INVERNESS CALEY TH 1 CELTIC 0 CELTIC lost just once in 38 league games last season on their way to being crowned Premiership champions. Ronny Deila has taken a short cut and managed the feat in only three outings. And the Norwegian has no-one to blame but himself for this awful display in the Highland capital. He sent out a much-changed team that struggled for fluency right from the start. In the end, they lacked poise, were bereft of ideas, deficient in ambition and dire when it came to finishing. The statistics at the end of an instantly forgettable encounter show that Celtic had seven attempts on target to one from Caley Thistle. Unfortunately, one of those attempts on target came from young Irish defender Eoghan OConnell and, even more distressingly, it counted as the home sides effort at Lukasz Zaluska. OConnells moment of misery arrived in the 65th minute when the out-of-position Stefan Johansen was rolled by Marley Watkins on the right. He sent in an inviting cross aimed at Billy McKay. Lukasz Zaluska came out to meet it and pushed the ball away. Alas, it hit the inrushing OConnell and bounced into the empty net. That farcical moment just about summed up Celtics day. Deilas idea to field a team of strangers back-fired spectacularly. The nearest the Hoops came to scoring came when Nir Biton curled a lovely right foot shot onto the junction of post and bar in the 36th minute. The Highlanders started brightly, taking advantage of their visitors obvious deficiency. Greg Tansey gave Zaluska a scare in the 11th minute when he sent in a first-time piledriver from 25 yards, but the ball swept past the Poles right hand upright. A minute later it was Caleys turn to sigh with relief after Kris Commons sent Leigh Griffiths clear in the box. The frontman lacked composure in his finishing effort, however, and slashed the ball into the sidenetting when, at the very least, he should have hit the target. Filip Twardzik was creating all sorts of consternation on the left hand side of the Celtic defence with some dreadfully slack distribution. The Czech Republic youngster at one stage looked as though he was afflicted with the inability to pass the ball to anyone wearing the same colour of shirt. In the 17th minute, a smart save from Dean Brill thwarted Teemu Pukki as he tried to capitalise on a good angled pass from Liam Henderson. The Finn was just a little slow to react and the keeper threw himself at his feet to scramble the ball clear. It ran to Dylan McGeouch who went to ground after a challenge from behind. Referee Bobby Madden wasnt impressed and waved play on. Henderson was industrious in the middle of the park and he tried to break the Caley barrier when he sent in an angled drive from the left. It was a comfortable catch for Brill. In 20 minutes there was the remarkable sight of Efe Ambrose almost scoring a wonder goal from 18 yards. The Nigerian swung a long leg at a free-kick from Henderson and the ball arced lazily high and on target. Brill had to react with an acrobatic tip over the bar. In normal circumstances, it would have been reasonable to assume the nearby Moray Firth would have been the more likely recipient of such an effort from the error-prone defender. Pukki was then denied twice by the Caley Thistle keeper as Celtic took a grip of the game. The Finn was clear on a one-on-one situation with Brill and elected to take the wrong option. He decided to go for power instead of precision and blasted the ball against the keeper. When the ball broke back to him he stuck with the same thought process and the end product was identical - his effort thumping back off the Caley last line of defence. Just before the half-hour mark, Caley claimed for a penalty-kick after the lethargic Twardzik made a clumsy challenge on Ryan Christie. It was as ill-judged as it was ill-timed, but the match official, who had a good view, didnt buy into Christies bout of theatrics. Pukki then attempted a long shot from the left that was more of a danger to a passing flock of seagulls than it was to Brill. Caley right-back David Ravens had the freedom of the touchline with Pukki neglecting his back-tracking duties and Twardzik AWOL. He powered in a dangerous cross before the interval that created problems for Zaluska before it crept wide. No-one was unduly surprised when neither Twardzik nor Pukki didnt reappear for the second-half with Johansen and Callum McGregor taking their places. Celtic attempted to play swift and neat inter-changing play on the deck, but, frustratingly, the final pass was often astray. Ten minutes after the turnaround, McGregor produced an exquisite angled ball to find Griffiths smack in front of goal. However, the striker made a complete mess of trying to connect with the ball as it dropped at his feet and the danger passed. Griffiths was having one of those days where it looked as though he had just been introduced to the game of football five minutes before kick-off. To be fair, he kept plugging away and was clean through on Brill at one stage, but, rather predictably, shot straight at the grateful keeper. Then came the unfortunate own goal from young OConnell that proved to be the difference between the teams after a wearisome, predictable ninety minutes in the Highlands. Griffiths was finally withdrawn in the 67th minute with Anthony Stokes coming on, but there was no appreciable difference from the equally follicly-challenged replacement. Commons snatched at an effort after being put in by Stokes, but his powderpuff effort was easily saved by Brill. Celtic were fortunate to survive the loss of a second goal five minutes from the end when Zaluska made a wonder save from a blistering 12-yard effort from Nick Ross. Thankfully, it is highly unlikely that this mixture of players will represent Celtic against Maribor in the Champions League play-off second leg on Tuesday night. It would be even better if this collection was never seen again as a unit at any time wearing Celtic colours. TEAM: Zaluska; Ambrose, OConnell, Mulgrew, Twardzik (sub: Johansen 46); McGeouch, Henderson, Biton, Commons; Griffiths (sub: Stokes 67), Pukki (sub: McGregor 46).
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:33:51 +0000
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