SUBS:
MORGAN FREEMAN JR. – 6/10
Manager’s pet finally manages to stake a claim for inclusion in the squad ahead of former hunter-killer hero turned gardening-leave mystery, Sincy. With his dad’s dulcet tones ringing in his ears, ‘A man must learn to use his head over his fists, Andy,’from the Shawshank Redemption, young Lewis planked in his first hooped hit with his nut. Contribution one! Will there be more?
RALSTON – 5.5/10
Nnnnot Ggggrrreat, Tony the Tiger. Another big chance looks like it has slipped him by – this time a near full 90 replacing the historically-protesting Viking. He huffed and puffed, played with his head down too much.
Was in a coma at the start of the second-half when he got caught napping. Never looked comfortable. Because he can’t quite make the step-up/ever will? Or because he senses his days are numbered after we signed the guy who makes men’s rechargeable cordless shavers?
SON OF A GUN – 6.5/10
Well, on comes the Black Mamba to see out some time…
Or DOES he? – firstly, pokes one of their players in the gut as he trots onto the pitch past him to take up position; cue much hilarity and an inkling that this former write-off might be a person of interest indeed.
Then uses nous to win a foul in his own six-yard box as they looked dangerous, THEN he snaps a strike out of his feet with little backlift that elicits a fine save from their moon-heided goaltender.
This one needs some watching.
LENNONY – 6.5/10
So he gambled and set us up like it was an SPFL side away; left a Muthu****a on the bench who I thought would be a cert to start. Worked not totally to counter-strike plan, but with flair and luck his dice-roll came off; The flipside of the Cluj coin.
Rocky moments but Lennony MUST take credit for 4 goals at a venue tricky enough to be not one on anybody’s qualifier wish-list.; Got us into the groups, remit achieved after Champions League disaster.
But at what cost? Eddy limping off with the Nasty-Nasties awaiting us on Sunday (he’s okay – Ed). Why on earth was our golden gun still on the park with the tie won and having run himself into the 4G?
Nagging doubts that Lennony’s afflicted by a lack of clarity when idiots like me can slur through my fifth pint about Griffiths humping some Scandinavian blonde in a hospitality box when he should have been running around their back four at the relief of our French lightning-in-a-bottle. Frustrating,
angst-inducing end to a fine win.
OVERALL – 6.5/10
So the Bhoys rock up to Stockholm to stock-up on porn (that’s why they call it ‘Stock’-holm) for the winter and find themselves challenged to a game of soccer by some fiesty locals.
Out to AEK last year, this season we faced a less popular middle vowel in AIK. Would another team conceived of alphabetty spaghetti jinx us again?
4 goals, you say? Well, nice… though we looked sloppy and at times, gifted the ball away criminally. A better side may have punished us severely.
However, we survived, mainly as they had no answer to our flair when we got at them. To the Bhoys credit we did not wilt. Retaining decent possession was a problem, but when we did strike it was timeous and crippling to their hopes.
We matched them for competitiveness and overcame their brutal doggedness. We won and we go on to some moderately exciting times, with any luck.
So we’ll take it, this Euro League or UEFA cup or whatever they fecking call it now. We’ll take their group stages with a sigh and some optimism and quickly dismiss what might have been like a knock-back from the hot one at the disco as we jump in the taxi with a sure thing. (see what I did there, fans of non-specific gender identification equality?).
Go Away Now.
Sandman, on it til Sunday night.
Also on The Celtic Star….
Europa League Completed Pots – teams we’d like Celtic to play and sides we’d like to avoid….see HERE.
Lennon deserves praise for the way Celtic dealt with AIK Stockholm reckons David Potter…see HERE.
AIK 1 Celtic 4 – Crowd Trouble on the Day We Win Away…see HERE.
