Before we even kicked a ball in January the big news was the long rumoured and finally completed the treble signing of Japanese talents Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi from J-League sides Kawasaki Frontale, Yokohama F. Marinos and Gamba Osaka respectively.
24-year-old midfielder Hatate picked up his first cap for his country later in the year whilst 25-year-old fellow midfield player Ideguchi has already represented his country 15 times and striker Maeda (also aged 24) has 4 caps and 53 career goals scoring 23 times in 40 games during the previous season’s campaign for Marinos.
Together all three cost an estimated £3.5 million with Maeda’s move a loan that becomes permanent in the summer.
And the signings didn’t stop there as Matt O’Riley joined for £1.5 million from MK Dons where the 21-year-old attacking midfielder has scored 10 goals in 54 games.
It didn’t take most of the signings long to hit the ground running as Maeda scored 4 mins into his debut against Shaun Maloney’s Hibs at Celtic Park during a routine 2-0 win with Josip Jurnanovic sealing the points via a penalty on 25 mins. Hatate also impressed during the game and was man of the match.
Days later Barry Ferguson’s Alloa did their best to kick us off the park but fell short and were beaten 2-1 in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup at Recreation Park.
Maeda missed a hatful of chances but Georgios Giakoumakis and Liel Abada both scored in the first half to secure progression with a late Conor Sammon header for the hosts causing minor concern. Ultimately Barry’s men were too busy trying to injure their counterparts in green and white jerseys to be too serious a threat of actually equalising. Unfortunately. the rough house tactics saw Ideguchi injured and Call McGregor taken off with a fractured cheekbone which would require him to wear a mask for the rest of the season. Barry insisted these were all just robust, competitive challenges though.
Only four days after that we visited Hearts a ground where we had lost on the opening day of the season and is always a tough tie.
On an eventful night, a Hatate rocket on 27 mins from 30+ yards put us ahead before Giakoumakis continued his scoring form with a neat finish on the 35 mins mark.
In the second half though Liam Boyce scored not long after the hour mark with a neat offside finish to reduce the margins and then the Irishman missed a penalty which beat Joe Hart but cannoned offed both posts and out on 73 mins and somehow we escaped with three vital points.
It must be noted though that Matt O’Riley making his debut looked superb and took no time at all settling in with his crisp passing and even set up Giakoumakis for his goal. What a find he looks.
If that wasn’t harum-scarum enough then the following Saturday we came up against a robust and battling Dundee Utd who were attempting to repeat the feat of earlier in the season where they had gained a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park.
It looked like three points dropped but with the clock ticking and seconds remaining Liel Abada hit the net on the 90th minute to send the stadium into raptures.
The late feat was made all the more thrilling and unlikely due to the fact that the home side had spent the last 10 mins reduced to ten men with Abada’s countryman Nir Bitton sent off on 81 mins.
So in the space of three days, there had been two huge moments in the title race and both had fallen in our favour.
A vital game against Rangers was only days away……………………
....Always A Tim! 