2021-07-10: Celtic 2-1 Charlton Athletic, Friendly

Match Pictures | Matches: 20212022


Trivia

  • KO: 15:00
  • Second friendly of the summer
  • Game played at Newport training camp and so no supporters
  • McGregor captain ; Ajeti two goals now in two games.
  • No Griffiths as he is ‘on leave’ due to more off-field online dramas. New allegations add to the initial ones don’t help.
  • Euros 2020 final tomorrow at Wembley (Italy v England)
  • Rocco Vata signs pro contract for Celtic, he is the son of ex-Celt Rudi Vata.
  • Former Celtic Direct Kevin Sweeney has passed away. RIP, https://thecelticstar.com/former-celtic-director-kevin-sweeney-passes-away/amp/
  • Reports that Ange said Ntcham has said he’ll stay for his last season, but sounds like no takers.
  • Vakoun Bayo has joined KAA Gent on a 4-year-deal

Covid

  • Celtic has been given permission for 2,000 supporters to attend our pre-season friendly match against Preston North End. Pathetically low relative to others such as Murrayfield.

Summary

Reports very positive from all but Ange states that improvements needed everywhere. High pressure game being played.

Goal for Dembele and Ajeti is good, but second half was disappointing especially conceding a goal. Most agreed that Celtic should have won by even more but didn’t so further to go.

Some put the second half performance down to a few coming on who wish to move on. It will take time for all to bed down.


Teams

Celtic:

First Half Celtic Side: Barkas, Taylor, Bitton, Ajeti, Soro, Turnbull, McGregor, Montgomery, Ralston, Welsh, Dembele

Second Half Celtic Side: Bain, Christie, Johnston, Ntcham, Edouard, Urhoghide, Shaw, Murray, Henderson, Montgomery, Hjelde

Goals:(Karamoko 24, Ajeti 39)
Assists:

FIRST HALF CHARLTON: MacGillivray, Roddy, Purrington, Dobson, Elerewe, Pearce, Jaiyesimi, Dempsey, Stockley, Morgan, Clayden

SECOND HALF CHARLTON: Harness, Barker, Oguntayo, Henry, Fameqo, Bakrin, Watson, Vennings, Washington, Davidson, Ghandour

Goals: (Washington 76)
Assists:

Ref:
Att: none – covid


Articles

  • Match Report (see below)

Pictures


Stats


Match Links


Articles

Celtic defeat Charlton in convincing fashion to make it two wins from two in pre-season

By Tony Connelly, Celtic View Reporter

Pre-season friendly
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Dragon Park, Newport

CELTIC…2
(Karamoko 24, Ajeti 39)

CHARLTON…1
(Washington 76)

Ange Postecoglou made it two wins from two as Celtic manager after the Hoops defeated Charlton Athletic with another impressive pre-season performance. Karamoko Dembele gave Celtic a thoroughly deserved lead midway through the first half and Albian Ajeti doubled the lead just before the break. Celtic dominated the game from start to finish but Charlton managed to claw a goal back through Conor Washington.

Celtic started well and created several opportunities within 10 minutes of kick-off. The first saw Callum McGregor slip a pass through for Adam Montgomery. The 18-year-old winger cut a dangerous pass across the face of goal but it was just behind Karamoko Dembele.

Albian Ajeti was unfortunate not to round off a great passage of play moments later. Dembele played Ajeti through and the Swiss striker rounded the keeper only to see the Charlton defence block his shot from a tight angle.

David Turnbull, who turned 22 today, nearly scored when he ran on to Greg Taylor’s pass across the face of goal but the midfielder drilled his shot narrowly wide of the post.

Celtic dominated possession as they went in search of a goal and moved the ball around with a good tempo which Charlton struggled to deal with.

Montgomery saw plenty of the ball out on the left and cause the opposition defence problems with his neat footwork and willingness to take on his marker.

The breakthrough came midway through the first half following a great pass from Nir Bitton down the left channel. The Charlton defence blocked the cross from Montgomery but Dembele ran in and pounced on a rebound and fired his shot back across goal and into the bottom corner.

Celtic dominated possession and moved the ball around with a good tempo throughout the first half as they worked their opponents with great movement off the ball.

A second goal looked almost inevitable and it came five minutes before the break. Anthony Ralston won the ball out on the right and showed great pace to drive down the right wing and float a cross towards the near post which Ajeti headed beyond the keeper.

The second half saw both sides field almost entirely different teams but Celtic’s control on the game was unaffected.

Mikey Johnston immediately began troubling the Charlton defence out wide on the left. He got the better of his marker a few times in the early stages of the first half and provided some dangerous balls into the box for Odsonne Edouard.

On the other wing, Ewan Henderson used his vision and creativity to provide Edouard with a great ball when he whipped a wonderful cross in towards the back post but it was inches out of reach for the French striker.

Johnston also looked to increase Celtic’s lead himself and did well to work some space inside the box to get a few shots off. The Charlton defence blocked his first two attempts but the 22-year-old did well with his subsequent attempt. His curling right-footed shot towards the top corner left the keeper helpless but crashed back off the post.

Charlton managed to claw a goal back against the run of play when they broke away after what looked like a foul on Ryan Christie. Conor Washington did well to slot his shot beyond the outrushing Scott Bain.

Celtic responded well with some quick one-touch passing as they looked to re-establish their two-goal lead. Owen Moffat impressed again down the right and it was unfortunate no team-mates were able to get on the end of his cross into the box in the closing stages of the game.

Bain deserved credit for preventing Charlton from snatching a draw minutes from the final whistle. Washington’s right-footed shot looked to be heading for the far corner but Bain, somehow, managed to get a hand to it to deny the Charlton striker a second goal.

