Celtic began the healing process from last Tuesday’s calamity against Ferencvaros with a pretty routine 3-0 home win against Motherwell yesterday afternoon at Celtic Park which brings us up to third in the league, six points behind Rangers but with two games in hand.
Neil Lennon doubled down on not playing a striker last Tuesday by fielding the same starting eleven as once again midfielder Ryan Christie was given the lone attacking duties while strikers Patryk Klimala and Albian Ajetit looked on from the bench.
The first half saw Motherwell predictably sit deep whilst Celtic played passing drills in front of them relentlessly with little penetration achieved.
Thankfully though James Forrest gave us the lead five mins before half time with a superb finish into the right corner of the net past the despairing Trevor Carson after being set-up by Callum McGregor who had ripped through the heart of the opposition with a wonderful run from the edge of is own box before finding Forrest on the edge of the box.
In the second half, Lenny accepted the inevitable and Klimala was brought on to replace the ineffective Elyounoussi during the break.
The Polish striker gave the Motherwell defence something to think about with his runs in behind but the game wasn’t secured until Albian Ajeti came on with 19 mins left and only three mins later he almost ripped the net out with a thunderous finish at close range after being found in the box via a lovely pass by big Kris Ajer who himself had received it after sterling work on the right flank by Ryan Christie.
Not long after Klimala should have scored himself after being released one on one with Carson due to an error from Declan Gallagher but he fluffed his lines and in doing so gave ammunition to those who believe he isn’t up to it.
Jeremie Frimpong came on a late sub for Greg Taylor and his energy really had Motherwell toiling in the dying embers of the game.
A rampaging run from the diminutive full-back ended in him feeding Christopher Jullien who had strode forward into the box and he finished with aplomb as he arrowed a low drive past Carson to make it 3-0 on 92 mins.
So that was that.
Job done.
Lenny was, to say the least, stubborn to persist with playing no striker but at least he came around for the second 45 mins.
Kilmala really could have done with taking that opportunity and he actually missed another great chance when he failed to meet a Taylor low cross earlier in the second half but I wouldn’t write him off yet.
Sadly we didn’t see anything of new singing David Turnbull which was really disappointing but truth be told Lennon rarely ever pitches new signings straight in as we’ve seen with Soro, Klimala. Ajeti and last summer with Jullien and Bolingoli.
Judging by the pulse on social media the boo-boys laid off Jullien and Ajer yesterday no doubt due to the fact they had little to deal with all afternoon.
Though Christie, Scott Brown and in particular Greg Taylor appear to be the current figures of hate whilst Olivier Ntcham seems to be bulletproof from criticism from large sections of the support.
Off the field, word is that Leigh Griffiths will return to full training this week whilst Shane Duffy is apparently now on the verge of signing a rumoured one-year loan deal with the club though we’ve been hearing that for a while now.
We aren’t back in action until a week next Saturday away at Ross County due to the international break which occurs this weekend and will see most of our squad involved.
There’s a risk with players heading off for international duty at the best of times but even more so now in the age of COVID.
Let’s hope that when we do return a certain Odsonne Edouard is back to full fitness and ready to play not to mention a full complement of players who we hope will emerge unscathed from their international team efforts.
If Shane Duffy is also on board and Leigh Griffiths is back up to speed then more’s the better.
One player who certainly won’t be joining us – Lionel Messi aside – will be Peterborough striker Ivan Toney who has been linked with us all summer though talk cooled off after we got the Albian Ajeti signing over the line.
As of today, he’s secured a move to English Championship side Brentford so he won’t be dawning the Hoops anytime soon.
On the European front, the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League was drawn today and it was revealed that we won’t be one of the teams who’ll be getting a bye into the play-off round.
Instead, we’ll find out potential 3rd qualifying round opponents at noon tomorrow so watch this space.
....Always A Tim! 