Thompson scores, Celtic snores

Last game: Celtic 2 – 1 Motherwell

Celtic form after 5 games:  LWWLW

By Séan Walsh (twitter.com/walshybhoy)


Josh Thompson saved Celtic from yet another embarrassment in front of subdued Celtic Park yesterday evening. The Parkhead stadium looked to be holding around 20,000 faithful fans, as many supporters choosing to spend their cash and time actually enjoying themselves rather than have to sit through what can only be described as turgid and depressing stress. Recent seasons have seen the fanatical support dwindle in numbers as well as many passively protesting against the PLC by refusing to buy overinflated merchandise to show their discontent. You might expect that the Celtic team wanted to redeem itself for letting the club down at the weekend, even answer calls by critics that the team ‘don’t understand what it means to play for Celtic’, well those expectations would be unfulfilled.

Celtic began the game with the rather odd omission of arguably their player of the year (which doesn’t say much) Andreas Hinkel and passionate goal stopper Artur Boruc. Rightly removed from the squad altogether was Georgios Samaras, whilst Marc-Antoine Fortuné relegated to the bench. Even more oddly was the inclusion of ‘captain’ Scott Brown and on loan Landry N’Guemo. Brown has failed to shine since his record £4.4 million move from Hibs whilst the dynamo Cameroonian N’Guemo has seen a stretch of poor form throughout the past 3 weeks. The failed midfield pairing was yet again entirely anonymous and between the two players amassed a performance for maybe a midget sized player.

The opening half was nothing short of lethargic petulance from the boys in Hoops. The expected passion, hunger and drive to try win back some shred of credibility was non-existent and instead the few Celtic fans in the stadium were treated to a performance akin to a teenager grudgingly going to visit his grandmother. The side did itself no wonders as it was booed off the pitch at halftime.

The second half was very much the same if I am to be honest. Motherwell took the lead barely after kick off and Celtic fans worldwide groaned in a fashion they are used to. Only 19 year old Josh Thompsons strike from a corner meant Celtic fortuitously escaped a growing torrid of abuse from the Bhoys. Not much later, Thompson utilised a corner to head the ball into the net, thereby securing the 3 points and avoiding allowing the current league leaders a chance to win the championship tonight against Dundee United. Fair play to the youngster, he has undoubtedly been given the worst possible start to his career – coming to a club impatient with youth players, being dropped into first team action despite only playing a few professional games and unfortunately been put under a huge amount of pressure from inept performances from the rest of his team. His two goals yesterday at least shows he hasn’t entirely given up unlike his other fellow “professionals”.

Celtic now awaits yet another anxious match at home to Hibs on Saturday, and now more than ever, watching Celtic has become a painful chore.