Last season - (NE)

What a difference a year makes. When Eddie asked for a top ten list of players twelve months ago it was almost a struggle to fill the ten spaces. This year it was a struggle trying to decide who to leave off. But one man who did make the cut on my top ten was Anthony Stokes, and I clearly wasn’t alone in that feeling.

Mind you, it’s safe to say he wasn’t universally accepted by the support at first. That’s understandable of course, as our support is full of people that if Celtic came knocking at the door we’d be asking where to sign before even discussing personal terms. Stokes had that chance as an 18 year old in January 2007 while he was on loan at Falkirk from Arsenal. He knocked that chance back for the opportunity to go and play for Roy Keane who was, at that time, Sunderland manager. It didn’t really work out for him there though, and after a couple of loan deals to Championship teams he was back in Scotland at Hibernian before Celtic once again offered him our dream chance.

So having signed for Celtic at the second time of asking - coming in on deadline day of the summer transfer window - it was now down to Anthony to prove to the doubters in the support that he was up for the challenge. Scoring the winning goal away to Kilmarnock wasn’t a bad way to get your first goal, and scoring two out of the six against Inverness in the League Cup was a pretty good way to follow it up. Another two goals at St Johnstone in the next round, followed by his first, and to date only, hat trick for Celtic in the 9-0 thrashing of Aberdeen.

Another game that showcased the Hooper-Stokes partnership was the 3-0 win at Easter Road in January, where Anthony scored one of the goals of the season. With Hooper’s opener in the game another contender for that award, and a second goal for Stokes from the penalty spot having more or less sealed the points, it was time for a champagne moment. Celtic didn’t seem to score many goals from corners this season, but when a deep corner came to Stokes with his back to goal it was one touch to control and a second to hook it over his shoulder and into the net. You can’t beat a “which goal was better” debate after a convincing win.

There are still some doubts lingering about Stokes though. At just 23 there’s still time for those to be ironed out and put down to youthful exhilaration. A misdemeanour saw him miss out on the final league game of the season, and possibly also cost him a starting place in the Scottish Cup final, but they weren’t the only times he found himself behind Giorgios Samaras in the pecking order. After a quiet first match against Rangers in October where the only thing of note he did was to be lucky to stay on the park after clattering Sasa Papac very early in the game, he didn’t feature against Rangers in the New Year win at Ibrox, either game of the Scottish Cup fifth round tie, or even the League Cup final. Indeed, even in the 3-0 league win and the final 0-0 league draw he got nothing more than fleeting substitute appearances. Although he did win “that penalty” - I’d like to say it’s a shame he didn’t also take it, but Stokes did miss his own fair share of penalties this season so it may have been the same outcome anyway.

It’s probably still safe to say that he’s not been universally accepted by the Celtic support. In fact, curiously, it’s quite possible that Anthony’s dad, John, is more popular in the stands than Anthony himself. Certainly John Stokes is the one who has had the chants from the stands - a chant I’ve heard termed “sectarian” by some who probably don’t even understand what that word means. There’s nothing sectarian about it. It’s a fact, he does. Humour is once again lost in the madness that is Scottish Football.

Anthony Stokes is no doubt more highly thought of than the other striking options of Daryl Murphy and Giorgios Samaras - although Eddie’s keeping the full order of this list close to his chest as always, so I could be proven wrong - but there’s still that nagging feeling that his attitude isn’t quite what it should be. The fact that Lennon has been prone to dropping him would seem to back up this feeling. But it’s also a fact that in his time at Hibernian, Anthony was capable of scoring against anyone - especially Rangers. It’s also generally accepted that Hooper’s best performances came when he played along side the Irishman. Decent striking partnerships are not something which come around often, so when you get them you need to get the most out of them.

Hopefully we’ll see an even more deadly partnership between the two of them next season and they’ll not only be competing with each other as Celtic’s top goal scorer again, but this time competing to be the SPL top goal scorer, leading the way to the SPL title.

Number 1 - Emilio Izaguirre

Number 2 - Beram Kayal

Number 3 - Gary Hooper

Number 4 - Kris Commons

Number 5 - Joe Ledley

Number 6 - Scott Brown

Number 7 - Mark Wilson

Number 8 - Anthony Stokes

Number 9 - Ki Sung-Yong

Number 10 - Charlie Mulgrew

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