it’s post International break shaking out the cobwebs or holding a bit back for Europe midweek. No team sparkles every single game, and besides it was a newlook midfield.
Ironically I thought they were collectively poor, but Engels was the bright spot in a dull game until he went off. I found it hard to pick him out, often in the very center lost in the thick of things, but showing good passing, flicks, and movement. Once the team gained possession he showed his intent by driving forward getting into dangerous areas and quickly going for goal. The first was a few feet wide of the post, the second struck it. I’m getting impressed, when on the 17th minute he’s given corner duties and delivered one hell of a ball that deserved to be headed in, he’s got a lot in his locker.
Including a different type of set piece.
Callum turned into peacemaker and convinced Reo to hand the ball over, the tall Belgian took it expertly, and roared the crowd on. He enjoyed his day.
I asked was he the new Petrov or Rogic on Saturday morning, by Saturday evening I had decided he’s the new Matt O’Riley, and that’s high praise. It’s also sensible from the manager, switching players out instead of changing style.
With the team ahead by a solitary goal we were still just average, the halftime teamtalk failed to have the players hitting second gear, so the boss rang the changes and we did look a bit better. It’s nice to have proper depth. MacGowans goal typified a bit of renewed vigor introduced, as did Idahs one that was chalked off, which leads me to the officials on the day. He’s a player I’m relatively unaware of but already like the cut of his jib.
Whether under pressure from above, Hampden, or Parkhead, I do not know. But I was shocked to see the Scales penalty overturned given it actually hit his arm so the excuse to award was available. But it was textbook accidental unlike the baby faced Penrise NFL style interception. He shoulda seen red for stupidity on the day, needless yellow to give Arne a ‘welcome to Scotland’ tackle in no-mans land, then trying to grab the ball out of the air which ultimately cost his team on the day, they might have held out.
But having got the penalties correct, they couldn’t do a three-peat, Palma was inline or very very marginally offside for the Idah goal, which makes a mockery of ‘clear and obvious error’. It wasn’t clear on the day, and still isn’t afterwards via inconclusive pictures. That’s a shame because I feel that goal would fully told us ‘Idahs back!’.
So 2-1 the Home team versus Var/Refs on the day.
I simply must mention Big Kasper though, he pulled off some great saves, plucking hard shots straight out of the air like it was nothing. Kuhn also makes my top three, needless booking aside he was dangerous throughout.
The Slovan Bratislava manager should be wise enough not to rub his hands and should understand this was an off-day performance wise, this team will fully show up under the lights come Wednesday, the beast shall be uncaged infront of the baying spectators.
The appetizer wasn’t spectacular but passed, the main course already smells tasty, and with dessert (Falkirk) offering the sprinkles of debuts, Valle and Trusty, these 8 days might not be something to write home about per se, but rather a great platform for the upcoming higher stakes games.
By Mahe sentinelcelts@gmail.com
*SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2024-25*
*RESULTS FROM GAME #6 CELTIC 2 HEARTS 0 (ENGELS, McCOWAN)*
Good evening, friends.
It’s strange how quickly we had become used to watching our games in a pretty relaxed state, scoring early, being well in control and putting the game to bed. But yesterday took us back to the good old days of being a wee bit edgy and nervous for 80-odd minutes until our 2nd goal finally came in.
One change in the starting XI and when you spend record money on a player it’s probably not a surprise that he gets a starting place. But what did surprise me was that it was Bernardo, our man of the match in our previous game, who dropped to the bench. Engels took a wee while to get properly involved in the match but from about 25 minutes onwards he started to show some really good awareness and touches, linking well with his new team mates. A nice touch by Reo Hatate to hand over penalty taking duties early in the second half to allow Arne to open the scoring. And equally pleasing that the goal to seal the points was scored by another of our deadline day signings, Luke McCowan who really is living the dream.
