Jonnyboy
06-02-2019, 11:50 PM
Heading through to Glasgow I anticipated a tough match and unsurprisingly, I witnessed one. This was a Hibs team devoid of confidence, lacking in organisation and desperately in need of a new manager coming in and getting them back on the rails. Set up in a 4-4-2 formation with a narrow midfield diamond involving Milligan protecting the defence, Slivka and Mackie wide and Gauld up top played right into the hands of the hosts who mercilessly exploited the wide areas to keep Hibs more or less on the back foot for the entire ninety minutes. It has to be said that but for Rocky making a number of wonderful saves and Celtic camping on our 18 yard line but mostly failing to cash in on that, it might have been a whole lot worse than a 2-0 defeat.
After eventually finding our seats (the signage and ‘helpful’ stewards making that more difficult than it should have been) we were ‘entertained’ by the Celtic lightshow, accompanied by quite deafening music. I mean, seriously, what idiot thought that was a good thing to do? I think the brainbox that put that in place needs to stop watching the Superbowl.
From the off, Hibs were on the back foot and the midfield was being bypassed because it was far too narrow. Some may think it brave that we went 4-4-2 but with the middle four all hugging the centre of the pitch it was a recipe for disaster. The most surprising thing was that it took Celtic 25 minutes to finally secure the lead as by that time they’d either missed decent chances or, on two occasions, been denied by excellent goalkeeping from Rocky. When the goal came it was from play on the Celtic right when Mackie failed to cut out a pass and the impressive Toljan got to the by line before cutting it back to the unmarked Christie, whose shot went across Rocky and into the far corner. Shortly after that and in a rare break upfield, Kamberi picked out Milligan but with only the keeper to beat the Hibs man fired the ball miles past with his left foot.
The home side were bossing midfield with Scott Brown involved in everything, including a wild tackle on Milligan that looked as though it might be a red but Craig Thomson only booked the Celtic man. It was a minor miracle that we reached half time only a goal down but to be fair to the Hibs defenders, McGregor in particular they had done well to deny Celtic better opportunities to score. Just before the break, Oli Shaw was battered to the ground as a Celtic defender went right through him but amazingly, Thomson didn’t even award a free kick.
With McNulty on for Shaw, Hibs started the second half much like they had ended the first, on the back foot. It was frustrating to see Celtic dominate the wide areas and that Eddie May made no changes to the shape to counteract that. It meant that Slivka and Mackie were often caught trying to decide whether to go to the wide man or retain the narrow shape. Mackie in particular looked lost a lot of the time but in fairness to him it was perhaps a position he had no experience of playing in.
Just past the hour mark, Celtic doubled their lead when Burke got a shot away that Rocky looked to have covered but McGregor had tried to block the effort and that resulted in the ball looping over the top of the diving keeper. Infuriatingly, the move leading up to the goal came about after Rocky had thrown the ball out towards Mackie when David Gray was down and hurt and obviously out of position. Rocky might have just thrown the ball out of play but there is the possibility that he may not have realised Gray was down. Unable to continue, Gray was replaced by Darnell Johnson who slotted straight in at right back.
“Goal” roared the Celtic fans, convinced they were now 3-0 up when a powerful close in header looked netbound but the roars died down when Rocky pulled off a stunning instinctive save that had the Hibs fans applauding and the Celtic fans rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
Our one and only shot on goal came about fifteen minutes from the end when McNulty got between two Celtic defenders but the bouncing ball was always moving away from him and his effort sailed over the bar. Johnson is a helluva big lad and found himself up against the tricky Mikey Johnston, who had replaced Sinclair. By and large, Johnson did well enough but around ten minutes from time he was lucky not to be shown a straight red for a lunging challenge on Izaguirre who ended up being carried off. Johnson had beaten one Celtic man but his touch took the ball too far ahead of him and as Izaguirre went to intercept, Johnson caught him on the ankle. The challenge happened right in front of me and I was relieved when Craig Thomson only produced a yellow. Celtic were happy just to run the clock down now and it’s a measure of how far out of the game we were when we won our first and only corner in the 85th minute.
I’ll be honest and say I was relieved when the final whistle went because that was not a great watch. Whoever the new manager is he must quickly get the players organised into knowing their jobs. His biggest challenge though may be to instil some much needed confidence into their play as tonight everything was hesitant and lacking in commitment.
The players
Rocky – A number of excellent saves kept us in the game a lot longer than we probably deserved to be and although I felt there were another couple of players in the mix I can’t see past Rocky as my man of the match.
SDG – To me, he does not look fully fit and the fact that he went off injured again tonight has me worrying whether we’ll ever witness his swashbuckling runs down the right again.
