Not sure why but alas my review of Sunday’s 2-0 win over Kilmarnock didn’t appear on the blog.
Needless to say, it was a comfortable win that should have been by a lot more and once again David Turnbull and Ismaila Soro impressed as the men in hoops triumphed thanks to a deflected Elyounoussi shot on 57 mins and a powerful Shane Duffy header 13 mins later.
Outside of that the visiting keeper Mark Rodger made a few impressive saves and Klimala was inches away from a Greg Taylor low crossed ball in the dying embers that would have made it three.
Kilmarnock sat in and provided little in the way of offence and spent most of the game camped in their own third trying to repel constant Celtic pressure.
So from two wins in twelve to two wins in two and the mood has certainly improved albeit we’re only ever one poor result away from it being piled back on.
On Sunday we play Hearts at Hampden as we attempt to win our twelfth consecutive trophy and the Quadruple Treble.
Trophies are always nice but what is really important right now is to keep the momentum going and retain that winning feeling that deserted us for an uncharacteristically long time recently.
Neil Lennon has spoken about being loyal to the men that got us to the final but I’d prefer his loyalty be attached to the men who are winning games for us right now and not ten months ago.
Based on that comment though expect to see changes.
It’s likely that captain Scott Brown, Ryan Christie and Tom Rogic could be returning to the starting eleven.
Meanwhile, Hearts appear to have got over their righteous indignation at being relegated last season.
They’ve started off their Championship campaign impressively with six wins from seven of what will be a truncated 27 game season in the second tier.
Sitting at the top of the league on 18 points under new manager Robbie Neilson they’ve also scored 21 goals and conceded only 6 so far.
After starting off the campaign with a thumping 6-2 hammering of Dundee the goals have kept on coming and they dished out a 6-1 humbling to Queen of the South at the weekend.
Though they did suffer a shock 1-0 defeat in the League Cup second round to Alloa after winning all four of their qualifying section games they also produced a pretty major surprise themselves by defeating Hibs 2-1 in the Scottish Cup semi delayed from last season.
And they’ll be looking to go one better than that on Sunday in a competition which has been kind to them over the years winning the trophy more than any other team outside Celtic and Rangers in recent times via victories in 1998, 2006 and 2012.
Having swept the board in regards to personnel in the summer they’ve added the experience of Stephen Kingsley and Andy Halliday whilst holding onto proven talents like Steven Naismith and Liam Boyce.
Boyce has scored five in eight games whilst Craig Wighton is finally living up to the hot prospect tag that has dogged most of his previous seasons by hitting five in eleven.
They also have our former keeper Craig Gordon in goal and he’ll be looking to add to his five clean sheets in eleven games that he’s achieved so far.
We’ll be big favourites for obvious reasons but though Hearts might be operating in the second tier they are doing so with a budget that dwarfs most top-flight teams and they’ll likely win their league and gain promotion at a canter.
Simply put this is not a game we can just take for granted.
They know that the pressure is on us and will look to exploit any nervousness and negligence on our part.
Ultimately though winning another trophy and with it a historic Quadruple Treble would, of course, be a great way to finish off a horrible 2020 in the context of what is at stake this season vis-à-vis the league the real importance is to keep the momentum of a recent upturn in results going as we gather pace towards a vital and potentially season-defining meeting at Ibrox on January 2nd.
....Always A Tim! 