After a very long break from football manager due to a-level exams and such as, I've slowly got back into the beautiful game. I've decided to continue with this story, although I am quite a few years ahead of it now!
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Source: Sky Sports News
Double Swoop for Celtic!
Celtic manager Terry Dunne has spent almost £6million pound on two new attacking players. Portsmouth's Danny Webber has completed his move to Celtic Park after an offer was accepted at around a £1.5million bid. Mame Biram Diouf from Manchester United has also been captured to Celtic Park after a bid of around £4.5million got accepted by Sir Alex Ferguson. Left Wingback Danny Fox has left Celtic and gone to Derby County for £1.2million.
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July 2010
The first month of the new season saw two to three friendlies, depending on results from the first match. We were invited to a friendly competition that I accepted. There were only four teams in the competition and our first match was up against Freiburg, then the final would be against Ajax. We then also had a friendly against Burnley after these matches.
Champions League Return Leg
H Celtic 5 – 1 Sparta Prague
Well, just when I thought the result couldn't get any better, it does! This score isn't the aggregate, this is just the score from the night. In total the score ended up 9-2 on aggregate. I great result which sends our confidence sky high for the next round.
Friendly Cup
A Celtic 4 - 1 Freiburg (Semi-Finals)
A Celtic 1 - 2 Ajax (Final)
A Celtic 0 – 1 Hibs (Friendly)
We smashed Freiburg with doubles from Scott McDonalds and new signing Diouf. Full confidence was upon us as we faced off against Ajax. Two goals in the first twenty minutes meant that our heads were down. The rest of the match was pretty steady and rather boring. We managed to pull a goal back but it was too little too late. The friendly against Burnley was a big success with us scoring 6 goals and conceding nil. Diouf got on the scoresheet three times. Diouf had a great start to his celtic career in these friendlies, and I hoped that this form would continue in the season.
Scott McDonald celebrates his second goal against Freiburg.
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August 2010
The official start to the competitive season. This month had four fixtures lined up for us. All were SPL matches. Aims for this month where to hit the ground running and get a good couple of results under our belts.
Scottish Premier League
A Celtic 1 – 3 Dundee Utd
A Celtic 1 – 1 Hibs
H Celtic 1 – 0 Aberdeen
H Celtic 4 – 0 Motherwell
Wasn’t a very good start to the season, being beat 3-1 by a rival team for the Championship. My players never really turned up today and I wasn’t happy with the performance at all. Then we drew with Hibs. Yet again, a bad performance. We didn’t really look like winning against a type of opponent we will have to be beating throughout the season if we are going to challenge for the league title. Finally, on the 21st of August 2010 we got our first win of the season. A comfortable 1-0 win thanks to a Giorgio Samaras penalty meant we had our first three points of the season. Believe it or not, this was our first match at Celtic Park since the 12th of May the season before. The final game of the month was home to Motherwell. The match finished 4-0, and we had over 70% of the games possession. The team looked like it was finally getting the results it needed.
Giorgio Samaras celebrates the only goal of the 1-0 win over Aberdeen.
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September 2010
The second month into the season. This is where the season really starts, as the Champions League groups start as well as the League Cup.
Scottish Premier League
A Celtic 0 – 2 Hamilton
H Celtic 1 – 0 Rangers
A Celtic 0 – 0 Hearts
These three premier league matches weren’t good. I realise that if we are to challenge for the league this year results must improve. We cannot keep having bad performances as they are costing us points. Despite the 5 points lost in total, I am extremely happy that we managed to “get one over” on our bitter rivals Rangers. It took a 84th minute strike from Diouf to break the deadlock at Celtic Park. You’ll Never Walk Alone was echo’d around Celtic Park at the full time whistle.
Champions League Group B
H Celtic 3 – 1 Arsenal
A Celtic 1 – 1 Juventus
This group is turning out to be quite an entertaining one. Arsenal and Juventus are very tough opponents and are the favorites to go through. To make sure we have a good chance of going through we needed to make sure we got strong results against these opponents as well as get as many points as possible against the weakest team in the group B. Jerusalem. We won arsenal 3-1, and with ease. Arsenal were the favourites for the tie but we pulled it out the bag. Celtic Park was in full voice all night long and it was a night for the fans to remember. We then got a solid draw at Juventus which put us in a strong position in the group.
League Cup 3rd Round
H Celtic 3 – 0 Queen’s Park
This match was pretty straight forward. A comfortable 3-0 win in a competition that isn’t really that big.
Scott McDonald beats Gallas to the ball and puts Celtic 3-1 ahead of Arsenal, and finally sealing the match for Celtic.
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October 2010
By now we should’ve gotten into a winning routine and be match fit. This month saw us have six games in total. Four were premier league matches, one was Champions League and one was League Cup.
Scottish Premier League
A Celtic 2 – 1 Falkirk
H Celtic 1 – 1 St. Johnstone
H Celtic 4 – 2 Kilmarnock
A Celtic 1 – 0 Inverness CT
I was quite impresses this month with these results. 10 points out of a possible 12 isn’t bad at all. This month shows that we have the capability to win the league this year, and to do it we had to keep this form up.
Champions League Group B
A Celtic 1 – 0 B. Jerusalem
The only group match of this month saw us face off against the easiest side in the group. We won the tie 1-0 but were however fortunate not to have drawn, as the opposition missed a penalty on 70 minutes.
League Cup Quarter Final
A Celtic 2 – 1 Rangers
What a match! Match of the season so far. We went down after just 5 minutes and were trailing for the majority of the game. I put the team full out attack and we managed to get a penalty on 65 minutes. Mark Wilson steps up… GOAL! Then, just 8 minutes later Shaun Maloney managed to get his head onto the ball and nod it in to turn the game on its end. We held on till the end and won the match 2-1. Great result against our most bitter rivals.
[FONT="]Shaun Maloney celebrates his late winner against bitter rivals Rangers in the League Cup Quarter-Finals.[/FONT]
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November 2010
Leading upto the halfway mark through the season and results were looking okay. We were third in the league and only a point behind second and first. This month saw us play five games. Three from the SPL and two from the Champions League.
Scottish Premier League
H Celtic 6 – 1 Hibs
A Celtic 2 – 1 Aberdeen
H Celtic 3 – 1 Dundee Utd
Maximum points were picked up from the league games for this month. What more could I ask from my players? I 6-1 thrashing against Hibs put our confidence high for the next two big games against Aberdeen and Dundee. We won them both without any real problems.
Champions League Group B
H Celtic 2 – 1 B. Jerusalem
A Celtic 2 – 0 Arsenal
A win over B. Jerusalem meant that we were through to the knockout stage. And a win against Arsenal would seal first place for seedings. We did just that and now had only one game left against Juventus with nothing changing our qualifying roots whatever the result.
[FONT="]Scott Brown punches his fist in the air has he puts Celtic 2-0 up against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.[/FONT]
