Celtic tonight suffered a humiliating 3-2 defeat at the hands of Aberdeen at Celtic Park. It is the second time on the trot the Dons have beaten us at home, and once again, it was a late goal that sealed Celtic’s fate.
Celtic’s lined up with Marshall in goal, a defence of Balde, Varga, McNamara and Agathe and Lennon, Petrov, Wallace and Juninho in midfield. Chris Sutton partnered John Hartson up-front.
Unbelievably, Aberdeen took a 2-0 lead with only six minutes of the game gone, both goals can be put down to shambolic defending. Their first was an opportunist’s strike; Darren Mackie netted the rebound from David Marshall’s original stop from Pasquinelli’s header. Original thoughts were that Celtic would settle down and go for a quick reply, but there was more comedy to come from the Celtic defensive freak show. Neil Lennon’s poor back bass was allowed by Bobo Balde to run through to David Marshall. There was obviously a breakdown in communications somewhere, and Marshall blasted the ball off of Pasquinelli who placed the ball home.
A fine attacking performance was now required by Celtic, but it was always going to be hard to break down the strong defensive unit Jimmy Calderwood has installed at Aberdeen.
Nevertheless, Celtic bombarded the Aberdeen goal with chance after chance, and on another day we could have been 5-2 up at half time. John Hartson had two great chances to get the ball rolling, and he had what looked a decent penalty claim turned down by referee Willie Old.
Chris Sutton came close with a header, which was cleared off the Aberdeen line, and Stan Petrov’s shot went just wide, as we all hoped to pull at least a goal back before half time.
John Hartson got that goal, and it was during first half injury time when he it arrived. Chris Sutton was our best player of the opening half, and it was he who layed the ball off to Hartson, who finished superbly into the bottom corner of the Aberdeen goal.
In recent times, Martin O’Neill’s half time team talks have been somewhat inspiring, and there was always the hope that he would conjured up another one at the break tonight.
Celtic continued to attack but our defence was shown up for what it is: a complete shambles. Balde and Varga simply do not play well together, and both were having a shocker tonight. They were playing as if they had never met each other before and performances like tonight make me worry for up and coming games.
Just before the hour mark, Martin O’Neill made two substitutions. Chris Sutton looks to have picked up a shoulder injury, and was replaced by Momo Sylla. I have totally given up faith in this excuse for a football player. Guys like Bobby Murdoch and Jimmy McGrory must be turning in their graves when they see the likes of Sylla pull on a Celtic jersey. He has no footballing ability whatsoever and I simply cannot see what Martin O’Neill sees in him. Why wasn’t Craig Beattie put on before him? Even if he is returning from injury, I would have taken a half fit Beattie before a fully fit Sylla.
O’Neill’s other swap was Aiden McGeady for Juninho. The less said about the latter the better, but McGeady brought a new lease of life into tonight’s Celtic team. He tried his heart out but was let down by other team-mates. McGeady gave us some of what we lost in Chris Sutton. He must start on Saturday.
Celtic managed to get a well-earned equaliser and it was John Hartson again who bagged it. It was a predatory goal from the big Welshman and full credit to him for sticking two away tonight, even though the reality is he could have had three or four.
For some bizarre reason, Neil Lennon was playing as a right winger. Dider Agathe couldn’t be arsed doing anything and Ross Wallace is a worrying reminder of Brian McLaughlin. His free-kicks were atrocious tonight – one after another crashed straight into the Aberdeen wall.
As Celts pushed for a winner, there was some more calamity defending to be done at the back. Credit to Jackie McNamara though: if every player in the Hoops tonight showed the same attitude and fighting spirit as him we would not be a beaten team tonight. Jackie played like and is, a true captain.
Aberdeen’s winner came in injury time, whenJohn Stewart took two Celtic defenders out of the game in one movement, and gave the full Celtic team a lesson in how to finish a ball when slotting into the corner of the net, past Marshall.
To sum up tonight’s game, we played terrible, yet could have scored a barrel-load of goals. On another day we would have hammered Aberdeen, but full credit to them as they are the only SPL side who we have faced this season with the intention of playing football. Our hopes were pinned on a long ball to John Hartson, who was winning the balls well, but had no one to knock them down to – only a headless chicken in Momo Sylla.
Too many players were off the boil. The only Celtic players who gained pass marks tonight were John Hartson, Chris Sutton, Jackie McNamara and Aiden McGeady. The rest were pretty awful. We missed Henri Camara, who is bang on form at the moment. Why Momo Sylla is still at the club I do not know, and Ross Wallace better come back down to Earth immediately or he will have plenty more time to practise his free-kicks.
We have lost eight goals in the last week, and losing three goals at home to an SPL club is not good enough. Our defence needs a good kick up the backside, or we will have serious problems when the big boys come to town.
So it’s onwards to Motherwell and we now find ourselves only four points ahead of Rangers. Saturday will be tricky and if we play like we did tonight, we do not stand a chance. But we won’t play like that. Martin O’Neill will simply not allow it.
Celtic:
Marshall - 6
Balde – 5
Varga – 6
McNamara – 8
Agathe – 6
Lennon – 6
Petrov – 5
Juninho – 4 (McGeady - 7)
Wallace – 5
Sutton – 8 (Sylla - 2)
Hartson – 8
Come On The Hoops Man Of The Match: Jackie McNamara