Match report: Celtic 7-0 St Johnstone
That’s all from me. It’s been an action-packed opening day of the season – just 10 months to go! Bye!
The football hasn’t stopped: Will Unwin is your man for all Nottingham Forest/West Brom news:
In fact only one just-promoted team has lost in the League this weekend, though two of them – Bury and MK Dons – had their game postponed. In League One Lincoln beat Accrington Stanley 2-0 but Tranmere went down 3-2 at home to Rochdale – they were 3-0 down in the 89th minute before threatening a ludicrous comeback; Rochdale scored with their only three shots on target. In League Two, Salford beat Stevenage and Leyton Orient beat Cheltenham. Momentum, innit?
Meanwhile none of the three teams promoted from League One last season have lost – Luton drew with Middlesbrough last night, while Charlton and Barnsley earned excellent wins over Blackburn and Fulham today.
Two of the three teams relegated from the Premier League last season made losing returns to life in the Championship, Fulham losing at Barnsley and Cardiff at Wigan. The third, Huddersfield, get their campaign under way at home to Derby on Monday.
And the final scores in the Scottish Premiership:
Celtic 7-0 St Johnstone
Hibernian 1-0 St Mirren
Livingston 0-0 Motherwell
Ross County 3-0 Hamilton
Today’s final scores in the English Football League:
Championship
Barnsley 1-0 Fulham
Blackburn 1-2 Charlton
Brentford 0-1 Birmingham
Millwall 1-0 Preston North End
Reading 1-3 Sheff Wed
Stoke 1-2 QPR
Swansea 2-1 Hull
Wigan 3-2 Cardiff
League One
AFC Wimbledon 1-2 Rotherham
Blackpool 2-0 Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion 0-1 Ipswich
Coventry 1-0 Southend
Doncaster 1-1 Gillingham
Lincoln City 2-0 Accrington Stanley
Peterborough 1-3 Fleetwood Town
Shrewsbury 1-0 Portsmouth
Sunderland 1-1 Oxford Utd
Tranmere 2-3 Rochdale
Wycombe 2-0 Bolton
League Two
Bradford 0-0 Cambridge Utd
Carlisle 2-1 Crawley Town
Colchester 1-1 Port Vale
Crewe 0-3 Plymouth
Exeter 1-0 Macclesfield
Forest Green 1-0 Oldham
Leyton Orient 1-0 Cheltenham
Morecambe 0-2 Grimsby
Newport County 2-2 Mansfield
Northampton 0-1 Walsall
Scunthorpe 0-2 Swindon
Final score: Bradford 0-0 Cambridge Remarkable only for being the only goalless draw in the Football League this afternoon.
GOAL! Reading 1-3 Sheffield Wednesday! Wednesday, a man down since their goalkeeper Kieren Westwood was sent off in the 80th minute, have wrapped up the win, Lucas Joao with a 97th-minute clincher!
No penalty! Stoke insist they should have had a chance to equalise from the spot, but it’s not to be!
90+3' There's a handball in the QPR box, nothing given from the referee.
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) August 3, 2019
It looked obvious and replays suggest it is.
🔴⚪️ 1-2 🔵⚪️#SCFC
Performance of the day: Dundee United’s Lawrence Shankland has had a home debut to remember: he scored all four goals in a 4-1 win (it hasn’t finished, so there may yet be more goals, but Shankland has been substituted) over Inverness Caley Thistle!
GOAL INFO: Spin, swivel, turn, slide it home. From 14 yards. Unbelievable @Shankland_25
— Dundee United FC (@dundeeunitedfc) August 3, 2019
Final whistles are going across the country, but at Stoke there will be five minutes’ stoppage time and they’ve only just started.
Crystal Palace’s final pre-season fixture hasn’t gone so well: the final whistle has just blown on a 4-0 home defeat to Hertha Berlin, 11th in the Bundesliga last season.
