Celtic 2-1 Queen's Park: Celtic sorely lacking some punch

Published on Saturday 7 February 2009 18:57

Celtic 2 (Caldwell 19; McDonald 45) Queen's Park 1 (Coakley 66)

CELTIC supporters must struggle to comprehend passions overspilling among the club's players and staff behind closed doors. Not when Gordon Strachan's side seem so desperately lacking in anything approaching oomph or aggression in public arenas.

Queen's Park were everything an energetic and able underdog should be in pushing the home side all the way in the fourth round of the Homecoming Scottish Cup at Celtic Park yesterday. Celtic, meanwhile, were simply rotten, a bunch of players not gelling.

It will probably be overblown that Celtic were somehow clinging on for the final 25 minutes, after Adam Coakley reduced the deficit with Celtic cruising at 2-0. The home side had a couple of dodgy moments after that. So, too, did they have opportunities to put the tie beyond doubt before Coakley, cautioned for an off-pitch gallop after scoring, was red carded for a second bookable offence 11 minutes from time.

Unquestionably, the home punters in the 22,223 crowd were happy to hear the final whistle, even if taking it as a cue to boo.

Strachan, to his credit, made no attempt to disguise the poverty of his team's display. "You hope that you set standards over a few years and the teams before us set standards and you try and emulate them and get better," he said. "But today was not one the players who played here previously would be proud of. We are not proud of it."

Even with Celtic's on-field inadequacies having cost them 12 league points out of the past 24 they have contested, for, ahem, punch there is nothing to compare to the coverage that off-field dramas at the club elicit. The actions of the pugilist Pole who floored Aiden McGeady at Lennoxtown on Thursday, claimed Celtic the front and back pages of the red tops yesterday morning. Watching the joyless spectacle of a first half with comparatively few other souls inside Celtic Park, the pity was that Boruc hadn't saved his fistcuffs for yesterday so as to enhance the entertainment.

That there is a devil lurking inside Boruc was perhaps reflected in his desire to give his idle hands something to do in clumsily electing to make a save-cum-pratfall from a shot going well past early on. The paunchy Pole is at that opposite end of the spectrum from the diligent Shaun Maloney, who made his first appearance since suffering a hamstring tear on December 13.

Maloney was busy without being particularly productive, a term that could sum up the efforts of the Second Division team in the opening period. Following the interval they were much more forceful, smartly sensing Celtic's unease at 2-1. Queen's manager Gardner Speirs was entitled to feel good about his players' exertions.

"We came here and looked to make a contest of it and we did that," he said. "We wanted to show we try to play football and had the confidence to do that."

The country's most celebrated and successful amateur team certainly weren't afraid to shuttle the ball around, and for the opening quarter of an hour retained enough possession to play a fair chunk of that time inside their opponents' half. The energy and assured play of Paul Harkins and Ryan Holmes was central to that, even if Harkins became the ill-deserved villan of the piece to the Celtic crowd following a crunching, but fair, challenge on Marc Crosas. It left the young Spaniard writhing in agony as he held his ankle and on 42 minutes he was replaced Massimo Donati.

By that point, Celtic were a goal up, a pretty straightforward effort that amounted to Darren O'Dea heading back across the face of goal after connecting with 19th minute cross from the left by Lee Naylor. The move allowed Gary Caldwell to snap his neck muscles and nod the ball in. Celtic's second, on the cusp of the break, wasn't a whole heap different. Naylor was again the cross provider, with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink the recipient. The Dutchman's bonce-batter looked like it might cross the line under its own steam, but McDonald elected to make sure.

So unconvincing are Celtic, so susceptible have they become to completely falling out of games, that what should have been a stroll of a second half proved nothing of the sort. The whole mood of the occasion changed when substitute Coakley was played in by a Holmes ball in from the right flank and beat Boruc at the second attempt, the keeper blocking the striker's initial effort. Coakley's crazed goal celebrations, which saw him race toward the corner housing visiting fans and punching the air, like Springstein in full rawk! mode, appeared harmless. But not to referee Willie Colum, who booked him for leaving the field of play.

That was to have repercussions as Celtic's jittery side surfaced only for them to settle when Coakley was dismissed for clattering Naylor as Queen's sought to step up their push for an equaliser. With the exception of the ever-willing McGeady, no player in the home ranks seemed capable of responding in kind, and Celtic, more than Rangers, will be fearful of next Sunday's derby.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Aiden McGeady jinked and jousted in eye-catching fashion. But for performing as if such an intimidating venue was where he believed he belonged Queen's Park midfielder Paul Harkins, who exhibited composure and craft, deserves to have his afternoon's efforts recognised.

QUICK FACT

The 22,223 attendance was the lowest crowd Celtic Park has played host to this season.

TALKING POINT

The lifelessness of Celtic who are as badly out of touch now as at any point in Gordon Strachan's four seasons in charge.