SENTINELCELTS

The teamsheet gave us a Calmac, Reo, Bernardo central midfield combination which wasn’t to my liking, but I was giddy as the ref blew the whistle. You can’t buy that feeling.

It slowly evaporated though as ‘the spectacle’ played out. One commentator referred to it as basketball like, but in truth it was a feast of bad passing from both sides leading to a poor game of ping-pong. When after 25 minutes it was clear this wouldn’t be a proper footballing affair, it was truly a case of just waiting for the ‘gotcha’ moment when one of the numerous slack passes lead to a deadly transition.

That fell to our opponents, the attacking support finally putting it in the net, and half-time suddenly became much more important at one goal down.

Liam emerged instead of Trusty which looked strange, but within a minute had shown his danger by flashing a corner header just wide. That was a sign of things to come as suddenly Celtic passed a bit better, moved with more intent, found a bit of rhythm and went probing,,they weren’t going down meekly thanks to the halftime rocket. On the back of being invigorated, we ‘hustled’ two goals.

In a twist of fate, Greg managed a deflected goal to atone for giving away the previous goal, and then Daizen managed to see, carve out, and finish the chance only he sniffed. It was sublime, it would be on any player’s highlight reel, harrying then some deft touches, first time wrong foot finish,,Diego would have been happy with it.

The fans went into raptures, but credit to our opponents they didn’t get rattled but rather stepped up again and a goal behind or not began carving out chances, one in particular saw Big Cam as a one man defense against 4 blue shirts and he managed to put it out for a corner saving the day.

Hence even though Kasper was having a great game, it came as no surprise when his goal was breached, the corner resulting from a slack pass intercepted in a dangerous area once again.

2-2 then and everything to play for only it’s our opponents looking rejuvenated and fancying a famous comeback victory. After an attack fizzled out Celtic went and did something they hadn’t done,,strung together a good passage of play and scored a team goal.

The right hand side combined and set free Engles close to the by-line, who produced a gem of a cut back to Kuhn who dispatched it with amplomb. Celtic were back baby, all we needed to do was hold out for 3 minutes or so.
We held out for 21 seconds.

R2ngers copied us in converting a team made chance, only theirs was route one football. Centre spot, quickly worked out wide, immediate deep cross,,,easy peasy.
It was farcical.
It was 3 apiece.

From then on a raft of subs didn’t really affect the game, Celtic looked as though they wanted the win and attacked the most throughout the closing stages and extra time, but R2ngers looked determined to take their chances on penalties, and so it passed.

At that stage I had mentally thrown my hands up in the air thinking it’s a crap shoot, whatever happens happens, but 3 things happened. Firstly Kasper had seemingly rolled his ankle collecting the ball earlier and needed a bit of treatment, then the blue half of Glasgow won both tosses to not only shoot in front of their own fans but win the option to go first. My belief honestly wavered as proceedings began.

I knew Adam and Arne could take good penalties so I’d no worries over them,,Reo however,,,he hits the ball hard yes but he had had another stinker, and failing would truly see him become the whipping boy.
Likewise Callum.
But all four scored, and Kasper had proved me wrong by saving one despite the ankle.
It all fell upon the shoulders of James Forrest.

Our longest serving player, decorated like a general, with fresh legs to boot, he strikes the ball well,,I awaited the baby faced assassin to make the long and lonely plod upfield to become an instant hero or villain.
His time had come, it was the obvious pick for big match winning penalty.
The camera pans and,,,oh shit.

A mop of dyed blond hair has the ball under his arm, a smile on his face, and the weight of the world on his shoulders. Flashes of Beckham staring down at the spot went through my head, imaginary scenes of a little boy in RowZ losing the final sip of his father instructed Bovril after being struck by the ball, visions of a bewildered look upon a Japanese face as he rubs both hands in an unnaturally coloured barnet.
What happened next shall never leave me, for as much as we ascribe him to be an instinctive player who screws up if given too much time to think about what happens next,,,he did it again.

Diego would have been proud of that penalty. Daizen ran up completely selling one corner until the very last minute, and when Butland committed himself to that save, Maeda simply adjusted last second and actually rolled the ball into the wide open free space in an exhibition of not only coolness but the footballing brain we thought he lacked.
Sorry Daizen, for what it’s worth I would have you in my starting 11, and you just proved once again why you’re called The Duracell Bunny.

The penalties, the goals, lifting the Cup clearly meant a lot to all involved, I’m delighted to have the trophy cabinet expanded because it actually is organically won as opined during the week,,,
BUT,,,
Ooft we cannot play games like that. That’s heart in the mouth stuff,,good teams don’t allow footballing ping-pong but shut it down. Now I admit our opposition were physical/rough as the yellow card count shows, but their general shape and tactics were not bettered over 120 minutes. That’s the type of game and intensity we should expect to come up against consistently in Europe, we must learn from that experience because a European team would have walked away with 3 points if we turned out that performance and offered up that many chances.

Kuhn was doubled up on, Maeda closely tagged, Callum man-marked, midfield and defense pressed fast and hard into mistake after mistake,,,it looks like ol Phillipe simply adopted our European opponents tactics and very nearly pulled it off successfully.

Both teams set pieces were woeful bar a few occasions, one of which lead to a goal. We gave the ball away constantly, especially under pressure, good sides can automatically pass into a zone they know the teammate will be occupying, if the wings aren’t working and the midfield is nullified/having an off day then our striker is out of the game and I barely recall Kyogos name getting mentioned,,,that’s not good.

On one level I feel our squad was exposed today, it’s deficiencies highlighted for all to see. I agree with those posters and every supporter who wondered about Reo staying on the park, I secretly hope Brendan is accessing him overall, because Bernardo is more consistent and Brendan previously brought up consistency as a big factor.
On one level consistency was achieved, we won after all, as we do most weeks bar one single blip,,but the form we all know this team is capable of once again evaded us for these 120 minutes plus.

Now we’ve lifted the trophy, now the trebles on-track, now the bonding season is complete,,will we kick on? Is this the springboard for bigger and better things?
I hope so.

Well done Bhoys, great ending to the first half of the season, you’ve made us proud.
Now please make the second half of the season an unforgettable one.

By Mahe