Send at least a dozen kids to every match Celtic Park by ordering INVINCIBLE…

The Celtic Star recently offered supporters the opportunity to donate to The Kano Foundation by purchasing a copy of Matt Corr’s debut Celtic book, INVINCIBLE. The deal was straightforward. You buy a copy of the book at £19.99 via The Celtic Star’s own bookstore or Amazon, and we will donate £20 to The Kano Foundation on your behalf. Matt has also been signing each copy of INVINCIBLE and adding any personal dedications on request You receive a quality hardback Celtic book allowing you to re-live the most remarkable domestic season this century and the Kano Foundation receives £20. Job’s a good ‘un.

As always, the generosity of our fan base came to the fore. We currently sit at £580 and will be closing the offer tonight, then sending the money to Kano foundation in the morning. Just one more book sale will see us both make the magic number of £600 and solve Matt’s OCD issues! Why the magic number? Well working on the basis of £50 per Child season ticket, the £600 would see 12 kids, every week, realise the dream of visiting Celtic Park to watch the famous Hoops in action. 12 kids, marching and singing up the Celtic Way every week. How good does that sound?

INVINCIBLE covers the events of the never-to-be-forgotten season of 2016/17, where Celtic achieved the unprecedented feat of winning the domestic Scottish Treble without a single defeat. A quite astonishing record. And they did it the Celtic way, playing a brand of attacking football which blew away the opposition. The book is a blow-by-blow account of that campaign from the perspective of lifelong Celt and author Matt Corr, which frequent dips back into five decades of Matt’s memories of supporting our club.

We faced tonight’s opponents Ross County in Dingwall, twice that season. By way of a taster for both the book and the match, here is Matt’s take on Celtic’s visit to the Highlands on Wednesday, 26 October 2016 for a rare evening kick-off in the Highlands.  If you would like to order a copy of INVINCIBLE today simply click on any  image or photograph and we’ll give The Kano Foundation £20 on your behalf tomorrow.

Ross County v Celtic, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 – An extract from INVINCIBLE by Matt Corr

Three days after the League Cup semi-final victory over Rangers at Hampden, Celtic travelled to Dingwall to take on Ross County in a potentially tricky midweek League fixture. With the demanding two-games-per-week schedule now in full flow, Brendan Rodgers took the somewhat unusual – some might say risky – step of making no less than eight changes to his line-up, something normally reserved for early matches in one of the cup competitions against lower-division sides.

Out went skipper Scott Brown, Jozo Simunovic, Kieran Tierney, Nir Bitton, James Forrest, Tom Rogic, Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele, albeit the last-named quartet were on the bench, to be brought on should the need arise. There were starting slots for full-backs Cristian Gamboa and Emilio Izaguirre, midfielders Stuart Armstrong, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Liam Henderson and Patrick Roberts plus Leigh Griffiths. Captain for the evening, Mikael Lustig, moved into central defence to partner Erik Sviatchenko.

The home side contained three players who had spent time in the Parkhead youth system, goalkeeper Scott Fox, defender Marcus Fraser and winger Michael Gardyne. They also featured Belfast-born Liam Boyce in attack. The former Cliftonville striker had gone on trial with Celtic in 2010 before spending the following season with Werder Bremen. On his return to Solitude, he scored 29 League goals as the North Belfast side won their first title in 15 years, securing entry into the 2013/14 Champions League.

The dream tie then came out of UEFA’s hat as Boyce and co faced Celtic in the second qualifying round, definitely one of the more enjoyable European trips over the past decade. Despite a 5-0 aggregate defeat by Celts ending their European dream, Cliftonville would go on to retain their domestic crown, with Boyce’s performances against the Hoops plus another 21 domestic goals earning him a move to top-flight Scottish football with Ross County in June 2014.

He would hit four goals en route to the Dingwall club’s first-ever major honour, the 2015/16 Scottish League Cup, Celtic their semi-final victims, before going on to become top scorer in the Premiership in this current season with a further 23 strikes, a tremendous achievement for a player plying his trade with a so-called “provincial club”.

Rodgers’ gamble appeared to have paid off handsomely as his revamped side started well, Armstrong winning the ball in midfield to set Roberts off on one of his mazy runs, the winger dragging the ball across the edge of the box before placing his low curling shot beyond Fox and inside the far post. Both sides made and passed up opportunities as the first half progressed, both Boyce and Gardyne going close whilst Fox saved well from Griffiths.

Despite Celtic’s domination of the possession, as the hour-mark approached it was the hosts who looked the most likely to score, Andrew Davies’ header beating Craig Gordon before rebounding off the far post into his arms, whilst the Hoops keeper escaped a second red card in the space of a few weeks after bringing down Boyce outside the box. As with his challenge in the League Cup tie with Alloa, a yellow card was deemed sufficient by referee, Alan Muir.

On had come the Celtic cavalry, Dembele and Sinclair, replacing Christie and Henderson, and with seven minutes remaining, the Bhoys finally scored the second goal. Roberts was again involved, setting up Armstrong at the edge of the box for the blond midfielder to send a beautifully-disguised shot across Fox into the far corner.

With the home spirit broken, Celtic went for the jugular, Sinclair missing a glorious opportunity before reacting first to Roberts’ deflected drive to lash the ball high past the County keeper in the first minute of stoppage time.

There was more punishment to come, man-of-the-match Roberts again producing some magic on the far byline before squaring for the unmarked Dembele to get his name on the scoresheet. Even the most fervent Celt would probably concede that 4-0 was a cruel outcome, given how much Ross County had contributed to an entertaining match, however, Celtic’s ruthless finishing in those closing stages had earned the victory, stretching the Hoops lead at the top of the table to seven points, following Aberdeen’s surprise defeat at Douglas Park, Hamilton the previous evening. It had been a good night’s work for those of a Celtic persuasion.

Not surprisingly, Ross County boss Jim McIntyre was less than impressed with the decision to allow the Celtic goalkeeper to remain on the field when his side trailed only 1-0.

“I think it’s high, it’s reckless. If it’s an outfield player, he might be going off the park. It’s the second time he’s dodged a bullet against us. He had one last year at Parkhead on Jackson Irvine.”

However, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers disagreed.

“He’s jumped and mistimed it. The ball’s going away from the goal. It was a good decision by the referee.”

McIntyre was happier with his team’s performance.

“We were well in the game. We made good opportunities to score. Celtic have shown how clinical they can be. We’ve certainly done a lot of things right on the night. The players were excellent. We got off to the worst possible start but the reaction to that start was excellent from us. The players were brave. We were far more like ourselves. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve created so many chances. That level of performance and intensity, if we can produce that on a more regular basis, which I know we can, then the players should take real belief from that.”

Whilst Rodgers had every reason to be happy with the eventual outcome.

“It was a great victory. It was a very tough game for us. Ross County are one of the best teams we’ve played. Our attacking play was very strong. Defensively we were excellent as well. Give credit to Ross County because they made it very difficult. Good teams start quick and finish strong, and we did. We had a real good start to the game. Again, our fitness comes into the game. Our physicality, the intensity and tempo obviously gets us the goals late on. We still need to improve but I’m pleased with the mentality of the players. We showed that collective hunger within the team and we’ve just got to keep pushing.”

Matt Corr

ORDER YOUR COPY OF INVINCIBLE AND WE’LL DONATE THE MONEY TO THE KANO FOUNDATION TOMORROW MORNING!