2017-12-20: Celtic 2-0 Partick Thistle, SP

Match Pictures| Matches: 2017 – 2018 | 2017-18 Pictures

Trivia

• Celtic remain on top winning this game in hand, clear of Abereen by 5pts, and Huns by 8pts, but also varstly superior goals difference. Partick are bottom.
• Back to square one after domestic defeat to Hearts, record 69 games run was ended in last game.
• Patrick's Gary Fraser gets all the attention when in a moment of frustration he blasted the ball at short-rangeinto the Celtic support only just missing a young girl. Totally unacceptable but was let off lightly with just a yellow card, and should have been pulled off the pitch. He has previous. The next day a public apology was made, and statement he had contacted the respective supporters struck by the ball, and so on.
• A number of Celtic fans were left enraged at Wednesday's Premiership clash with Partick Thistle because of 'over zealous stewarding' and young supporters being forced to supply identification. Fans complained of being made to show their Facebook profiles to prove age,being harrassed and season tickets being taken away.
• Celtic support who turned up, lower than the 55k supposedly present due to the cold weather/midweek/holiday time etc, those who did on the 69th minute held a standing ovation and cheer for the team for the 69 game unbeaten domestic record. Very well deserved.
• Runout for youngster Johnston, others like Hayes also given another chance.
• Tierney scored his third of the season; great goal strike from Armstrong also.
• Marvin Compper signed for Celtic, to start in January, for est £1m.
• Celtic are close to completing the signing of Lewis Morgan from St Mirren. The young winger will join for a fee of around £300,000 and be loaned back to St Mirren for the remainder of the campaign.
• Celtic assistant boss Chris Davies has admitted he isn’t expecting too many ins and outs at Parkhead next month. Openly gay footballer Liam Davis believes there is a group of around 20 players who are considering coming out together.
  

Review

(fatboab of KDS)
Decent recovery from the weekend, and after half an hour of huffing and puffing, Armstrong’s goal ignited a much improved performance. Should have scored a few more, but Thistle sat very deep and made it difficult. Surprised at the them being as petulant as they were, they showed none of the ambition of last season, and were content to pull jerseys and break up play all night. They look like a side going down.
For us, Ajer continues to look like a good option for central defence, Armstrong had his best game in a while as did Tierney, but McGregor was awful again. He really does very little of note.
Two very good goals and a clean sheet will help restore the confidence, and other than Dembele I and Ntcham for McGregor and Eduoard, I’d go with the same side on Saturday.
I had just left the ground before the assault by the scumbag Thistle eejit, but he should be charged for that. What a stupid , dangerous thing to do.

(Morvcik67 of KDS)
Dominated from start to finish. Lacklustre up until the goal. Crowd started getting grumpy from 25 minutes on. Couple of good goals. Never in any danger whatsoever.

Armstrong, Ajer, Tierney and Brown all had good games. Armstrong was very busy, making some excellent runs that weren't always picked out. Forrest, Sinclair and McGregor were poor overall. Edouard showed in flashes that he's a player. Boyata showed again why he's such a frustrating player. Copes with most of what's thrown at him, but had at least 3 lapses in concentration/slack passes.

We're despearately crying out for a bit of craft and creativity in behind the striker. Someone who can hold the ball up, link up with the runners from midfield, or feed the wingers through.

Girl in the row in front won the halftime draw. She wasn't for going on the pitch at all, was pretty much dragged from her seat.

Teams

Celtic

Goals

• Armstrong (35' minutes),
Tierney (67' minutes)

Partick Thistle

Substitutes

• 9Doolan
• 10Erskine
• 12Scully
• 17Nitriansky
• 18Sammon
• 20Nisbet
• 22Fraser

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Forum

• Pre-match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11050963/
• Match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11051366/
• Post Match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11051375/

MOTM

• Voting Thread http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11051381/
• Result Thread
• Winner –

