Celtic dropped two more points – that’s 18 now so far – recording a dour 0-0 draw with Livingston at Celtic Park as a disappointing campaign continues.
Though shorn of many first-team players Celtic still fielded a strong starting eleven in a 4-2-3-1 formation but played without tempo or belief in the latest of a myriad of uninspired performances this season.
The less said about the match the better though Armstrong Okoflex blew a great chance to score late on after Tony Ralston placed a fabulous ball across the face of goal but the young striker failed to make any contact from a few yards out.
Livi themselves hit the bar in the second half and are now unbeaten in nine games having come in on an eight game winning run.
Celtic meanwhile have only won six of their last 20 games for the clubs worst run since the 1994/95 campaign that saw us play at Hampden.
I was there that season. We had Willie Falconer and Pat McGinlay up front and Jim Slevin back in defence just to give some context to how different the clubs circumstances were at that point.
Back to the present and the following day Rangers dropped points for only the third time this season via a 1-1 draw at Motherwell but maintain their seemingly unassailable 21 points lead at the top.
We match-up again with Livingston away on Wednesday night as we attempt to claw back some of that enormous deficit and it’ll kick off a spell where we’ll play at least nine games in just over five weeks and it could be more if the Scottish Cup goes ahead or rescheduled league games are put on in its place.
Of course, we should have most of the players quarantining back for Wednesday and Neil Lennon did his first press conference earlier today since returning from the disastrous Dubai trip.
Sadly rather than be contrite and look to hold his hands up the obvious error of going on the trip Lenny has instead opted for the siege mentality and in a complete contradiction to the ‘apology’ issue by chief executive Peter Lawwell last week he insists there is nothing to apologise for.
Indeed he even went as far to disclose that a second player has now tested positive for Covid before claiming that it was a political decision to put him and 12 other players/coaching staff in self-isolation after returning.
Whilst there’s no doubt the press are having a field day the fact is we have given them countless ammunition this season and still every tier of the club from the board to the manager can’t see the woods for the trees.
The once vociferous section fo the support who insisted all wrongdoing was the fault of outsiders and bad luck are now dwindling and Lenny really does look like a man up a creek in a shit storm without a paddle.
Meanwhile, rumours continue to do the rounds that change is afoot and will come into place sooner rather than later at both board and management level with Eddie Howe’s name being thrown around for the umpteenth time.
Ross Desmond, son of Dermot, is also alleged to be the man to replace Lawwell in the boardroom though that one has been floating around for years now.
I guess we’ll see what happens after Wednesday night but even if there is no truth to them one thing looks certain and that’s that Neil Lennon is living game by game now.
The Tony Macaroni Arena is a ground we’ve really struggled at having failed to win in three previous attempts since the West Lothian sides return to the top flight three years ago.
A win now would really go down a treat.
Cutting the gap to 18 points means little but the three points would at least relieve some of the pressure on the manager who now clearly is at boiling point plus it would give us the fans something to cheer about for the first time in a month.
God knows what the line-up will be but I think it’s safe to say the likes of Ajer, Christie, Elyounoussi, Edouard and Griffiths will be playing some part that is depending on who is the second player to have tested positive which hasn’t been revealed yet.
The only way is up as it genuinely can’t get any worse right now.
....Always A Tim! 