2011-11-19: Inverness Calendonian Thistle 0-2 Celtic, SPL

Match Pictures | Matches: 2011 – 2012 | 2011-2012 Pictures

Trivia

• Celtic go ten behind Rangers, catching up two points as Rangers held 0-0 at home to St Johnstone. Joint second with Motherwell.
• First time we've won by more than one goal away to Inv Caley since 2005!
• Anthony Stokes 2nd goal forCeltic today was the end product of 29 consecutive passes.

Review

(Stevie from Belfast from KDS Forum)
Not being able to win ugly cost is the title last year. Being able to win uglythis year might yet win us the title.

A better result than performance which was made better still be the huns drawing again at home – i wonder will there home stats be repeated week after week like their aways ones?

Anyway as regards today –

We were lucky with the sending off. Now I dont think it was that harsh a decision. The guy delibaretely led with his arm and struck his opponent twice. In most leagues that a red card and the talk after would be about how stupid the player was. But in Scotland because The player fouled doesn't end up in A&E and/or The player fouled is a Celtic player we get all the media winkers saying it was never a red. It was. You don't have to hurt a player to be deserving of a red card. (By the way I would agree Samaras went down like he had been hit by a Bozooka. But imo thats cause he is a big drama queen Jessie rather than a 'diver'. Samaras goes down like that ten times a game.). Nevertheless we were lucky that the ICT player was so stupid to get himself sent off because it did change a game that we weren't looking too good in up to then.

After that the first goal was great.

For the second goal Stokes took it very well. (The talk of offside was equally crap btw. Stokes was 'passive' when Forest took his shot regardless of whether or not he was level with the defender. Once the ball deflected of an ICT player it was a new phase of play and so 2-0 Celtic).

It was also good to see Strachan teaching Baboon arse a wee bit of fitba. You can tell listening to Strachan that he really understands the game. (I suspect he might have just been too clever for some of our players when he was at CP but thats a different thread …).

As regards players

Forster – did very, very well.
Matthews fine.
Wanyama perhaps we should re-appriase the opinion of 'never a Centre-Half in a million years' now that he has played his second game there. Strolled it.
Dan – was Dan but it didn't hurt us today.
EL K – Lennon said he had a virus and that might just excuse him being rotten.
Forest – quiet game but played a big part in the first goal.
Kayal – better once he got booked,
Ledley – not great by his standards.
Samaras – thankfully Lennon didnt take ten rotten games from him before he decided to take him off this time!
Stokes – missed a few but its the ones he scores that counts!
hooper – helped his mate get goals.

Ki – excellent
Paddy – great to watch when you are a few up
Commons – pity his shot didnt go in.
And by the way a good day for Neil Lennon – especially in hoofing Samaras.
Finally have you ever heard shampooe like Craig Burley spouts?

Teams

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Forum

• Pre-match
• Match
• Post Match

MOTM

• Voting Thread
• Result Thread
• Winner –
• 2011-12 Winners

Stats

Articles

Inverness Caley Thistle 0 – 2 Celtic: Stokes of luck for celtic

By Tom English at Caledonian Stadium
Published on Sunday 20 November 2011

Source: Scotland on Sunday

On-form striker and dubious red card help visitors take points from Inverness

Given the stresses and strains of his job it, is hard to say whether Neil Lennon ever gets a decent night’s sleep in life, but he would have stood half a chance of some quality slumber after this precious victory, a win that looked decidedly iffy after Celtic had slapsticked their way through the first hour.

The game turned on controversy, namely, the ludicrous red card shown to Caley’s Greg Tansey in the 36th minute for what Stevie O’Reilly, the referee, saw as a swinging elbow in to the head of Georgios Samaras. That was O’Reilly’s perception, the reality, though, was altogether different.

The red card was a nonsense but it was a monumental break for the visitors. It allowed them to recover from a plodding performance and eventually pull away to win courtesy of two more goals from Anthony Stokes, the first a peach of a move culminating with a tap-in, the second a neat volley. Stokes has now scored five goals in his last three games and has 11 in 19 appearances this season.

That the day was won with little or no hassle coming from the travelling supporters was something else that would have had Lennon pleased with his lot.

We turned up with our Mr Spock ears on for this one but, save for the odd half-hearted and short-lived chant – we had a few seconds of IRA glorification after three minutes from a minority of the Celtic support – there was little to get in a lather about. Mercifully.

The backdrop to this game didn’t begin and end with the Green Brigade song book, though. For this was the first time Celtic had visited Inverness since their title prospects were torched here on a midweek night in early May. It just showed the big turnaround in personnel at Caley that only five of the 3-2 team of six months ago started this match and it spoke to the huge injury list the visitors have right now that only three Celtic players started both encounters.

