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Owain Fon Williams saves the day Inverness keeper Owain Fon Williams was the reason Inverness were still interested in the game as it approached the ninety minutes and a very late Alex Fisher header earned an unlikely draw. Tom Rogic had knocked home the opener but his strike was bettered by a fantastic goal from Billy King. Sloppy play in midfield led to Scott Sinclair going it alone to put the visitors ahead before the late action around the Celtic box saw substitute Fisher level. Ross Draper was denied a penalty and a probable sending off just before Sinclair scored when he was felled on the edge of the box by Sviatchenko, but referee Don Robertson was the only man inside the ground that saw it differently. Man of the Match Fon Williams kept the eager Celtic attack at bay, especially in the second half, and he was aided by the woodwork on at least three occasions. Richie Foran stuck to his game plan to attack when they could, although Celtic pinned Inverness back for long spells. With Celtic unable to take advantage of their superiority, Inverness delivered the sucker punch in the final minute to earn another point which will keep us off the foot of the table. Richie Foran made one change to his side from the one that drew at Pittodrie bringing Lonsana Doumbouya into the starting line-up. Brendan Rodgers went with a strong attacking X1 but without the injured Leigh Griffiths. Scott Sinclair, Moussa Dembele, Callum McGregor and Patrick Roberts all started as Celtic looked to bury the memories of Barcelona. Inverness took the game to Celtic in the opening exchanges and Iain Vigurs had a shot blocked before Brad Mckay directed a header wide, but Celtic would respond with efforts from Cristian Gamboa and Scott Sinclair missing the target. Greg Tansey also fired one well over as the game picked up pace. Tansey had another effort saved comfortably in the top corner of the goal by de Vries but Celtic would take the lead following this. Sviatchenko lofted a ball down the left and Kieran Tierney cut inside Liam Polworth before sending a probing ball into the box with the outside of his left peg. Tom Rogic was quickest to react and he got in front of the defender to knock the ball home from seven yards. Soft goal defensively, but well set up by the ever improving Tierney. Lonsana Doumbouya showed some nimble feet when he turned on the edge of the box but his left footed shot lacked power and de Vries collected again. Moments later, Inverness were level. A long ball forward from the right back area was neatly transferred to Billy King by Ross Draper. Now then, Billy had plenty to do here. He was wide left some 35 yards from goal. He cut inside Gamboa before unleashing a rocket of a shot over de Vries from around 27 yards, the keeper only succeeding in helping the ball into the opposite corner of the goal. What a stunner, he really is King Billy! Biggest talking point of the game followed soon after. Ross Draper mugged Callum McGregor on the halfway line. He burst forward to the edge of the box hotly pursued by three defenders. Sviatchenko got there first as Draper looked to protect the ball right on the edge of the box but referee Don Robertson bottled it and awarded nothing. At the very least a free kick on the line and a sending off surely. At the best a penalty and yellow card. However, Robertson saw nothing wrong. Unbelievable officiating but not surprising against the big Bhoys. That incident was sorely punished almost immediately after a blunder by Inverness' central pairing. Josh Meekings rolled a short ball to Gary Warren on the halfway line who was caught on the back foot. Scott Sinclair gathered and raced towards the Inverness goal. We were caught short with most players upfield, and as we backed off Sinclair strode forward before curling an effort from the edge of the box round Fon Williams into the net. A good finish from the Celt, but shocking defending from the hosts. Six goals in six domestic games for Sinclair. Not a bad return from the former Aston Villa player. Celtic controlled the last quarter of the half without threatening too much as we went back into our shell, content to give Celtic the ball but defending resolutely as Scott Brown, Rogic, Sviatchenko and Sinclair all fired attempts at goal without troubling Fon Williams. He would be busier in the second half. Half Time 1-2 There seemed to be more purpose about Celtic in the second half and they went for the third goal that would probably end the tie as a contest. Moussa Dembele tested Fon Williams as he spun on the edge of the box but the Welsh keeper dived to his left to deny him. That was the start of the onslaught. Tierney did brilliantly to burst into the box on the left side and he lashed a shot goalwards. Fon Williams was equal to it though and pulled off a brilliant save diving high to his left. Soon after Rogic and Dembele combined to set up McGregor and his shot from eighteen yards was tipped onto the crossbar by the keeper for a hat-trick