A pity that Adam Idah’s injury time goal was disallowed for offside during the build up, particularly as our only other natural striker Kyogo is currently passing up more chances than previously. I think they both just need a couple of goals to set them off running any vying for the first pick place.
As for the referee, a new guy to me and he pretty much got every single big decision wrong. Awarding a penalty then chopping it off, missing a clear handball then awarding a penalty and failing to spot Palma’s offside in the lead up to Adam’s ‘goal’. OK, a bit harsh to blame him for the third error but as a whole he did fail to impress.
We have now played 6 games this season, winning them all. We have scored 17 and conceded just 1. We remain top of the league by 7 goals ahead of our nearest challenger, Aberdeen who visit Celtic Park on 19th October. Bother teams have 2 league games before then but I expect we may still both be on maximum points by the time we meet.
The voting numbers dipped a little this week but remain at a very healthy level! My thanks to the 74 who contributed this time around.
The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.
Schmeichel*: 20
Johnston: 2
Carter-Vickers*: 42
Scales: 41
Taylor: 21
McGregor*: 20
Engels: 53
Hatate: 4
Kuhn: 14
Kyogo: 1
Maeda: 0
Forrest: 0
Bernardo: 0
Idah: 0
McCowan: 4
Palma: 0
And so, the players receiving POINTS for the game against Hearts are –
Engels – 5 points
Carter-Vickers – 4 points
Scales – 3 points
Taylor – 2 points
McGregor and Schmeichel – 1 point each
And the overall positions after 6 games played are –
17 points – McGregor
12 points – Hatate
11 points – Kuhn
9 points – Maeda
8 points – Scales
7 points – O’Riley
5 points – Bernardo, Engels and Taylor
4 points – Carter-Vickers
3 points – Forrest and Johnston A
2 points – Kyogo
1 point – Schmeichel
0 points – Holm, Idah, Johnston M., McCowan, Palma, Ralston, Turley, Yang
And so we now look forward to our first ever game in the new format of the Champions league, a home tie this Wednesday against Slovan Bratislava with an 8.00pm kick off. Do us proud, Bhoys.
Hail Hail!
As you will all know,the site finally nominated a charity to be the recipient of the generosity and largesse of yourselves,and I think you all deserve huge applause for raising just short of £2k.
⭐️👏☘️👍🍾
That period has passed,and a new charity has been chosen to take us through to the end of the year. A landslide vote in favour of
Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust.
Once again,CHALMERSBHOY has done the spadework via JustGiving.
Here is the link for the Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust,our new charity which we will support.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/sentinel-celts-1722588284471?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fsentinel-celts-1722588284471&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share
Default payment method seems to be ApplePay,which won’t suit everyone. There is an option on the page to change that to your preferred means.
Good Morning Sentinels…
Good piece Mahe, very smart top three picks too;)
Looking forward to Wednesday, in many ways it’s the unpredictability that site’s the appetite…
…aff oot
Hail Hail
I think the minis did a good job of stifling us on Saturday and therefore nullifying the pace of the front 3. By the time the game opened up they were all off the park.
We are going into the CL with as good a draw on paper than we have ever had, with a better squad than we have had for many years and for the first time that I can remember with no injuries or suspensions. There’s no excuses and I just can’t wait. This is the year that we start getting points on the board again.
I though on Saturday it was a penalty against Scales. However, subsequent VAR and still images shows the ball actually hit his shoulder, just above the t-shirt line. 100% correct VAR decision as was the penalty we received and the Idah ‘goal’ decision
The onfield ref managed to call all three wrongly. Thank God for VAR.
Mahe,
They had everyone behind the ball, at one point, ten yards from their own eighteen yard line.
Kyogo and Engels, twice, had chances that could have put us up.
Maeda and ( particularly ) Kuhn were double teamed forcing them inside although Daizen fizzed over a couple of good crosses that deserved a finish.
Hard to play through that so varied by going long, just off and short MOR chip that didn’t work because he wasn’t there.
