Paybacks A Butch

Greetings everyone, remember me?

Its certainly been a wee while! And apologies to yourselves and ofcourse the other bhoys who give up their time to write for the site, just been a busy bee the recent months. The Quiet Man indeed

So with that out the way, whats the plans this week? Just the small matter of a trip to Inverness where it all went horribly wrong last season. Believe you me theres been a few heartbreaking Celtic defeats in my nearly 19 years in life, but that one last May will be one of those ones that’ll stick with me forever. Always a very hard 90 minutes but surely with the way we were playing last year, no one seen that coming. Whether we’ll get over it in time remains to be seen, but one way of sorting it out would be a comfortable victory tomorrow afternoon.

Trust me, if this Celtic team had anything about itself, it would go out there and hammer Inverness tomorrow.

Terry Butcher usually plays a big part in Celtic’s throwing of the title towards Ibrox and knows that one more Celtic slip up coupled with a Rangers win on the same day would all but end Celtic’s hopes for a 4th straight year. The englishman recently inducted into the Scottish hall of fame (probably for services to Rangers against Celtic) likes nothing better than denying Celtic all 3 points. Neil Lennon must have absolutely every player involved clued up to the occasion. Every game (even in November) is a cup final for this Celtic team. One misplaced pass, one mistimed tackle, one goalkeeping error, one miskick, one missed chance and someones Celtic career could well be over.

One would never write Celtic off, I’ve always been a keen believer in the term ‘Celtic are at their best when their backs are firmly against the wall’ citing 2 of the 3 visits to Ibrox last season. 3 fine comeback wins against Hibs, Rennes and Motherwell recently have proved that the Celtic team have some fight in them, but we must only dwell on these wins on the day of the victory, as soon as the clock strikes midnight, our focus must be on our next cup final. Tomorrow lunchtime in the Highlands.

So what team will Lennon put out tomorrow? For me, Victor Wanyama is a must in the middle of the park, the young Kenyan has been nothing short of superb in the engine room for Celtic in recent weeks. Another must is that Beram Kayal captains the side out. Maybe its superstitious on his part, on my own, but everytime Kayal wears that armband it is clear for all to see that he’s willing to go through brick walls for the ball. In games where we must battle for control before dominatiing, a strong midfield is essential. And a key component to that strong midfield is Joe Ledley. The Welshman is raring to go after a recent injury and will be vital to Celtic’s chances tomorrow. Its no coincidence that (despite some terrible attempts at ‘facts and stats’ emanating about Ledley’s ‘unbeaten’ Celtic career) Celtic play a whole lot better when Joe Ledley is in the team. A player who never wastes the ball and can chip in with a few goals is always welcome. Plus he scored twice on his last trip to Inverness in the cup. C0mmons would be an ideal sub tomorrow if things aren’t going our way.

I’d go 4-3-1-2 With said midfield above there, with Jimmy Forrest in the hole behind Hooper And Stokes. At the back I’d go for Matthews Rogne Mulgrew and El Kadouri with Forster in goals. As a support we can only pray every night that Izaguirre is fit before too long. We were never a one man team but it is clear to see Izaguirre is a huge miss in our fight for the title. Lennon must get it right tomorrow. One more slip up could result in him joining me in the dole queue, and as much as I would love to discuss tactics with him I don’t want to see us drop further back behind Rangers and possibly behind Motherwell again.

Prediction? It might be ugly, but all frogs becoming princes at some point. 4-0 Celtic with 3 maybe 4 Goals coming in the second half. Hooper first goal after his recent winners. I can only hope the squad spent the international break looking for that corner that we must turn.

Ps. Wouldn’t it be funny if big Cillian Sheridan scored the winner at Ibrox tomorrow.

Pps. Top of my christmas list is an #AskNaisy session on our troubled rival’s twitter feed.