Well, Thursday night was a bit of an unmitigated disaster.
Yep…..this just about sums it up.
On a night eerily similar to our capitulation against Cluj in the Champions League qualifiers way back in August Celtic showed once again that in European competition we still completely lack game management when ahead in a knockout tie.
Just like against Cluj we were ahead due to an away goal yet couldn’t see out the tie.
And also just like gainst Cluj we shot ourselves in the foot more than once.
After a pretty dominant first half where a patient Copenhagen refused to show their hand and where we passed up several good opportunities, you could only see one team progressing.
Six minutes into the second half though Jozo Simunovic had a ‘Jozo moment’ as he dithered on the ball and allowed Michael Santos to mug him before big Chris Jullien then panicked and ultimately Santos put the ball in the net.
A total gift.
Though how we ever allowed ourselves to be in a two on two situation in the first place at home in a tie where we were ahead is beyond me.
From then on we struggled and you just knew it wasn’t going to be our night but then out of nowhere we got a penalty thanks to VAR after Ragnar Sigurdsson had needlessly handled in the box.
The celebrations were short-lived.
That man Odsonne Edouard stepped up and executed the spot-kick with aplomb and suddenly we were back in this.
But in almost identical fashion to the game against the Romanian champions over six months ago, we then handed the advantage back to the visitors who scored through Pep Biel only two minutes later with Celtic’s defending completely shambolic.
Dame N’Doye then farcically sauntered through our meek backline minutes after that to make it 3-1 and complete the embarrassment.
So that’s that then.
A campaign that showed so much promise with a superb display in the group stages ultimately went the same way as the last three times we’ve gone into the Last 32 stage that being with us going out with a whimper.
To make matters worse the tournament has totally opened up too with big names like Benfica, Porto, Ajax, Arsenal, Sporting Lisbon and Red Bull Salzburg all exiting as well.
Indeed Copenhagen have been drawn against İstanbul Başakşehir in the Last 16 which looks at a totally winnable tie and could have been us but alas………..
Oh and of course Rangers quite comfortably navigated their way through earlier in the week against far tougher opposition. On the bright side, it means we have a week of rest leading up to the next Old Firm game whilst they don’t but that’s scant consolation.
So it’s back to domestic action and the pursuit of the ‘Quadruple-Treble’ as Celtic visit McDiarmid Park tomorrow afternoon.
Big Tommy is waiting.
We should be pretty confident considering we’ve won our last seven ties against St.Johnstone with an aggregate score of 26-0 which has included a 7-0 and 3-0 in our last two games against them.
They are actually in pretty good form at the moment with no losses in their last six games and only two losses in their last 15 domestic matches with seven wins and six draws.
Sixteen goals in their last eight games also shows their recent attacking prowess and Stevie May has refound his shooting boots during that period netting five times over that spell.
Their last game saw them battle to a 2-2 draw at home to Rangers too so they’ll go into this tie confident based on recent form and also hoping to take advantage of our European hangover.
I foresee us returning to a 3-5-2 with Griffiths starting upfront with Edouard and on reflection, we should maybe have gone with that on Thursday night from the start but everyone has a degree in hindsight of course.
Alas, a chance for our longest European cup run in sixteen years is gone.
Celtic got their title defence off to a flyer with a seven nil massacre of St.Johnstone at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon – Saturday afternoon at the time of publication.
In my last article, I had predicted a romp for Celtic based on the Perth sides woeful League Cup group section campaign throughout July which had seen them lost to newly-promoted Ross County though more pertinently to League One sides Forfar Athletic and Montrose.
Before the game, I listened to their manager Tommy Wright passionately defend his record at the club on BBC Sportsound which is telling as no one had actually called it into question and is more of a reflection of the pressure Wright must himself feel under and his frustrations at the fact they have lost nine first-team squad players over the summer with only a couple coming in and a striker badly needed.
Joy for Christie and Johnstone but not so much for Tommy.
As much as I expected an inform Celtic, fresh from a 7-0 aggregate dismissal of Nomme Kalju in the Champions League qualifiers, to put them to the sword I could never have predicted a 7-0 skelping which is the men from Perth’s worst result in 21 years and even eclipses the 6-0 scudding we gave them at McDiarmid Park last term.