FIRST HALF CELTIC SIDE: Barkas, Taylor, Bitton, Ajeti, Soro, Turnbull, McGregor, Montgomery, Ralston, Welsh, Dembele

SECOND HALF CELTIC Side: Bain, Christie, Johnston, Ntcham, Edouard, Urhoghide, Shaw, Murray, Henderson, Montgomery, Hjelde

FIRST HALF CHARLTON: MacGillivray, Roddy, Purrington, Dobson, Elerewe, Pearce, Jaiyesimi, Dempsey, Stockley, Morgan, Clayden

SECOND HALF CHARLTON: Harness, Barker, Oguntayo, Henry, Fameqo, Bakrin, Watson, Vennings, Washington, Davidson, Ghandour


Albian Ajeti and Karamoko Dembele score as Celtic get the better of Charlton

Celtic survived a late scare to record a 2-1 win against Charlton Athletic in Wales on Saturday afternoon.

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/albian-ajeti-and-karamoko-dembele-score-as-celtic-get-the-better-of-charlton-3303552

Karamoko Dembele and Albian Ajeti both scored in the first half and although Conor Washington’s 77th-minute strike gave the Addicks hope of a comeback late on, Ange Postecoglou’s side held on for a second consecutive pre-season win.

The new Hoops boss added a bit more experience to his starting XI in Newport, bringing in Greg Taylor, David Turnbull, Nir Bitton, and Callum McGregor for their first involvement of the summer, with McGregor taking the captain’s armband for the first half.

Dembele and Adam Montgomery were tasked with working the flanks while Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas, Anthony Ralston, Ismaila Soro, and Stephen Welsh completed the line-up.

Ajeti nearly opened the scoring after just six minutes but saw his effort cleared off the line by Deji Elerewe after rounding the ‘keeper before Charles Clayden saw his cross-cum-shot deflected wide at the other end.

Birthday boy Turnbull then dragged a shot narrowly wide after receiving a pass from Taylor.

His central defensive colleague for the day Bitton then engineered Celtic’s first goal, playing in Taylor whose cutback was met by McGregor and although Jason Pearce intervened, Dembele was on hand to net from close range.

Barkas then pulled off a fine save to deny Ben Dempsey an equaliser after good work by Albie Morgan and with five minutes until the interval, Ajeti doubled Celtic’s advantage, beating Scotland-qualified goakeeper Craig MacGillivary with a powerful header from Ralston’s cross.

Montgomery was the only player to start both halves, the winger being joined by ten new faces as Postecoglou rang the changes at half-time.

On came Scott Bain, Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard, Ewan Henderson, Leo Hjelde, Mikey Johnston, Dane Murray, Olivier Ntcham, Liam Shaw, and Osaze Urhoghide.

Henderson came close to teeing up Edouard but the youngster’s cross was just too far for the Frenchman to pounce, and the striker saw another effort blocked by former St Mirren loanee Akin Famewo on the hour mark.

Washington and James Vennings then had shots blocked by the Celtic defence as the English side sought a way back into the match.

Urhoghide set up Johnston with 15 minutes left but the winger’s effort smacked off the post and moments later Charlton went up the other end and reduced the deficit.

Josh Davison did well to pick out former Hearts striker Washington, and he nutmegged Bain to pull one back for Nigel Adkins’ side with 13 minutes remaining.

Celtic threw on Luca Connell and Owen Moffat and the latter sent in a teasing cross in the latter stages but there were no takers.

Bain then produced a fine one-handed save to deny Washington what looked like a certain equaliser in the dying seconds as Celtic ran out 2-1 winners.

Speaking after the game Dembele said: “It was good to get out there and play 45 minutes. I was pleased with my performance, and the goal, but the main thing for me was just being able to enjoy football again – I’ve not played for a while so when I’m out there I just want to show everyone what I can do.

“Now it’s all about working hard in training and trying to show the manager what I can do.”


CQN

Postecoglou, speaking to Celtic TV, said: “It was okay. It was another pre-season game, the first-half was quite good, we controlled the game pretty well. Second-half, we got a little bit stretched and chaotic.

“To be fair, for a lot of these guys, it’s their first game for quite a while, but they worked hard and I guess that’s the main thing.

“I think this was just mainly some match minutes in the boys’ legs, some of them haven’t played for quite a while and looked rusty in terms of their touch, but that’ll come.

“We’re working hard at training as well which probably has an effect on them in terms of fatigue for the games, but the most important thing for me is they’re trying to do the things we’re talking about and as long as we do that we can progress.”

Asked what he feels his side need to do to step up, he answered: “We’ve got to improve on everything.

“It’s only beginnings for us, so all we can focus on is day-to-day a little bit of improvement, there’s another game coming up against Bristol City and we’ll build toward that.

Hopefully, we’ll improve our performance a little bit from today. Like I said, they all worked hard. For me, what’s more important is seeing the intent of the whole team.

“We’re trying to keep the ball, we’re trying to be aggressive. When we lost the ball I thought we had a better shape – particularly in the first-half – in terms of being compact.

“So those are the key things.”

The Hoops started well and captain Callum McGregor sent Adam Montgomery away on the wing, but his low cross was just missed by Dembele. Ajeti was out of luck, too, when he rounded the keeper, but saw his finishing effort scrambled away by defence.

Birthday Bhoy David Turnbull, who turned 22 today, nearly scored when he ran on to Greg Taylor’s pass, but his shot flew narrowly wide.

The breakthrough came in the 24th minute when Dembele pounced on the rebound of a Montgomery cross to fire low into the corner of the net for a deserved goal.