Robbie Keane and his Celtic supporting cast push on
Keane for the Cup as Celts head to Hampden
Cup ties are meant to be blood and thunder but perhaps the 12:15 kick-off made this a slightly tepid affair. Certainly, not much of a crowd could be roused along to Rugby Park to see if Killie could repeat their February win over Celtic.
Truth be told, the best chance of the first half fell to Celtic but Killie were the team pressing more and the Ayrshire fans will no doubt moan about the scoreless situation on 45 minutes. Much like Tuesday night against Rangers, Killie couldn’t put in 90 minutes of work and endeavour to take something from the game.
It was looking as though the game was up for grabs when Tony Mowbray made another double substitution in the hope of changing the game. He has played that card a few times this season and at times it has been baffling.
You could tell from the reaction of players like Aiden McGeady, the communication was being clearly delivered to the players affected by the switch.
No doubt some will say Celtic got a bit of luck with their opening goal but given the season they’ve had, the hoops fans will be thinking it was overdue. A long ball from the back caught the Killie defence and goalkeeper off guard and Robbie Keane nipped in and in a smooth movement rounded Bell and tapped the ball home to give Celtic the lead.
The second Celtic goal owed a lot Georgios Samaras. The forward, was playing in what appeared to be more of a 4-3-3 than the wide right position he has been placed and it was on the touchline he did the damage. A slack ball appeared to be going nowhere but for a shy but the Greek striker never gave up and won back possession and fed Marc Antoine Fortune.
He was able to play the ball to Keane whose movement found him unmarked 2 yards from goal.
2-0 Celtic and Keane made sure that the Celtic fans applauded the work of Samaras in winning possession.
This killed the tie but a Celtic break with Fortune again the provider allowed Keane to sweep the ball home for his first Celtic hat-trick. The last six goals that Celtic have scored have all been scored by the loan-signing goal man.
There were two nasty incidents during the game which will no doubt be the talk of the papers and phone-ins for the next few days. We’ll be honest, without having seen the TV replays, we’ll keep quiet over the incidents but feel free to batter in with the comments about it.
The video review panel seems set to review an alleged elbow by Morten Rasmussen, even though they have been happy to ignore blatant elbows this season and there is a lot of unhappiness about an alleged stamp by Clancy on the Danish striker.
We know we’re playing the ‘Have I Got News For You’ card with the “alleged” word but until we check the highlights of the incidents, best to (act) dumb!
So, Celtic are Hampden bound – can they lift the Cup?
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No doubt that Clancy ‘done’ Rasmussen on the touchline, a horrible stamp on the knee area that could have done the boy some serious damage, fortunately for both, Rasmussen seemed to be ok after it. It should’ve been a red card, but the ref’s position meant that it looked like a 50/50 challenge, had he a proper view, Clancy would have been in an early bath.
The elbow from Rasmussen was equally shocking and left the Kilmarnock player with a cut eye, he is a lucky boy that it wasn’t picked up by the referee or his assistants as he would surely have seen red too.
Now for the trial by TV……..
In my opinion, both players should now face retrospective punishment for their reckless actions, however I’m sure that only Rasmussen can because no action was taken at the time? I may be wrong, but I’m sure that’s what the review panel is set up for, incidents that the ref missed?