Daz – The big fella was really unlucky when the ball came off his attempted block for the second goal. In general I thought he was the best I’ve seen him for a while and pushed Rocky close for my man of the match award.
Paul – Another, strangely subdued performance from Paul tonight. He defended relatively well but his distribution was, at times, shocking and that’s not like him at all.
Lewis – No doubt I’ll be accused of bias in Lewis’ favour again but when he plays like he did tonight he deserves the praise. It was noticeable to me that the vast majority of threatening play from Celtic came down their left where SDG struggled with the quick feet of Scott Sinclair.
Mark – Deployed as the holding midfielder I thought he did ok, sometimes and at other times I thought he was pretty poor. I just can’t decide whether I want him as a regular starter or not.
Slivka – Wasted out wide. If I say it often enough somebody might see it and play him in the middle where he is far more effective. Obviously, I jest about someone seeing it.
Sean – Looked lost a lot of the time and his attempted interception for the first goal was poor. I’m of the view that if we played a flat middle four, Sean in front of Lewis would offer so much more as he has the talent.
Ryan – Started the game well enough and picked out a few decent passes but as time wore on he slowly but surely disappeared.
Oli – Isolated a lot of the time and had to keep dropping deeper and deeper in an effort to get any time on the ball. I had thought maybe he should be replaced at half time at the expense of another midfielder, to strengthen our presence there, but his injury resulted in him being replaced anyway, by Mark McNulty.
Flo – Like Oli he was often isolated but I felt he worked very hard on meagre scraps and his pass for the first half Milligan chance was excellent.
McNulty – Got the whole of the second half but was just as isolated as the player he replaced. Having said that he showed a great appetite to get involved and enjoyed the dubious pleasure of striking the only real Hibs effort on goal all night.
Stevie – Replaced Gauld and within five minutes of coming on he’d been hacked down twice without the consolation of a free kick. In truth we needed someone in there to mix it with Brown and that someone is not Stevie Mallan.
Darnell – As I said earlier he’s a big lad but mobile with it. His debut could have been memorable for all the wrong reasons as his lunge on Izaguirre although not intentional, could easily have seen him dismissed.
Eddie – I know you don’t want the job Eddie and like you, I’ll be glad when the new guy arrives.
Craig Thomson – I felt he was overly lenient on a number of occasions, Brown and Johnson in particular.
The fans – The atmosphere amongst our support was very odd tonight. At one point there seemed to be a skirmish amongst our own fans, I think as a direct result of a few trying to start a “One Neil Lennon” chant. Also, fans spending more time shouting obscenities at Celtic fans rather than watching the game. Two from that latter group were ejected from the stadium.
After eventually finding our seats (the signage and ‘helpful’ stewards making that more difficult than it should have been) we were ‘entertained’ by the Celtic lightshow, accompanied by quite deafening music. I mean, seriously, what idiot thought that was a good thing to do? I think the brainbox that put that in place needs to stop watching the Superbowl.
From the off, Hibs were on the back foot and the midfield was being bypassed because it was far too narrow. Some may think it brave that we went 4-4-2 but with the middle four all hugging the centre of the pitch it was a recipe for disaster. The most surprising thing was that it took Celtic 25 minutes to finally secure the lead as by that time they’d either missed decent chances or, on two occasions, been denied by excellent goalkeeping from Rocky. When the goal came it was from play on the Celtic right when Mackie failed to cut out a pass and the impressive Toljan got to the by line before cutting it back to the unmarked Christie, whose shot went across Rocky and into the far corner. Shortly after that and in a rare break upfield, Kamberi picked out Milligan but with only the keeper to beat the Hibs man fired the ball miles past with his left foot.
The home side were bossing midfield with Scott Brown involved in everything, including a wild tackle on Milligan that looked as though it might be a red but Craig Thomson only booked the Celtic man. It was a minor miracle that we reached half time only a goal down but to be fair to the Hibs defenders, McGregor in particular they had done well to deny Celtic better opportunities to score. Just before the break, Oli Shaw was battered to the ground as a Celtic defender went right through him but amazingly, Thomson didn’t even award a free kick.
With McNulty on for Shaw, Hibs started the second half much like they had ended the first, on the back foot. It was frustrating to see Celtic dominate the wide areas and that Eddie May made no changes to the shape to counteract that. It meant that Slivka and Mackie were often caught trying to decide whether to go to the wide man or retain the narrow shape. Mackie in particular looked lost a lot of the time but in fairness to him it was perhaps a position he had no experience of playing in.
