TalkCeltic - The Ultimate Celtic FC Forum

This evening’s League Cup encounter against Falkirk should, in theory, be a match Tony Mowbray’s Celtic win at a canter. Eddie May’s outfit lie bottom of the SPL table - two consecutive draws providing them with their only points of the season – while the Bhoys sit on top after an impressive start which has seen them drop only two points in this campaign.

Nonetheless, injuries to strikers Marc-Antoine Fortune and Georgios Samaras mean that Mowbray has been forced to place his trust in Kiwi hitman Chris Killen.

Celtic 2 - 1 Hearts
Sunday 20th September, 2009

Celtic scraped back from a goal behind against Hearts yesterday to claim all three points in a closely-fought affair. It was more a dose of good luck, rather than the raised second half performance that turned the game in the home side's favour, with Hearts boss Csaba Lazlo bemused by the amount of added-time and outraged by Lee Wallace’s decision to let a loose ball roll out for the decisive corner.


Having dismally capitulated in the stifling Tel-Aviv heat midweek, there was little sign of rejuvenation as Celtic fell behind after only five minutes. Suso Sentana, having picked the ball up in his own half eased past Scott Brown. Upon...

[FONT=&quot]Celtic will be looking to make amends from Thursday’s disastrous performance in the Europa League with victory over Hearts on Sunday as the bhoys face their next challenge in their hunt to claim back the SPL title.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]After the searing heat and humidity of Israel the bhoys will only have one day to prepare for the visit of Hearts, however, Celtic gaffer Tony Mowbray isn’t complaining:[/FONT]
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“If you’ve got international footballers and you play in European competition you have to get on with it. You can’t have it both ways. We’ve got a squad of players and we’ll try and utilise them and get a positive performance at the weekend.”[/FONT]...

No Excuses For Poor Celtic

Hapoel Tel-Aviv 2 - 1 Celtic
Bloomfield Stadium
Thursday 17th September 2009

An awful second half performance from Celtic not only cost them a valuable away win against a quite mediocre side but cost the Scottish side the chance to get the club's first ever Europa League campaign off to the best possible start. Celtic looked to be on course for the perfect start after Georgios Samaras volleyed them into a deserved half time lead but Hapoel rallied with late goals from Vucicevic and Lala to secure all the points.

Both sides started the game playing some tentative football as neither wanted to be the ones to concede so early in the game but after 11 minutes the home side very nearly did just that as Vincent Enyeama did well to touch Samaras' well directed header onto the bar from a Shaun Maloney corner. Minutes later it was the home side's turn to give Celtic a scare as Vucicevic managed to get in around the back of Danny Fox but...