Ryan Christie kept up his sparkling recent form with a hattrick. His first a beauty from the edge of the box and his third an even more spectacular finish with the one in the middle being a tad fortunate with Saints keeper Zander Clark not exactly covering himself in glory.
Mikey Johnstone had opened the scoring with a nice finish of his own after only nine mins and Ntcham, Edouard and Griffiths also delivered the goods with each executing fine finishes in the second half.
Hatem Abd Elhamed also made his debut and looked pretty good – let’s be honest if you can’t look good when your team is winning 7-0 then you never will – but sadly limped off in the second half. Let’s hope it isn’t too serious.
Hatem in action.
A perfect way to start the title defence on a day in which our eighth consecutive title flag was fittingly unveiled by Liz McNeill and Sadie Chalmers, the wives of the legendary Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers, two immortal club legends who we lost earlier in the year.
Elsewhere over the weekend Livingston and Motherwell burst my coupon with a meandering 0-0 draw whilst Hibs stuttered before scoring late to beat struggling St.Mirren at Easter Road thanks to a Scott Allen goal. It’s early doors but from what I’ve seen thus far I’m not too impressed with Paul Heckingbottom’s English League One level purchases. Last seasons Championship winners Ross County re-entered the top flight in style as they easily dismissed perennial relegation candidates Hamilton Accies 3-0 up in Dingwall.
Earlier on today Aberdeen won a rabble-rousing encounter at home to Hearts 3-2 with the Edinburgh side literally grasping defeat from the jaws of victory after throwing away 2-1 lead and seeing young 17-year-old Aaron Hickey sent off before Clévid Dikamona needlessly gave away a penalty which was converted by goal machine Sam Cosgrove before new singing Ryan Hedges blasted home a late winner.
Rangers also continued to provide further evidence that we have little to worry about this term as they struggled to a 2-1 away win at a Kilmarnock team coming off the back of a shambolic Europea League exit. Killie look like a pale imitation of the well-oiled machine Stevie Clarke had moulded them into last season but still dominated large swaths of the game and were unlucky to concede late to a Connor Goldson header.
But now let’s get back to our next European opponents in the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League.
They are of course CFR Cluj of Romania who have won back to back national titles and are managed by former Chelsea star Dan Petrescu.
He’s had great success on these shores before both as a player with Chelsea and in a coaching capacity with the now-defunct Unirea Urziceni who he led to a 4-1 Champions league groups stage hammering of Walter Smith’s Rangers back in 2009 at Ibrox.
Cluj manager Dan Petrescu thinking about Celtic.
Cluj themselves are currently enjoying the most successful period in their history having been formed way back in 1907 they only won their first top-flight title back in 2008 and very first national cup that same year.
They’ve won four more titles and three more cups since and have established themselves as the second biggest club in the country beyond the famous Steaua Bucharest.
So far this season they’ve won three and drawn one in the league and currently sit top of the division after hammering AFC Chindia Târgoviște 4-1 away yesterday. They’ve scored ten goals conceding only three in the process.
In Europe, the success story has continued as they bounced back from a 1-0 loss in Kazakhstan to Astana to win 3-1 at home to progress 3-2 on aggregate before then eliminating Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel 3-2 on aggregate also after gaining a 2-2 draw away following on from a tight 1-0 home win.
Their squad isn’t full of stars and indeed Petrescu has boasted that both Astana and Tel Aviv had superior budgets so they haven’t achieved what they have by simply splashing the cash.
Experience is heavy in the team.
Attacking winger Ciprian Deac is 33 and has 20 caps for Romania. Defensive midfielder Ovidiu Hoban is 36 and has 30 caps for Romania. Their Portuguese captain Camora has no caps for his country but at 32 has played 240 games for Cluj. Recently signed striker Mario Rondón is 33, has over 100 career goals at eight previous clubs and 13 caps for Venezuela.
Veteran Argentine midfielder Emmanuel Culio is in his second spell at the club, is 36 and has played for 15 clubs in total and has been described by Petrescu as ‘the best player in Cluj’s history.’ Though apparently, he’s struggling to makes Wednesday nights encounter with fitness issues. So that’s good.
Cluj’s ‘greatest ever player’ in action.
Up front, the ones to watch out for are big striker George Țucudean who was the leading striker in the Romanian top flight last season with 18 goals from 24 games and his strike partner, Frenchman Billel Omrani whose also a six-footer.