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GOAL! Wycombe 2-0 Bolton! Bolton’s band of strangers look doomed to opening-day defeat. Fred Onyedinma, who signed for Wycombe for the third time last month – having previously had two loan spells there – has doubled his new/old side’s advantage.
Final score: Celtic 7-0 St Johnstone!
The good news for St Johnstone is that it’s over, and they don’t have to play Celtic again for a while.
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GOAL! Celtic 7-0 St Johnstone!
This is getting silly now. Leigh Griffiths with the latest.
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GOAL! Stoke 1-2 QPR! Having been comprehensively outplayed for most of the game, Stoke now might not lose it – Sam Clucas has pulled a goal back.
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Red card! Cheltenham go down to nine! Leyton Orient took the lead against 11 men in the 68th minute, but within four minutes their opponents have had two men sent off. Luke Varney got a second booking, and now Rohan Ince has got a straight red!
GOAL! Wigan 3-2 Cardiff!
This sounds like an absolute cracker of a match. Cardiff were 1-0 up, then 2-1 down, then equalised, and now they’re losing once again, Lee Evans having scored the goal of the game, a curler from the corner of the area into the top far corner!
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GOAL! Celtic 6-0 St Johnstone!
Having reported on the five previous goals I might as well keep going.
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GOAL! Wigan 2-2 Cardiff!
Omar Bogle, once of Wigan, has come off the bench to equalise for Cardiff!
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GOAL! Leyton Orient 1-0 Cheltenham! It’s been an emotional day at Leyton Orient, who held a minute’s silence for Justin Edinburgh before kick-off, and they might now mark the occasion with a win after Josh Wright game them a 68th-minute lead!
GOAL! Celtic 5-0 St Johnstone!
Olivier Ntcham came on for the hat-trick hero Ryan Christie in the 71st minute, and he’s made it five for the Scottish champions in the 72nd!
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In today’s least competitive friendly, Wolfsburg have just gone 8-1 up against Nice.
117' Einfach nur WAHNSINN!! Jeffrey Bruma macht das 8:1!! #WOBOGCN pic.twitter.com/2GNcQYiOu3
— VfL Wolfsburg (@VfL_Wolfsburg) August 3, 2019
GOAL! Wigan 2-1 Cardiff!
Since missing that penalty Josh Windass has turned the game, setting up one and now scoring a second!
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GOAL! Wycombe 1-0 Bolton! Bolton’s unfamiliar side, packed with debutants, teenagers and teenage debutants, held out for 56 minutes but Paul Smyth has just scored for Wycombe, tapping into the empty net after beating Remi Matthews to the ball.
GOAL! Celtic 4-0 St Johnstone!
Ryan Christie completes his hat-trick with a left-footed thunderbolt that goes in off the bar.
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GOAL! Wigan 1-1 Cardiff!
Michael Jacobs equalises for Wigan, from recent penalty-fluffer Josh Windass’s free kick!
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GOALS! Reading 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday! Yakou Meite equalised for Reading in the 54th minute, and Sam Hutchinson gave Wednesday their lead back two minutes later!
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GOAL! Stoke City 0-2 QPR!
Easy does it! Well, Eberechi Eze does it. According to his club’s Twitter feed, he “slalomed his way through the Stoke backline before cooly sliding into the bottom corner”.
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Scored penalty! Sunderland 1-1 Oxford! Lynden Gooch has converted from the spot to equalise for the home side!
Missed penalty for Wigan!
Wigan are given the chance to equalise at home to Cardiff, but Josh Windass hits the post!
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GOAL! Swansea 2-1 Hull! Mike van der Hoorn complets the Swans’ comeback! 1-0 down at the start of the 48th minute, they’re 2-1 up by the end of the 49th!
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GOAL! Swansea 1-1 Hull! Borja Baston has equalised for Swansea, literally as his performance was being roundly criticised on Sky.
Into the second half, and Blackpool have doubled their lead over Bristol Rovers a minute after the restart, Armand Gnandullet with their second.