Just past the hour mark, Celtic doubled their lead when Burke got a shot away that Rocky looked to have covered but McGregor had tried to block the effort and that resulted in the ball looping over the top of the diving keeper. Infuriatingly, the move leading up to the goal came about after Rocky had thrown the ball out towards Mackie when David Gray was down and hurt and obviously out of position. Rocky might have just thrown the ball out of play but there is the possibility that he may not have realised Gray was down. Unable to continue, Gray was replaced by Darnell Johnson who slotted straight in at right back.
“Goal” roared the Celtic fans, convinced they were now 3-0 up when a powerful close in header looked netbound but the roars died down when Rocky pulled off a stunning instinctive save that had the Hibs fans applauding and the Celtic fans rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
Our one and only shot on goal came about fifteen minutes from the end when McNulty got between two Celtic defenders but the bouncing ball was always moving away from him and his effort sailed over the bar. Johnson is a helluva big lad and found himself up against the tricky Mikey Johnston, who had replaced Sinclair. By and large, Johnson did well enough but around ten minutes from time he was lucky not to be shown a straight red for a lunging challenge on Izaguirre who ended up being carried off. Johnson had beaten one Celtic man but his touch took the ball too far ahead of him and as Izaguirre went to intercept, Johnson caught him on the ankle. The challenge happened right in front of me and I was relieved when Craig Thomson only produced a yellow. Celtic were happy just to run the clock down now and it’s a measure of how far out of the game we were when we won our first and only corner in the 85th minute.
I’ll be honest and say I was relieved when the final whistle went because that was not a great watch. Whoever the new manager is he must quickly get the players organised into knowing their jobs. His biggest challenge though may be to instil some much needed confidence into their play as tonight everything was hesitant and lacking in commitment.
The players
Rocky – A number of excellent saves kept us in the game a lot longer than we probably deserved to be and although I felt there were another couple of players in the mix I can’t see past Rocky as my man of the match.
SDG – To me, he does not look fully fit and the fact that he went off injured again tonight has me worrying whether we’ll ever witness his swashbuckling runs down the right again.
Daz – The big fella was really unlucky when the ball came off his attempted block for the second goal. In general I thought he was the best I’ve seen him for a while and pushed Rocky close for my man of the match award.
Paul – Another, strangely subdued performance from Paul tonight. He defended relatively well but his distribution was, at times, shocking and that’s not like him at all.
Lewis – No doubt I’ll be accused of bias in Lewis’ favour again but when he plays like he did tonight he deserves the praise. It was noticeable to me that the vast majority of threatening play from Celtic came down their left where SDG struggled with the quick feet of Scott Sinclair.
Mark – Deployed as the holding midfielder I thought he did ok, sometimes and at other times I thought he was pretty poor. I just can’t decide whether I want him as a regular starter or not.
Slivka – Wasted out wide. If I say it often enough somebody might see it and play him in the middle where he is far more effective. Obviously, I jest about someone seeing it.
Sean – Looked lost a lot of the time and his attempted interception for the first goal was poor. I’m of the view that if we played a flat middle four, Sean in front of Lewis would offer so much more as he has the talent.
Ryan – Started the game well enough and picked out a few decent passes but as time wore on he slowly but surely disappeared.
Oli – Isolated a lot of the time and had to keep dropping deeper and deeper in an effort to get any time on the ball. I had thought maybe he should be replaced at half time at the expense of another midfielder, to strengthen our presence there, but his injury resulted in him being replaced anyway, by Mark McNulty.
Flo – Like Oli he was often isolated but I felt he worked very hard on meagre scraps and his pass for the first half Milligan chance was excellent.
McNulty – Got the whole of the second half but was just as isolated as the player he replaced. Having said that he showed a great appetite to get involved and enjoyed the dubious pleasure of striking the only real Hibs effort on goal all night.
Stevie – Replaced Gauld and within five minutes of coming on he’d been hacked down twice without the consolation of a free kick. In truth we needed someone in there to mix it with Brown and that someone is not Stevie Mallan.
Darnell – As I said earlier he’s a big lad but mobile with it. His debut could have been memorable for all the wrong reasons as his lunge on Izaguirre although not intentional, could easily have seen him dismissed.
Eddie – I know you don’t want the job Eddie and like you, I’ll be glad when the new guy arrives.
Craig Thomson – I felt he was overly lenient on a number of occasions, Brown and Johnson in particular.
The fans – The atmosphere amongst our support was very odd tonight. At one point there seemed to be a skirmish amongst our own fans, I think as a direct result of a few trying to start a “One Neil Lennon” chant. Also, fans spending more time shouting obscenities at Celtic fans rather than watching the game. Two from that latter group were ejected from the stadium.