Match 1485 - Saturday, 27th October 2012

Season: 2012/13
SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue:  CELTIC PARK

                           

CELTIC     0     KILMARNOCK     2

Scorers:  Sheridan, Kelly

Celtic have a serious European hangover from their midweek trip to Barcelona and Kilmarnock take full advantage of two basic errors to recored their first Celtic Park victory since 1955!

Match 1484 - Sunday, 21st October 2012

Season:  2012/13
ENGLISH FA PREMIERSHIP
Venue: STADIUM OF LIGHT

                                           

SUNDERLAND     1     NEWCASTLE UNITED     1

Scorers: Ba (O.G.);   Cabaye

Terrific atmosphere although the game is poor.  Sunderland fail to produce enough quality to overturn Newcastle early lead after Tiote is sent off less than half an hour into the match.

Line ups:

Sunderland

• 22 Mignolet
• 16 O'Shea
• 24 Cuellar
• 03 Rose
• 07 Larsson
• 08 Gardner
• 14 Colback
• 21 Johnson (Vaughan - 83' )
• 23 McClean
• 28 Sessegnon (Saha - 64' )
• 26 Fletcher

Newcastle United

• 01 Krul
• 02 Coloccini Booked (S Taylor - 79' )
• 03 Santon
• 05 Simpson
• 06 Williamson Booked
• 04 Cabaye Booked
• 10 Ben Arfa (Obertan - 83' )
• 18 Gutierrez
• 24 Tiote (red carded)
• 19 Ba
• 23 Sh Ameobi Booked (Perch - 38' )

 Ref: Atkinson

Att: 47,456

Personnel note:  3rd season in a row attending this fixture

Match 1483 - Saturday, 20th October 2012

Season:  2012/13
ENGLISH LEAGUE DIVISION 1
Venue: VICTORIA PARK

                    

HARTLEPOOL UNITED       0            CRAWLEY TOWN      1

Scorer: Akpan 

Hartlepool lying second from bottom against Crawley in a play off slot.  Hope Akpan got the only goal of a disppointing game at Victoria Park with a dipping volley from just outside the penalty box.

Neil Austin went closest for Hartlepool but he was denied twice in the second half by Paul Jones in the Crawley goal.

Personal note:  Firsts all round new stadium visited (78 in total) and two new clubs added to my list.

Football Focus ~ Hearts 100 Matches

HEARTS 100 MATCHES

I have now seen Hearts 100 times over 31 years.  The first match was 1st April 1981 when Celtic beat them 6-0 at Celtic Park. 

Breakdown:

COMPETITIONS:

• Scottish Premier League     85
• Scottish Cup                           9
• Scottish League Cup             4
• Friendlies                               2

OPPONENTS:

• Celtic                                   95
• Hibernian                            2
• Motherwell                          1
• Sunderland                          1
• Barcelona                            1

STADIA:

• Tynecastle Stadium             30
• Celtic Park                           61
• Hampden Park                      6
• Easter Road Stadium            1
• Fir Park                                 1
• Murrayfield Stadium            1

Classic Team from these 100 matches:

Henry Smith

Walter Kidd     Craig Levein     David Weir    Gary Naysmith

Colin Cameron     Gary MacKay     Paul Hateley     Andrew Driver

John Robertson     Mark De Vries

Match 1482 - Sunday, 7th October 2012

SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue: CELTIC PARK

         

CELTIC     1     HEARTS     0

Scorer: Samaras

Hearts are forced into changing goalkeepers early in the match following an accidental clash.  The replacement keeper Peter Enckelman allows a routine shot by Samaras to go straight through him shortly after coming on which proves to be decisive.  The match is tame for a Celtic-Hearts encounter.

Personal note:  my 100th time seeing Hearts spanning 31 years.

Match 1481 - Tuesday, 25th September 2012

Season 2012/13
SCOTTISH LEAGUE CUP Third Round
Veune: CELTIC PARK

         

CELTIC     4     RAITH ROVERS     1

Gary Hooper scores all 4 goals to see Celtic safely through to the next round of the League Cup.

Match 1480 - Saturday, 22nd September 2012

Season:  2012/13
SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue: CELTIC PARK

                  

CELTIC    2     DUNDEE     0

Scorers:  Hooper, Wanyama

Celtic recorded a straight forward win over Dundee despite missing a penalty and an inspired displayed from former Hoops keeper Rab Douglas.

Match 1479 - Tuesday, 18th September 2012

Season:  2012/13

Group Stage - Match Day 1

Venue: CELTIC PARK

CELTIC     0     BENFICA     0

Celtic make a return to the group stage of the Champions League infront of a packed Celtic Park.  There are very few chances created on the night however Benfica should have had a penalty in the first half when Forster impeded a Benfica forward.



