Celtic get a shot of good Fortune
Wonder goal settles Fir Park thriller
Scottish football has its critics but the Motherwell v Celtic match had it all. Great goals, a missed penalty, teams coming from behind, terrible defending and awful refereeing. This is what makes Scottish football so exciting.
It may not always be technically excellent but when you have a goal like this, you can only sit back and marvel.
Marc Antoine Fortune had barely dirtied his boots after coming on as a sub but he fairly put his right foot behind the ball to send it soaring beyond John Ruddy.
Things started well for Celtic, the forward play was looking inventive and they took a deserved lead when Samaras fired the ball home after neat play. At this stage, it was looking as though the Hoops would progress but all credit to Motherwell, they came back strongly.
The passing and movement of Motherwell was effective and enjoyable to watch, with the Steelmen’s midfield able to find space at will.
Depending on your viewpoint, the two Motherwell goals were well worked or poorly defended. Artur Boruc and Gary Caldwell were culpable as Lukas Jutkiewicz back-heeled an equaliser. Worse was to follow for the Glasgow side as Glen Loovens and Andreas Hinkel were posted missing as Mark Reynolds finished cooly on the stroke of half-time.
The home fans were in jubilant mood at half-time, celebrating early with their usual repertoire of “party” songs when Celtic come to visit but within 7 minutes of the second half, Celtic were back on level terms.
There had already been a period of dominance when McGeady was fed in by Samaras and the Irish internationalist cut inside and curled a superb strike into the far corner of Ruddy’s net.
Celtic then had a period of exhilarating play, all funnelling through McGeady but wasteful finishing and good goalkeeping kept the score at 2-2. Ruddy then pulled off an excellent stop when Barry Robson missed a penalty. Even Charlie Richmond had no option but to point to the spot when Samaras was hauled down in the act of shooting.
This miss saw Celtic’s head drop and the game was looking as though it could go either. Then Tony Mowbray made the substitution that earned the Hoops all three points and saw them secure at the top of the table.
There has been a lot of talk about referees and this game was no different. Referee Charlie Richmond couldn’t help but get himself some attention by a shocking decision to blow full-time when Fortune was running through on goal. If it was Motherwell who were breaking in that situation with the scoreline as it was, Richmond would not have blown for time in that matter.
Yes, a penalty for Celtic isn’t a guarantee of any success but that doesn’t mean it is right for a referee to deny them two other stonewall penalties. It is funny how Jim Gannon didn’t make any post match remarks about the referee but Celtic fans don’t need to rally too hard about the referees as their team did just enough.
All in all though, it was a shot of good Fortune that decided the match in Celtic’s favour.
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A massive win for us and I believe a big statement of intent,a stronger defence will instil more belief in this side which we can afford to address in january.
We let Motherwell back in due to our strikers dropping deep instead of defending from the front and plugging away as we were but to be fair to the Bhoys and Tony there was a venom in the 2nd half,i had no doubts we would win even after missing the pen.
Congratulations Marc Antoine.
It has been said a few times of late but the workrate of Samaras and McDonald has been much improved of late.
Not sure if many people noted it but in the second half, whenever Motherwell had a goal kick, Crosas was moving the Celtic midfield and forward line further up the park. There was a spell where Celtic hemmed Motherwell back.
Good pressing and intelligent harassing can make a massive difference during a game.
Thought it was a great game good advert for the SPL