Meanwhile here are the half-time scores in the Scottish Premiership:
Celtic 3-0 St Johnstone
Hibernian 0-0 St Mirren
Livingston 0-0 Motherwell
Ross County 2-0 Hamilton
This time with added teams. In all three divisions combined, there are three games in which both teams have scored.
Championship
Barnsley 1-0 Fulham
Blackburn 0-1 Charlton
Brentford 0-1 Birmingham
Millwall 1-0 Preston North End
Reading 0-1 Sheff Wed
Stoke 0-1 QPR
Swansea 0-1 Hull
Wigan 0-1 Cardiff
League One
AFC Wimbledon 0-1 Rotherham
Blackpool 1-0 Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion 0-1 Ipswich
Coventry 0-0 Southend
Doncaster 1-1 Gillingham
Lincoln City 1-0 Accrington Stanley
Peterborough 0-2 Fleetwood Town
Shrewsbury 0-0 Portsmouth
Sunderland 0-1 Oxford Utd
Tranmere 0-1 Rochdale
Wycombe 0-0 Bolton
League Two
Bradford 0-0 Cambridge Utd
Carlisle 2-1 Crawley Town
Colchester 1-1 Port Vale
Crewe 0-2 Plymouth
Exeter 0-0 Macclesfield
Forest Green 0-0 Oldham
Leyton Orient 0-0 Cheltenham
Morecambe 0-0 Grimsby
Newport County 2-0 Mansfield
Northampton 0-1 Walsall
Scunthorpe 0-0 Swindon
The half-time scores in today’s 3pm kick-offs in the Championship all look a bit similar:
1-0
0-1
0-1
1-0
0-1
0-1
0-1
0-1
In friendly news, Newcastle United have taken the lead against St Etienne, with new signing Joelinton capping what has apparently been an impressive display so far with a goal, from Fabian Schär’s lofted through ball.
On Sky, Andy Hinchcliffe is singing the praises of QPR, who continue to lead 1-0 at Stoke City. Little was expected of Rangers this season, and we shouldn’t rush to judgement, but Mark Warburton appears to be working some magic.
GOAL! Celtic 3-0 St Johnstone!
Another goal for Ryan Christie! Apparently it came from something of a goalkeeping howler from Zander Clark, who shovelled a shot back into trouble.
29'| CEL V SJFC
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) August 3, 2019
Goal Celtic.
Zander initially makes a good stop to deny Edouard but Forrest keeps it alive and finds Christie who shoots with power from the edge of the area past Clark.
3-0#SJFCLive
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There are of course some new laws
in play this season, one of which is that “a team official guilty of misconduct will be shown a yellow card”. And we’ve had our first one of those, Wigan’s manager Paul Cook getting a first-half caution.
24' Yellow card given to Paul Cook. The gaffer unhappy with the decision not being a penalty for what looked like a handball by Flint in the area. (0-1)#wafc 🔵⚪️💚
— Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) August 3, 2019
GOAL! Celtic 2-0 St Johnstone!
Celtic double their advantage, Ryan Christie with a curler from the edge of the area.
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GOAL! Wigan 0-1 Cardiff!
Neil Warnock’s mastery of the Championship doesn’t seem to have dimmed during a less successful season in the top flight, and Joe Ralls has given Cardiff the lead at Wigan!
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GOAL! Brentford 0-1 Birmingham City! The stats show that Birmingham have so far had a meagre 21% of possession and are on the receiving end of an absolute hammering – but they’re the first to have a shot on target, and it goes in! Kristian Pedersen scores it, with an apparently sublime header in the 18th minute.
GOAL! Peterborough 0-2 Fleetwood Town! The first team to a two-goal lead today is Fleetwood, for whom Josh Morris has added a second in the 13th minute.
GOAL! Barnsley 1-0 Fulham!
Fulham, the bookmakers’ second-favourites for the Championship title, are behind at Barnsley, where Luke Thomas has scored a 13th-minute goal.
