Bank Of Scotland SPL
Sunday 6th March 2005
Easter Road, Edinburgh
Kick Off 2pm, Live On Setanta SPL
This season, Easter Road was the first SPL ground at which Celtic dropped points this season, before Dens Park and Ibrox. Earlier in the season, we drew 2-2 with Hibs, and tomorrow we will be in for another tough game.
Hibs have been talked up in the press as the only decent footballing side in the country and I agree that at times, they play some nice stuff. Tony Mowbaray is doing a great job at the club, and they are third in the league, so credit to him. However, Hibs are a very young and inexperienced side. They are inconsistent, as we seen when they were humped at Ibrox recently, and turned over 3-0 at Inverness midweek.
Experience is where we should be looking to capatalise tomorrow. Our players have played at places like the Nou Camp and the San Siro this season, we should be using this to our advantage.
As Martin O'Neill stated last week, it's time to start being ruthless in our games. We need to start finishing teams off and banging in goals. We have the players to do it; Bellamy, Sutton, Hartson, Juninho. The truth is, if we want to win this league, we should be going to places like Easter Road and winning comfortably, like we did in Martin O'Neill's first season.
I expected Juninho to play in midweek, after he played so well last weekend. Maybe O'Neill is thinking of playing him tomorrow? Juninho set up Celtic's opener at Easter Road earlier in the season, and he'll be looking to play tomorrow.
Our long ball style game is not the way to play tomorrow. John Hartson is suffering a dip in form and he hasn't been winning high balls at all recently. With Sutton in midfield, the long ball doesn't suit him either. We should be playing the ball on the ground, and beating teams by playing football. Look at the second half against Clyde, we played great and scored four goals.
We are now playing catch-up in the title race, but it is still well within our hands. We need to be able to go to places like Edinburgh and come away with three points. I am sure tomorrow, we will.
Come On The Hoops!
Prediction: Hibs 1-3 Celtic