Celtic Beat Feyenoord, Gabriel And Crosas Lands and Join LOTW Fantasy Football League....

LOTW is having a happy monday. No, Squirel and G-Man in my mind, but happy at the fact that we stepped-on Feyenoord with a 3-1 victory, which ensures we didn't finish with another wooden spoon this pre-season.

After Friday it looked llike we were going to end up with mair wooden spoons than Gordon Ramseys kitchen. LOTW would love to stick a wooden spoon up that ex-Hun's arse and get him to shout the F-word- fienien, not fuck- over and over.

Results in pre-season games don't matter. But LOTW feels that you should get something out of every pre-season game that you play. Apart from the performances of Paul Caddis and Paul McGowan we got nothing from any of the games until last night.

The main talking point from last night was the formation. Our manager said post match.... 

"We decided at the beginning of the season that we would play the games for our benefit, not for the sake of entertainment. With every experiment we tried we got something from it, although that doesn't always means positive results. We have used it pre-season quite well. We have picked up a lot of good information for the rest of the season. We have tried three systems in the matches now and have picked up points we could be working on. If we get our passing right then it will all be worthwhile."

...which, is a fine comment if we had seen anything radical in every game. But we haven't. We saw a 4-5-1 in Porto, a 4-4-2 against Spurs- with a different take on players positions and last night we saw, for our manager who is meat and two veg 4-4-2 man, a break that is akin to man landing on the moon. He played a 4-3-3 with Aiden McGeady and Georgios Samaras dropping right and left midfield when we didn't have the ball.

Did it work? It showed enough, to say it could be worth trying again but can it really be measured against a team that is 3 weeks behind us in pre-season, a team that hasn't won their league for a decade and finished 6th in their league last season.

LOTW would also expect to beat or have a very good chance of beating any Dutch team that we meet in Europe as the Dutch leagues and the Scottish leagues are on the same level moneywise. In saying that we have had some decent signings from the Dutch league. There seems to be a bit value for money if you shop there.

We started with two players- Samaras and Jan Vennegoor Of Hesslelink- who have scored 179 goals between them in the Dutch league. So, surprise, surprise their knack of scoring on Dutch soil was as much of a given as a Scotsman with 70 Euros in Amsterdam.

We looked sharper, looked llike we had mair energy than Friday against Spurs- a feat that wouldn't have been too hard- but we still gave the ball away to often and the aimless punt was a feature of the dying embers of the game.

As was mentioned in the Hail Hails, 3-1 flattered us and the Dutch cut us open a few times. If it wasn't for Mark Brown- who seems to have been drinking The Holy Goalies love juice- then a the 3-0 HT scoreline would have been turned over.

So, unlike some on Celticcybertimdom, I see this an interesting step, rather than a promising one, we can still improve but....though results don't matter, things always seem fitter in pre-season after a victory. LOTW doesn't see it as a major step forward.

Guys, like Naylor- great cross for the 2nd goal- and Donati have been rank rotten and are living on borrowed time while the puzzle of an ex-German internationlist looking playing like a donkey with 3 legs and a blindfold on is one for The X-Files.

So LOTW is pleased to announce that white smoke will be coming from the Lennoxtown bunker this week. It looks like Marc Crosas and Gabriel Tamas- who is ending the longest running saga since Star Wars- will be paraded on the day The Huns crash out of Europe or beat Hearts feeder club on pens and we play Man Citee in our last pre-season knock around.

The Catalan press have the Crosas deal as close as done between the clubs and LOTW's man in Barca say's no mair than " you're getting talent".... his agent is making noises that the deal should be concluded soon so the infamous LOTW 'shitofilter' is at green for go.

Gabriel Tamas will arrive to make Caldwell and Mick sweat a bit more and make Darren O'Dea feel so far out in the cold he will need a parka to warm himself up.

But enough tittle tattle. Fantasy Football. Get yourself logged on and join the LOTW Super Lager Division 1, follow the instructions 'How to join a mini league' and join today. League name is LOTW Super Lager Division 1, and password is Bolloxs.

There is great main prizes and hopefully some shit for me to give away to the winner of the mini league.

Also, check out the Celtic hame page for latest stories in the 'throw in' section. Remember it's your teams hame page and you can update and contribute anything you think is worthy.

Shameless plug finished.

Forza