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GOAL! Stoke 0-1 QPR Jordan Hugill, who signed for QPR on a season-long loan from West Ham this week, has scored in the eighth minute, from what was apparently the visitors’ first attack of the game.
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GOAL! Celtic 1-0 St Johnstone!
Michael Johnston, against St Johnstone, gives the Scottish champions an early lead.
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Port Vale are apparently unbeaten on the opening day of the season since 2004, as astonishing record. And they’re 1-0 up today, Tom Pope giving them the lead from the penalty spot at Colchester after five minutes.
GOAL! Swansea 0-1 Hull! Hull take a third-minute lead at Swansea! There’s some debate about the scorer, with the Press Association giving it to Kamil Grosicki but Hull themselves crediting Dan Batty, who ran in front of the shot and may or may not have got a touch.
BONG! It’s 3pm! Football!
One of the season’s new signings: Wigan have a new mascot, Crusty the Pie, designed by local schoolchildren Cayden, aged 8, and Neve, aged 9.
I don’t like laughing at foreign-sounding player names, which is at the very best childish and disrespectful. However, I still feel the need to mention Celtic’s new signing Boli Bolingoli.
Crisis-hit Bolton have six debutants in their starting XI today at Wycombe. For what it’s worth: Matthews, Earl, Edwards, Zouma, Brockbank, Weir, Lowe, Murphy, Politic, Brown, Oztumer. Subs: Alnwick, Darcy, Boon, Senior, Graham, King-Harmes, White.
The final whistle has now blown at Salford, who have indeed won 2-0 and thus top the very first League Two table.
In today’s early League Two match, Salford have taken a 2-0 lead against Stevenage and appear to be enjoying a fine introduction to league football. I suppose in the end you get what you Dieseruvwe. Ahem.
Hello world!
There can be no better place to start than with today’s fixtures, which looks like this. I’ve also tucked in Ben Fisher’s season previews for each division, for a little added reading:
Championship
Barnsley v Fulham
Blackburn v Charlton
Brentford v Birmingham
Millwall v Preston North End
Nottm Forest v West Brom (5.30pm)
Reading v Sheff Wed
Stoke v QPR
Swansea v Hull
Wigan v Cardiff
League One
AFC Wimbledon v Rotherham
Blackpool v Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion v Ipswich
Bury v Milton Keynes Dons (postponed)
Coventry v Southend
Doncaster v Gillingham
Lincoln City v Accrington Stanley
Peterborough v Fleetwood Town
Shrewsbury v Portsmouth
Sunderland v Oxford Utd
Tranmere v Rochdale
Wycombe v Bolton
League Two
Bradford v Cambridge Utd
Carlisle v Crawley Town
Colchester v Port Vale
Crewe v Plymouth
Exeter v Macclesfield
Forest Green v Oldham
Leyton Orient v Cheltenham
Morecambe v Grimsby
Newport County v Mansfield
Northampton v Walsall
Salford City v Stevenage (12.30pm)
Scunthorpe v Swindon
There are also some friendlies involving Premier League clubs:
Bournemouth v Lyon (3.30pm)
Borussia M’gladbach v Chelsea (4pm)
Crystal Palace v Hertha Berlin
Dordrecht v Norwich (1.30pm)
Man Utd v AC Milan (5.30pm)
Newcastle v St Etienne
Norwich XI v Toulouse (4pm)
RB Leipzig v Aston Villa (2.30pm)
Reims v Sheff Utd (4.30pm)
Southampton v Cologne
Watford v Real Sociedad
Werder Bremen v Everton
West Ham v Athletic Bilbao
Parma v Burnley
And also some fun and games in Scotland:
Scottish Premiership
Celtic v St Johnstone
Hibernian v St Mirren
Livingston v Motherwell
Ross County v Hamilton
Scottish Championship
Alloa v Partick
Arbroath v Queen of South
Ayr v Morton
Dundee Utd v Inverness CT
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