I’ll own up now to say I thought Shankland could have done a job for us.
Dearie me !
His two shots were only because he couldn’t run. A man down.
STEVENAIVE
I think it was Scales who gave Shankland a five yard start,and overtook him in ten. Slow as a week in the jail.
Morning.
Is offside covered by the ‘clear and obvious’ rule? As a matter of fact I’d have thought not but in the parallel universe of football matters of fact are up for debate. I have only seen Saturday’s disallowed goal twice- once with the naked eye- and am struggling to see who or when anybody is ‘off’.
I have thought for years that football should be working towards getting rid of offside altogether- a needless complication of a simple game- but can concede that eliminating offside might in one go might be too big a step. Making the rule/law stipulate that the attacker has to have all their body in front of the last outfield defender would eliminate players being offside because their heel , big toe or quiff is a few millimetres ‘off’. Also only one outfield player be between the attacker and the goalline if the keeper has left his goal area (6 yard box). The law at the moment is two defenders which usually includes the keeper but there are occasions when, to be vernacular, the goalie makes a right erse of a corner / cross and is stranded outside his goal area with a striker who is pretty much standing where they should be becomes offside because the ‘keeper has made a mess of things- bad play benefitting the defending team. This scenario does not arise that often but there was one last season in a game with Hearts when they had a case for offside at our first goal but only after their keeper made a right erse of things. The law as it stands favours defending teams absolutely and frequently rewards slack marking. It should not be thus.
Wednesday? Exact same feeling I have when I used to sit exams. It might be okay but never felt ready.
Jimbo
I believed that Palma was flagged offside when he first received the ball as he came back from an offside position when the ball was played. It was obvious at the time but could be missed if watching highlights only. I actually mentioned it to Mrs B at the game prior to VAR decision that it was going to be disallowed. Dont know how far back these VAR guys go trying to do us out of goals but this is a prime example.
The Evil Genius doing his thing
https://x.com/Celticcurio/status/1835434676661723243/photo/1
We do as a team seem to be on the wrongside
of marginal offsides rather often.
Why?
Is our coaching/judgement working on too tight margins?
Are officials judging us to a different standard?
There are probably no stats on these decisions for individual teams but I am sure it makes interesting reading!
Mahe
A curates egg of a game.
Auldbhoy67
On seeing first replay I thought like you.
Might be offside.
Palma slow to move onside.
AULDHEID
Palma isn’t as slow as Kyogo to move back onside. Very frustrating.
ASWGL I would love it after you change your background screen if you could include this picture.
And this one too please. Go on, you know it makes sense. Love You!
Magua My Grandad worked down the Pit (Manor Powis) from after the first WW1, constant night shift. I’II never forget getting on the bus (upper level) to go to the Raploch as I did every weekend to see my Gran. At the County Buildings in Stirling I seen the outline of a person chalked onto the road, turns out the outline was my Grandad. RIP.
All my pals were miners and after I started my business in the 1980s, I was so lucky to help my friends get through the strike, even took them down to Ayrshire to watch the Open, just to give them a wee break. One or two of my pals had once played pro football, my biggest pal, was best mates with Alan Hanson, Alan took him down to Liverpool, very, very often, he my fiend, had once got a trial for Partick Thistle who wanted to sign him, but he held up signing hoping that the Tic’ might come in for him but they never did and he regretted that forever more, sometimes the bird in hand?
I have nothing but admiration for the Miners and of course their Canary’s.
Bawheid,
Poignant tale. You’ve got quite a collection of Celtic memorabilia and pictures. I hope who ever it’s earmarked for in time appreciates it.
Fan,
I’m not sure coaching a player to get back on side is something that should be necessary in the professional game. It’s a question of concentration and laziness. It’s part of the reason Palma won’t play many games for BR. He’s not learning. Kyogo as bmcuwp said could also do better but in a lot of cases that’ll be his 3rd run in a row that the pass has not arrived. I’ll allow a degree of annoyance on his part.