Match 1478 - Saturday, 15th September 2012

Season:  2012/13
SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue: MCDIARMID STADIUM

                       

ST JOHNSTONE     2     CELTIC     1

Scorers:     Tade, Vine; Commons

St Johnstone for the second season running became the first team to defeat Celtic in the league.  Despite a good start of a goal in the opening minutes Celtic failed to build on their early dominence and slowly Saint worked their way back into the game.  They grabbed the winner with 10 minutes to go and Celtic by now in a rut could not respond. 

Match 1477 - Saturday, 1st September 2012

Season:  2012/13
SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue:   CELTIC PARK

CELTIC     2     HIBERNIAN     2

 Scorers: Lustig, McPake O.G.

Swedish defender Mikael Lustig grabs his first goal for the club but Celtic are held by an improving Hibs team managed by Pat Fenlon.  Celtic lead 1-0 at the break but where shocked when Hibs equalised in the second half.  A scrambled effort saw Celtic regain the lead with Lustig again invloved however the goal would be credited as an own goal by Hibs' defender James McPake.  By now though Hibs were growing into the match and took full advantage of Celtic missing one chance too many by equalising again and taking a surprised point from the game.

Match 1476 - Wednesday, 29th August 2012

Season:  2012/13
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFIER 2nd Leg
Venue: CELTIC PARK

CELTIC     2     HELSINGSBORG     0

Scorers: Hooper, Wanyama

Celtic completed home & away victories over their first ever Swedish opponents in European competition to book their place in the Champions League.

This was only my second time watching a Swedish side, the other ocassion being Gothenburg at Old Trafford in 1994.

Match 1475 - Saturday, 4th August 2012

Season:  2012/13
SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue: CELTIC PARK

FLAG DAY

CELTIC     1     ABERDEEN     0

Scorer: Commons

New league season begins with Celtic unfurling the Championship flag for 2011/12 and for the first time ever no Rangers in the top division.  Game is very low key.  Aberdeen give a good account of themselves but lose the match due to a major goalkeeping error.

Match 1474 - Thursday, 2nd August 2012

Season:  2012/13
UEFA Europa League Qualifier - First Leg
Venue: TANNADICE PARK

DUNDEE UNITED     2     DYNAMO MOSCOW     2

Dundee United were denied victory as Dinamo Moscow twice fought back to claim a first leg draw in the Europa League qualifying third round tie.

Having sustained the early pressure, United registered a surprise opener when Willo Flood struck on 37 minutes.

Igor Semshov headed the visitors level but Keith Watson scrambled home United's second 14 minutes from time.

But Aleksandr's deflected shot looped over United keeper Radoslaw Cierzniak to level matters in injury time.

The two away goals will make the Russian side favourites to progress to the play-off round but the positive attacking display at Tannadice gives United hope for next Thursday's return leg in Moscow.

Dundee United

• 01 Cierzniak
• 02 Dillon
• 03 Douglas
• 05 Gunning
• 12 Watson
• 06 Flood
• 08 Rankin
• 10 Ryan
• 11 Mackay-Steven
• 07 Russell Booked
• 09 Daly

Dinamo Moscow

• 01 Shunin
• 03 Schildenfeld
• 32 Lomic
• 33 Rykov
• 07 Dzsudzsak
• 08 Misimovic
• 10 Semshov
• 14 Yusupov Booked (Sapeta - 90' )
• 23 Wilkshire
• 09 Kokorin Booked
• 22 Kuranyi

Att: 9,977

Match 1473 - Wednesday, 1st August 2012

Season:  2012/13
UEFA Champions League Qualifier First Leg
Venue: CELTIC PARK

CELTIC     2     HJK HELSINKI     1

Celtic scorers: Hooper, Mulgrew

After going a goal behind early in the second hlf Celtic recover to narrowly win the 1st Leg tie.

2nd time seeing Helsinki both in early Rounds of UEFA competition.

Match 1472 - Sunday, 29th July 2012

Season:  2012/13
LONDON2012 - OLYMPIC FOOTBALL
Venue: OLD TRAFFORD

BELARUS     1     BRAZIL     3

Thankfully the Olympic football tickets bought before the match schedules were annouced included one of Brazil's matches.  Needlessly to say they did not let us down and produced three quality goals to light up a terrific afternoon of football  in Manchester.

Match 1471 - Sunday, 29h July 2012

LONDON2012 - OLYMPIC FOOTBALL
Venue: OLD TRAFFORD

EGYPT     1     NEW ZEALAND     1

Good match which had an exciting end to end finish but but no side is able to claim victory.