MATCH REPORT; Arsenal 3 Madison 1

A frustrating day for the Celts resulted in a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Greenwich Arsenal. There was no doubt that Arsenal are a good team but Celtic did themselves no favors in the first half  by falling into the same old bad habit of treating the ball like a plague ridden handkerchief. At times it looked like there was a competition to see who could boot the ball as fast and as far away as possible. Of course, this could have been due to a rough start to the game when the Celts found themselves 1-0 down after only a couple of minutes. An attack down the Celtic right found the defense claiming for offside rather than stopping the player. It was then relatively easy for the Arsenal striker to slot the ball past an unprotected Hulk for the go ahead goal. The Celts tried to get in to the game but appeared to be nervous and treating their opponents with too much respect. It was very difficult to get hold of the ball and even harder finding a player to hold on to it. As the half wore on Johnny B found himself isolated on the left wing with Alex and Roniildo sitting almost on top of the defensive back line leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the field. The team were relying on Tim and Mike to clear up as best as they could and try to stem the tide. This "tactic" seemed to be working until the 30 minute mark when a speculative shot outside the box found Hulk temporarily blinded by the Sun allowing the ball to fly through his hands into the net. At this point the heads went down and the Celts were just holding on.  Clearance after clearance was booted up the park and  it looked like Celtic had endured another storm and might be able to get to the half time break only two down.  But once again another attack down the  right side found the home team in acres of space. A despairing last minute tackle by Tim, trying to cover the huge gap in the defense, was not enough to stop another shot being blasted into the net.  A tough half time discussion did lead to an attitude change  and a vow to have a real go in the second half. And that approach really did lead to a much better performance by the visitors. There were more attacking opportunities for the attacking front line and the midfielders were able to unsettle the opposition defense a little more. But as the half wore on it was still difficult to get shots on goal. Leo came closest a few times with some fine runs and shots but to no avail. With only 10 minutes left the Celts did get the reward their efforts deserved when a good move down the left side resulted in Tano squeezing the ball across the box to Kevin who squirted the ball into the net for a consolation goal.  Another defeat after a run of good games but Celtic did show signs that they can hang with even the best teams in the division. Two games left now to save their berth in the second division.

MAN OF THE MATCH; A tough game for players to stand out but one player who put in the telling tackle and never gave up was Tim. So the MOM goes to him.