They haven’t made any big-name additions this summer but held onto the majority of their squad with no significant departures. It’s certainly an ageing squad but also a successful one and very consistent.
Last season despite their domestic success Malmo eliminated them from the Champions League qualifiers and in a big shock, Luxembourg’s F91 Dudelange put them out of Europe all together at the Europea League play-offs stage 5-2 on aggregate.
Currently, in the UEFA association coefficients, Romania sits at 29, nine places behind Scotland which gives you an idea of the sort of impact or lack of that their clubs have been making in Europe recently.
But their recent form has been good and this will be a definite step-up from what we came up against in the first two qualifying rounds.
They lost only one home game in the league last season but did lose two of their three home European ties and at home in the semi-finals of the national cup to former Celtic European opponents Astra Giurgiu so there is hope for optimism.
I think it’ll be tight but as much as I’d like to go with the ultra optimism of a comfortable win I’m going to go for a score draw at the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium on Wednesday night with us bringing them back to Celtic Park for a classic European home tie the following Tuesday.
It’s definitely doable and we’ll find out in the morning who we could potentially get in the Play-off round.
It’ll be the winner of Rosenborg vs Maribor, APOEL Nicosia, Young Boys or Slavia Prague.
The only one that makes me wary there is Young Boys. They won the league last season over Basel who’ve already eliminated PSV from the Champions League this season so safe to say that the Swiss champs will be pretty tasty.
Celtic swatted aside Estonian Champions Nõmme Kalju 2-0 in Tallinn’s wonderfully named A. Le Coq Arena last night to progress rather easily 7-0 on aggregate.
Of course, after last Wednesday night’s romp at Celtic Park progression was never in any doubt but an away win is never a guarantee for Celtic on the continent no matter who the opposition is and it was also important to keep up the winning momentum which now sees us having won four on the spin since returning to competitive action in the 1st Qualifying round against FK Sarajevo last month.
Bizarrely the host’s manager Roman Kozhukhovskyi thought his side suffered ‘an injustice’ last night but hey managers will say the strangest things to either shield their side from criticism or keep up morale. But the reality is that’s just complete and utter nonsense.
Celtic dominated possession all night, restricted the home side to few chances and should have scored more themselves.
Our new £7 million centre back Christopher Jullien made his debut and was towering, composed and comfortable on the ball all evening. He’ll have far more testing games than this of course but it was a nice start and he could even have scored at one point.
Big Christopher shows his power.
Both Callum McGregor and James Forrest were rested for the night with the likes of Bain, Ajer, Edouard and Christie dropping to the bench and in came not only Jullien but keeper Craig Gordon, Lewis Morgan, Mikey Johnston, Olivier Ntcham and in a real surprise Tony Ralston at right-back for a rare appearance.
Celtic took the lead on 10 mins when a Ntcham advanced to the edge of the box before feeding Johnston on the left byline who’s drive across the face of the goal evaded the keeper and looked to be tapped in by Leigh Griffiths only for it to be diverted into the net by the sliding Aleksandr Kulinits. As much as the Celtic TV commentary wanted it to be Leigh’s I’m afraid it has to go down as an own goal.
Thereafter the game pretty much had a malaise about it with Celtic happy to dominate possession and the Estonians happy to keep the score down. That was until the second half with Craig Gordon required to make a few half-decent saves before Celtic went back through the gears in the closing stages.
As mentioned earlier Jullien missed a chance with a header from six yards and then on came sub Marian Shved who within seconds of stepping onto the pitch was through on goal only to be denied by keeper Pavel Londak who began replicating some of his outstanding shot-stopping form from last week.
Both Lewis Morgan and Scott Sinclair were also denied by two wonderful saves from Londak who has certainly been Nõmme’s outstanding player over the two legs and Jullien had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for a high boot.
But just when it looked like we would have to settle for only the one up stepped Shved to score on his debut with a pearler into the keeper’s top left-hand corner of the net from the edge of the box in what turned out to be the last kick of the match on 93 minutes.
Shved is off to a flyer.
In the end, it was all rather easy peasy. If only all European ties were like that. Alas, they’re not and we’ll have a far sterner test in the 3rd Qualifying round in the form of Romanian Champions CFR Cluj.