of brilliant saves. He wasn't finished yet though. The game had now become shooting practice for Celtic and last ditch defensive tackling for Inverness. But one man stood defiant; Owain Fon Williams was simply superb. He would be helped out by the woodwork on another two occasions. Fon Williams pushed away a curling shot from Sinclair as the pressure mounted and it was from that corner that Sviatchenko fluffed his lines. He might have done better with a close range header that bounced off the outside of the post as our back line miraculously kept them out. McGregor almost danced his way onto the scoresheet, but for another magnificent save from Fon Williams. McGregor waltzed through the heart of the defence and when the ball held up slightly, he tried to chip the keeper, but Fon Williams acrobatically clawed the ball away from danger. It was woodwork to the rescue as Tierney had another thunderous shot from the left side smack off the bar. It really was backs to the wall stuff as Celtic piled on the pressure looking to exorcise the ghost of Barcelona. But Messi had morphed into Nessy and there was one more twist in this tale. With one minute left of normal time, Inverness made one final effort and an Aaron Doran shot was deflected wide for a corner. From that corner substitute Alex Fisher made a nuisance of himself in the box as he tried to slide the loose ball towards the goal. The ball was blocked and it spun out wide to Tansey who swung over an inviting cross. Fisher was back up on his feet again and he rose high to glance a header downwards and behind de Vries for an astonishing end to a quite astonishing game. Absolute pandemonium after the goal and delight all round as three minutes of added time came and went, but not before Fon Williams fittingly plucked another ball out of the air. He had been superb all afternoon and won't have a finer game. Full Time 2-2 As they say, a one goal lead is a precarious one and Celtic paid the price for not getting the cushion a third goal would have offered. Celtic may count themselves unfortunate and on another day might have score six goals. But this was not another day, it was Owain Fon Williams' day and he defied belief with an exceptional display of quality goalkeeping. Of course, it might have been oh so different had Don Robertson awarded a penalty or free kick or a sending off. The new rules indicate it could have been a penalty and a possible yellow, but that is the subject of much debate now. Not difficult to pick out MotM. Owain Fon Williams take a bow. Immense display from him with at least half a dozen inspired saves. He got tremendous help from an overworked defence with Carl Tremarco once again defying the odds. The woodwork surely deserves a mention too, heroic stuff. Billy King will struggle to score a better goal in his life. Credit to Richie Foran who showed belief in his players to go for attacking options and what a great way to repay the managers faith by nodding in the leveler in the final minute. Celtic did not do too much wrong here apart from not putting the ball in the net often enough. In Kieran Tierney, they have a tremendous player and the Celtic front line will score plenty throughout the season. When they go forward at pace it's a wonderful footballing sight, but look what can be achieved with hard work and belief. That's three unbeaten for Inverness and off the foot of the table. Plenty to look forward to now and Dundee come North next weekend. Bring it on. Delighted for Richie and the whole team who showed an attitude that was instilled in Foran the footballer. Video from SPFL website https://www.youtube.com/user/splofficial Date: 18/09/16 Venue: Caledonian Stadium, Inverness Attendance: 6061 Referee: Don Robertson Inverness CT: 2 Lineup: Fon Williams; McKay, Meekings, Warren, Tremarco, Tansey, Vigurs (Doran, 59), Polworth (Mulraney, 68), Draper, King, Doumbouya (Fisher, 81). Subs (not used): Mackay, Raven, Boden, Cole. Scorers: King (28), Fisher (89) Booked: Vigurs (41), Tremarco(66) Sent Off: none Celtic: 2 Lineup: De Vries; Gamboa (Simunovic, 68), Lustig, Sviatchenko, Tierney, Brown, McGregor, Roberts (Forrest, 75), Rogic (Armstrong, 85), Sinclair, Dembele. Subs (not used): Gordon, Izaguirre, Christie, Bitton. Scorers: Rogic (17), Sinclair (34) Booked: Brown (26), Sviatchenko(90) Sent Off: none

