October was more like it for Celtic.
From a deserted hotel bar in Donegal Town, I witnessed the beginning of a revival in form after a poor September which begin with a 2-1 win at Pittodrie against Aberdeen.
Nir Bitton somehow missed a point-blank header early before Kyogo Furuhashi chested home on 11 mins via a point-blank cross from David Turnbull to give us the lead.
Jota’s form then began to really sparkle and a wonderful long-range drive had Joe Lewis in the host’s goal well beaten only to crash off the bar.
In the 2nd half, the Dons got back into via a looping header from Lewis Ferguson which conspired to beat both Joe Hart and Callum McGregor on the line on its way into the net.
Thereafter Hart had to be lively as the men in red smelled blood but with another poor result looking like it was on the cards a lovely through ball into the box from Tom Rogic found Lee Montgomery and the young fullback’s low delivery across the face of goal was met by Jota who slid home the winner on 84 mins.
At full-time, the relief from the manager and players as they hailed the visiting support was palpable.
The victory seemed to ignite Celtic who after the following weekend’s international break would go on to easily dismiss an in-form Motherwell side 2-0 at Fir Park a fortnight later.
For pretty much the entire afternoon the men in Hoops totally dominated and that man Jota who was in sparkling form all day finished beautifully on 17 mins after a sublime pass from Tom Rogic released him in on goal.
Celtic were knocking on the door all afternoon and David Turnbull, returning to his former club, produced a moment of brilliance with a 30-yard stunner that nearly took the net out and gave ‘Well keeper Liam Kelly no chance seven mins after the restart.
The rest of the game petered out and Celtic moved onto a must-win home Europa League encounter with Ferencvaros bizarrely played at 3.30 pm on a Tuesday afternoon due to Cop 26 taking place in the city.
This unfortunate kick-off time didn’t stop over 50,000 fans from showing up to witness us take revenge on the Hungarian Champions who had dispatched us from the previous season’s Champions League qualifiers in front of an empty Celtic Park.
In truth, it was a one-sided affair with the visitors seemingly happy to sit in and try and steal a result or leave with a point.
After a frustrating first 45 mins, Celtic started off the second half with a bang thanks to a magnificent Jota pass from deep inside our half that released Furuhashi through on goal and the Japanese hitman finished with aplomb.
The home side then missed chances galore including a Callum McGregor penalty before finally putting the matter to bed via a scrappy David Turnbull goal on 81 mins which was then later credited as an own goal to Bálint Vécsei but hey, they all count.
The Bhoys were now really kicking on and easily dismissed visitors, St.Johnstone, 2-0 in the league days later thanks to a debut goal from summer signing Giorgos Giakoumakis and a late penalty by Josip Juranovic to tie up our third consecutive 2-0 victory.
It wasn’t thrilling free-flowing stuff but it was confirmation that we had found a level of consistency absent for so long and were now well and truly in winning ways and against a team who always make it difficult to look good.
That set us up for what would be our best 45 mins of the season so far as we visited Easter Road for what looked like on paper to be a tricky tie against Hibs only to see us blow the hosts out of the water in 30 excellent first-half minutes.
Anthony Ralston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and the man of the moment Kyogo all hit the net with the final one a magnificent move seeing Rogic work his magic feet as he set up Jota to square it for the Japanese hitman to finish at point-blank range.
Hibs got a consolation before halftime but on a rain-sodden night the Bhoys saw it out for another precious three points and we looked to be on fire.
Alas, that fire was dampened only three days later on October 30th when our bogey team of recent years Livingston came to Celtic Park and sat in for 90 mins with Celtic unable to break the deadlock.
Giorgos Giakoumakis had a chance to deliver the three points in injury time with a penalty but alas he fumbled his lines and what had been an otherwise imperious month ended on a disappointing note with two points well and truly dropped.
Not exactly a Halloween horror show but Livingston do seem to give us the jitters.
....Always A Tim! 