2016-09-24: Celtic 6-1 Kilmarnock, SP

Trivia

• Celtic 5pts ahead with a game in hand! +15 goal difference!
• Aberdeen move to second, beating Sevco 2-1. Excellent! Sevco are 7th.
• Champions League next week match 2 v Man City
• Little bit of history in football. Dutch player becomes first to be sent off by video referee! Will it catch on here?
• Celtic drawn in League Cup Semis with Sevco. Cue the media rubbing their hands in glee.
• Celtic and Sevco will not be asked to join the English Football League after the EFL decided against inviting “clubs from non-English leagues” in their new structure.
• Kano Foundation pass the 5000 mark for number of children they have helped to bring to Celtic matches. Much respect to them.
• What a goal from Souleyman Coulibaly for Killie at Celtic. Must have been 40 yards, right over De Vries' head. Thunderbolt.
• Embarrassment for De Vries who after the Killie goal was subbed off at half-time for Gordon. Rare for a goalkeeper substitution. Officially De Vries got an injury, the rest of us are unconvinced. De Vries overall has had a poor start at Celtic with no clean sheets.
• Scott Sinclair overall record at Celtic: 11 appearances, 9 starts, 7 goals, 3 assists. 866 minutes played. Six goals in six SP games. Excellent.
• After 15 competitive games under Brendan Rodgers, there has been an average of 4.3 goals per match involving Celtic.
• Moussa Dembélé has averaged 1 goal every 95 minutes played for Celtic in all competitions.
  14 retweets 49 likes
• Chris Sutton rips apart ex-Hun apologist Derick Johnstone on Radio Clyde, very much worth hunting down the 5-10 min spat. On Johstone "He’s an apologist, he’s a charlatan, he’s a Rangers puppet, he’s a cheerleader, that’s what he is."

Review

(Tim W of KDS)
Excellent response after huffing and puffing and going down a goal. By the end of the game players were tripping over each other in the box to put one in and it probably could have been seven or more except for Griffiths, Rogic, Brown, Tierney, Lustig, Forrest and Roberts all getting in each other's road.

A superior performance against some very iffy opposition, but can't take anything away from the passing and moving game we were playing.

As for the Killie wonder strike and DeVries, it was a hell of a goal and DeVries was off his line. He won't be the first keeper or the last to be caught out like that, and it's a bit unfair, but he just can't afford to be shown up like that right now. Start Gordon on Wednesday, let him hoof the ball into touch all game and hope he saves one or two for us.

I miss having exceptional goalkeepers.

(Kelle bhoy of KDS)
Killie manager Lee Clark seems a realistic type:

"We got blown away in the second half. It was men against boys in every aspect but we have got to to learn from it.

"We could have done more but we came up against a class act."

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Celtic 6 – 1 Kilmarnock: Moussa Dembele at double for Celtic

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/celtic-6-1-kilmarnock-moussa-dembele-at-double-for-celtic-1-4239386

Moussa Dembele struck a double as rampant Celtic came from behind to sweep Kilmarnock away 6-1 in a one-sided Ladbrokes Premiership encounter at Parkhead.

Souleymane Coulibaly fired Killie ahead against the run of play in the 33rd minute with a wondrous strike from around 40 years, but two goals in three minutes from 20-year-old Dembele saw the home side ahead.

Substitute keeper Craig Gordon replaced Dorus de Vries for the second half – the keeper was suffering from a chest strain – before goals from James Forrest, Leigh Griffiths, Scott Sinclair (penalty) and Tom Rogic stretched Celtic’s lead at the top of the table over Hearts to five points with a game in hand.

It was a perfect confidence-boost for the home side who will host Manchester City in their second Champions League Group C match on Wednesday, looking to make amends after losing 7-0 at Barcelona in their opener.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers made changes again as De Vries came back in for Gordon with veteran defender Kolo Toure replaced by Erik Sviatchenko.

Forward Sinclair came back into the side as did midfielder Nir Bitton, while Griffiths started on the bench after missing four games with hamstring and calf injuries.

Kilmarnock boss Lee Clark was without injured captain Steven Smith but Greg Taylor returned from suspension to take his place at left-back.

As early as the fifth minute Killie defenders were throwing themselves in front of Celtic shots on goal.

In addition, Dembele (twice), Sinclair, skipper Scott Brown and Forrest all cleared the bar with efforts.

