ANTHONY STOKES RETURNED from a short injury lay-off to put in a star performance in Celtic’s 3-0 Champions League win over Shakhter Karagandy midweek.
The Irishman’s jinking run and pass set up James Forrest to slam home the goal that took Neil Lennon’s out of a qualifying frying pan and into a Group H fire with Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax.
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With Georgios Samaras not in the matchday squad, Commons and Stokes will tasked with the goalscoring dutie. The best scoring chances for Celtic came courtesy of Virgil van Dijk and Mikael Lustig.
Stokes delivered the goods in the losing stages with a perfectly judged, curling free-kick against Dundee United. Addressing the ball 22 yards out from the United goal, the forward rapped in his effort off the post before launching himself towards the Celtic fans in celebration.
The best United could muster in the first half was a downward header from David Goodwillie that Fraser Forster did well to keep out.
The second half was short on chances and quality but Stokes stepped up in the 87th minute to seal an important away win for the visitors, who are now level on points with league-leading Inverness.
At least Sammon is Irish. Cox and Walters are crap they aren’t even Irish.
Sammon doesn’t deserve to get more flak than Cox or Walters. The lad has made just a couple of starts and has showed some decent touches and signs of interaction with Long and Keane.
It is extremely disheartening to see Walters on the teamsheet every single time we have a competitive game, and until recently, Cox too.
Tactical decisions like bringing on Cox to play on the wing against Croatia ahead of McClean or Long and playing Cox in midfield against Spain screwed us in the Euros. Stupid, stupid, stupid to play Cox and Walters ahead of Long against Germany too. You reap what you sow.
Cox is a back up out and out striker at best, and certainly no winger.
Walters too, should be behind Long, Keane, Doyle and Stokes in the pecking order. I don’t see what he offers apart from workrate. He has no pace, no touch, useless in the air, can’t score. He doesn’t even look match fit. He cannot run or cross the ball so what is he doing on the wing?
Kevin Doyle – one of the best players in the Euros, rescued us in Kazakhstan and scored against Oman and then he is dumped. I don’t get it.
I would have McGeady, Brady, McClean, Pilkington, Long, Doyle, Coleman or even Lawrence playing on the wing ahead of Walters or Cox.
Don’t understand Irish fans infatuation with Jon Walters. Every single Stoke fan thinks he is rank and his running presence in the first team is a marathon ongoing joke.
He has workrate. What else did I say that was untrue?
He’s hardly doing himself any favours either.. Suspected of nightclub assault, attending funerals of paramilitary criminals, and that’s not even mentioning his supposed bad attitude. Much better player than cox sammon or madden but he won’t be touched while he’s making such negative headlines.
Said it before and I’ll say it again. If a guy is too tired for a euro qualifier in Macedonia then how can he be expected to play 3 games in a week in brazil? By his own admission he dosnt have the stamina
If he was that good, then surely he would have at least made it in the championship by now.
Scoring against Dundee Utd and Ross County is one thing, but try doing that against the likes of QPR, Wigan and Leeds in the championship, never mind in the premier league!
He still has a lot to prove and staying in the spl comfort zone his whole career isn’t going to help his case for Ireland inclusion…
Fair point but how many of our strikers have done it at that level?Stokes at least has European experience and is playing and scoring every week. Much more of a goal threat than Cox, sammon or Walters in my opinion
hate when people slate our players because they play spl,wev a small pool for a national side so we cant be too picky,we dont have the novelty of having 40ish players playing first team PL football so if that means picking a player performing well in the spl(and champions league) then so be it,as far as I know Holland picked that left back from celtic(cant remember his name began with a b anyway)for the 2010 world cup and ended up runners up,now i know we wont be runners up in Brazil if we make it but it shows if a player is good enough they should be picked and their selection should not be judged on what league they play,especially if its the premier division of the country and especially if we have feck all players to pick from
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Conor Sammon gets in the Ireland squad ahead of Stokes- that is humorous in too many ways.
At least Sammon is Irish. Cox and Walters are crap they aren’t even Irish.
Sammon doesn’t deserve to get more flak than Cox or Walters. The lad has made just a couple of starts and has showed some decent touches and signs of interaction with Long and Keane.
It is extremely disheartening to see Walters on the teamsheet every single time we have a competitive game, and until recently, Cox too.
Tactical decisions like bringing on Cox to play on the wing against Croatia ahead of McClean or Long and playing Cox in midfield against Spain screwed us in the Euros. Stupid, stupid, stupid to play Cox and Walters ahead of Long against Germany too. You reap what you sow.
Cox is a back up out and out striker at best, and certainly no winger.
Walters too, should be behind Long, Keane, Doyle and Stokes in the pecking order. I don’t see what he offers apart from workrate. He has no pace, no touch, useless in the air, can’t score. He doesn’t even look match fit. He cannot run or cross the ball so what is he doing on the wing?
Kevin Doyle – one of the best players in the Euros, rescued us in Kazakhstan and scored against Oman and then he is dumped. I don’t get it.
I would have McGeady, Brady, McClean, Pilkington, Long, Doyle, Coleman or even Lawrence playing on the wing ahead of Walters or Cox.
Don’t understand Irish fans infatuation with Jon Walters. Every single Stoke fan thinks he is rank and his running presence in the first team is a marathon ongoing joke.
He has workrate. What else did I say that was untrue?
He should be in the Ireland squad
After Robbie, most natural striker we have by a country mile…sorry jackeen mile!
Because of his dad they have block on him playin..go with players 2 divisions down
He’s hardly doing himself any favours either.. Suspected of nightclub assault, attending funerals of paramilitary criminals, and that’s not even mentioning his supposed bad attitude. Much better player than cox sammon or madden but he won’t be touched while he’s making such negative headlines.
Even b4 this supposed attack he wasnt being picked….
Said it before and I’ll say it again. If a guy is too tired for a euro qualifier in Macedonia then how can he be expected to play 3 games in a week in brazil? By his own admission he dosnt have the stamina
Agree Cash , Unfortunately he brings negative baggage with him & wont be selected for Ireland , its a pity because hes a good striker
If he was that good, then surely he would have at least made it in the championship by now.
Scoring against Dundee Utd and Ross County is one thing, but try doing that against the likes of QPR, Wigan and Leeds in the championship, never mind in the premier league!
He still has a lot to prove and staying in the spl comfort zone his whole career isn’t going to help his case for Ireland inclusion…
Fair point but how many of our strikers have done it at that level?Stokes at least has European experience and is playing and scoring every week. Much more of a goal threat than Cox, sammon or Walters in my opinion
hate when people slate our players because they play spl,wev a small pool for a national side so we cant be too picky,we dont have the novelty of having 40ish players playing first team PL football so if that means picking a player performing well in the spl(and champions league) then so be it,as far as I know Holland picked that left back from celtic(cant remember his name began with a b anyway)for the 2010 world cup and ended up runners up,now i know we wont be runners up in Brazil if we make it but it shows if a player is good enough they should be picked and their selection should not be judged on what league they play,especially if its the premier division of the country and especially if we have feck all players to pick from
Plays champions league yea poor league how many irish at moment are?
True story, Had a row in baby Wes with him back in the day back to his old tricks I see…