Cometh the hour, Cometh the man, well played Jamsie Forrest…
Before the Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen yesterday I considered the attributes of the three Celtic wingers in contention for a start on the left hand side of the Celtic attack given that Daizen Maeda would be sitting in the Hampden stands.
I argued for an unlikely inclusion of James Forrest in the team while Lubo98 in his excellent preview reckoned that Luis Palma would start. Both of us reckoned that after Yang’s poor showing against St Mirren last weekend, he’s drop to the bench.
But Brendan kept the faith with the Korean winger but was yet again left as frustrated as the rest of us. Luis Palma also got some game time but again it didn’t click for the Honduran whereas Jamesy Forrest sparkled, scored and then was sacrificed as Celtic tried in vain to hold onto a lead late in extra time.
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But of the three wingers he clearly had the biggest positive outcome on Celtic’s afternoon at Hampden.
Yesterday’s game had plenty of individual heroes. Joe Hart for his heroics in the shoot out, and all the players who stood up and took one under considerable pressure. Nicolas Kuhn and Matt O’Riley for their goals, and of course the other goal scorer, the man for the big Hampden occasion James Forrest.
We were toiling when Brendan introduced the veteran winger for the ineffective Yang. In fact James done more in his first sixty seconds on the pitch than the South Korean had contributed in the previous 60 minutes he was on the park.
Firstly he worked the Aberdeen defence before aiming a shot on goal, he was unsuccessful, but just under a minute later he had the same opportunity and took it by firing home a trademark finish from outside the box to put us into the lead for the first time in the game.
That’s Jamsie Forrest in a nutshell, a man for the big moments in a Celtic shirt. In his 14 years as a first team player he’s produced moments of magic in the big games. He’s done it in derby games, in Europe, and like yesterday, big cup games at the national stadium.
His experience and ability are crucial to us, and I wrote yesterday about James and how he could prove vital to us in a game as big as yesterday, and so it proved.
James might be nearing the end of his career with his best days behind him, but yesterday was further proof that he still has a lot to contribute to our success this season.
Brendan knows that he can’t get 90 minutes from Jamesy these days but he’s a brilliant Bhoy to bring off the bench especially when we need a goal. Joe Hart got a “Super Joe Hart” chant at Hampden yesterday, it would be only fair for James Forrest to hear our entire support chant “There’s only one James Forrest” before he hangs up his boots.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
