Well, we got the three points last night and there’s not much more you can say. Before taking to the field Neil Lennon bizarrely made a whole host of changes to the starting line-up that thumped Ross County 5-0 away at the weekend with Christopher Jullien, Jeremie Frimpong, Olivier Ntcham and Albian Ajeti dropping to the bench and Hatem Elhamed, Greg Taylor, Ryan Christie and Patryk Klimala coming in.
It took a while to build up a fluidity on Saturday up in Dingwall though it was there by the last half hour of the game alas with such significant personnel changes made last night that fluidity and cohesion were lacking again from the first whistle.
We also lost a goal in 3 mins when Lee Erwin, who has generally been incapable of hitting a barn door throughout his entire career, was able to knock the ball into the net from close range after all of the towering Celtic centre-backs spectacularly failed to get to a corner.
Celtic turned it around quickly via headed goals from Shane Duffy on 21 mins and James Forrest on 36 mins with both players left unmarked in the centre of the box and Duffy in particular given the freedom of the park to head home at his leisure.
Thereafter it was passing drills time as St.Mirren just refused to come out and sat back with the entire team behind the ball trying to keep the score down and hoping for a miracle.
Their new emergency stopper Zdenek Zlamal has been renowned for his calamitous goalkeeping at Hearts since coming to Scotland but had a fine game last night denying Odsonne Edouard in the first half and also keeping out a rasping shot from Christie in the second period not to mention a penalty save from Edouard after Christie had been brought down in the box.
Truth be told though just about anyone could have saved Eddy’s penalty it was that poor.
His casual run-up technique doesn’t inspire confidence and though he got away with it on Saturday against County four days ago Zlamal was cute to it last night.
He needs to either bin that approach or be taken off them and the miss summed up a rare poor night from the France under 21 international.
His strike partner Klimala was subbed in the second half after producing an anonymous display that really did his cause no favours.
Online the post-game vibe was to round on Taylor and Christie who seem to be the routine fall guys for a section of the Celtic support though Taylor is a full back and not a winger so was doing the best he can in that role and Christie actually produced two assists and won us a penalty so I fail to see how they should be getting it in the neck considering the whole team struggled against stifling opposition.
Anyway, it was three points and any team will struggle to look good against a totally negative St.Mirren team who just sit in with every man behind the ball and point-blank refuse to have a go even at 2-1 behind and with ten minutes to go.
Even the girl hosting the St.Mirren TV coverage seemed delighted that her team hadn’t been pumped referring to it as a ‘Tremendous night’.
Neil Lennon claimed in the post-match interview that a lack of fans is affecting us. But that’s the same for every team and I’ve heard Lennon himself decry our supports lack of patience at times in the past so he’ll have to wind his neck in on that one.
We return to action on Saturday at 3pm for a home game with Livingston who are struggling this term with only one win from their opening seven matches with four losses and two draws.
Last time out they went down 2-1 at home to fellow strugglers Hamilton Accies losing two goals in the second half after taking a first-minute lead.
As a result, they sit second bottom of the table on 5 points only ahead of bottom-placed Motherwell on goal difference.
This will be a cause of concern for manager Gary Holt who manged the West Lothian club to a fifth-place finish last season but has lost influential striker Lyndon Dykes for a big transfer fee to English Championship side QPR during the summer and their recent signing of former Celtic man Anthony Stokes has proven a disaster with the Irish striker seeing his contract terminated after only three weeks due to an inability to keep up with training.
No surprise then they have only scored five goals but what will be of even more concern is the eleven goals conceded at the other end and the fact they have conceded two goals or more in four of their seven games.
So there are goals to be had for Celtic and no one will be more aware of that than Gary Holt himself so I expect him to try and replicate the St.Mirren display of last night and keep the score down so as not have his team on a downer going in to a subsequent serious of matches in both the league and the League Cup that are far more winnable.
After Saturday it’s back into Europe for the Europa League 3rd qualifying round next week but we can examine that one more closely once we find out who we’ll actually be playing with Riga FC of Latvia and Tre Fiori of San Marino squaring off for the right to do so this evening at 6pm.
Interestingly the team that knocked us out of the Champions League Ferencvaros also eliminated Dinamo Zagreb last night with a 2-1 win and are now in the playoffs where they will meet Norway’s Molde in a 50/50 tie. Perhaps they weren’t the mugs we dismissed them as after all.
Here’s last nights action….for what it’s worth.
....Always A Tim! 