SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all. 

An eventful few days for Celtic supporters as well as for fans of other clubs in the country. Celtic started it all off with a pleasant and reasonably uneventful display against a Raith Rovers who were frankly out of their depth on the day. 5-0 certainly didn’t flatter us, and Raith really only had one chance of note, a well-hit strike capably dealt with by debutant Sinisalo in goal.

The youngster has waited a while for his chance, as Schmeichel has had an outstanding season to date. There have been opportunities for us to give him a start, as well as plenty more when he could have been brought on late in the game. BR had opted not to do so,  which meant that he started this one cold. Apart from the save, I was also impressed by the way he commanded his box, especially at corner kicks. It’s been a while since I can remember a Celtic goalie making it his every time a corner came in, even if his two-handed punches could do with some more venom in them.

The big news of the day of course was reserved for Daizen Maeda. Not content with having his two toddlers standing alongside him and stealing the pre-match parade, he then went on to score a hat-trick. He might regret that when his two kids are squabbling over who gets to keep the matchball! A comfortable enough day out, even if it seems that proceedings on the pitch weren’t quite enough to keep ATHINGOFBEAUTY nice and toastie in the stands!!!

Attention then switched to the following day, with some decent enough offerings available. The pick of them was obviously at Villa Park, but the big cup shocks of the day were elsewhere, and about 550 miles apart. Few would have bet against 1/5 favourites Liverpool at Plymouth, but their faith would have been justified. Shockerooni indeed, as the club which recently fired Rooney and are rock-bottom of Tier Two saw off the runaway EPL leaders. 

The Magic Of The Cup,indeed…

A bigger shock was to follow closer to home though. R2ngers were a ludicrous 1/40 with the bookies prior to kick off, and I believe Queen’s Park were priced at a handsome 33/1 as they lined up at Ibrox. This was a clash of Scotland’s oldest club against its newest. And bugger me backwards if the oldies didn’t go and bloody win it! To say I was surprised would be something of an understatement. To say that huns everywhere were f…..g furious doesn’t do the result justice either. This was a  cataclysmic shock to everyone, and congratulations are due to everyone involved with the winning club. Especially their long-suffering supporters, who love their club as much as every fan of every club loves their club. 

Football loves its fairytales, but it’s the guys and gals who turn up every week for the grind, the guys filled with optimism and dread, who ensure that days where dreams can come true happen. 

Tomorrow nights sees its own potential tale of giant-killing as one of the biggest clubs in the game come to town. I think I’ve only seen us play Bayern once, under BR Mk I a few years ago. We acquitted ourselves well that night, with CalMac equalising the Bayern opener before we finally succumbed to the relentless pressure. It was two soft goals that night, and Bayern will have known that the scoreline flattered them. Changed days indeed from when  they came to town in the early 2000s and we battered them 0-0, watching them celebrate their achievement as though they had just won the bloody trophy! 

I had hoped that Saturday’s table-topping clash with holders Leverkusen would distract them from this, maybe see them resting some players ahead of that. But Leverkusen needlessly dropped two points on Saturday, leaving them eight points behind. I think that ship has sailed, and our last hope with it.

But wait! What’s this I hear incoming? Rumours that Celtic did indeed follow my advice to appeal the two-match ban on Maeda-and only went and won the bloody thing?!!! Well, who knew? Why did this take so long? Practically the eve of the event, and all of a sudden, our manager has a selection problem? 

This is undoubtedly terrific news for everyone with Celtic firmly in their heart and head. Maeda is currently our man in form, playing out of his skin and the worthy winner of our last three POTY ratings. He’s scoring goals for fun, too. Strangely, he is being played out of position in his favoured position-if that makes any sense-and is having a ball. It makes perfect sense to have him play there on Wednesday night, doesn’t it? With Jota On The Wing and Kühn on the right?

Well…

Does it also make sense to play him on the left, to utilise his tracking? He still scores from there, but by adding his defensive abilities to the side, we reduce our attacking threat-even if Idah has shown himself to be coming onto more of a game recently. Playing him wide would also mean dropping Jota completely. I’m gonna leave the match preview and any likely team prediction to MAHE tomorrow, but this unexpected piece of good news has undoubtedly given BR a very pleasant headache, I reckon. But then, who doesn’t love surprises? And I’d love to have another one around 10pm tomorrow night.

Football,eh?

<><><><><>
Above article by BMCUWP