Match Pictures | Matches: 2021 – 2022

Trivia

KO: 17:30, Celtic Park
Fourth friendly of the summer. Next game is first competitive match for Ange, Champs lge qualifiers.
First defeat for Ange Postecoglu, two games with no goals. Disastrous performance on field, woeful from most.
Barkas better in goals than Bain who conceded a penalty that shouldn’t have been awarded. Welcome to Scotland Ange!
First Celtic match with a crowd (albeit ltd numbers) since Covid restrictions begin. 2000
Premier TV in charge of the feed, shambles, with lost pictures and commentary at times. Very amateurish it felt.
Leigh Griffiths relegated to the Celtic B team setup playing in the lowland league. He didn’t even get to play!
Return of old favourite Sinclair to Celtic, but he was playing for Preston NE and was warmly received by all.
Celtic B Team : Bonnyrigg Rose 2 – 1 Celtic B – Stand-outs for Hoops were Ewan Otoo, Bosun Lawal and Broady Patterson. Celtic B team debut match in the lowland league.
Bolingoli back in the first team since his banishment a year ago! Mixed reception from most supporters.
“Some strange decisions going on.”ex Celt Chris Sutton correctly calling out the decision to only allow 2,000 into Celtic Park today and only 9,000 on Tuesday while allowing 12,500 at Hampden for the Euros.
Transfers
Reports of Christie to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia!
“I think he will add something special to our squad.”
Ange Postecoglou hails Kyogo Furuhashi after Celtic agreed a deal to sign the Japan winger from Vissel Kobe,est 3.5m.
Covid
Restrictions to be removed on July 19th but numbers rising.
First crowd at Celtic since Covid started! Excellent news, but restricted numbers.

Summary

(KDS – Don Vito)
Lots of managers have a distinct style of play but if they are good managers they must also be able to adapt their system to incorporate the players at their disposal.
I dont want to see us running round like headless chickens all season. Teams just physically cannot keep that up. We will get picked off by teams in Europe and Scotland.
BR teams were the best in recent history with the best players we had in years and we got cuffed numerous times in Europe because he just refused to be a bit more pragmatic.
AP has at this moment probably got the worst squad any of us can remember, he needs to get a solid defensive system in place pronto.
I think he needs his own coaches also.

(from Twitter)

-This is pretty sobering. Looking like what we are – a mix of quality (McGregor and Turnbull) but mostly kids of those not up to average Championship standard . Good proxy for number of balls into box to expect vs Midtjylland.

–Ajeti needs to show something soon. Bolingoli, no. Greg Taylor, doesn’t learn. Edouard, what’s the point? I thought McGregor, Turnbull, and Welsh were good, thats it. Nothing to do with the manager, thrown in at the deep end.

–Said it the other night , we are in for a bumpy ride this season with this group of players , but I really hope the fans stick by the players , anything less and these young boys could fall apart .

–Feel sorry for Turnbull and Mcgregor the amount of garbage round about them throughout our squad is unbelievable. It is going to be one long fucking season Cannot believe the fall from the club should never have been allowed to let the squad get any were near this bad.

–Performance as expected given the team. Nowhere near ready for CL football or competitive football in any form. Board’s failure to secure a manager in a workable timescale going to see early season problems. All avoidable.

-(Chris Sutton) Bright points for Celtic Montgomery looked good first half. McGregor excellent as was Turnbull. Abada looks like he could be a handful. Need Edouard Tuesday. So much work to do for Ange.

–You have to go back a very long way to match a Celtic defence as bad as this on paper if not in actuality. Utter, utter mince.

Teams

Celtic:
Barkas, Taylor, Ajeti, Turnbull, Urhoghide, Shaw, McGregor, Montgomery, Ralston, Welsh, Moffat.
Subs: Bain, Abada, Rogic, Edouar, Bolingoli, Afolabi, O’Connor, Coffey, Robertson, Murray, Henderson,
Hjelde [unused].

Barkas (Bain 46); Ralston (O’Connor 73), Urhoghide (Murray 46), Welsh (Hjelde 61), Taylor (Bolingoli 61); Shaw (Rogic 61), McGregor (Coffey 73); Moffat (Henderson 46), Turnbull (Rogic 61), Montgomery (Abada 61); Ajeti (Edouard 61).

PNE

Rudd; Storey (Bauer 61), Lindsay (Riis 61), Hughes (Rafferty 61); Barkhuizen (Seary 76), Whiteman, Ledson, Potts (van den Berg 61), Cunningham (Brown 61); Sinclair (Earl 61), Evans (Maguire 61).

Goals:Whiteman 64pen
Assists:

Ref: Kevin Clancy
Att: none – covid

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Celts pay the penalty as Preston win pre-season clash

By Paul Cuddihy, Celtic View Editor

Shttps://www.celticfc.com/news/2021/july/Celts-pay-the-penalty-as-Preston-win-pre-season-clash/

Pre-season friendly

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Celtic Park, Glasgow

CELTIC… 0

PRESTON NORTH END… 1

(Whiteman 64pen)

A Ben Whiteman penalty just after the hour mark was enough to give Preston North End a 1-0 victory in their pre-season clash with Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side at Paradise. It was a soft award by referee, Kevin Clancy, but the Preston player converted the effort beyond Scott Bain.

In a first-half of few chances, it was Vasilis Barkas who kept the visitors at bay with two superb saves early in the game, including one from former Celt, Scott Sinclair, who had received a warm welcome from the 2,000 Celtic supporters in the stadium.

