SUBS –
Paulo Bernardo at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
SAINT BERNARDO – N/A – Gametime at least. And at last.
Daizen Maeda at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
LORD KATSUMOTO – N/A – Looked like Daizen of old in a few incidents, i.e bewilderingly mental.
Michel-Ange Balikwisha at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
BALIKMORY – N/A – Not much shown again in the way of dynamic wing-play, though did make the tackle to instigate the fourth goal.
Arne Engels with Brendan Rodgers at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
THE TERMINATOR – N/A – Came on, took a nasty whack; not exactly his most auspicious start to a season, I’m sure.
Luke McCowan celebrates. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
HIGHLAND TOFFEE – 6/10 – Luke, a belter! Strode forward, slammed in a sweet strike, shut up the luvvies in the stand who’d been hurling abuse at him and then dropped their theatre binoculars; “You’re nothing but a glorified graffitti yob who thinks he’s Jackson Pollok, you beastly hooded warbler!”…”Your butler has eczema!”…”I say, fellow, you cre… Oh, dash. Call the chaffeur, we’re leaving.”
Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic support. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
THE NOTAPRODDYGAL – 7/10 – Would he gamble? Would he rest the starting eleven? No. More worryingly,
the starting eleven look like they’ll also line up on Wednesday. I don’t know too much about Red Star – only that they’re probably better than Dalmellington Red Star from the old Ayrshire Sunday League – and that ongoing midfield situation will afford us no grip in the game. For today, though, it sufficed and BR got his semi-final berth with minimum fuss.
MIBBERY – 2/10 – Wasn’t much Clancy Drew and cohorts were really going to manage, but an early yellow for Liam had me wondering. Fortunately they got bored and the Hoops strolled, so no harm done.
Celtic fan protest. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
OVERALL – 7/10 – Firhill for frills – sunshine, party atmosphere, hundreds of bedroom posters of Pistol Pete getting donated to the linesman’s paper mache collection and fireworks up the back from the forest elves on the hill who’d emerged to watch the game for free. On field it all went smoothly enough after an initial period of finding our feet. We took over sometime after the opening quarter and the result wasn’t ever in doubt. Difficult to assess given the quality of Thistle but you can only credit the Bhoys for going about it professionally and setting up the chance to terrify the Zombies at Hampden in the semi-final.
Sebastian Tounekti celebrates with the Celtic support at Firhill after Liam Scales makes it 2-0. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Now we go get down to business in Belgrade and really see what this squad’s made of. No more room for error. Or excuses. The season starts here…
Go Away Now
Sandman
CELTIC IN THE EIGHTIES by DAVID POTTER – STOCKS RUNNING LOW!
Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Out now on Celtic Star Books. Click on image above to order.
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