Managed by Romanian football legend Dan Petrescu they have won their last two league championships back to back and five in total in their history.
Formed in 1907 they were really just a provincial club for their entire history until a major investment in the early 2000s by local businessman Árpád Pászkány helped push them back into the top flight where they have not only remained ever since but been frequent title challengers and trophy winners.
They nearly went to the wall back in 2014 due to financial insolvency but staved off liquidation and in early 2017 were taken over by wealthy business magnate Marian Băgăcean who subsequently appointed Petrescu that summer and they haven’t really looked back since.
Last season they pipped the far more well known Steaua Bucharest to the championship by two points to retain their title.
They lost only 3 out of 36 games, drawing 11, scoring only 54 but conceding a mere 20 so safe to say their tactics are to defend and keep it tight.
Though this approach seems conservative as a manager Petrescu certainly wasn’t as a player scoring 71 goals in club football alone as an attacking full-back and 12 for his country.
He played for the great Steaua team of the ’80s where we won four league championships and was a European Cup runner up playing alongside the legendary Gheorghe Hagi in 1989. He was also part of the team that eliminated Rangers from the 87/88 European Cup Quarterfinal a tie which featured Graeme Souness’s shocking challenge on Iosif Rotariu.
After a spell in Italy, he then spent eight years in England enjoying great success in an exciting Chelsea team alongside the likes of Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola.
As a manager, he had success previously in his homeland with the now-defunct Unirea Urziceni who won the league under his stewardship as well as in Russia with Kuban Krasnodar who he led to the second tier title and promotion and in China with Jiangsu Suning whom he guided to the national cup in 2015.
He’s visited Glasgow before in a management capacity having led Unirea to a 4-1 pasting of Walter Smith’s Rangers at Ibrox in the Champions League back in the autumn of 2009.
Anyone else remember that?
Well, that was a nice stroll down memory lane but back to the present and we’ll be visiting Cluj’s compact and picturesque Dr. Constantin Rădulescu’s stadium next Tuesday for the first leg. It’s in the capital of Transylvania would you believe so expect the press to make a lot of vampire references in the lead up to the match as Celtic attempt to the put ‘a stake through the heart of Cluj’s Champions League hopes’ before ‘sinking their teeth into Cluj the following week at Celtic Park’ and so on and so forth.
So far this season Cluj have toppled Astana – who we know well and are no slouches – and Israeli Champions Maccabi Tel Aviv en route to the 3rd round so they’ve had a far harder route than we have.
But I’ll go into their European pedigree and players to watch out for next week in my preview to the first leg tie.
In the meantime, we prepare for our eighth consecutive flag day on Saturday against visiting St. Johnstone who have had a woeful build-up to the league kick-off so far which has seen them eliminated from the League Cup already after pretty shocking losses to League 1 sides Montrose and Forfar as well as to newly-promoted Ross County.
A slow summer has seen half a dozen first-team players depart – including the mercurial ex-Celtic Tony Watt – and only a few arrivals with the expected capture of former star striker Stevie May back to the club also recently collapsing.
So they don’t have their problems to seek and hopefully, we can capitalise on that and really turn them over.
Unfortunately, big Christopher Jullien won’t be able to make his domestic bow though as he’s carrying over a suspension from his time in the French top-flight last year which means we should see a partnership of big Simunovic and Ajer or Bitton returning to a back three. Either way, the emphasis should be on the attack and I’m pretty confident it will be a good send-off for Romania.
Another day, another article, another clean sheet but not a third 2-0 in a row instead Celtic – with a full measure of their opponents having met them twice already in the previous ten days – drilled Tommy Wright’s hapless Perth side by five to nil and there could have been a few more to boot as we resoundingly made our way into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals and the seemingly relentless march to the treble-treble continues.
It all started in only three minutes when Olly Burke rampaged to the byline and cut it back across the goal. It appeared as if there would be no takers but Scott Sinclair arrived at the back post and from an acute angle drilled it past Saints keeper Zander Clark at his near post. A mere six minutes later it was 2-0 when captain Scott Brown picked up on a loose ball and from 30 yards out sent a howitzer straight as an arrow past Clark once more and into his top left-hand corner for a collector’s item strike.
Broooooonie!
