Celtic won their first game for a month with a 2-0 win over Hamilton Accies who came to Celtic Park with one thought in mind that being to keep the score down.
For 90 mins it was one-way traffic with the home team laying siege to the visitor’s goals for long periods but as has been the case for pretty much the entire campaign we couldn’t deliver the number of goals our play merited.
With Kris Ajer slotting in for the departed Jeremie Frimpong at right-back there was only ever one team in it and we took a deserved lead after 12 mins when Leigh Griffiths finished low into the bottom left-hand corner with a fabulous drive from outside the box that gave Accies keeper Ryan Fulton no chance.
You thought the floodgates might open but Fulton made good saves from McGregor and Edouard, Turnbull had a goal-bound effort charged down by multiple Accies defenders and both Griffiths and Edouard passed up certainties when it looked odds on to score.
Early in the second half, Edouard got his goal with a nice finish inside the box after being fed through from Griffiths and thereafter the game petered out with Hamilton’s late pressure from set-pieces ultimately yielding no rewards.
Alas, it makes little difference to the league table as Rangers beat Hibs won 1-0 to retain their 23 point advantage at the top having played three games more.
Next up for Celtic is a home encounter with St.Mirren on Saturday followed by a visit to Kilmarnock on Tuesday.
Jim Goodwin’s Buddies side are in fine form having smashed Dundee Utd 5-1 at Tannadice last night in a real eye-opening performance.
Up until the 19th of December they had gone on an 11 game unbeaten run that saw them eliminate Rangers from the League Cup with a 3-2 victory which remains the Ibrox clubs only defeat in any competition this term.
They also collected 11 points from 15 in the league during that spell but then suffered three back to back league defeats before arresting that with two draws, one loss and last nights victory in their last four.
Before last night they had only scored 16 goals on league duty but they’ve also conceded only 25 which is the best in the Premiership outside of the top three sides.
Young Irish midfielder Jamie McGrath has 9 goals in 29 games this season and scored two penalties last night so he’s definitely the one to watch.
Hopefully, they come to play buoyed by last nights victory which should give us opportunities as there’s no doubt we’ve struggled to break teams down this season.
Off the field, as expected Jeremie Frimpong completed his £11.5 million move to Bayer Leverkusen last night and we look to be on the verge of signing Preston North End defender Ben Davies on a pre-contract for a summer move with the possibility of getting him in before then for £2.5 million also being mentioned.
I guess we’ll find out either way between now and Monday evening when the transfer window shuts.
Davies has the credentials to be the centre back we really need going forward even if it is too late for this campaign.
PNE fans certainly sing his praises but then I saw a lot of Brighton fans praising Shane Duffy when he arrived and we’ve all seen how that worked out.
Anyway, last night was a win and hopefully it’s the beginning of a run and that’s just about all you can hope for right now.
....Always A Tim! 