The class message Moyes gave West Ham players about Celtic Park before friendly win

By David Walton

July 25, 2021

West Ham United boss David Moyes bigged up Celtic Park to his players before yesterday’s 6-2 win in Glasgow.

The Hammers ripped apart Ange Postecoglou’s inexperienced Celtic side in a tough encounter at Parkhead. The Celtic boss made a raft of subs at 4-2, but with the Bhoys lacking in squad depth, it showed against the English Premier League side.

West Ham were missing one or two players, but played an extremely recognisable starting XI. It was anything but a shadow squad, and the East London club easily strolled to success at Parkhead.

However, one big positive for Celtic was the return of 18,500 supporters. This was over double what was allowed in for Midtjylland last week. And as the atmosphere slowly gets back to normal at Parkhead, Moyes urged his players to sample a European tie here as he spoke to them before kick-off.

Speaking to Premier Sports, Moyes said: “Well this club’s used to European nights. I was telling the players before the game today bout coming to play here, what it feels like, and if ever there was a European experience they should ever come to then it’s this one for me, because it’s incredible here.

“We wanted to use it as a little bit of a practice for what we’ve got. Europe will be new for a lot of the players. But we did a lot of good things today and he scored the goals, which was really pleasing.”

David Moyes shows his class as West Ham boss gives Celtic Park proper respect

Moyes’ interview with Premier Sports was an odd one to an extent. Despite the fact he was clearly satisfied with what his players produced, he was keen to big up Celtic too. It was almost as if he didn’t want the scoreline to be so heavy in the end.

The former Manchester United manager spoke really well afterward. He gave Celtic and Parkhead the proper respect. But Moyes has always been like that, and fair play to him for the class shown.

As for our own perspective, the sooner we get fans back, the better. Celtic know that their next home match, whether against Dundee on August 7th or a European match beforehand, has an indicative figure of 24,500 fans potentially allowed in.

Celtic Park is slowly getting back to normal. Even when the game was competitive in spells yesterday, you could hear the supporters getting up for it. It was brilliant to hear given what we’ve all been through over the last several years.

The performance wasn’t good enough of course. There’s no hiding from that whatsoever. But mistakes and getting to know your teammates is what these pre-season games are for.

Hopefully, we see some sort of benefit on Wednesday night vs Midtjylland.

In other news: Ange says it looks like the same Celtic defence vs Midtjylland as he calls for player response