As always, when playing in a cup tie the main objective is to win and proceed to the next round, so that was achieved quite comfortably on Friday night at Celtic Park. The game could have been a banana skin, as John Mc Glynn is a very good and respected coach, he won the Championship last season in a bit of a canter, his teams are always well organised, and very competitive. My nephew was up from Luton for the game and predicted the score before kick-off, but failed to follow the prediction up with a trip to the bookies.
It was a good opportunity to give some of our fringe players some game time, three of our back five haven’t played a lot, so for Sinisalo, Trusty, and Dane Murray to get the shout with be good for them, Big Dane has impressed this season in the games he has played, he adds a bit more height to our back line, and is cool on the ball. It was also a bonus to give Arne and Luke the nod alongside Callum, and Jamesy Forrest continues to defy Father Time with his displays. Johnny Kenny got the nod ahead of Adam and Shin, it’s fair to say they haven’t been banging the goals in, but it’s time for Brendan to make his choice and give whoever he picks as his centre forward a run of games.
FC Kairat on Wednesday night is the most important game of the season, this game will decide if we are in with the Big Boys in the Champions League Group’s, apart from the money side of it, Celtic Football Club need to be playing at this level every season, that’s the only way to improve and be able to compete at that very high level. There is no better atmosphere in European Football than Celtic Park on a Champions League night, that’s not just me saying that, that’s what some of the best players in the World said, players of the calibre of Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Maldini, Ronaldo, and that is one of the biggest attractions when trying to sign good players.
We have to get the job done on Wednesday night, put the game beyond Kairat before travelling over there to Kazakhstan, it’s a long haul flight which brings problems, then we go to Snake Mountain after that. You always have to start well in the season, if we can build up a lead early doors it will take a bit of pressure off the players later on, we certainly don’t want to be playing catch-up. Sandwiched between the Kairat games we play Livingston at Celtic Park, as usual it will be a team of giants who visit Celtic Park, I sometimes wonder of the coaches of the other teams in the League tell their scouts to just get the tallest players they can find, it doesn’t seem to matter if they can actually play football, just so long as they are about six foot four or taller.
As always, every supporter has their part to play on Wednesday night, let’s get right behind the team from the first minute, let’s make lots of noise to send a shiver down the spine of the Kairat players, and more importantly, to show everyone watching that they are seeing the Best Supporters in World Football. Let’s do this Celtic.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.
