I never got a chance to review the Motherwell game on Saturday.
In summation, Celtic dominated and took the lead after only two mins via a fine headed goal by young Stephen Welsh after a worthy corner-kick delivery by David Turnbull and then doubled their advantage five minutes into the second half thanks to a low drive from the edge of the box by Odsonne Edouard.
There really was only one team in it against the Steelmen who sat deep all afternoon but as has been so often the case this season we made life difficult for ourselves and rather than push on and wrap things up we allowed the visitors back into it as an Allan Campbell effort from the edge of the box beguiled the hapless Scott Bain and looped into the net on 66mins.
After that, the all too familiar feeling of dread crept in and substitute Diego Laxalt prevented more dropped points as he hooked a Harry Smith header off the line in the dying embers.
Last night Celtic visited Paisley on a revenge mission against Jim Goodwin’s men who had recorded their first win at Celtic Park in 31 years via 2-1 scoreline only eleven days previously.
Celtic were quite simply atrocious that afternoon and we were in no mood for a repeat display dominating the game from start to finish.
Unlike so many performances this season we actually turned that dominance into goals and swatted aside the men in black and white stripes thanks to an excellent first-half strike by Tom Rogic after he ghosted his way into the box, a well-taken penalty by Edouard – his fifth goal in five games – which resulted from Greg Taylor being fouled in the box by Ryan Flynn, a wonderful curled effort off the post by Ryan Chrisite and then a clinical finish by Turnbull.
Sadly Stephen Welsh had his heel pretty ruthlessly fouled by Jon Obika and he could be out for some time.
But that aside it ended 4-0 and that’s now three wins on the bounce with ten goals scored.
Under normal circumstances that would be viewed positively but of course, these aren’t normal circumstances.
We remain a mammoth 18 points behind leaders Rangers and even if we win our game in hand and defeat them in the two remaining encounters against the light blues we can only cut the gap to 9 points.
With only eleven games of the campaign left – ten for them – there just aren’t enough games left to catch them.
Steven Gerrard’s men did actually drop only their eighth points of the season with a 1-1 draw at bottom side Hamilton Accies on Sunday and have looked stale of late.
The fact they have Europa League games coming up too which are bound to take their tole would be cause for optimism usually but alas we shot ourselves in the foot so badly back in January there is no optimism to be found.
If we had not thrown away needless points in homes game against Hibs and Livingston not to mention away against Livi then even withstanding the defeat to St.Mirren we’d currently be 12 points behind them with the possibility of cutting it to a mere three still in our own hands.
What could have been, eh?
Instead, we now need Rangers to effectively collapse before the split to even have an outside chance of catching them.
With them having home games in their next two against struggling Kilmarnock and Dundee Utd that isn’t likely even with the exertions of Europa League action.
As a result of all that, our recent upturn in form does have a feeling of emptiness about it.
There’s also the frustration too knowing the talent this squad has yet, by and large, has just failed to deliver so far this season on every front.
With the Scottish Cup also looking increasingly likely to be cancelled as the nation continues to suffer under the ongoing pandemic it means the very real prospect of us going from four consecutive trebles to being empty-handed is now at hand.
That would have seemed unthinkable back in August but has looked an ever-increasing certainty since November.
The furore over the continued management of Neil Lennon has been somewhat stifled but is only one bad result or the seemingly inevitable confirmation of Rangers title win away from being back louder and more irascible than ever before.
Off the field, Hatem Elhamed also departed with his long protracted move back to the middle east confirmed as he tied up a move to Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
He joins Jeremie Frimpong and Olivier Ntcham as recent departures who one showed so much promise.
They are also the early indicators of what looks like a full-scale clearout with a host of loanees, out of contract and want-away players set to join them in the summer.
For now, though we continue to tick over.
Next up is a tricky away tie to St.Johnstone at Sunday lunchtime.
The Saints have only lost one of their last nine games and in that time recorded a resounding 3-0 League Cup semi-final win over Hibs.
With a final against Livingston to look forward too they are also looking to push up the table and defeated their cup final opponents away via a 2-1 scoreline on Saturday.
In the previous weeks to that, they had beaten St.Mirren (1-0) at home before drawing at home with Aberdeen (0-0) and defeating Kilmarnock on the road (3-2) before suffering a narrow defeat at Ibrox to Rangers (1-0).
They sit in eighth place, just two points outside of the top six and have everything to play for.
Goals have been spread throughout the team with veteran Stevie May the top marksman having hit the net nine times in 32 games though he’s still way off the form that brought him to prominence with the Perth side seven years ago.
Callum Davidson has them well drilled as we ourselves found out when they came to Celtic Park and held us to a well deserved 1-1 draw back in early December.
We also really struggled at McDiarmid Park back in early October requiring injury-time goals from Leigh Griffiths and Patryk Klimala to secure the points.
It’s tough to get excited right now but let’s just hope we can keep on winning and see where it takes us.
....Always A Tim! 