ATOB
There were two questions.
I believe the question of us being refereed to a differing standard is more likely.
On Palma perhaps frustration with lack of playing time has him anxious and being overly eager which is affecting his judgement?
Have been concerned that the player we thought we were getting has never shown up.
Seem to remember he was touted as a great shooter and goal scorer who was a dead ball specialist?
Gary Shaw ex Villa striker, RIP
Ask and ye shall receive.
Site updated
Fan,
Fair point. I just take it as a given that we are refereed differently. Agree about Palma not showing much since the first couple of months. Very slow and rarely goes outside his man, probably the two are linked. Also he makes poor decisions on the park. I thought after the semifinal when he played so poorly as a sub that he would try to learn. His Instagram seemed to allude to that but so far this season he’s not played many minutes. There’s a reason for that I would say.
On Sentinel Celts- Magic Happens.
Cheers ASWGL, and many thanks xxxx. 😉 😉 One for each of the updates.
A TOB – Yes, I’m very lucky and I’II leave it to my two sons to decide, but on condition that its not split up, or portioned off. But then the real treasure in life is in your family, the collection is zero compared to my – Mrs. – Sons and Grandchildren. Yes, The family is where the real treasure is found.
As promised here is my take on Slovan Bratislava. As I mentioned, it is more difficult to get data on them. It should be remember that the organisation is bigger than just the football club, e.g. it also has an ice hockey division.
This is Slovan’s first game against a Scottish team since 1969, when they knocked Dunfermline out of the European Cup Winners’ Cup on their way to winning that trophy versus Barcelona.
On paper, we should win this game. Whilst no data on revenue is available their ground holds 22,000 and the value of their squad is the lowest of any of the teams that we play. Slovan’s squad is valued at about one fifth that of Celtic. They do have a large squad size, sitting at 30. They have a zero transfer spend coming into this season.
Slovakian teams are not frequent visitors to the group stage of the CL but we shall remember Petržalka, formerly known as Artmedia Bratislava! Slovan have come through four qualifying rounds to reach the league stage. They defeated the Danish champions, Midtjylland in the PO. Midtjylland’s squad is valued at more than twice that of Slovan. They can score away from home.
Domestically, Slovan have won four of their five league games in 2024/25 although they lost the fifth, 0-5 at home to Žilina on 1 September, their heaviest defeat since another 5-0 loss, at Young Boys in the 2014/15 Europa League. They bounced back from their domestic defeat with a 5-0 win at Nitra in the Slovakian Cup on 10 September.
The two danger men are Tigran Barseghyan, an attacking midfielder, who has four goals in five league appearances this season, and their striker, David Strelec, who was top scorer last season.
Their management team are all Slovaks with their manager rated by Lubo to be the best in Slovakia since Dr Jo Venglos. Currently, they are rated 59th by UEFA. Most of this is due to performance in qualifying games for either the CL or the EL, so the reader should remember that when reading the following table that compares Celtic, YB, and Slovan.
Competition Pld W L D %Win
Celtic-CL 28 9 12 7 32
(YB 32 10 12 10 31)
(SB 23 10 7 6 43)
Celtic-EL 28 15 10 3 54
(YB 25 13 8 4 52)
(SB 27 12 11 4 44)
Celtic-Conf. 2 0 2 0 0
(SB 24 9 9 6 38)
This game will be a good measure of our progress. Can we put to bed the performances against Copenhagen, Malmo, and Ferencvaros? I suspect scoring might be an issue for us. It would be a great time for Idah to break out.
Rebus
Bawheid de nada 👍
Rebus thanks for the stats, interesting that Lubo rates their coach as highly as Dr Jo, who we got in his twilight in 98, when cup and league wins were seemingly a thing of his past.
