Last week The Celtic Star announced that this site would be publishing INVINCIBLE, the debut published book from Celtic writer Matt Corr.
And Celtic’s stateside blogger Larry Cafiero also interviewed the INVINCIBLE author and regular contributor to The Celtic Star, ahead of his eagerly anticipated debut in print.
That interview offers a wonderful insight into the man behind the story. You can read the interview on Larry’s top notch blog ‘In the Heat of Felton’.
INVINCIBLE will be published early next month and you can order your signed copy now – see below. For all of us in lying low behind closed doors, Matt has kindly agreed to allow The Celtic Star readers an advance peak as to what you can expect from this look into Celtic’s unbeaten season of 2016/17.
So he’s an extract from what is a fantastic account of a rich period in Celtic’s modern history.
In this extract Matt writes about Celtic’s opening league match of the 2016-17 season at Tynecastle against Hearts and the dramatic arrival from the substitutes bench of a Celtic hero in the making, Scotty Sinclair.
In the midst of the qualification process for the Champions League, Brendan Rodgers had faced his first domestic challenges as manager of Celtic. The quest for six-in-a-row began in Edinburgh, the opening League fixture seeing the Hoops travel to Tynecastle, on Sunday, 7 August 2016, four days after Moussa Dembele’s late winner against Astana.
The big French striker came in to replace the injured Patrick Roberts, partnering Leigh Griffiths up top as Rodgers went with a 4-4-2 formation. Kolo Toure made his first start, beside Eoghan O’Connell.
The previous day, Brendan Rodgers had finally got his man, Scott Sinclair signing in a £3.5m transfer from Aston Villa. It had been a whirlwind 24-hours for the 27-year-old Bath-born winger, having undergone a medical before putting pen to paper on a four-year contract. Scott had previously worked under Brendan Rodgers at both Chelsea and Swansea, the latter spell seeing him top-scoring as the Welsh side secured a place in the English Premier League five years earlier and where Sinclair felt he had:
‘Played my best football’.
‘It feels amazing to have joined Celtic. It’s a massive club and I’m happy to be here. I can’t wait to get on the pitch. When I went back to Aston Villa for pre-season, I heard Celtic were interested and I just knew I had to come here. I had to look at this move and I thought it would be great for me. And because I know the manager and I know what to expect, hopefully, I can get off to a flying start. ‘
A happy Rodgers returned the implied compliment:
‘I had him in at Chelsea when he was 16 years of age. I know him probably as well as anyone and I know his qualities. ’Scott would start on the bench but there was a notable debut in the Hearts line-up, Tony Watt, dining out forever on THAT GOAL against Barcelona almost four years earlier, hoping that he would find that elusive consistency with Robbie Neilson’s side. I did too. Just not today, Tony.
Celts were on the front foot from the kick-off in front of 17,000 in the noisy cauldron of Tynecastle. And they struck first after only eight minutes, Callum McGregor’s run blocked by a defender, perhaps illegally but the ball falling kindly for James Forrest, who curled delightful left-foot shot past Hamilton in the home goal for 1-0.
Replays would suggest that the lurking Stuart Armstrong was interfering with the keeper’s line of sight from an offside position. I would be claiming it. It was a real let-off for Celtic.
Midway through the first-half, there were two incredible missed chances at each end within a minute. First Tony Watt rose to meet a cross from the right which had taken out Craig Gordon, only to head wide of the open goal. Then a long ball beat the leap of John Souttar to send Leigh Griffiths through with only the goalkeeper to beat, his left-foot lob doing just that but drifting inches wide of the post.
Ten minutes before the interval came the major talking point of the match, Jamie Walker spun then fell to the ground at the edge of the box, with Kieran Tierney in close proximity but having made no contact.
To the horror of the Celtic players and support behind that goal, referee John Beaton pointed to the spot. A calamitous decision. Nevertheless, Walker picked himself up and calmly slotted the ball home, with Gordon choosing the wrong corner. The postscript to this incident is that Walker was given a two-match ban for simulation, however, as in all of these cases, the goal stood and the suspension would be of no benefit whatsoever to Celtic.
The final chance fell our way, Moussa Dembele’s shot blocked but Leigh Griffiths first to react, his shot beating the keeper before being acrobatically cleared on the line by Igor Rossi. His timely intervention saw that the teams went in level at 1-1 at the break.
With an hour on the clock, Rodgers made a game-changing substitution, Scott Sinclair replacing Stuart Armstrong, a second change following within ten minutes, Tom Rogic coming on for Eoghan O’Connell as the Celtic manager moved to a back three.
With ten minutes to play, Hearts were enjoying decent possession and had forced a corner. One minute later, it was 2-1 Celts, a lightning break from defence owing much to the pace and control of Leigh Griffiths, leaving two home defenders for dead down the left flank before pitching a wonderful low cross into the box. Scott Sinclair had burst a gut to match the striker’s run through the centre, timing his own entry into the box to perfection to meet the ball first-time with his left-foot to slide it past Jack Hamilton for what would prove to be the winner.
As dream debuts and impacts go this was huge, the Hoops fans behind the goal engulfing their new hero. A Celtic Star was born at Tynecastle that day, as the march towards the six began with a win.
Matt Corr
Extract from his new Celtic book INVINCIBLE. It’s beautiful, magical wonderful….
If that’s whetted your appetite for more then I’m not surprised. You can pre-order ‘Invincible’ now on The Celtic Star Bookstore. We’ll also be back with some more extracts for The Celtic Star readers in the days and weeks ahead.
In the meantime here’s the highlights of the day super-sub Scotty Sinclair humbled the Hearts.
As always please look out for each other and keep safe.
Niall J
INVINCIBLE by Matt Corr
The Celtic Star’s very own Matt Corr – who you may also know as a Tour Guide at Celtic Park – publishes his first Celtic book, titled INVINCIBLE – early next month. This beautiful hardback book will be the definitive story of Celtic’s magical2016-17 season – it truly is wonderful, a real joy to read, and brilliantly written by Matt.
If you have been reading Matt’s regular contributions on The Celtic Star or indeed in the Matchday Programme or in the Celtic View you will know just how talented a Celtic writer he is. The book is published by The Celtic Star and you can pre-order below.
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