Celtic

Hello and good evening,

we've now been to Celtic and done what AC Milan and Man U couldn't, beat them. Our first goal was super lucky, but particularly lucky for me as my bookie had a ball deflected off Gallas for the first goal at 5000 - 1 and I bet 5 on it.

The team line up made clear that all 3 of our injury worries came through and started, all 3 were good but Cesc and Song were the best players on the park all night.

The game started at a fierce pace, both teams going at each other, attacking very quickly and getting men behind the ball passionately and efficiently. Our class proved decisive in the end as we took over the game. When they got men behind the ball, which they did very well, we ultimately had the quality to cope. And on the back foot we had Song, whose immensity in our first two games is slowly making him my favorite player. I've been calling for a defensive midfielder to be brought in but if Song carries on like this I'll be eating my words very happily.

After 15/20 minutes we were in control of the game, although they never looked too far from dangerous when they had the ball. Arshavin and Bendtner worked very hard defending high and tracking back. Denilson was hot and cold doing some fantastic work and some not so fantastic work. Clichy and Sagna had sound appearances, getting forward very well and defending as needed. Vermaelen, although he did bite into a few dodgy challenges, was overall excellent. He was rock hard at the back, challenging for everything in the air and on the ground and was really committed and hard. Gallas was awesome all game too, making great tackles, winning 50/50s and getting forward like a crazy man whenever possible with Song dropping in to cover. Back up the front RvP wasn't having the best night and was mostly frustrated by some tight defending and some less than stellar attacking play from himself. But Cesc was great.

We got the first goal from a free kick that RvP rolled back to Cesc after El Capitan won the free kick, awarded for a late tackle by Gary Caldwell. Fabregas struck a shot from 25yrds or so and it looked heading for Boruc's hands until it hit Gallas' back as he tried to get out of the way. The deflection put the ball into the side netting of the far post leaving the keeper helpless. Celtic will feel unlucky but we shouldn't feel too lucky, at that point the goal had been coming and we were certainly the better team.

Half time went by and we carried on as we did before the break. 10 minutes was enough for Mobray and he brought on Fortune and McDonald for the ineffective and rarely supported Samaras and Massimo Donati, who had been working hard to keep track of Cesc in the middle. The changes were immediately effective as Celtic saw more of the ball and were eager to attack. They still never really threatened and our second goal came just after the 70 minute mark as Diaby, who had come on for the tired Arshavin, did some good work to evade a tackle just inside the Celtic half and dribbled towards the box. He fed the ball to the overlapping Clichy whose low hard cross was turned into his own goal by Caldwell as van Persie and Bendtner were in on goal behind him. It was a good attack and Caldwell needed to make a go at the ball.

The commentators will talk about how lucky we were and admittedly the first goal had more than a hint of fortune about it but the second was the type of goal that occurs quite often, the result of very good attacking play and to be honest, had Caldwell not scored on his own keeper, surely Bendtner would have scored anyway.

Besides the goals there weren't many chances in the game. Van Persie came close twice, dragging 2 shots just wide with his left and Denilson hit a curler just wide of the same post. Celtic had 1 shot on goal and 1 low cross cleared behind for a corner by Gallas. That was about it. We were well worth our win and gave a very good performance in a very good game. The pace was electric, the tackling was stiff, the football was very nice from both teams and the result is epic. We take a 2 goal lead to The Grove and have just about wrapped up the tie.

Our boys did well and every player on the park was effective except for perhaps van Persie, who had a mediocre game by his standards. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what the injury count is, let's hope we came through relatively unscathed, although I'm sure there'll be 1 or 2.

We've got Portsmouth on Saturday then Celtic at home on Wednesday, followed by a trip to Old Trafford. After that it's a trip to the blue side of Manchester. We've come through 2 difficult away games well on top with great results and performances and have really made a statement. Another big win at home to Portsmouth and at least 2 points from the next 2 league games and a passage through to the Champions' League proper will have us looking very good indeed at the end of our tricky start. Of course we'd ideally like to win both games in Manchester, but a win over either with a draw in the other game will go a long way to silencing our critics and in building momentum.

So, so far so good with our tough start, let's keep it up and look forward to some good news in the week and another win at the weekend, maybe some business too, with the Senderos deal still to be completed and his possible replacement, along with Van Der Vaart if reports are to be believed.

Alright then,

Highbury86