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Trivia
- Our largest victory in years, and our first goals in the SPL in around 4 games!!!!!
- Celtic still second in the league behind the huns (on goal difference down to 4 goals now).
- Bizarrely none of our strikers scored a single one of the goals.
- Naka's second hat-trick for Celtic.
- McGeady unlucky not to score.
- Great goal by Crosas
- Boruc little tested.
Quick Review
Finally a good game with few to complain. St Mirren lost a man in the first half (sent off) and after that there was only one team in it. Regardless, some class goals in this game, and definitely worth watching again.
Some great entertainment after some dirge of late.
Teams
Celtic: (4-4-2)
Boruc,
Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor (O'Dea 21).
Nakamura, Crosas, Scott Brown, McGeady.
McDonald (Samaras 69), Vennegoor of Hesselink (Hutchinson 77).
Subs Not Used: Fox, Loovens, Hartley, Flood.
Booked: O'Dea
Goals: Nakamura 16, 35, Crosas 51, Scott Brown 55, Nakamura 58, Scott Brown 68, Potter 76 og
St Mirren: Smith, Ross, Potter, Haining, Camara, Murray (McGinn 60), Dorman (Barron 53), Mason, Brady, Thomson, Mehmet (Dargo 70).
Subs Not Used: Howard, Wyness, Hamilton, Burns.
Sent Off: Ross (28)
Booked: Thomson, Murray.
Att: 58,286
Ref: C Allan
Articles
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan:
"I enjoyed it today. It started off at a good pace and we moved the ball well.
"We got our midfielders into good areas and caused them a bit of problems. "Obviously, when they went down to 10 men, it caused problems for St Mirren and we got more space than we would normally get against them."
St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson:
"It's always difficult when you come to Celtic Park, but when you go down to 10 men, it makes it doubly harder. "To lose a full-back with the experience of Jack Ross, who is probably our most consistent player this season – and a defender coming to Parkhead, makes it very difficult for us.
"We'll look at the goals again, because I think quite a few of them were individual mistakes – especially the first one."
Pictures
KStreet
Stats
CELTIC v ST MIRREN
Possession
Shots on target
Shots off target
Corners
Fouls
Nakamura reigns
01 March 2009
Provided by: The Sunday Times
CELTIC 7
Nakamura 15, 35, 57, Crosas 50, Brown 54, 66, Potter 76og
ST MIRREN 0
WHO needs strikers with a midfield like this? Celtic's goal difference deficit to Rangers started this match at 11 and was reduced by strikes of automatic regularity and some of astounding quality.
Not one was scored by Scott McDonald or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, the forwards who started this match, nor Georgios Samaras and Ben Hutchinson, who replaced them amid the deluge.
Heck, even John Potter, the St Mirren centre-back, planted a header into his own net for the seventh.
"It's not going to bother me tonight," said Strachan of his strikers' shortfalls, which have been more costly than this in recent weeks. "I'll still enjoy the telly, as long as Dale Winton's on. If you look at the chances we created when the strikers [McDonald and Vennegoor of Hesselink] were on, they were good. When they were off, we got scruffy, and that tells you about how the strikers played."
The qualification to the remarkable hiding Celtic dished out is the red card issued to Jack Ross, the St Mirren rightback, after 29 minutes with the score at 1-0 and the ball on the penalty spot after Ross took down McDonald. Celtic were in control already, but they would not have destroyed Gus MacPherson's team quite like this had they faced 11. On the other side of it, they created far more than they scored, too many to mention. Vennegoor of Hesselink was cursed, missing that penalty and many more chances besides, and Chris Smith, the St Mirren keeper, had a better game than the scoreline allows you to imagine.
But Celtic's midfield, and in particular Shunsuke Nakamura, who scored a hattrick sealed by a perfect free-kick, were irresistible. Marc Crosas's first ever competitive goal will be long remembered and Scott Brown's brace displayed his increasingly cool penalty-box persona.
Celtic only looked back to get ahead.
There were 15 minutes gone when Stephen McManus charged 30 yards out of defence with the ball at his feet, crossing halfway as he did so and sliding a pass through the middle and in front of Nakamura. With Gary Mason hanging off his back, the Japanese midfielder somehow spun out a high shot with his right foot that arced above Smith. Both of Smith's gloves befriended the football, but neither made a lasting impression and the ball dropped behind him and bounced feebly into the net.
Gary Caldwell was even more impressive taking it out of defence 13 minutes later for the move that killed the contest.
He charged through central midfield and ended up on the edge of the St Mirren box, picking out a fine pass to McDonald, nine yards from goal and slightly to its left. Ross was in a bad spot, with McDonald between him and the ball and, although he got to his objective for the telling intervention, Ross got enough of the striker to justify the penalty and the red card. Vennegoor of Hesselink's effort was low and to the left and tracked all the way by Smith. The defeated striker kicked at the air, a man fighting the fates and losing badly. He headed wide and over, his bicycle kick was saved expertly, he swiped wildly over from close range. But then he was not needed yesterday.
Nakamura's second goal put the game to bed before the break. The midfielder started it himself, breaking through the middle and feeding Andreas Hinkel on the right. The German defender slipped it back to Nakamura in the 'D' and he shifted it on to his left and cut through a low shot that zipped beyond Smith.
Celtic could now chase down that goal difference and got one closer with a beautiful strike from Crosas. Aiden McGeady did that balletic turn of his coming in from the left, taking care of Andy Dorman, and chipped a cross that was cleared to Crosas, 30 yards out. The ball was half-tamed and hit cleanly on the half-volley beyond Smith's dive.
Brown's first contribution to the cavalcade was barely comparable. A third successive Nakamura corner was kept alive by Caldwell, beyond the back post. He cut the ball back to Brown, eight yards out. A simple, composed finish and it was four.
The standard had been raised by Crosas, so for his hat-trick goal Nakamura gave us his best. He won the free-kick himself, 25 yards out and level with the right corner of the box; as Celtic Park sang his name in anticipation, his left foot sent the ball dipping over the wall and across Smith's dive. His collection of set-piece goals is incredible, but this one was among Nakamura's finest. Brown got closer to the mark with his second.
Crosas controlled a wild one on the move and struck a volleyed pass that bounced into the curved run of Brown, who took a touch into the box and slipped a low shot underneath Smith's dive.
To finish it off, a comedy own goal by Potter, heading gently past Smith from a cross by Hinkel. The contribution of the German, a pulsing threat down the right, was one of several easily overlooked simply because they did not end up on the scoresheet. There was more to this victory even than that.
CELTIC: Boruc 6, Hinkel 7, McManus 7, Caldwell 7, Naylor 6 (O'Dea 21min, 6), Nakamura 8, Crosas 8, Brown 7, McGeady 7,
McDonald 6 (Samaras 67min), Vennegoor of Hesselink 5 ST MIRREN: Smith 6, Ross 4, Haining 6, Potter 6, Camara 5, Brady 4, Mason 4, Murray 5 (McGinn 60min), Dorman 5 (Barron 52min, 5), Thomson 4, Mehmet 6 (Dargo 70min)
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