Aberdeen proved to be a much harder nut to crack than they did back in late October as we eeked out a 2-1 win at Celtic Park over the Grampian side on Saturday.
Celtic came out determined to put a marker down having obviously seen Rangers close the gap by dismissing a pretty pathetic Hibs at Easter Road 3-0 the night before.
In the opening minutes, a Jullien flick came back off the bar and then Odsonne Edouard had a back heel towards goal blocked by a last-ditch tackle from Ash Taylor.
Cosgrove sees red.
Jullien then got his goal when his a scuffed effort this time came off the turf and then ended up bouncing over Joe Lewis in the Aberdeen goal in only the seventh minute.
Celtic dominated and Edouard had an effort well saved before he fired another one past and to all intents and purposes, it looked like Celtic could once again fill their boots against the men in red.
But then the Dons equalised on 35 mins when Cosgrove out jumped Ajer at the back post after a floated cross from McGinn and his header sailed past Forster into the top right-hand corner of the big keeper’s net. That’s Cosgrove’s 20th of the season so far and it’s fair to say he will be on a few clubs radars when the transfer window reopens next month.
Up the other end, French Eddy was having one of those days in front of goal again similar to Wednesday night against Hearts as he wanted too many touches in front of goal but finally delivered on the 66th-minute mark when a fine flowing move through the middle was finished off by the Frenchman for his 16th goal of the season.
Thereafter Mikey Johnstone was denied by Lewis with a powerful effort and Scott McKenna produced a wonderful last-ditch tackle on the edge of the box to deny McGregor a passage through on goal and that was that until Sam Cosgrove produced the sort of tackle on Ajer that used to be celebrated joyously back in the ’90s but is deemed unacceptable now resulting in him being sent off.
So 2-1 and three more points puts Celtic on the 49 point mark, five ahead of Rangers and it’s also our tenth consecutive league win since falling to Livingston back in early October.
After a fine start to the game, it was another performance where we really seemed to struggle to kick-on and that’s been the story in recent weeks but as the old cliche goes the mark of a good team and indeed a team that can win a championship is one that wins even when not playing particularly well.
The big ‘Old Firm’ – as we used to call it – match with Rangers is looming of course but until then we are back up again on Boxing Day against ex-Celt Jim Goodwin’s St.Mirren.
They sit fourth bottom on sixteen points and are only four points above bottom-placed Hearts but are also only six points off the top six.
By and large, it’s been a struggle for the Paisley side all season with a disappointing League Cup group campaign back in the summer seeing them win only one of their four group games and fail to progress to the second round and their league form hasn’t been much better with only four wins in nineteen games with four draws and eleven defeats.
They are on their best run of the season though having arrested three straight losses with a win at fellow relegation strugglers Hamilton Accies followed by a 3-3 draw with Livingston and a hard-fought 0-0 draw at St.Johnstone on Saturday.
Goals have been hard to come by with only 15 all season making them the second-lowest scorers in the league though they do have the joint fifth-best defensive record so safe to say they don’t play the most open brand of football.
Czech goalkeeper Václav Hladký is their star man and has been linked with a move to Rangers and there are hard workers throughout the team such as the McGinn brothers Paul and Stephen but their strikers have been misfiring for the whole campaign with Danny Mullen, Jonathan Obika and Junior Morias hitting the net a total of only ten times between them from a combined total of 54 games.
Goodwin himself was a hard-working ball winner and the team is pretty much a mirror of him with creativity and goals being in somewhat of short supply.
I expect them to be combative and determined and it could be a game to watch out for tough tackles and injuries with the Buddies fighting to stay clear of the relegation places.
I’ll take a 2-0 win to set us up for the big encounter with the light blues on December 29th but I’ll also be hoping our free-flowing play from earlier in the season clicks back in and we not only maintain our points advantage but get a few goals too. With Rangers at against a struggling, managerless Kilmarnock at the same time, I’d expect them to likely win by a decent margin so every goal is vital at the moment.
All that aside I’d like to wish anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas and the blog will be back with a review of the St.Mirren game and then a big bumper preview of the vital clash the following Sunday with our beloved city neighbours by Thursday.
Until then hope Santa’s good to you and yours.
....Always A Tim! 