Celtic travel to Fir Park to face Motherwell this afternoon. The Scottish Champions will be hoping that their impressive away record this season continues at yet another tricky away venue. Stuart Kettlewell has his side playing well and they were unlucky in their last two outings, narrowly losing to St Mirren and Rangers.
Brendan Rodgers will be looking to put pressure on both by picking up three points on the road and will be boosted by the news confirmed over the past few hours that Matt O’Riley has joined Reo Hatate in signing new long term deals with the club,
Team News
The major absence of Celtic this afternoon is Joe Hart. The Celtic No.1 was sent off at the Tony Macaroni. This means that the manager needs to decide whether he goes with Benjamin Siegrist or Scott Bain, the latter has been on the bench on each occasion this season and is mostly likely to start today.
In defence, Nat Phillips is back in contention. You would imagine that the Liverpool loanee would come in as the manager looks to get the Englishman up to speed for the game against Lazio. That means he’ll likely start with Liam Scales, with Greg Taylor and Alistair Johnston in the full back berths.
Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley, with signed new deals ahead of today’s match, expect them to start beside Callum McGregor in the Celtic midfield.
Kyogo will start through the middle with Daizen Maeda on the left. The question remains as to who starts on the right. James Forrest started in Livi but was forced off to make way for Scott Bain in the first half. The manager may give him a run out on this basis. However, with Lazio coming up, he may want to see Luis Palma or Yang again.
Predicted Team
Bain, Johnston, Phillips, Scales, Taylor, McGregor, O’Riley, Hatate, Yang, Kyogo and Maeda.
Match Officials
Willie Collum will be joined by Graeme Stewart and Chris Rae, who will operate as his Assistant Referees. Duncan Williams is on 4th Official duties whilst at Clydesdale House, Grant Irvine is on VAR duties with David Roome assisting. What could possibly go wrong with this lot?
Kick Off Time
The game kicks off at 12:30pm (Celtic Park Time) after the match was shifted on Motherwell’s request so that they could sell PPV mostly to the Celtic support. Details on where to buy the PPV (£15) below…
Where to Watch
The game was not picked up by Sky Sports and is only available to supporters via Motherwell PPV, with access costing £15. Celtic TV subscribers outside Britain and Ireland will be able to watch the game on the club’s streaming platform.
We mentioned yesterday while covering Brendan’s first visit to Fir Park as Celtic manager in December 2016, that we used to get the end section of the main stand at Fir Park, see the photograph below…
If there are empty seats at Fir Park today in the three home ends, surely it would make sense for them to return to that arrangement for future matches between the teams at their home ground?
Last Time Celtic Where There
This happened…
Last time at Fir Park. pic.twitter.com/jNGqYr2tyM
— Li’l Ze (@LilZe_7) September 29, 2023
Predicted scoreline – Motherwell 0-2 Celtic
COYBIG
🟢 #CelticFC Matchday! ⚪
🆚 Motherwell
🏆 #cinchPrem
⌚ 12:30
🏟️ Fir Park
💻 Live on @CelticTV (exc. UK & IRE)#MOTCEL | #COYBIG🍀 pic.twitter.com/JqTxOBTKYj— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 30, 2023
READ THIS…Matt O’Riley puts pen to paper in new 4 year Celtic deal
Meanwhile Thursday 19 October is going to be a very special day for The Celtic Star so please save the date…
