A Celtic State of Mind’s Decade of Dominance – League Match of the Decade (Round 4)

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, A Celtic State of Mind 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 regular polls and articles looking for you to vote on your favourite goal, game, jersey, player and much more as we celebrate the Decade of Dominance. Having looked at some of the fantastic goals, we now move on to matches, and with so many games over the span of 10 years, we’ve split this category into 3 – Domestic, Cups and European.

Today we have the second semi final from the Domestic category, with some absolutely incredible games included, from title-winning encounters, amazing comebacks and demolitions of the other half of Glasgow.

Have we missed any out? Tweet us your favourite game and vote in our polls.

SEMI FINAL # 4

Game 1

11 March 2018

Rangers 2 (Windass, Candeias)
Celtic 3 (Rogic, Dembele, Edouard)

Celtic were rocked on the day of this game with the news that Craig Gordon was injured and back up Dorus de Vries was also on the sidelines. January loan signing Scott Bain was thrown into his first appearance in the hoops on the biggest stage of them all. Things didn’t start great when, after just 3 minutes, the Hoops fell behind to a strike from Josh Windass. Slack defending from Dedryck Boyata left the Englishman one-on-one with Bain, who he beat to give the Gers the lead.

A quick response was needed, and it came in the form of the Wizard of Oz, Tom Rogic, who picked the ball up 35 yards from goal, skipped past defenders with ease and curled a shot beyond Wes Foderingham and into the net from outside the area.

More poor defending from Celtic allowed an aimless cross to find Daniel Candeias, who struck home from the edge of the six-yard box to give Rangers back the lead. Just before half-time, though, we were level again, Candeias fouled Brown leading to massive cheers from the Ibrox support, little did they know, though, that Brown had managed to lift a pass over the Rangers defence and into the path of Moussa Dembele who lofted the ball over the advancing Foderingham and into the back of the net. “WHAT WAS THE GOALIE DAIN TAM?!”

Less than 15 minutes into the second-half and Celtic were down to 10 men. Jozo Simunovic was adjudged to have elbowed Alfredo Morelos whilst tussling for the ball in the air. The ascendancy was certainly with the Govan side but as luck would have it Scott Bain was keeping the Celts in it. Then the moment came… Olivier Ntcham picked the ball up in his own half, played the ball to Callum McGregor who, in turn, found Moussa Dembele. With his first touch, he played the ball left to substitute Odsonne Edouard. Edouard advanced towards the Rangers box and with tackles not forthcoming, cut inside to the left of the penalty spot before unleashing a curling effort past Foderingham and sealing the game for the 10 men of
Celtic.

10 men once again won the league against Rangers!

Game 2

26 December 2018

Aberdeen 3 (May, Cosgrove, Ferguson)
Celtic 4 (Sinclair x3, Edouard)

Any trip to Pittodrie can be difficult but with a visit to Ibrox on the horizon, this game meant a lot for the travelling Celtic side who wanted to open up a gap between them and Rangers.

Things started well for the Bhoys, with barely 6 minutes on the clock, Scott Sinclair found himself in the right place at the right time after Dominic Ball blocked a cross from the left. About 20 minutes later, Aberdeen were given a penalty after Emilio Izaguirre tackled Niall McGinn mid-cross and striker Stevie May tucked home the penalty to bring the scores level.

The game swang back and forth until what can only be described as the wackiest 15 minutes of football since the Motherwell v Hibs 6-6 game! On the 76th minute, Celtic took the lead with Scott Sinclair connecting from a James Forrest cross. Aberdeen were then awarded another penalty seven minutes from time; this time Sam Cosgrove slotted home to level the game at two apiece. Odsonne Edouard put the Celts back in front three minutes later, spinning and finally finding the ball, lofting it over Lewis and into the back of the net. Sinclair completed his hat-trick two minutes later after an exquisite Edouard run which left five Aberdeen players on their backsides and Sinclair with an empty net to slot home.

Game over? Not quite… Lewis Ferguson connected from a late corner to drag Aberdeen back into the game but, fortunately for the Bhoys, it was too little, too late. Another three points in the bag and a game not to be forgotten for a while.

Game 3

15 October 2011

Kilmarnock 3 (Shiels, Heffernan, Fowler)
Celtic 3 (Stokes x2, Mulgrew)

The game that ultimately decided the legacy of Neil Lennon as manager of Celtic. Going into the game already 15 points behind Rangers and having lost to Hearts the previous week, Celtic (and Lennon) simply could not afford to lose this game. Yet, with 45 minutes on the clock, Celtic were 3-0 down to what could only be described as an average Kilmarnock side. Dean Shiels, Paul Heffernan and James Fowler all slotted past Fraser Forster, as Neil Lennon’s tenure as Celtic manager looked to be coming to an end.

Lennon lit a rocket in the dressing room with a double substitution taking place, barely fit Gary Hooper and Beram Kayal were replaced by Victor Wanyama and Mo Bangura as Lennon looked for something to save his Celtic career. Things didn’t click right away and then… bang! A seven-minute salvo that turned not only Neil Lennon’s career but Celtic’s season around. Anthony Stokes slotted home a wonderful free-kick, then three minutes later a strike from 25 yards by Stokes really made the game interesting. 10 minutes from time, Charlie Mulgrew met a corner to bring the Celts level and the comeback was complete.

This game became a season definer and Celtic then went on a run of 20 games unbeaten before securing the title with a 6-0 victory on this ground 6 months later.

Game 4

7 October 2018

St Johnstone 0
Celtic 6 (Forrest x4, Edouard, McGregor)

The start of the 2018/19 season hadn’t gone well for Celtic, especially away from home. One point from nine wasn’t exactly the start that fans had expected. Following defeats at Tynecastle and Rugby Park alongside a very disappointing draw at New St Mirren Park, a trip to McDiarmid Park was one that didn’t carry a lot of hopes for the travelling fans.

10 days earlier, The Bhoys had won in the League Cup with a late strike from Leigh Griffiths. It didn’t take Celtic as long this time to break the deadlock with James Forrest picking up on a mistake from Scott Tanser before finishing off a deadly attacking move. Odsonne Edouard made it two after tucking home from a Kieran Tierney cross five minutes later. A lovely one-two with Tom Rogic gave James Forrest the chance to double his tally for the game which he did, slotting the ball past Zander Clark. It was that combination that connected for James Forrest’s hat-trick goal; a ball through left Forrest one-on-one with Clark and he slotted under the goalkeeper.

Forrest was having the game of his life when he connected once again with Tom Rogic before a 40-yard run led to him slotting the ball into the corner and grabbing his 4th goal of the game. Celtic went into the break 5-0 up and those in attendance were wondering how many more could be added to the tally – 8,9 or even 10 couldn’t be ruled out.

Although many Celtic fans know how these stories go, Celtic took their foot off the gas in the second-half and this was no different. Once again, another assist from Tom Rogic, connecting with Lewis Morgan before laying the ball off to Callum McGregor who made it six of the best by wrapping up a fantastic overall performance for the Bhoys.

Colin Watt