A Celtic State of Mind’s Decade of Dominance Awards – Goal of the Decade

Since 2010, Celtic have won 8 league trophies, 5 Scottish Cups and 5 League Cups in what will be referred back to in history as the ‘Decade of Dominance’. With lots of glorious memories over the last 10 years, at A Celtic State of Mind we have decided to pull together an awards ceremony highlighting some of the best and worst of the last 10 years of Celtic.
 
Over the next few weeks we will be posting a new daily poll and article looking for you to vote on your favourite goal, game, jersey, player and much more as we celebrate the Decade of Dominance.

To start us off we’re looking for your favourite goal since 2010. With hundreds of goals during that time, it was very hard to narrow it down, and therefore we have 3 semi-finals, with the top goal going forward to the final where we will put these 3 up against a goal which we may have missed out, going on the feedback from you!
 
Today we have the first semi-final, with some very important goals, from winners in Europe through to title deciding goals and some goals that made history.

Semi Final 1
 
Goal 1 – Tony Watt vs Barcelona
 
As the club celebrated their 125th anniversary, Celtic took to the park against a Barcelona side who had, only weeks earlier, snatched a last-minute goal to stop Celtic picking up a famous point in the Camp Nou. An incredible Tifo surrounded the stadium as the teams took to the park and Celtic lined up with a makeshift side due to injuries to Izaguirre, Forrest, Rogne, Brown and Hooper.

Miku was chosen to lead the line for Celtic with Samaras playing off the Venezuelan. The stage was set at 1-0 to Celtic thanks to a Victor Wanyama header, when teenager Tony Watt, a recent signing from Airdrie, made his European debut, replacing Mikael Lustig.

Only a matter of days after his wife had given birth, Messi, who had been a doubt for the game, stood over a free-kick on the edge of the Celtic area. He struck the ball well but it was a comfortable save for Fraser Forster, who had made several great saves throughout the tie. Forster played the ball long, Xavi misjudged the bounce of the ball and it fell to the feet of young Watt, who out-paced Javier Mascherano and slotted the ball past Victor Valdes into the bottom left corner, sending Celtic Park into rapturous scenes.

Quite an incredible night under the Parkhead lights.
 
Goal 2 – James Forrest v Shaktar Karagandy
 
Celtic looked to have been out of the running following a 2-0 defeat in Karagandy in the first leg of the Champions League Play-Off.

58,000 packed Celtic Park in the hope that, just maybe, they could turn this around and make it into the promised land. A goal late in the first-half from Kris Commons cut the deficit to one but this was proving quite the struggle for Neil Lennon’s side. However, a Samaras goal just three minutes into the second-half levelled the tie and the momentum was swinging Celtic’s way.

Attack after attack came from the Bhoys as they tried to win the tie in normal time, whilst wary of the counter attacking threat from Shaktar. And then finally, Anthony Stokes drove into the box, beating three Karagandy defenders before cutting it back to James Forrest, who in the 92nd minute, lofted the ball into the roof of the net from the penalty spot and sent Celtic into the Champions League group stages.

The comeback was complete.
 
Goal 3 – Tom Rogic v Kilmarnock
 
Rugby Park and its plastic pitch have always been a difficult stomping ground for Celtic and none more so than on 19th March 2016.

Celtic had looked for long periods of the game to be second best, Aberdeen were closing the gap at the top of the table and it was thought that there might actually be a proper title race on. Celtic nearly went behind to a Lee Hodson drive whereas, at the other end, Sviatchenko agonisingly watched his header being cleared off the line.

Then in the 90th minute, when the game was looking as if it was petering out into another two dropped points for the champions, up stepped subsititute Tom Rogic. Rogic picked the ball up from Callum McGregor around 30 yards from goal, and turned his defender before unleashing a powerful left-footed strike which flew past Jamie McDonald and into the top left corner, causing incredible scenes amongst the Celtic support behind the goal.

A goal which would ultimately turn the tide on the season for Celtic, leading to Ronnie Deila’s side lifting the title.
 
Goal 4 – Moussa Dembele vs Rangers
 
On the 10th September 2016, Celtic lined up against Rangers in the Scottish Premiership for the first time. The previous incarnation of Rangers had been liquated four years earlier and the new team had spent four years climbing the Scottish lower leagues before making their debut in the Scottish Premiership.

Media interest was at hyperventilation levels with a certain Joey Barton spending most of the week running his mouth off about how easy it would be for his Rangers side at Celtic Park.

An injury blow for Celtic on the day of the game was Leigh Griffiths, who was ruled out. However, cometh the hour, cometh the man…

Moussa Dembele, the 20-year-old signed from Fulham that summer stepped up to the plate. After 33 minutes, Dembele powerfully headed past Foderingham to give Celtic the lead before sending Senderos for hotdogs when he slotted home his second. A goal from Scott Sinclair made it three after the hour mark after Joey Garner had equalised just before half-time. Philippe Senderos, a new signing, whose arrival was supposed to strike fear into the Celtic fans, was sent off for a hilarious attempt at trying to stop a ball going over the top with his hand.

Then came the moment that we hadn’t seen since Harry Hood in 1973. Mikael Lustig drove forward down the right hand side, Celtic were 3 on 2 in attack, as the Swede lifted a ball over the heads of Lee Wallace and the aforenoted Joey Barton, right to the feet of the Frenchman who controlled it with his right and slotted it home with his left to complete a perfect hat-trick!

Colin Watt