At the other end, it was David Turnbull who came closest for Ange Postecoglou’s side. His first effort from the edge of the box went just wide of Declan Rudd’s right-hand post, while just after the half-hour mark, he had a shot on target which the Preston goalkeeper saved with his foot.

In between those two efforts, Liam Shaw, playing in the midfield three alongside Turnbull and captain, Callum McGregor, fired a right-foot shot from 25 yards that went wide.

And just before the break, Adam Montgomery and Greg Taylor combined well down the left-hand side, with the latter rolling the ball into the path of Anthony Ralston, but his effort went high and wide.

Ange Postecoglou made a number of changes at the break, most notably replacing Barkas with Scott Bain, while there were further substitutions at the hour mark, with Liel Abada coming on for his first appearance in the Hoops.

But just four minutes after that, the visitors were awarded a penalty when Sean Maguire went down in the box under little pressure. The referee pointed to the spot and Whiteman duly slotted the ball home.

Preston had a chance to extend their lead soon after, but Patrick Bauer’s header was comfortably saved while, at the other end, Dane Murray connected with Ewan Henderson’s free-kick, but couldn’t direct his header on target.

Liel Abada went even closer on 74 minutes, firing a right-foot shot on target from 16 yards, but it was well saved by the Preston goalkeeper, denying the Israeli internationalist a dream debut goal.

With two minutes remaining, Declan Rudd produced another superb stop, this time to deny Henderson, whose curling effort from the edge of the ‘D’ looked destined for the top corner of the net.

CELTIC: Barkas, Taylor, Ajeti, Turnbull, Urhoghide, Shaw, McGregor, Montgomery, Ralston, Welsh, Moffat.

Subs: Bain, Abada, Rogic, Edouar, Bolingoli, Afolabi, O’Connor, Coffey, Robertson, Murray, Henderson, Hjelde.

Celtic leave Ange Postecoglou with plenty to fret over after Preston performance

There will have been one fervent hope from the Celtic supporters treated to the first sighting of their team in the flesh for 16 months.

By Andrew Smith

Saturday, 17th July 2021, 8:09 pm

Preston’s Ben Whiteman sends his penalty past Scott Bain to condemn Celtic to a pre-season friendly defeat at Celtic Park. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

-https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/celtic-leave-ange-postecoglou-with-plenty-to-fret-over-after-preston-performance-3312121

That the lifeless and, largely, witless display they witnessed in the 1-0 defeat by Preston was a product of Ange Postecoglou’s side saving themselves. Saving themselves for the only Celtic Park occasion this week that truly matters, and takes the form of Tuesday’s Champions League second round qualifier against FC Midtjylland. If instead what they served up in the new Celtic manager’s first home outing was a harbinger, then frankly there will be no saving themselves against the Danes.

Evidence from friendlies always requires to be hugely caveated, of course. The make-up of the team that the Greek-Australian required to send out against the English Championship team could only have been a factor in their failure to implement the Postecoglou hallmarks. Unlike earlier encounters in this pre-season, they struggled to move the ball quickly or press with the intensity obligatory of their manager. In the first period, it led to the 55-year-old cutting an increasingly brooding figure by his technical area as he barked “pass! pass!” to his side. An XI that had a wholly patchwork look to it with injuries rendering Ismaila Soro, Mikey Johnston, Karamoko Dembele and Nir Bitton unavailable. In addition, James Forrest was not risked having returned from Covid-19 close-contact isolation, while Odsonne Edouard spent the first hour on the bench.

None of these elements entirely accounted for lame nature of Celtic efforts; the Parkead side constantly looking vulnerable against high balls – sound familiar? – and creating precious little in the first period, save for a few driving runs, and one stinging shot, from David Turnbull. New signing Liel Abada was introduced on the hour mark and he too provided a degree of attacking impetus with a flashing drive, but the afternoon would have given Postecoglou plenty to fret over ahead of Tuesday.

One positive will have been the contribution of keeper Vasilis Barkas. The Greek, forever maligned last season for failing to make saves, made a stupendous one to keep his team on terms in the opening minutes. He gave way to Scott Bain at half-time, and the Scotland international did himself no favours in bringing down Sean Maguire seconds after the attacker’s 62nd minute arrival. It allowed Benjamin Whiteman to hit the resultant penalty straight down the middle to earn his side a win.

A strange afternoon all round, the 2,000 attendance allowed for as the club welcomed back supporters for the first time since last March seemed nowhere near being met. A few rough counts suggested there may have been closer to half that number. They had little to rouse them in the sunshine. Except to acclaim Scott Sinclair as the Celtic Invincible was withdrawn, his jog from the pitch accompanied by huge roars. Nothing else over the evening warranted such acclaim.

Celtic: Barkas (Bain 46); Ralston (O’Connor 73), Urhoghide (Murray 46), Welsh (Hjelde 61), Taylor (Bolingoli 61); Shaw (Rogic 61), McGregor (Coffey 73); Moffat (Henderson 46), Turnbull (Rogic 61), Montgomery (Abada 61); Ajeti (Edouard 61).

Preston: Rudd; Storey (Bauer 61), Lindsay (Riis 61), Hughes (Rafferty 61); Barkhuizen (Seary 76), Whiteman, Ledson, Potts (van den Berg 61), Cunningham (Brown 61); Sinclair (Earl 61), Evans (Maguire 61).