Clark’s side could not get out of their own half.

However, just after the half-hour mark Coulibaly drew gasps of shock from the home fans and cheers from the travelling support when he took a pass from Gary Dicker, turned inside Brown and aimed a missile at the goal which beat De Vries and dipped under the bar.

That unlikely lead only lasted a couple of minutes, though, before Dembele swept a Mikael Lustig pass past keeper Jamie MacDonald from 10 yards.

The former Fulham player then did the same in the 38th minute, this time from a Tierney cut-back, to put Celtic ahead.

It was no more than the champions deserved.

Gordon replaced De Vries for the second half while moments later Kilmarnock substitute Charlee Adams came on for the injured Dean Hawkshaw.

Celtic increased their lead in the 52nd minute when Forrest combined with Rogic before stabbing the ball past MacDonald from 12 yards.

Griffiths came on for Dembele in the 65th minute and scored a couple of minutes later with a close-range header when Jozo Simunovic helped on a Sinclair corner.

Celtic were relentless. When Griffiths was fouled inside the box by Greg Taylor in the 72nd minute, the Scotland striker handed Sinclair the ball, allowing him to score in a sixth consecutive league game since the start of the season, by sending MacDonald the wrong way with the penalty.

Rodgers’ side missed several more chances before MacDonald gifted Rogic the sixth when he let the midfielder’s low effort from the edge of the box escape over his hands.

It was impressive stuff from the league leaders but Rodgers will know that Manchester City will undoubtedly provide a tougher test in midweek.

BBC

By Tom English

BBC Scotland at Celtic Park

From the section Football

Moussa Dembele celebrates his first goal for Celtic
Dembele has now scored six goals in his last five games, and 10 this season

Moussa Dembele's brace helped Celtic thrash Kilmarnock to extend their Premiership lead to five points.

Killie striker Souleymane Coulibaly opened the scoring with a sensational 35-yard strike from the left touchline.

But Dembele side-footed home Mikael Lustig's pass and then swept in Kieran Tierney's cut-back in short order.

James Forrest slotted the third, Leigh Griffiths claimed the fourth, Scott Sinclair dispatched a penalty before Tom Rogic added a sixth late on.
Coulibaly stuns Celtic

Celtic were camped in the Killie half before Coulibaly suckered them.

The Ivorian striker tried his luck from about 35 yards out, his ambitious effort arcing over Dorus De Vries' head and into the back of his net.

Credit Coulibaly for having the vision to try it and the accuracy to pull it off – some of his goals this season have been truly wonderful – but De Vries was desperately slack.

The Dutchman was replaced at the break, Craig Gordon coming on.

A chest injury did for De Vries, but his reputation as a goalkeeper of substance took another hit here.
Dembele steps up – again

Celtic's response to Coulibaly's opener was thunderous. Six more goals to add to the goal mountain they are constructing in domestic football this season.

Where previously Killie were denying them by throwing their bodies in front of every shot, Celtic soon became lethal.

Three minutes after Coulibaly's goal, Lustig found Dembele, who slid home the equaliser. Three minutes after that, Kieran Tierney provided the assist, Dembele rifling a left-foot shot high beyond Jamie MacDonald.

That was Dembele's 10th goal of the season in what was only his seventh start, and his sixth goal in his last five games.

The question for Brendan Rodgers now is who starts against Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday – the free-scoring youngster or the previous go-to man, Leigh Griffiths, who returned from injury here as a second-half substitute for Dembele.
Dorus de Vries watches Souleymane Coulibaly's strike go past him
Brendam Rodgers has selection questions up front and at goalkeeper after Dorus de Vries was beaten by Souleymane Coulibaly's strike
Celtic turn on after-burners

Killie were toiling at 3-1 after James Forrest strolled in to score the third from close range early in the second half.

They could have done without the sight of Griffiths coming on as a substitute. He looked sharp and hungry and within a few minutes of appearing, he popped up to flick on Jozo Simunovic's header to score his eighth of the season.

The fifth came soon enough. Griffiths was tripped in the box by Greg Taylor and the striker generously handed the ball to Sinclair to put away his sixth goal in six straight league matches.

What a devastating impact Sinclair has had in his early months in Scotland.

There was a sixth, a dribbler from Rogic that eluded MacDonald.

By then, Coulibaly's wonder strike seemed like a distant memory. It was blown into irrelevance by another unrelenting Celtic league performance.