Originally Posted by
Junior
I was up at the game last night.
Yes, O'Dea was captain, played CB with 18 year old Josh Thompson. Darren is probably the only member of the Celtic squad right now who looks as though he could be capable of performing the roll of captain (though that is not really a compliment). He was very vocal and clearly marshalling his back four.
He did ok. He was up against Stokes for the most part and won almost everything in the air against him. On the ground Stokes looked dangerous, he has great movement and although he only had a few half chances apart from his goal, I was always worried when Hibs broke that he'd get a sniff.
As for Stokes goal, I think you could certainly apportion blame to O'Dea and Boruc, the latter flapping at a corner only a couple of yards from his goal line and the former giving Stokes acres of space to nod home.
Interestingly, Stokes and O'Dea had a couple of very minor altercations, handbag stuff really but they didnt come across as friends of the international scene:) to be expected I suppose in a competitive fixture. Stokes took offence to a very strong but fair challenge by O'Dea and they squared up (Stokes had a kick out at O'Dea, not the first time Ive seen him do that in a game) but they quickly got on with the game and the ref saw nothing it seems.
O'Dea had a goal chalked off from a set piece. Not entirely sure whether it was offside or an infringement but again showed he can be dangerous in front of goal (Good positioning geysir;))
Then the crushing blow (for me at least). Celtic, including O'Dea had pushed on for the winner and Hibs broke away. The two Celtic defenders were having a little chat on the half way line, meanwhile Stokes had peeled away, gathered the ball and drove on to the Celtic box, the ball eventually made its way out to the Hibs sub who slotted it away (Im sure it looked offside but havent seen it since).
In summary, some positives to take from O'Deas performance and 4th start on the trot. Though he did play a crucial part in Hibs first goal and will be disappointed (understatement) to not at least ensure his team got a point.
On a side note, Liam Miller had a great game for Hibs. He played wide right in a midfield three. Lots of work rate, double covered McGeady (who was poor for me, the first 15 minutes apart) all night, pinged some lovely passes around and was a very attacking force for them. Didnt see him make too many tackles but plenty of harrying and applying of pressure on the Celtic midfield.