The last trophies Dr Jo won was with Slovan Bratislava 73/76 then later managing in Malaysia in 85/86, and couldn’t capitalise on his earlier winning career, after that, with either Fernebache or Celtic.
Bawheid,
I love stories about miners and the pits. One benefit that they did generate was strong communities. My grandad was a miner from Bothwell Haugh. At age 16 he was trapped underground for three days. Further, a rock fell on his head so he lay there for those three days, wondering if the injury would kill him, or if he would die of thirst. Matt Busby was a co-worker.
After his rescue he swore he would never go down again and he did not. They gave him a job on the surface as a store man. Later he moved to Barr and Stroud in Temple which is where he met my grandmother, my father’s mother.
Apparently, lots of ex- German prisoners of war stayed behind and worked in the pits. They were accepted as fellow miners. This despite the casualties suffered by Lanarkshire men in the Great War. My granpa’s brother lied about his age and went to the trenches at 16. He was back home, gassed before he was of legal age. He never worked again.
Tough times, tough people!
Rebus
Rebus your grandad might be on his way to or from work here 👍
AFTERNOON ALL AND JIM AND MAGUA, talking about the mines my grandfather was a miner in auchengeich colliery in 1959, 47 men died he was one of the lucky ones who survived, my dads brother my uncle brian wasn’t so lucky, he was hit by a runaway mine car while on the backshift in 1968, he died instantly, he was 29 years of age and left a wife and 3 children
Man City hearing of 115 FFP charges starts today. Scheduled to take about 3 months. Don’t expect a decision until closer to the end of the season
hsving said that, everyone at Man City will certainly feel some pressure. In what will be a tight title raise, this Could tip the balance in Arsenal’s favour
A sad tale packy, I had read about the Auchengeich mine fire, it was put down to a faulty belt, which some believed wasn’t to British Standard for the work it was doing and kept slipping on the motor, it had a few sections cut from it as it kept slipping/slackening, until it was, as some believe too tight and heated up with friction starting the fire.
Bawheid,
Correct. Family is always first.
Rebus,
Thaks for the info. I thought before I read your piece that we would win. I’ll be very disappointed now if we don’t.
ASWGL cheers pal, and thanks for the work you do on the site👍
Mahe
A fine lead article.
Big Packy
A poignant post.
ASWGL
Fair play to yourself and Bawheid for the background.
Bawheid
Another poignant post. I remember Stirling with great fondness. I lived there for 4 years during the 80s. I used to travel on the Paul McStay bus for midweek home games. If we were playing either of the Dundee clubs or Aberdeen midweek, my own CSC would pick me up outside Dunblane. Happy days. I’m reading:
‘A Lion Looks Back’ at the moment. Jim Craig gives his own take on certain aspects of the history of Celtic. A great read, with much social commentary re what ever period Jim is covering.
Hail Hail.
This just in from my hardworking international team of scouts and moles re Slovan.
They tend to play 4141 in away games in the CL, but their preferred formation is 433.
I would expect them to be very well drilled and extremely flexible in their formation.
It will be interesting to see how the match evolves.
Busy day ahead, so ta-ta,
Rebus
P.S Re the past, I once visited Bothwell with my granpa, just after I went to university. Everyone was either a miner or an ex-miner. They thought I was the bees’ knees for getting out and going to university..no one in the family had done that. I did not appreciate it at the time, but there was a history lesson right there in front of me.
My other granpa was a dentist before the national health system. He died under anaesthetic in his forties before he could get the full financial rewards of his profession. His father was a coachman and a salesman and somehow got enough together to send his son to med school. Quite a man!
The surgeon for the op that killed my granpa was his friend through med school. Two others died the same day for the same reasons. Cause? The anaesthetic, which is now used to put down lab animals in med research. Enough, I am gone.
Afternoon all,
After the Champions League draw all my friends were saying ” What a draw” ” Best we could have hoped for.
I agreed and thought, ya beauty ????