From Messi to Nessy It's a big ask this weekend early in his managerial career, but Brendan Rodgers takes his domestically all conquering Bhoys North to face Richie's rookies at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in a 3:00pm kick off on Sunday. Celtic are going from Messi to Nessy in the space of five days. They will find it easier in Nessy. It took Lionel just three minutes to breach the Celtic defence in Barcelona. He did it again before the half hour was up and had a hat-trick before the hour. Could it be that Celtic struggle against teams in red and blue stripes? We're no Barcelona but stranger things happen at sea. Celtic have been in great form in the domestic League and topped it off by trouncing the Rangers 5-1 last week before heading to Barcelona in the Champions league. Fifteen goals in four games is testament to their attacking intent and new striker Moussa Dembele looks like a class act. So, who are the people that have transformed Celtic? For a start, they have replaced the much maligned Ronnie Deila and John Collins with the well respected Brendan Rodgers and Chris Davies. Their player signings are a who's who in the wish lists of most football clubs outside the English Premiership. Scott Sinclair is an attacking wide midfielder and already has five goals. Moussa Dembele has just scored a hat-trick coming in from Fulham and seven goals in total. When you add these to Scotlands star striker Leigh Griffiths (7 goals) and wide player Patrick Roberts, it's not difficult to see why Celtic are banging in the goals. Defensively, Kolo Toure joins from Liverpool, Christian Gamboa from West Brom, keeper Dorus de Vries to challenge Scotland International Craig Gordon and midfielder Kristoffer Ajer to the engine room. The Brendan Rodgers clear out was ruthless and swift. The main departures were Scotland full back Charlie Mulgrew, Athony Stokes, Mr clumsy-Colin Kazim-Richards, Stefan Scepovic, Scott Allan and Carlton Cole There is a raft of others who are littered across the Scottish lower leagues, enough to make a couple of teams to be honest, but Rodgers looks to have built a squad based on quality rather that quantity which was enough to see Celtic lift the title last season, but not with the panache their fans wanted to see. Richie has had a steep learning curve in the Premiership games hitting rock bottom after three before clambering off the foot of the table with a hard earned draw at Pittodrie, following on from a gritty home win over St Johnstone. The signs are encouraging after a poor start to the campaign and it's good to see we are moving in the right direction. We will need to be at our best on Sunday and it's a tremendous boost how the team have bounced back since the 5-1 thrashing at Tynecastle. That was Josh Meekings' first game back from injury and he and Gary Warren are beginning to return to the solid partnership they forged previously. Owain Fon Williams has got rid of his Euro holiday hangover and looks more focussed and young Brad Mckay had a decent debut in a baptism of fire at Pittodrie and with Carl Tremarco claiming the left back slot our back line is taking shape nicely. The midfield should be a match for most teams and Ross Draper has never looked sharper. Luxury player Iain Vigurs showed just why he is in the team with a superb goal at Aberdeen, but can we afford his laid back style with a bit of cynicism thrown in? We were wasteful in the final third and I'm sure Richie Foran will be working on that this week. We have wide players with pace now with Aaron Doran gaining more match time and in Lonsana Doumbouya we have a powerful front man when Alex Fisher runs himself to a standstill. Aye, it's a difficult job being the Invermess target man. Despite Celtic going down in Spain, the gulf in class between Celtic and Barcelona is as big as the gap between Celtic and the rest of the clubs in Scotland. That's how difficult this task is for Inverness. The pace of Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair is a worry for our back line, although Dembele's penalty kick routine is suspect. Our best hope is that one or two players are rested and Leigh Griffiths is still injured. However, their depth of squad is such that it won't make too much difference who plays. We lost all three games against Celtic last season conceding twelve goals in those games while scoring only two. Apart from the Cup semi-final win, our last win over Celtic in the Highlands came in August 2014 when we won 1-0 thanks to an Eoghan O'Connell own goal. Celtic had made 10 changes from the side that played NK Maribor in midweek and paid the price. I wonder if they will be so lenient this time after the thrashing at Barcelona. Richie Foran has no fresh injury worries and will have an almost full squad to pick from apart from Ryan Esson who is out with an elbow injury. I would expect a similar side to the one that performed well at Pittodrie. Brendan Rodgers is not expected to make any drastic changes despite the sides thrashing in Barcelona. However, Leigh Griffiths is still out injured. tm4tj Prediction:- I can't see us taking much from this game and damage limitation could be the way forward. Celtic's pace going forward is frightening but they are suspect at the back. In saying that, you have to get into those areas to be able to hurt them and that's not our strong point at the moment. Difficult to see anything other than a convincing win for Celtic but there's always the chance of a Champions League hangover. A draw would be seen as a success and that will be enough to drive us forward. I feel we might fall just short on this occasion, but the experience will stand us in good stead for games against teams of a similar calibre.

