Neil Lennon was satisfied with Celtic’s 2-1 win over Ross County.
In-between two crucial Champions League qualifiers with Elfsborg the hoops raised the league flag and picked up a hard fought three points against Derek Adams side.
Georgios Samaras and Kelvin Wilson missed the match through injury with new bhoy Derk Boerrigter picking up a knock on his debut.
With Gary Hooper transferred to Norwich Anthony Stokes took the opportunity to prove his worth with two good strikers goals- the first a close range tap in with the winner a well-engineered opportunity with just three minutes left to play.
Looking back on the match Lennon admitted: “We were dozy at the start and should have defended the corner better. It was a great strike from their player and Fraser Forster was beaten by sheer power.
“But we were then terrific and played with zest and pace. We could have racked up a really big score. We had great movement and build-up play. That’s the best we’ve played since we returned for pre-season.
“Anthony Stokes was there again for us. As a goalscorer his record is excellent and he also has some volume of assists.
“He may not get the number of goals that Gary Hooper got but if you look at his record it is one in two games in Scottish football. So he is one I wouldn’t want to go.”
Goal hero Stokes added: “I’m pleased to get off the mark. I want at least 20 goals but I won’t stop if I reach that tally or get to 25. I want to push on.”
Imo Collum has laid down the bench mark for the rest of the season. The first penalty denied was a real shocker, in yer face blatant attack on the player, with absolutely no attempt to play the ball, how any official could have the bare faced gall to deny such an assault is beyond incredible.
Operation retard Celtics progress as much as humanly possible is officially underway.
Throughout the game RC players were practical encouraged to wade into our players with impunity, with that we rat faced scumbag never even looking like showing a card until well into the second half.
Let’s hope the zombies are bust and finally out of it before one of our lads ends up with a broken leg or worse.
HH
Wouldn’t look too much into if. Our first goal could have been chopped off. Lets not focus on referees. They make mistakes against every team in every game, just look at all the other games over the weekend, decisions have went against most teams.
If we play to our ability we will win every game, even if we had Dallas, Dougie & Dougall in the middle at the same time!
Those days are gone, hopefully forever.
Yes, they make mistakes in every game – same as players do.
My problem with gollum is that his mistakes almost always favour whoever Celtics opponents happen to be.
Er, why should our first goal have been disallowed? I know it’s always a surprise when officials get something right, but even Andy Walker couldn’t find anything wrong with it!
Decisions go against most teams………as blatant as that penalty with the ref not only within 15 feet, but looking straight at it..
No Richard. This was blatant cheating from collum, working under strict orders.
How on earth do you see that the first goal could have been called back? Are you drunk?
Fair enough referees do make genuine mistakes and yes every team is affected by them at one time or another but this was not one of those occasions.
There is no valid argument to be made either by Collum or anyone else that this was anything other than a clear cut penalty and this was summed up by one particular replay which showed both an obvious barge on Stokes by the Ross County player and in the same frame showed Collum looking right at the incident with an unrestricted view.
Honest mistakes however frustrating are part and parcel of the game but this argument has been used time and time again to explain away and gloss over some ridiculous and highly questionable decisions given against Celtic. Remember this is the man who saw fit to award a penalty against Celtic in favour of their biggest league rivals when he was looking in the opposite direction.
These incidents need to be highlighted otherwise they will become more frequent, more damaging and more costly. It could be the difference between winning the league and not, which in turn would affect qualifying for the Champions league or not and costing the club millions.
With all due respect Richard it has nothing to do with the abilities of our team and all to do with refereeing decisions being above board and fair.
Hail Hail.
Collum claims he is such a fair referee that he supports TWO teams…….Sevco, and whoever’s playing Celtic…..
It was a stonewall pen.Lenny should use these incidents to hammer home to the players what playing for Celtic’s all about.
They don’t even themselves out over the season we all know that but use them to motivate the team.
well joe .the more things change around us the more they stay the same.
we need a new brief. litigate to leviate the bias judication.it worked before .with the man.(god rest him) it will work again.
no more taking it lying down .we are there league .its time we reminded them they backed the wrong horse. it ended up being put down.H:-X2
Celtic’s first goal was perfectly OK within the laws of the game, albeit a bit scrambled in but Stokes has to get full credit for being alert to the possibility of a rebound coming his way. Certainly no offside and no suggestion of any fouls or handball was mentioned. Celtic fully deserved to win, having rained shots in all evening at Mark Brown and hit the woodwork twice. Ross County parked the bus and got exactly what they deserved out of the game. Hee Haw.
How is it possible that in the first half when we had an injury, with big Derk having to be treated on the pltch before being escorted off for the remainder of the game, which saw Brown blatantly time wasting directly after the equaliser, and I too would like to know what reason there could have been to ‘chop it off’, andd RC were very much on the back foot, there was one minutes injury time, yet in the second half, that to my kknowledge passed relatively without incident, but of course RC chaing the equaliser, collum managed to pull three minutes out of thin air.
You can wait for it and if the benefit cheats manage to stay afloat and step up a league things are going to get worse.
Nothing has changed, nothing, and imho, yesterdays penalty will prove to be the tip of the iceberg.
What are the odds of Lenny being in the stands before Christmas?
How long will tbe sfa ignore the huns behaviour while putting the Celtic support under a microscope?
Nothings changed.
HH
Agree with ya 100% on all ur views mate and i think its only a matter of time before lenny gets sent to the stands,i tought we were rid of bogey refs when dallas went.hh
One league game into the new season and one honest mistake.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
I wouldn’t go overboard about the refs mistake…sure it was a pen but we should have been out of sight by then. If I was a St. Mirren fan I be highly annoyed at the decision to give a penalty for the first goal….mistakes in each & every game – some crucial – some not,
Managers & Players make many more wrong decisions than the officials – time we got on with it and put our own house in order – redouble the efforts instead of running about complaining – Celtic players missed a barrowload of clear cut chances, ref had nothing to do with that.
So if Celtic players are not playing well the ref gets to do what he wants and if they play well and if they play well and score a barrowload it doesn’t matter what the ref does?
Mmmmm
You know what, I think you’re just about bang on. From where I’m sitting that’s just about exactly how it works, I can’t see why anyone would be happy about it though.
HH