New format, here we go 👍👍👍
But,
Thought, the teams we’re playing against, must think it’s Christmas come early for us. Great draw !!!!
So,
Whilst it’s a fabby draw, Wednesday will tell us how we’ve progressed, and hopefully the a lot 👍
GlasshalffullCSC 💚💚😟
Just a quickie! Remember those?
According to fitbastats which manager had the better win %..Stein or Lennon?
Rebus
Jimbo67 @ 918
For the most part, offside is a factual decision and doesn’t require sending the referee to the screen. The exception to this is where a player may be impeding the line of sight of the keeper, for example being in front of the keeper and in an offside position but not touching the ball on its way to the net. The referee may be asked to make the final judgement on this – did the attacker sufficiently obscure the keeper’s line of sight to interfere with his ability to make a save? In most cases, it will be obvious enough for VAR to make the decision, in tight cases the ref needs to decide by going to the screen and reviewing the incident.
ATOB
BMCUW
There is no comparison between Palmas movement and Kyogo’s forwards or backwards.
Kyogo plays on the shoulder and occasionally has a rest.
Palma has a rest to play occasionally.
BP
My uncle James worked at the same pit. He was scheduled to work that day but swopped with a mate as he wanted to take his girlfriend into Glasgow to purchase an engagement ring.
He forgot to mention this to his parents or siblings.
My dad and his brothers heard the news and were waiting anxiously to see if he would come off the pit bus in Lennoxtown. Of course he didn’t and they all feared the worst.
3 hours later my dad, his brothers and parents were all huddled in the family house waiting for the dreaded chap at the door. Instead, in waltzed James with his fiance!
They didn’t know whether to hug or hit him!
Sol Kitts
Thanks. As I said I’d only seen the incident in the stadium and in one brief highlight clip where no subsequent replay was shown and it was not obvious from either of those viewings whether anybody had ever been offside- from reading here and elsewhere it seems to have been the correct decision. I hate VAR with a passion but it seems to have been right in this instance.
Jimbo
(From late last night)
From the BBC Sport Online page:
“Since Nicholas Jover’s appointment as set piece coach, Arsenal have scored 43 goals from corners, more than anyone else in Europe’s top five leagues.”
——————————
Makes you think, eh? That is a quite phenomenal number of goals.
I don’t know whether Ange ignored the threat, like he did last season, but his side were sandbagged again by it today. They are the reverse of Arsenal – they lose a large percentage of set piece goals. And their fans are getting pissed off about it.
Celtic vs Slovan Bratislava I know it’s on TNT Sports2, Discovery+ and RTE2 will it be shown on Celtic TV ?
Or don’t Celtic TV show european games ?
3 of our Group Stage rivals are in action tomorrow, with 2 going head to head.
Aston Villa play away to Young Boys, and Zagreb have a difficult away game at Bayern Munich.
I hope to watch both games.
Bawheid,
Correct. Family is first always.
BP,
Times were hard in those days and miners had it very hard. I could not go down there for £1m. I think the same about submarines. You need to have a very strong mentality.
ASWGL
Celtic on TV and streaming: U.S. only:
Wednesday, September 1803:00 PM ETCeltic vs. Slovan Bratislava (UEFA Champions League)Paramount+, ViX
Iniquitous IV😊
Thanks Ini, I didn’t think they would stream Euro games (at least in the uk) due to money grabbing UEFA 👍
Chalmersbhoy
This weeks selections posted on beat the bookie. Early but golf tomorrow and Wednesday.
Annual results out.
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2024/september/16/celtic-plc-annual-results-for-year-ended-june-30–2024/
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2024/september/16/celtic-plc-annual-results-for-year-ended-june-30–2024/
The hun websites keep on discussing how we got an easy group. Our group comprises of last season CL finalist, EL winners and two who got to the semi’s of the conference league.
A piece of cake …..
I’m on the outlook for Dortmund tickets