Hangover or Backlash? Fresh from their Euro game against four times European Champions Ajax Amsterdam, Celtic travel to the Highlands on Sunday in a 12:15 kick off to take on Inverness who have just returned from Buckie, the former Highland League champions. Yes, that's the difference a few million pounds can make to your lifestyle. Inverness could face either a Euro hangover or Backlash after a weakened Celtic lost out against Ajax on Thursday night in Glasgow whilst Inverness went to Buckie with a fairly strong squad of recovering casualties to help strengthen their limbs as the fixture list toughens up for the Xmas period. It was a worthwhile exercise for Yogi's men with Ryan Esson, David Raven, Nat Wedderburn, Richie Foran, Ross Draper, Gary Warren, Andrea Mutombo, Tobi Sho-Silva all stretching their legs against the Highland League side. Inverness ran out 6-0 winners with Mutombo notching a hat-trick and Tobi scoring a brace. The opposition might not be a household name in European football, but in terms of getting these players some match practice it was invaluable, and the added bonus of scoring a few goals will boost the confidence of the shot shy Inverness strikers. Our last Premiership game saw us lose yet another late goal as Partick Thistle took all three points with a 2-1 win at Firhill. Miles Storey had scored an early goal but Kris Doolan equalised before the break. Ryan Stevenson fluked a cross into the net to leave us pointless, and in doing so it undid the good work we carried out at Motherwell in the previous game and left us hovering just above the relegation battle. Celtic's last game was a disappointing goalless home draw with Kilmarnock. That broke a five game winning run where they had scored fifteen goals in the process; one less than we have scored all season. The clubs met at Parkhead in mid August when Celtic raced into a 4-0 lead over an understrength Inverness. However as Celtic eased their way to full time, Inverness scored two counters through Ryan Christie and Dani Lopez to give us a more flattering result. We are still underpowered but slowly getting players back on the park and match sharpness will benefit all of our returnees. I would suspect that almost half of that team will not start today. Celtic can call on virtually the full side that won them the points that day. Current form would suggest that Celtic will be massive favourites to win this game and the bookies agree at 1/4 for an away win. You can get 12/1 if you fancy Inverness to win and the draw comes in around 9/2. Your best chance of winning back some dosh would be to put something on Miles Storey to open the scoring (14/1). Miles has notched five of our sixteen Premiership goals. Tobi Sho-Silva could be the surprise packet here though and you can get 18/1 on him scoring first. Celtic have won 11 of their 15 league games this season with 3 draws and a solitary defeat to Aberdeen in the middle of September. We, on the other hand, have only 4 wins. For all the noise about Celtic having a poor defence, they are still the stingiest back line in the division having only conceded 11 goals. However, the league table doesn't lie and that shows that we languish in eighth place, only three points above second bottom. Inverness have dealt positively with the unsavoury incident in the Dani Lopez sending off and have disciplined the player internally on top of the two match ban he received from the SFA. Dani has been fined for his indiscretion which has lost him some respect across the board. The player has unreservedly apologised for the uncharacteristic incident and would now like to focus on getting back on track. On top of the Lopez ban, Inverness will be without Jason Roberts, Aaron Doran and Dean Brill, along with Ryan Christie who has gone to Parkhead for some rehab. The rest of the crocks all came through the game against Buckie unscathed and could be in contention for a place in the squad on Sunday. Celtic midfielder and captain Scott Brown will miss this one and possibly the next two or three months of football with a knee problem following the Kilmarnock game. He twisted his knee at the end of the game and has suffered outside ligament damage. That's fair enough considering the way he throws himself into some of these tackles and the damage he has caused to others. He looks better in his jimjams anyway. Kris Commons also missed the tie against the Dutch side and faces a late assessment to check on his fitness. Nir Bitton and Stefan Johansen were banned for the Euro game but should return with Scott Allan and Kieran Tierney likely to make room for them. tm4tj Prediction:- Not a game I look forward to as the Celtic entourage comes North looking to sweep all before them. In truth this game should be a total mismatch as Celtic come off the back of yet another Euro failure and we struggle to get any consistency with our troubled squad. Six points clear at the top, Celtic should be strong enough to see us off without too much bother, but we are at our best when the chips are down. Good news for us is the return of some more of our injured players and the game at Buckie will have benefited the likes of Warren, Draper and Foran in their journey back to full fitness. With Mutombo and Sho-Silva scoring as well, they could help ease the burden on Miles Storey's young shoulders and gives us more depth to our squad. Celtic showed against Ajax that one or two of their newer players still have a lot to learn, Scott Allan in particular will remember his input for quite some time, as will Callum McGregor, but for different reasons. You can't replace the experience of Scott Brown and Kris Commons with kids and expect it to work immediately. With that in mind, we could be thrown a lifeline. I would bite your hand off for a point out of this game, but I won't be holding my breath.

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