Celtic make the short trip to Paisley for a lunchtime kick-off against a St Mirren side full of confidence and flying high in the SPL. The Bhoys have lost their previous two matches and defeat today will put manager Neil Lennon under the sort of pressure he hasn't had to face yet, certainly not from a footballing point of view. This wont be an easy match. The Buddies are sitting fourth in the table, just one point behind Celtic. Lennon will assess his squad ahead of the game following a tiring and demoralising defeat to FC Sion in the Europa League on Thursday night. He has tough decisions to make, namely: who will partner Kelvin Wilson at the heart of the Celtic defence; and which strike partnership will start the match? Samaras has started in two of the previous three matches and has unsurprisingly failed to find the net on either occasion. The last time Hooper and Stokes played together was in the 5-1 hammering of Dundee Utd so it would seem logical to start with the deadly duo. With Murphy out on loan at Ipswich and still no sign of any replacement arriving any time soon, Lennon will be hoping to avoid any more injuries to the likes of Hooper which would leave him very short of options. It would also lead to Celtic fans questioning the logic of letting a forward go out on loan at a time when the team is finding it difficult to put the ball in the net. A victory today would be the ideal tonic following a bad couple of weeks for Neil Lennon's men. Lose and the early season optimism among the Celtic support will start to turn to real concern about the ability of the team to wrestle the title back from their greatest rivals.
On bus going to game , Reading big danny will play , utter joke , hope he last more than 42 seconds!!!
At least Stokes and Hooper start. We might lose a couple of goals to the Swedish meatball being unable to deal with long, punted balls but at least we might score one more up the other end. I thought McCourt might have started today as he has a good record against St Mirren.
Stupid rumours about Commons falling out wi Lennon. I'd fall out with both of them for their carry on this season. Neill McCann getting it right again......filthy hun
Gollum strikes early on. Goal ruled out early on for no reason at all. He had blown up before the ball hit the net.
Yes sir. He looks sharp all of a sudden. Give him a partner playing in the right areas and he'll do that all day. St Mirren are ****e though. Rotten defending.
