It was the late, late show in Perth as Celtic snatched three points at McDiarmid Park yesterday afternoon.
Copying the tactics deployed in recent weeks by Riga and Sarajevo the Saints sat in deep and showed little ambition to get up the park all afternoon save one moment early in the second half where an impressive break ended in Craig Conway – easily the hosts best player all afternoon – cracking an attempt off the bar.
But that aside it was easy to see why Callum Davidson’s men have only scored one goal in seven games.
Celtic toiled truth be told and looked tired after Thursday nights exertions in Bosnia and that was even with the fresh legs of David Turnbull and Olivier Ntcham added to the starting eleven.
Both struggled all afternoon and were hooked in the second half.
Odsonne Edouard also continues to look out of sorts and he was also subbed in the second 45.
One can only hope the transfer window slamming shut at midnight tonight with him still here might get his head back in the game.
The game only truly came to life for us in the dying embers when Leight Griffiths made his long-awaited return to first-team action and delivered the goods with a fabulous near post header on the 90th minute after wonderful delivery by El Hamed.
Minutes later another sub Patryk Klimala rode an awful challenge on the edge of the box by Liam Gordon before picking himself up and finishing wonderfully past home keeper Zander Clark high into the net.
Somehow what looked like two points dropped had turned into a comfortable 2-0 win within three minutes.
That means a fantastic start to the season – on paper at least – continues with eight wins and a draw with 25 goals scored and only 5 conceded.
Rangers remain ahead by a point having played a game more after struggling themselves to a 2-0 home win over Ross County who passed up multiple chances.
They will, of course, be our next opponents a week on Sunday after the international break is over which begins this Thursday with Scotland’s Euro play-off semi-final match against Israel at Hampden.
Let’s hope the likes of Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie get through that unscathed as we’ll need them.
It is great to have Griffiths back though and he proved his worth and the classy Tom Rogic also came on off the bench.
Fingers crossed Tom is still here after tomorrow as it’s been no secret that he’s been linked with a move away since the start of the summer.
James Forrest will definitely miss the Rangers encounter through injury and Albian Ajeti will struggle to but with Griffiths back, Klimala having scored his third of the season and hopefully Edouard refreshed and ready to go we’ll have plenty of striking options.
As mentioned already today is the last day of the transfer window and Neil Lennon has made it clear we are looking to do business with left-back the priority what with the much-criticised – often unfairly in my opinion – Greg Taylor the only option there after Boli Bolingoli’s recent departure.
We are being heavily linked to AC Milan’s Diego Laxalt in a season-long loan.
The 27-year-old Uruguayan internationalist certainly fits the bill and hopefully, we get that one over the line.
The likes of Edouard, Ajer, Ntcham and Rogic will also be linked with moves away but Neil Lennon remains adamant that there will be no major departures.
As is always the case deadline day should be interesting and hopefully, we come out of it stronger.
We’ve already had a good window adding the likes of Barkas, Ajeti, Duffy and Turnbull so hopefully, we keep that momentum going with the arrival of Laxalt.
Watch this space.
....Always A Tim! 