None of the goalscorers of May made it. Kris Commons, who was incapable of getting through a game back then without scoring at least one goal (he scored two on that fateful evening) was on the bench again. Commons in full flight was a hell of a sight, a scorer of goals, a maker of goals, an utter nuisance everywhere he went. Celtic lack that devil now. SPL action has become an almighty chore for them, so Stokes’ recent form has been a godsend.

Given Caley’s position at the bottom of the division, you might have thought that was the ideal place for Celtic to fetch up at, but Caley nearly always represent a thorny problem for Celtic and they did so again here for a long period. They had met 19 times in the league before this one and on 13 occasions there has been only one goal (or no goal at all) between them at the end. The signs were, then, that it was going to be tight.

We can only speculate how tight it might have Tansey not been ordered off so early.

In their patchwork formation, Celtic went with Victor Wanyama at the heart of its defence and he was excellent, a real plus. Not that there were many for Celtic until the decisive red card and Stokes’ subsequent rescue act. The home team were up for it and totally unafraid. Celtic, as is their wont of late, were flat and tentative until they got the comfort of Stokes’s opener. They looked like a side that is still some way off regaining its confidence.

They created little out there. After half an hour, Stokes tried to scramble a shot past by Ryan Esson from close range but Josh Meekings, alert to the danger, got in the way.

And that was about the extent of it for Celtic until they finally scored on the hour-mark, the sum total of their half-decent chances.

Of course, they got an enormous piece of good fortune in the midst of all this when Tansey clashed with Samaras and was sent packing. Celtic took their time to exploit their advantage, but eventually, after some pretty inept stuff and the substitution of Samaras only ten minutes into the new half, they conjured something special that was completely at odds with the garbage that went before.

They were passive and static and inaccurate and largely clueless and then, in a blink, they were precise and clinical. Their goal was a gorgeous thing, a move that bamboozled Caley from the moment Ki Sung Yeung, an effective replacement for Samaras, gave it to Gary Hooper, who gave it to James Forrest, who turned it back brilliantly to Hooper, who squared for Stokes to tap it home. Excellence, at last.

And there was more of it from the Dubliner a little while later when Forrest’s shot spun in the air off a Caley defender and fell to Stokes, who promptly whacked it first-time past Esson. A big day for Celtic, but a head-wrecker for Terry Butcher.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Anthony Stokes (Celtic)

He might have his faults but the boy knows how to score.

TALKING POINT

The red card shown to Greg Tansey. It changed the entire game.

Referee: S O’Reilly. Attendance: 6,435

BBC

Page last updated at 14:26 GMT, Saturday, 19 November 2011 By Colin Moffat

BBC Scotland Tansey was sent off following this challenge with Georgios Samaras Anothony Stokes scored two second-half goals to give Celtic victory against 10-man Inverness.

The home side had Greg Tansey controversially ordered off for leading with an arm in an aerial challenge nine minutes before the interval.

With an hour gone, Stokes finished off a neat passing move involving James Forrest and Gary Hooper.

And the striker volleyed in from an acute angle to wrap up the points with his 11th goal of the season.

Celtic move to within nine points of Scottish Premier League leaders Rangers, who host St Johnstone later on Saturday, while the defeat leaves Inverness bottom of the table.
Both defences looked vulnerable in the early stages.

On 12 minutes, Stokes found room after taking a Georgios Samaras flick at the edge of the penalty box but his shot was straight at Caley keeper Ryan Esson.

Soon after, Jonny Hayes gathered a Tansey pass and curled in a low shot that Celtic keeper Fraser Forster pushed away on the stretch.

Inverness defender Josh Meekings then made a good block to prevent Stokes finding the net from eight yards, after Hooper and Forrest had combined well inside the penalty area. Stokes celebrates his first goal at the Caledonian Stadium With 36 minutes gone, an evenly contested match swung in favour of the visitors when Tansey was shown a straight red card for leading with an arm as he challenged for a high ball with Samaras.

Referee Stevie O'Reilly indicated the use of an elbow but contact was with the midfielder's hand and was minimal, leaving the home fans outraged by the decision.

Celtic laboured for a long period to break down stubborn Inverness resistance but the visitors made the breakthrough in style on the hour.

Hooper and Forrest exchanged sharp passes on the edge of the penalty box before the former picked out Stokes for a simple finish from close range.

Ten minutes later, Hooper and Forrest again combined to create another opening for the in-form Stokes.

Forrest's shot from 18 yards was blocked and fell to the Irish striker, who crashed a volley across Esson and into the far corner of the net from a tight angle.

Inverness responded with an enterprising run from Hayes but his final shot lacked power, allowing Forster to save comfortably.

With Terry Butcher's depleted side tiring, Celtic substitute Kris Commons was left unmarked to volley over from an Adam Matthews delivery.

Tempers frayed in the closing minutes when Andrew Shinnie flew into a reckless challenge on Celtic replacement Pat McCourt but O'Reilly was lenient on this occasion, choosing to book him.