Celtic made it six wins on the spin yesterday with a thoroughly dominant 3-0 win over Dundee Utd at Celtic Park.
With the front two of Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard once again deployed and Turnbull and Soro galvanising the midfield we replicated the performance from Boxing Day away at Accies as we took the game to the visitors from the off.
With Utd sitting in though we had our shooting boots on and Soro scored his first for the club with a spectacular long-range strike that left Arabs keeper and alleged Celtic target Benjamin Siegrist not looking too smart.
David Turnbull made it 2-0 when his powerful strike clipped in off the post and the game was more or less won by half time.
In the second stanza, big Chris Jullien got stung for pace by Marc McNulty who looked to have finished past Barkas but the towering Frenchman redeemed himself with a wonderful clearance off the line which unfortunately led to him clattering his trailing leg off the post resulting in an early departure via a stretcher.
That was about as hairy as it got though with a wonderful chipped through ball from Griffiths feeding strike partner Edouard who himself chipped over Siegrist to make it three.
It should have been more with chances galore missed late on but there can be little complaints.
Celtic dominated from start to finish and that’s four consecutive clean sheets now on league business with ten goals scored in the process.
Once again the dynamic midfield pairing of Soro and Turnbull impressed as they ran the midfield and Griff and French Eddy also look deadly replicating the form from the second half of last season which ultimately fired us to a ninth consecutive title.
Without doubt, all four must start on Saturday for the vital game with Rangers.
Lose that one and you can kiss goodbye once and for all to ten in a row as we would be 19 points behind and even with three games in hand it would be a mountain we would be unlikely to scale.
Rangers should be shorn of both Ryan Jack and Scott Arfield for the encounter which helps us we really need to dominate the midfield.
Playing two up front in such a tie will be seen as risky by some but the one upfront approach has failed miserably in the last three encounters with them and the fact is that we can’t rely on our defence so really need to outscore them.
We’re playing our best football of the season right now with the two wins in twelve run that nearly cost Neil Lennon his job now usurped by six wins on the bounce.
If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it and hopefully Neil Lennon believes in the team that has been so successful for us in recent weeks and doesn’t throw a late selection curveball in there the likes of which has generally proven highly ill-advised in the past.
The only change I would make is having Rogic in for Christie but that’s not a game-changer.
Dropping Soro for say Scott Brown and only going with one upfront is.
Hopefully, we hold our nerve and the right selection delivers.
It’ll be difficult but we have to believe and hope it all comes together on the day.
Like it or not Rangers are unbeaten in the league with only four points dropped all season for a reason.
But how will they cope with us taking the game to them and going for the jugular from the start?
After three consecutive abject ‘Old Firm’ or Derby displays, we’re due a turn in this tie from our Bhoys and hopefully, they deliver.
Let’s be honest they have to.
....Always A Tim! 