Stats

Home Team
Celtic
Away Team
Partick Thistle

Possession
Home67%
Away33%

Shots
Home16
Away2

Shots on Target
Home7
Away0

Corners
Home5
Away5

Fouls
Home6
Away16

Articles

Celtic 2 – 0 Partick: Champions return to winning ways
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/celtic-2-0-partick-champions-return-to-winning-ways-1-4644337
Normal-ish service was resumed for Celtic last night as they registered a victory that moved them five points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Brendan Rodgers’ men were anything but scintillating in shaking off a first domestic defeat in 19 months that had arrived in such shocking fashion with a 4-0 flailing at Hearts three days earlier. Yet, they hardly needed to be against a Partick Thistle side that offered little enterprise and were undone by stellar strikes in each half from Stuart Armstrong and Kieran Tierney. The win for a team that created so much history in racking up a British record 69 domestic games without loss ensured they have not been entirely deprived of milestone-making following their spectacular collapse at Tynecastle on Sunday. Last night’s 2-0 success means they have now gone two years and one day since a Scottish team last beat them on their own patch. It is more than a decade since they could last boast that achievement. It was always going to be intriguing to see how Rodgers and his team responded to a first domestic defeat in his tenure. The end of their remarkable run without loss on the home front didn’t just rip from them their cloak of invincibility; the drubbing dished out by Hearts at Tynecastle left them in the altogether. Not since the night that ended Tony Mowbray’s brief, ill-fated tenure away to St Mirren in March 2010 had Celtic been beaten by a four-goal margin in a domestic encounter. Not since 1895, had Hearts won so handsomely against the Glasgow club.To have such brutal statistics replace the triumphant ones that Rodgers has consistently racked up since his arrival at Celtic in the summer of 2016 did not result in him making scapegoats of the team that, frankly, were shambolic in being cuffed by Craig Levein’s men. There were only couple of changes from that line-up – one enforced.On the day Celtic paraded new central defensive recruit Marvin Compper, the 32-year-old signed from RB Leipzig in a £1 million deal, injury resulted in Kristoffer Ajer replacing the out-of-touch Jozo Simunovic. The Bosnian might have been relieved at the opportunity of a break from a hellish spell of mishaps.The 19-year-old Paris Saint-Germain loanee Odsonne Edouard was preferred in attack to the benched Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths. Yet, whatever side the Irishman sent out would have been expected to take care of the Premiership’s bottom club Thistle. If Celtic had handpicked a side to get themselves back on track following Tynecastle it would have been their city neighbours – the only team in the Premiership not to have won away this season.Alan Archibald’s men, though, proved more than stubborn opponents in the early stages. They did not seek to copy Hearts’ high press but rather ensured they had numbers in their defensive third. For long passages of the first half, it had the desired effect for a team that had only avoided defeat in two of their previous six encounters.The ponderous nature of the home side’s build-up play assisted the Thistle cause. The zip and quick transitions that made Celtic such an irresistible force in Scotland across Rodgers’ first season have been little in evidence in recent months as the champions have failed to string together a winning league run of more than two games. Tomas Cerny’s goal wasn’t seriously threatened across the opening half-hour and, indeed, a Danny Devine goalbound header that Scott Brown nodded out of harm’s way was the only cause of mild alarm for either team in that period. It was no surprise then that it took a moment of individual brilliance for Celtic to break down their visitors. As with so many of his team-mates, Armstrong hasn’t produced the exceptional performance this season at the rate he did in the last campaign, but there was no disputing the craft and class that he delivered in the 35th minute. A cut-back from Tierney on the left set him up to dance his way into the penalty box and arrow a ferocious effort high into the far corner of the net. A series of corners early in the second half was as close as the Partick came to producing a response. They seemed accepting of their fate even before Tierney condemned them to it with 22 minutes remaining. The left-back did so by providing the finishing touch to the sort of passing move that has been the trademark of Rodgers’ team. Fed by Armstrong, the Scotland international played one-two with Scott Sinclair before ramming an unstoppable effort in from eight yards. It was notable, though, that the biggest cheers of the evening did not arrive until a minute later when, in the 69th minute, the stadium was roused to raucous acclaim in acknowledgement of the team’s record run. It’s a sequence unlikely ever to have an equal in the Scottish game.

BBC
By Martin Dowden
BBC Scotland at Celtic Park
Goals from Stuart Armstrong and Kieran Tierney ensured Celtic returned to winning ways against Partick Thistle.
After a drab opening, midfielder Armstrong rocketed home a left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty box.
Odsonne Edouard went close after the break before Tierney combined with Scott Sinclair and slammed in a second.

The champions, whose 69-game unbeaten domestic run was ended emphatically by Hearts, climb five points clear at the Scottish Premiership summit.
Thistle remain two points adrift at the foot of the table, having won just three of their 19 league fixtures this term.
Backlash. Reaction. Whirlwind start. All pre-match cautions of what would be inflicted upon the lowly visitors after Celtic's hammering at Tynecastle.
Pedestrian was perhaps a more fitting appraisal of the first half hour, a combination of discipline and structure from Thistle and a slow, overly-deliberate start from Celtic.
That suited the Jags, who looked largely comfortable, other than when Kristoffer Ajer nodded Armstrong's fabulous delivery over from six yards, then Tierney's surging run set up Sinclair, who also fired his effort too high.
So far, so good for a Thistle outfit who have not won an away league match since March.
Their resistance was broken, though, by a touch of brilliance from Armstrong, the former Dundee United man looking more like the swashbuckling figure of last season.
The 25-year-old gathered possession on the 18-yard line and did what no-one expected, unleashing a sensational left-foot howitzer high across Tomas Cerny and into his net.
Celtic held that lead at the break, and the second period was more open, Thistle endeavouring to create and the hosts appearing far sharper, with Tierney perhaps their biggest threat.
Edouard, preferred to Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele as the fulcrum of the Celtic attack, had two chances to double the hosts' advantage.
The Frenchman struck the first from a central area but his connection wasn't pure and Cerny saved well to his left.
Sinclair then teed up the teenage striker, but Cerny was again well-placed to deny him.
Eventually Celtic made the game safe with some incisive interplay between Sinclair and Tierney releasing the tireless young defender and he blasted home.
Tierney had been inspirational throughout and deserved some reward for his display.
Dedryck Boyata ought to have added a third from close range late in the game, but by then Celtic were well on their way to re-establishing a five-point cushion at the top of the table.
Thistle meanwhile can perhaps take some heart from their first-half grit in what proved to be too great a task for Alan Archibald's men.