The Monday Morning View from the Gutter
That was one of the strangest Football matches I have ever seen Celtic play. Normally we go to grounds like these, play poorly, bang in a goal or two at the last gasp and walk away with the points. I call it smash n’ grab football.
Yesterday’s trip to the Tulloch Stadium was different however as Celtic played superbly well, created at least twenty attempts on goal, hit the woodwork and had a perfectly good goal disallowed, and the irony was not lost on us.
Celtic started well and was rewarded with a two-goal lead in a pulsating 70 seconds as Inverness struggled to cope with the passing and movement from the excellent Celtic Midfield. When the commentators mentioned that JVH had never failed to score at this ground in previous visits the online bookie sites couldn’t handle the pressure! When it was revealed that the referee hadn’t sent anyone off in the SPL this season the phone bookies went down too!
Big Jan took both of his goals well and was unlucky not to have won the match ball as the woodwork denied him a third, but the game had already descended into mediocrity by that stage.
Stephen Pressley was deemed to have brought Nikolae down after what appeared to be two men fighting out an even physical battle and quite how the referee deemed that one player had fouled the other was beyond me, especially since the forward managed to get a shot away. But award the penalty he did and Browns valiant attempt could not prevent Inverness from pulling one back.
With every pundit in radio land demanding that Elvis be red-carded (quite how you can state that he illegally prevented a goal scoring chance when the player got a shot away is beyond comprehension). Celtic continued the match feeling aggrieved at the award but glad to have 11 players on the field.
Inverness now fancied there chances and Cowie was giving young Conroy a hard time with his probing play down the right flank and Caley were awarded corner after corner as they put pressure on the Celtic goal. When Proctor met one perfect corner Mark Brown could only parry the ball into the net.
Celtic probed and probed to find a third and right about the time that I started to think that there was only going to be one team who would win it Caleb ran up the pitch and scored.
This was no comedy of errors; this was just sheer bad luck! Steohen McManus and Ryan Conroy were tracking a dangerous run by Cowie when fate conspired against the Celtic defenders. McManus slid in and won the ball a bit too cleanly and the pace of it ricocheted off Conroy and onto the on rushing forward to slot past Brown.
And then came the pivotal moment in the second half or rather then came what should have been the pivotal moment in the second half. As Scott McDonald skipped past the Caley defence and was brought down by Proctor one could be forgiven for thinking that the tackle could have been on the edge of the box and therefore a penalty could be awarded. However the referee decided that by blowing his whistle the moment the player showed the intent of fouling Skippy was how this should be approached. The sending off of Proctor was scant consolation for what easily could have been a penalty.
Such was the farcical nature of the second half of this game I am having trouble remembering which incident happened before the next one, but the decision to flag Scott McDonald offside took the cake. This was an unforgivable mistake that cost us the match.
I could have taken a little solace if McDonald had at any stage during that sequence of play been offside, but the very fact he was initially about two foot onside prior to taking one step forward to volley the ball home just make me more angry. The linesman had no obvious reason to make that decision other than whatever is in his own head.
And so we continue onto to potentially the most important period of the season, with the fact that we have made more difficult away trips than our competitors the only comfort at this time. With the derby game looming the points between now and then are of paramount importance. I feel that the team who drops the least amount of points between now and Jan the 3rd will be champions and I fancy our run of games a lot more than theirs!
On a lighter note, It’s good to see that the Scottish Media has finally caught up with us here at Mon the Hoops. We predicted weeks ago that the deal to sign a left back had already commenced and that the player would be our first foot at the start of January and the media finally caught up at the weekend. Well done hacks.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt