Scott Brown had the last laugh on Ross County’s Mihael Kovacevic as Celtic won 4-1 in the highlands.
The Celtic skipper lapped up the impressive win- with all four goals coming from headers- as hapless Kovacevic lost the plot.
After winning a 62nd minute tackle on Brown the former Dundee United defender raced over to shout in Brown’s face earning a yellow card from referee Kevin Clamcy as the Celtic midfielder used a hand gesture to deliver his thoughts on Kovacevic.
Clancy had his hands full keeping up with the agricultural challenges flying in on the Celtic players with Brown ensuring that Kovacevic was well aware of his joy as headers number three and four flew past Mark Brown.
At Celtic’s fourth goal Brown bent over to smile at the grounded Swiss defender earning a yellow card as Celtic cruised to victory in Dingwall.
Lennon made five changes to the side that lost 1-0 to Ajax but despite dominating possession chances were few and far between before Virgil van Dijk broke the deadlock in the 41st minutes with a well placed header from an Emilio Izaguirre cross.
Eight minutes into the second half the former Groningen defender timed his run perfectly to head home a corner from Charlie Mulgrew corner to double the visitor’s lead.
Ross County pulled a goal back through Ivan Sproul in the 68th minute but two headers from Joe Ledley in the next five minutes ensured that Celtic maintained their unbeaten start to the league campaign.
Celtic’s next match is at home to Aberdeen on November 23.
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Great win today. If we had a very good striker we would be so much stronger.
….If we had ANY kind of real striker (or even a forward who can score goals) we’d be so much stronger.
Virgil looks a top class defender to me.To say nothing of his brace of goals.!
The lesson for me from today versus Wednesday night is that more forwards doesn’t equal more goals- or more creativity. More forwards just means more people standing around doing nothing when we have to defend.
I wish we’d learned that before Wednesday.
Just heard lennon singing the praises of Pukki and Forrest today.
Really!
I didnt know Forrest was playing until he went off. That’s how memorable his performance was.
Pukki, well, yes, he touched the ball more often than he has done recently. Never really threatened there back line. Still looks to me as a player who is happy to show for the ball, lay it off then run into an area of the pitch where he wont get it back or that he doesnt want it back.
Says a lot for our team if all four goals today were scored by a defender and a midfielder.
Good to see big Virgil grab his first goals today. The big man is pure class in the making.
Also good to see Ledley grab some goals. If I have one gripe about Ledley’s game is that he does not go beyond the strikers more often. I think he shoul as he has the ability to finish things off really well.
3 pts today, cheered me up a little today after the pathetic performance in midweek.
HH.
P.s
If lenny only thinks we need a striker, then yes I agree but we could do with a creative, bossing midfielder.
I agree with most of your points as usual Tony, I think we’re all getting a bit impatient with Pukki, if he doesn’t start to producing soon he’ll find it harder to get himself back into the first team.
I was interested in your comments regarding our midfield who imo are constantly getting the ball into the last quarter were we don’t seem to have a trigger man capable of finishing,as you’ve said yourself about bif Vigil, I think that kinda backs that up.
With midfielders like Brown, Commons, Ledley, Kayal, Forrest and McGeoch with the jury still out on Biton and Rogic It’s a possition I would have thought was one of our strengths, although our defence this season is looking like it could be the best in years.
If you add to that guys like Izzy, vanDyke, Mulgrew, Lustig and Matthews, when he returns from injury after such a fantastic start to his season, all moving up and proving themselves more than capable our midfield squad looks pretty strong.
We’ve even got the young Twardzik breaking through.
It all amounts to nought if we don’t have a clinical finisher up front. Stokes would be as well playing in his slippers now that he’s signed a new contract. Hopefully Boerrigter can step up to the plate and Amido can be match ready before long. Something PL must take the the brunt of the blame for.
HH
Ps. I’m on an Android so I’m not even atempting to do a spell check
I agree with all your comments SH. You hit the nail on the head with regards to the defence. The defence is the strongest part of our team right now. Functioning well.
Probably the best we have had since MON Celtic teams. For all the stick Ambrose gets making a mistake here and there, i think he shows that he is becoming a better player every week, shows confidence with the ball and i admire that about him.
As for the forward line, big John Hartson has said it for years, Celtic should spend 6millon on signing each year, improving the quality of the squad. Exactly what we should have done for the striker position this year. Not two signings but one quality, easy made striker. I cant see Pukki becoming a goal grabber week in week out.
Balde i will give him time, but looks like player who needs more work and time to develop. Something Celtic don’t have right now..time for players to come good.
Wee side note about today’s game, i liked the look of Biton. He looks calm on the ball, likes the through ball to split a defence and i thought at times was thinking ahead of some players when moving the ball.
Be good to see Biton and Rogic with more game time.
COYBIG.
I agree with most of that, but personally I could never count Commons, Forrest, or even Samaras as midfield players. Good players that they are, they contribute nothing when we need to defend. In my opinion, playing all three of them together and calling them midfield players really weakens us- especially away from home.
I’ll never understand in a million years why Ledley, who’s a proper midfield player, wasn’t playing from the start on Wednesday. Forrest could have come on later, if we got on top, or if we needed to change things later in the game. Ajax aren’t that good, but their players wanted to win more than ours, and our team selection was wrong.
I’m just going to watch yesterdays game now so can’t comment on that yet Tony, looking forward to seeing Biton.
Efe’s defo benefited from the arrival of van Dyke, a player a few Dutch managers are still puzzled that he slipped through their fingers.
Para, I get your point re Ledley and Forrest, a young player I really think highly of but am begining to have my doubts about which makes me wonder about the training methods at CP. The answer to your conundrum though would be simple if it weren’t for bad luck (or design?).
Adam Mathews.
HH
SH
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TO EVERY DECENT TIM,
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God Bless.
Right on the money Tonybhoy. When Forrest was withdrawn I said, “oh, I thought he went off at halftime”.
Watching Pukki is painful. He is way out of his depth. There is nothing exciting about him at all. Not only is he not good enough for Celtic, I doubt he’d even be good enough for Sevco. Seriously, i think he is playing three or four divisions above his pay grade.
Get young Tony Watt back and let him learn his trade where he should be.
Scott Brown lacks class
He would’nt have done that to Dani Alves
He’s just getting sucked into the emotion of an emotional moment (i.e. losing a goal)
Keeping the faith means your methods will bring you home ……..and if it doesn’t well
we are still Celtic and that’s enough!
Hail Hail!
Lets all do the Broony, world class midfielder and a little battle axe of a man. Could fit into any team on the planet.
Pukki for me though has to go, hes a waste of a jersey offers absolute nothing.
Good win although it took some time to break them down, I think Pukki would be so much better alongside a strike partner (Balde) Great for VVD getting among the goals and delighted that Joe Ledley was released to break into the area, so good at timing his runs which few of our midfield can do.
Sorry to see Brown still has much to learn about being a Celtic player, far less a Captain….an idiotic booking. I’d have hoped he might have learned something from his stupid red card in the game v Barcelona….alas not. Works hard, fights hard and undoes all his good work with moments of utter madness like this.
A really good result on a couple of levels, firstly the pitfalls of an ECL hangover were averted.Secondly winning and at the same time highlighting how inadequate our forward line is, is a blessing. I’m sorry but if they cant score against a pretty poor Ross County defence then we really have a cheek expecting them to score against the likes of AC Milan, Ajax and Barca.
How long do we have to wait for the work in progressees to blossom???? How long do we have to wait for the so called main strikers to hit some kind of consistent form?????
We are sadly lacking the type of strikers that our club deserves. Dont get me wrong, I appreciate we cant go out and attract the 7-8 million pound bracket but surely we could attract ready made experienced stikers in the 4-6 million pound brackets otherwise what the feck are we doing letting a striker who cost us 100k go out on loan who in truth is no worse than any of the current first team strikers.
Sorry for the rant bhoys but everything isn’t rosey in the garden.
hail hail
Totally agree with you Jimbo.
As much as i think Watt will come back a better player from his loan, which will do him the power of good, we could do with him up front just now.
However i think if he was at the club just now, he would be down the pecking order. Not sure if Lenny would select him.
HH
Sorry folks . I like broony acting the ballix against oposition players we need steel in that team .yes along with creative forwards+midfielders.
But i love to see these wanna be muppets put in there place when they put themselves about the pitch like american wrestlers. Get it right up them scotty.
We need a striker. We’ve made a complete arse of the transfer market this year. Only one of the players we signed is is actually playing and producing. WE NEED A STRIKER. When pukki was interviewd before he had kicked a ball for us. He was asked if he would score a lot of goals. His reply was. It’s not just up to me to score goals everyone in the team has too help me and score goals aswell. Well that certainly has had too be the case so far. Hardly inspiring. Sorry bhoys I’m still down about Wednesday. HH.
Good victory for the bhoys on a pitch we haven’t win at I’m the league since they came in to the division. In terms if the team still gutted after last Wednesday.
Why did Lennon not spend 5-6m on really good striker e.g finnbogason instead of below par players in pukki balde n borrighter ??. Improve quality instead of increasing numbers. We have great you g players who would supplement the squad and learn n develop from top players. Sadly the current custodians of the club of OUR culture only want to buy dirt cheap and sell on expensive for large profits.
I, like many am disillusioned and questions need to asked as to where we are going. If the answer is to wait for that dead..corrupt illegal incarnation across the city to return to SPFL then our board have failed us! AGM is an opportunity to let them know we need answers.
We are I’m my opinion one of the biggest sportting institutions on the planet. Time for a new chapter in our fantastic story. Hail Hail
Pukki looks shot of confidence, maybe our system doesn’t suit him. Think its a bit premature to be showing him the door though.
Stokes wants to be the main man, but for me he’s still making the same stupid decisions that he did in his falkirk days. And to give him a 3 year deal? Ffs. Last season he was 4th choice
The team is crying out for a guy to finish the chances we make. john park has done wonders, but I’d rather take the word of a world class striker in marco van basten over the guy that gave us bangura, pukki and balde
Celtic needs a top class striker and they would be winning games with more ease,hail hail