Celtic blew their chance to try and claw back the season ten days ago at Ibrox.
A trip away to Dubai immediately afterwards was justified as being the battery recharger everyone needed before attempting to go on an unprecedented 19 game-winning run over the second half of the season.
Instead, it led rather predictably to a positive Covid test after Christopher Jullien was diagnosed as such leading to thirteen first team squad members and the management team having to self-isolate.
I mean you couldn’t write this stuff, could you?
The absurdity of the trip in the first place aside why was Jullien even there?
He’s meant to be out for effectively the remainder of the season yet it was deemed a good idea for him to do a 14 hrs round trip on a commercial airliner so that he could sit in the sun for five days.
Anyway, as much as the club and a certain sycophantic element of the support try and resist reality the fact is the trip has blown up spectacularly in the our faces and we are a now a laughing stock whether we acknowledge it or not.
Last night that was compounded by two more dropped points.
Celtic played a struggling Hibs team on a three-game losing streak with young Cameron Harper thrown in upfront alongside Mikey Johnstone as there was no recognised striker available.
We still had a strong team with the linchpin midfield duo of Turnbull and Soro beside Callum McGregor and Tom Rogic in midfield.
Shane Duffy partnered Stephen Welsh in central defence with Conor Hazard in goal whilst Laxalt and Frimpong were on the flanks.
So not too far off what would normally be the starting eleven then.
But without an actual striker on the pitch, our play often broke down in the final third and Harper whilst willing and enthusiastic sadly looked miles off it in both the fitness and talent department.
Mikey Johnstone wasn’t much better and Tom Rogic was pretty much anonymous all night too.
At the back Duffy had one of his better games and Hazard made some good saves though that would all be undone by a late howler but we’ll get to that in a moment.
We brought some fine saves out of Hibs new keeper Matt Macey with long-range efforts from Soro and Laxalt in the first half and Callum McGregor also wasted a great chance just before the break.
In the second period Hibs showed more ambition but ultimately the game looked like it was fizzling out to a goalless draw.
Then up stepped David Turnbull on 82 minutes who after winning a free kick on the edge of the box then converted it with a wonderful curling finish.
It looked like despite the circumstances we had pulled it out of the fire but you can always rely on this current Celtic team to let you down and they duly delivered as Laxalt gave away a needless free-kick a minute into injury time before Hazard flapped at the resulting ball into the box and goal machine Kevin Nisbet equalised for the visitors.
So that was that.
Two more points dropped and now a mammoth 21 points behind.
And we’ll have to go with the same depleted resources again on Saturday as we entertain Livingston.
The West Lothian club are currently in sparkling form too.
Having parted company with manager Gary Holt his assistant David Martindale has stepped in and guided them to a pretty incredible eight consecutive wins (six in the league and two in the League Cup).
In that time they’ve scored 20 goals having conceded only three with midfielder Scott Robinson weighing in with four goals from midfield and Alan Forrest – younger brother of James – finding the net three times.
Having climbed up to fifth spot in the league they sit seven points behind fourth-placed Hibs with two games in hand and have a League Cup semi-final against St.Mirren to look forward to at the end of the month.
So it’s all go over at the Tony Macaroni Arena and they’ll be confident of getting something considering our current predicament.
Before then they play Aberdeen at home tomorrow night in a rescheduled match and we can only hope the Dons can halt their momentum and that the game takes something out of them before they travel to Celtic Park for the 3pm kick-off on Saturday afternoon.
It really is a sorry state of affairs when you are worried about a game at home against Livingston.
But that’s the situation we’ve put ourselves in.
And it is all self-inflicted.
Win, lose or draw though it’s becoming less and less about the next game in what has descended into a fiasco of a season and more about the bigger picture.
With the club so far behind Rangers now they can barely see us in their rear view mirror and the pursuit of ten more or less dead in the water the question is when exactly will the club act in regards to a decision over the manager?
Neil Lennon has sadly been a catastrophic failure this season on every front so far delivering a term that is even eclipsing the Mowbray tenure debacle of 2009/10 as the worst since the farcical Barnes / Dalglish stint we saw play out over 20 years ago though we did actually win a trophy in that campaign.
As we watch through the cracks of our fingers you do wonder how bad this could still get not to mention why it was allowed to get so bad in the first place.
Lennon retaining the role for next season is pretty much unthinkable right now though you wouldn’t put anything past the current chief executive and majority shareholder.
....Always A Tim! 