WIN: 4-2 vs Celtic – Badgers Blitz Celtic With 3 Goal Second Half To Close Out The Season On A High!

One of the most trying seasons in recent memory came to a close with the Badgers finally turning around the poor form of the early weeks into a nice 4 game run. After beating up Beerca last weekend, the Honey Badgers were looking to make it two-in-two with a victory against Celtic, who sat just above them at the bottom of the table.

The game would be challenging as Jaybone was in Vegas for the annual “Accountants Who Love Phil Collins” symposium, so Danimal would be seated firmly between the pipes. In other defensive news, our long lost Scotsman was back in action as Billy slotted in at right back for his usual silky performance.

The subs arrived a little late with Gianluca, Andy and a recently hitched Adam (and his oranges) providing the backing vocals to this Cameron Road rock opera.

With Gianluca lacing up the boots on the sidelines, Chappy was up top with Derek and Guillermo moved into central midfield with Schwarzy since Ciro wasn’t able to make it. With temps looking to drop as soon as the sun went down, his core-temp had to be protected at all costs and so Ciro opted to stay home in a warm bath while watching the game in the quantum realm.

But those two combined early for the opening goal as Schwarzy sliced and diced his way into the box, dishing to Guillermo who expertly slotted a left footer after a lung busting run, while deftly maintaining his line against an offside trap attempt after being called on to change positions moments before kickoff which would cause most mortals to mentally crumble!

With Gigi back up top and Adam and Andy entering the game, but Badgers unleashed their speed and hustle lineup as they looked to control more of the game, but Celtic had other plans as they pushed the back line deep and nabbed a goal for themselves. The game was heating up, and Big Dave was the recipient of a late foul that pushed him to the brink of civility. A slide tackle was surely incoming.

Against the run of play, Celtic grabbed another first half goal, but their #17 made a fatal mistake as he shouted “we’ve got to out hustle them!” to his teammates…. prompting Chappy to yell from the sidelines, “we’ve got to out think them!” and Jefe shouted “we’ve got to out hustle their hustle!” – the plan was thus set into motion.

At the half, oranges were back, a mere 24 hours after holy matrimony, but there was no panic in the Badgers as they knew they could take it to the treeline in the final 45 minutes of 2023.

Back in action with the sun headed to the horizon and the temps starting to drop as Cameron Road decided to heat up on the pitch. The tide finally turned as Guillermo flashed the ball across the Celtic box for Derek to easily tap-in for the tying goal. His mental state was slightly in the spirit world however, and he had to ask if the Badgers were ahead or not…. much to the delight of the sideline.

The tide finally turned for good as the Dark Arts took center stage. Our good friend #17 for Celtic was already on a yellow for kicking Adam’s ankles, and received his walking papers after cursing him out and earning a second yellow. Clearly, the Celtic scouting department had a failure in leadership as they grossly underestimated Adam’s ability to keep his trap shut…. a vital part of the Dark Arts.

who was the recipient of his second yellow card, earning him an early trip to the parking lot and putting the Celtic Cowboys down a man for the final 20 minutes.

With one more defensive stand to make, Jeff Z rode down his attacker deep into the box, giving Danimal time to make a magnificent onrushing save at the far post. With that stop, the Badgers went on a final offensive explosion, exploiting the space on the wings.

Jefe was also on point with the “flick” header, sending many a ball into the waiting feet of those in yellow.

On a nice breakaway, Gianluca was able to poke a ball home past the keeper to give Cameron Road the lead for good with 10 minutes to go!

With plenty of space to operate, Billy, Chappy, Parks and Derek were finding a lot of pockets to work down the right hand side, and they helped seal Celtic’s fate with a nice goal number four. Working the ball into the midfield, Billy found Chappy down the right hand side. Chappy split the defense with a nice ball to Derek deep in the box, who faked a cutback and zipped the ball to the back post where Jesus was waiting to drive home the final nail in the Celtic coffin and complete the Honey Badger turnaround.

As the sun set on the game, and the season, the Badgers were pumped up to beat Celtic 4-2 and turn their season around with their sights set on the “Payback Tour of 2024!” LET’S GO!

Man-of-the-Pre-Match: Brian Parks with the Eagle Eye who noticed there were two times listed on the Evite.

Man-of-the-Match: Guillermo nabbed the first goal to set the tone, and had an assist for another in the second half while playing a few positions to earn the final honors of the year!

Post-Match-Report: No icings, no tent, no sun, no worries. The Badgers stayed until they couldn’t feel their extremities as they closed out the season in style with back-to-back wins.