League Cup Wednesday 9th November 2006

Celtic 2

Rangers 0

1:0 Maloney 26
2:0 Klos 82 o.g.

Att: 57,183

MIB: Kenny Clark

Celtic: Boruc Telfer Balde McManus Camara Petrov Lennon Nakamura McGeady Maloney Hartson
subs
Thompson for McGeady 77

'We shall not be moved by the Hearts, the Hibs or the Rangers...'

Hey, it's even in the correct sequence!

In recent seasons we have served up some serious gubbings to the huns - 6:2, a couple of 3:0 romps etc. Few have been as comprehensive as this one.

Celtic might not have bombarded their goal constantly for 90 minutes, but Boruc was so under-employed he would have been well advised to bring a book with him.

Tactical genius Eck had decided that the best way to stop us would be to disrupt our passing game. To do that every Celtic player with the ball should be challenged by any means necessary as quickly as possible, and I do mean every Celtic player. Thus we had the impressive sight of the Rangers forwards galloping 25 yards to close down our keeper, who would simply knock the ball out to one the backs, with the poor visibly wilting hun turning to close him down.

Little wonder that Steven Thomson was removed before even an hour had gone. He was booked in for a shot on the iron lung, which was a shame because he was feeding our midfield with the ball almost as much as our defence was.

But as we all know it's players that win games not tactics, and we had all the best ones tonight; on this showing there isn't one Celtic player that you would replace with his blue counterpart - quite a feat for the Mo Camaras of this world, but then Oliver Bernard makes the bold Mo look like the new Tommy Gemmell.

The goals were simply perfect, neatly lancing two deeply held Rangers shiboleths; the pipedream of Murray Park and the infallibility of Stefan Klos.

Barrowfield product Shaun Maloney took a pass close to the halfway line, jinked inside, progressed a further 10 yards and, having spotted Klos standing out of position, let fly with the most wonderful strike. In my 20 odd years of going these fixtures it ranks as one of the finest shots I've seen, up there with McStay's centenary thunderbolt at Ibrox and Henrik's chip in the 6:2 game. It's one thing to spot a keeper out of position; it's something else to do something about it when you're fully 30 yards from the goal. He may have been shown how to play football on a dodgy red blaes pitch, but the people showing him knew what they were doing, and have clearly done it well.

By the time the second went in it was all over anyway thanks to the man who didn't want to sign for Rangers until he found out they were the only club interested in him.

Given that anyone with a passing interest in football would have noticed that two high profile dismissals for sarcastically applauding officials have already taken place this season how intelligent was it to do just that when you're 1:0 down away from home in a cup tie against a clearly superior team? Hell of a way to lose your manager his job.

With nine minutes left Nakamura swung in a cross from the right. Bobo was heading for it, Fandan didn't know what to do (he may not have known where he was) and Klos was in no mood to tangle with Balde (he kept his eyes firmly on our centre back rather than the ball), the result of which was that the ball bounced in off the back of Klos. Best keeper in the country eh?

Other honourable Rangers mentions must go to the invisible men; Lovenkrands and Jeffers, the dream ticket. Note to Francis Jeffers - even Cascarino had bagged a goal by the time November swung in to view. Get a job boy... No on second thoughts, keep up the good work.

So Strachan gets his big game win, and the most impressive thing was the way in which we got it. Without getting too carried away it looks like the wee man has got our momentum going. Next on the list we have to repeat this trick all over again. The big question is: who will be strapped into the hun hot seat by the time that game comes around?