Kieran Tierney makes hero's return to Celtic

Times

a day ago

We have all sat through our fair share of limp pre-season friendlies played at walking pace in an atmosphere akin to a Sunday School picnic.
This one, however, was pleasingly full-blooded and with a vast travelling support from Tyneside, we had noise, colour and mutual rage-baiting throughout. Celtic were comfortable victors but for a time Newcastle brought something to the table on the pitch as well as off it. There was, though, a clunkiness to the visitors in the final third and a vulnerability at the back which the Scottish champions ruthlessly exploited.
Three sides of the stadium rose as one 15 minutes from the end when the returning hero Kieran Tierney measured a signature pinpoint cross onto the head of his fellow substitute Liam Scales for the fourth goal of a game which had long since ceased to be a contest. There was a trophy at stake here — of course there was — so Tierney's second stint at his boyhood heroes already features silverware.
The initial intrigue centred on the make-up of both frontlines, Johnny Kenny given the chance to play through the middle for the hosts amid a swirl of speculation that the Irishman will be the odd man out in their continued attempts to strengthen up top. For Newcastle, meanwhile, Alexander Isak sat this one out in the wake of repeated links to Liverpool, the official explanation being that he and the similarly absent Joelinton were having their 'minutes managed' prior to the next leg of pre-season in Singapore and South Korea.
Although well short of capacity in the home sections, Celtic Park crackled with an energy often missing from run-of-the-mill domestic occasions. That 10,000-strong block of black and white in the Lisbon Lions stand and southeast corner made their presence felt from the off and left little doubt as to the excellent pre-match that they — and Glasgow's publicans — had enjoyed.
Newcastle found some early joy through Harvey Barnes down the left, the winger standing up a number of teasing deliveries for William Osula to attack while Jacob Murphy steamed in at the far post trying to pin Hayato Inamura, Celtic's new left back. Fabian Schär went close with a volley then even closer at the other end, when he looked to have diverted a Hyun-Jun Yang cross beyond Nick Pope only for the goalkeeper to pull off a smart low save. Kasper Schmeichel was then equally alert when an Osula shot took a nick off Dane Murray and looped towards his top corner, the Dane springing up to turn the ball over the bar.
It was only eight weeks ago that Celtic suffered that penalty shootout agony against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final. Here the spotkick tables turned for them and their supporters as Arne Engels stroked them in front from 12 yards after Joe Willock tripped the Belgian as he went to connect with a Daizen Maeda cutback. Engels' conversion was emphatic, low to Pope's left as the goalkeeper dived right.
Newcastle continued to see plenty of the ball and had several chances to draw level just before the break. The ever-busy Barnes saw Anthony Ralston bravely block his thrashed attempt with his midsection, Schär lodged another volleyed effort that this time lacked the necessary thrust, then Osula raced clear, rounded Schmeichel but had to watch as the imperious Auston Trusty cleared his shot off the line.
The half would indeed deliver a further goal, but after all this United pressure, it was Celtic who doubled their lead. Kenny — fresh from miscuing an attempt to stab home a low Yang centre — set off in pursuit of a blootered Schmeichel clearance, with Pope electing to race out of his box in an attempt to head the ball to safety. The former Burnley veteran looked on in horror as the bounce instead took it clean over his scalp and Kenny knocked into the empty net. The Pope appreciation society roared their approval from behind the goal.
Howe summoned some costly cavalry for the second period, two £55million men, Anthony Elanga and Sandro Tonali, joining the £40million Anthony Gordon as part of some nine changes. Osula and Lewis Miley were the only starters to reappear.
Tierney emerged after 56 minutes for his first appearance here since April 2019. By this point, the hosts were three goals to the good, Yang having converted a Maeda cutback to ice an industrious individual display. The South Korean can flatter to deceive — and lost ground with supporters for a shambolic Hampden cameo back in May — but there are raw materials for Rodgers to work with.
The Celtic manager made a further ten changes just after the hour mark, and if the game naturally felt more disjointed in the closing 30 minutes, it still rattled along at a commendable lick. Benjamin Nygren, the new home attacker, bent a free-kick well over after Dan Burn was booked for bringing down Adam Idah, before Martin Dubravka turned a Reo Hatate snapshot behind for a corner.
The Slovakian could do nothing about that Tierney/Scales combination which perhaps more than anything else will have whetted home appetites for the season ahead.
Star man Auston Trusty (Celtic) Celtic (4-3-3) K Schmeichel (V Sinisalo 62min) — A Ralston (B McPherson 62min), D Murray (C Donovan 62min), A Trusty (L Scales 62min), H Inamura (K Tierney 56min) — L McCowan (B Nygren 62min), C McGregor (Capt) (R Hatate 62min), A Engels (P Bernardo 62min) — HJ Yang (M Tilio 62min), J Kenny (A Idah 62min), D Maeda (J Forrest 62min). Booked Murray (34min). Newcastle United (4-3-3) N Pope (M Dubravka 46min) — K Trippier (E Krafth 46min), F Schär (J Lascelles 46min), S Botman (D Burn 46min), M Targett (A Murphy 46min) — L Miley (S Neave 76min), B Guimaraes (Capt) (S Tonali 46min), J Willock (J White 46min) — J Murphy (A Elanga 46min), W Osula (T Hernes 76min), H Barnes (A Gordon 46min). Booked Burn (68min) Referee N Walsh. Attendance 45,739