Somehow Celtic captured their tenth consecutive domestic trophy yesterday afternoon.
On a rain-swept early December afternoon in the southside of Glasgow, both Celtic and Rangers took to the field with expectations amongst both supports high.
The light blues though were given a boost before kick-off with the news that Odsonne Edouard was not fit enough to start and would be on the bench.
If that wasn’t concerning enough Neil Lennon also opted to persist with Lewis Morgan upfront in the lone striker role with Leigh Griffiths ejected from the squad and with Greg Taylor cup-tied and Boli Bolingoli deemed not fit enough to start either it saw Jonny Hayes re-enter the fray at left-back.
Mohamed Elyounoussi did make it though and started out on the left-hand side.
Right from the get-go, Rangers looked more up for it on a sodden pitch where the ball was moving at a snail’s pace.
They won most second balls but more importantly completely dominated the midfield with Brown and McGregor pushed back and fighting for scraps whilst Forrest, Christie and Elyounoussi were completely ineffectual looking cut off and isolated as Morgan ploughed a lonely furrow up front.
Steven Gerrard clearly targeted Hayes at left-back and the Irishman had to run himself into the ground all afternoon trying vainly to repel the constant pressure and attacks coming at him from Morelos, Tavernier and Aribo.
To be honest few Celtic players got pass marks all afternoon with the exception of Jeremie Frimpong at right-back who pretty effortlessly shackled Ryan Kent and big Fraser Forster in goal who was imperious all afternoon.
In the first half alone he produced a superb save from a long-range Ryan Jack effort as well as three impressive stops from Morelos the last of which was at point-blank range.
Celtic meanwhile produced virtually nothing in the first half and it was a wonder they had got to the interval with the match still tied at 0-0.
In the second half, Celtic swapped out Elynoussi for Mikey Johnston. I championed the Norwegian internationalist going straight back into the first team after a period out through injury but the truth is he looked way off the pace and as a result, he struggled spending most of the game tracking back to assist the under siege Hayes and offering nothing offensively.
Despite the personnel change Rangers picked up from where they left off and continued to dominate proceedings.
Forster had to scramble a ball out for a corner with the Celtic defence at sixes and sevens and then moments later he produced a fabulous one-handed save from a Morelos back post header that came down off the pitch and up towards goal.
It really looked like a matter of time before the defence was breached but somehow on the hour mark, Celtic took a sensational lead.
Odsonne Edouard was introduced coming on for Morgan, who was predictably lost all afternoon and almost immediately won a free-kick which was flighted in perfectly by the previously anonymous Christie only to be met by the boot of Christopher Jullien who placed it past Allan McGregor and sent the green half of the stadium into raptures.
The replays indicated it was marginally offside but it stood and Celtic had somehow taken the lead out of nowhere.
But the ecstasy soon turned to agony as Frimpong brought down Morelos in the box a few minutes later which saw him red-carded and resulted in a penalty.
Morelos stepped up to take but his tame effort was pretty easily saved by Forster and Celtic eventually got it clear. Incredible stuff.
It could have got even more incredible five minutes after that when Edouard produced some excellent play in his own half as he left Kamara in the dust and then skinned Goldson before releasing fellow sub Mikey Johnston who ran through on goal and looked to have sensationally tied it up only for his effort to go wide of the left-hand post.
Thereafter the Celtic defence stood up heroicly with Jullien and Ajer joined by Bitton and Hayes at the back in chasing down everything whilst Brown, McGregor and Christie stood firmly in front of the box.
Morelos nearly grabbed a last gasp equaliser but his shot back across the face of goal whistled a few inches wide and that really was that.
The whistle went to rapturous applause.
Did Celtic deserve to win? No. But in the words of Clint Eastwood from the movie ‘Unforgiven’……………………“Deserves got nothing to do with it!”
Celtic rode their luck big time and Fraser Forster produced a performance for the ages but Rangers were also guilty of not taking their chances of which they had numerous.
Shorn of Edouard for 60 mins, Elhamed, Boli Bolingoli, Grey Taylor and with Elynoussi well off the pace Celtic were understrength and of the two teams clearly struggled more with the appalling conditions.
Main men like Brown, McGregor, Forrest and Christie just didn’t show up whilst everyone to a man barring the much-hyped Ryan Kent did for Rangers.
They will complain about the goal being offside but I have little sympathy for them. I have clear memories of vital goals by Jorge Cadete at Ibrox in 1997 and John Hartson in the 2003 League Cup final being struck off for no reason other than phantom handballs and offsides and they dismissed our complaints back then as misplaced paranoia.
Now the shoe is on the other foot and they don’t like it.
Morelos clearly has a psychological block when he plays us. Desperate to score his finishing seems to desert him and as the game went on his famous apparently dormant temper resurfaced and he should have been sent off for numerous offences that the Rangers support, players and manager have conveniently decided to ignore. He himself posted a tweet claiming the match was fixed in the aftermath which he has since taken down.
The fact is the trophy is back at Paradise for a fourth consecutive season and that’s ten trophies in a row along with 31 back to back domestic cup wins.
It’s also our 109th major trophy in total as we close in on Rangers hallowed 115 major honours that apparently makes them ‘the most successful club side in the world’.
Anyway back to the business at hand and we’re next out against Cluj on Thursday night in a game that means nothing to us. Not only are we through to the Europa League Last 32 but we’ve already won the group having amassed 13 points from 15. Cluj need to win or draw it to secure their place in the next stage with us whilst Lazio are hoping for a win for us and a victory over Rennes.
I’m not going to preview it here and despite its status of not being particularly important, I will do a separate bit for it.
After that, we have four games in eleven days which will see us host a rejuvenated Hibs, visit struggling Hearts, then host 3rd placed Aberdeen before a visit to Paisley to face St. Mirren and then guess what……it’s Rangers again.
Plenty to look forward to then as the schedule really intensifies.
Right now let’s just enjoy The Great Escape.
It’s a Christmas tradition after all.
....Always A Tim! 