[ritchiebaby]

Hibs welcome Celtic to Easter Road on Saturday for a game that could feature another chastening defeat for Hibs. I wouldn't presume to forecast the score, but we will be farting against thunder and I can't see our defence keeping out the Celtic strikers.

Still, we won the last game 4-2 in May and, although Celtic might have had their eyes on a bigger game ahead, Hibs were well worth the win. Hibs do have players who can win the game, but Celtic probably have more. A loss wouldn't define our season and a win, or even a draw, could get our confidence up for the visit of Ross County on Tuesday. Let's hope we put in a decent performance.

[HerefordBull]

Think what I said last week for the sevco game will apply again tomorrow!

[ritchiebaby]

Monty on the Celtic game
“I want to see a reaction from last week’s result. There were a lot of positives to take out of the game, but I want to see us evolve as a team and to see us develop. One thing that let us down was the transition defensively and switching off in key moments. We made basic errors as a team in terms of our defensive structure, so we’ve worked hard to fix that because against the top teams you can’t guess, you have to do it right all of the time because the moment you switch off, you’ll get punished; that’s what happened last week. There were a lot of learnings from last week for myself and for the team, and I’m one that learns from defeats. We move on this weekend and we’re really looking forward to the game.”

Ritchie's view
He's saying all the right things, but we all know that the players he's dealing with find it difficult against the top teams (and top budgets).
And, HB, you're even more pessimistic than I am, but probably right.

[hibeejim21]

If we play like we did last week we will get smashed to bits. Monty has to be a bit more realistic here.

Much is going to depend how Celtic came out of midweek, i thought they played well against athletico and their front 3 will be a constant threat.

Rodgers has never won as celtic manager at easter road though and he is a very different type of manager to Ange. They might have to rotate some players today and i don't think they have the strength in depth they used to have.

[ritchiebaby]

Haven't seen the highlights yet, but a welcome point against a jaded Celtic side. We apparently still did our best to lose with some poor passing out of defence. This is where I disagree with Monty - if your defence is struggling, hoof the ball up the park, don't keep on playing a system that the current players are uncomfortable with. On another day, we would have been punished.

[HerefordBull]

Aye a good point for you guys Ritchie. A mate said, Celtic didn't move through the gears till the last ten minutes but some resolute Hibs defending secured a point.

[hibeejim21]

A great point after the previous weeks capitulation at the sevco dome.

The manager learned from that and this time we gave celtic no space at all in the middle of the park and worked really hard on that. It wasn't a good game to watch though, they looked done in after a hard european game midweek and rodgers selected the same team again, they only really looked threatening when they brought forrest on late in the game, they definitely don't have the strength in depth they used to.

Was a bit surprised by the poor attendance.

The only real gutter though was the boyle miss, just a slightly better connection to the cross and it would have been 3 points. A great chance.

Usually i take the car in but this time i got the tram from the centre of town for the first time to balfour street. Never thought i would be doing that in my lifetime and shows you how much the city and Leith is changing.

[ritchiebaby]

Monty on the game
“I thought it was a real good game of football against a top, top-quality opposition. I’m really proud of the players’ effort. They showed a lot of desire today and showed defensively what we lacked last week. I thought the camaraderie and effort was there for everyone to see and we played some good stuff.
We nullified their threats, of which there’s a lot of them, so I’m proud of the boys, their effort, and proud to take a point.”

[hibeejim21]

Just saw the scores there in the games today , the huns needing 2 penalties and 15 mins combined injury time in total to beat hertz who led for most of the game.

Referee ? John Beaton

[ritchiebaby]

Just watched last night's highlights on i-Player and was horrified to see Hibs have 3 players within 6 yards of their bye-line at a goalkick.    It invited Celtic to press and when the inevitable mistake came, we should have been a goal down. Future opponents will be delighted to see the antics.

However, we did pretty well and, with only scraps of possession to work with, we might have come away with 3 points after Boyle's chance. There's a lot to be pleased about and if we keep working as hard as yesterday, we could win more than lose with our flashes of flair.