Celtic took their foot off the peddle for the rest of the first period though another terrific run to the byline and cutback from Burke deserved better. In the second half, the men in Hoops were back at it with Jonny Hayes feeding James Forrest who placed it through Clark’s legs on 52 mins and only two mins later Scott Sinclair got his second via a tap in after Burke once again left the Saints defence in his wake and crossed from the byline. Sinclair finished it all off on 89 mins with his second hattrick of the season after substitute Edouard’s shot was blocked and it fell to the winger who turned and finished from close range. He now has 19 goals for the season which is an incredible return and is only six off his total from his debut season at Celtic when he received Player of the Year.
That’s a three from Scott.
So it was all rather easy as we made it seven wins from seven games as well as an incredible 21-0 over the duration and even more good news with the unexpected return of James Forrest to the starting line-up and Odsonne Edouard coming on from the bench indicating both should be in fine fettle for Thursday nights huge Europa League clash with Rosenborg………..sorry Valencia
Jonny Hayes got a rare start at left-back and impressed though that was with our opposition on the back foot all day. That will not be the case on Thursday night.
Oliver Burke stole the show, however. I always thought his pace would terrify defences up here and so it has proven to be thus far. He picked up a knock but early indications are it’s not something to worry about too much. He really could be vital for us. His pace is electric.
Elsewhere on Saturday Eddie May took over the reins at Hibs one last time as they eased to a 3-1 win over League One’s Raith Rovers. He now will make way for the big name ultra-ambitious appointment that is Michael Appleton. Expect season book sales to tumble.
Speaking of tumbling as expected St.Mirren fell to Dundee Utd, 2-1 at home. Oran Kearney claimed it was the worst first-half performance he’d seen at the Paisley club since taking over back in September so considering how poor they’ve been these past five months it must really have been bad and Partick Thistle visited Bayview to earn a hard-fought 1-0 win over another League One outfit in East Fife who’s stadium features the bizarre site of being surrounded by solar panels. A bit better than the old decaying Methil power station that used to provide the vista right enough. I was wondering what had happened to it – used to notice it on the early rounds Scottish Cup highlights show back in the 2000s – but wiki tells me they demolished it back in 2011. You learn something new every day.
Out with the old…….
…..the future’s green.
In the evening game, Kilmarnock and Rangers served up a bit of a stinker with the only highlight being a first-half penalty conceded by ex-Rangers hero Kirk Broadfoot which resulted in James Tavernier cracking it straight down the middle and off the keeper’s legs. In the second half, Jermaine Defoe dived – though nobody in the media dare talks about it – and Killie’s Irish midfielder Alan Power unsuccessfully tried to remove Ryan Jack’s head. They aren’t scared to talk about that. The match ended goalless and they will now replay a week on Wednesday at Ibrox.
On Sunday after Celtic’s rout at Parkhead, Hearts swatted away the challenge of Junior side Auchinleck Talbot 4-0 as the Ayrshire men fought bravely but alas were completely outgunned by the Edinburgh side who now seem to have most of the key players that got their season off to such a good start back from injury.
And in the final match of the day, Aberdeen won out 4-1 against the Championship’s Queen of the South but had a second-half scare when goal machine Stephen Dobbie cracked in probably the goal of the round with a 35-yard beezer that gave Joe Lewis in the Dons goal no chance in hell. Incredibly that’s his 38th goal of the season for the Doonhamers. Up the other end though Aberdeen have a goal machine of their own in Sam Cosgrove – which as just as well as his strike partner is Stevie ‘Couldn’t hit a barn door’ May – and he grabbed a double one of which was a penalty to get his 16th goals of the campaign.
🚀 What. A. Hit.
A tremendous equaliser from @OfficialQosFC's Stephen Dobbie.
Tonight will be the final game of the Scottish Cup fifth round – notwithstanding replays – as Ross County and Inverness Caley Thistle go at it in a hotly anticipated Highland Derby at the luxurious Global Energy Stadium, Dingwall. Both are doing pretty well in the Championship this season with Ross County looking to bounce straight back up after last seasons relegation from the top flight. They sit top and despite trailing them by 12 points their Highland rivals from Inverness still sit in a play-off place and have scored 10 goals in their last two cup games in the competition this season. The draw will then proceed thereafter and it’s always interesting to see who we’ll get out of the hat. At this stage of the competition, it’s bound to be tough no matter who it is so bring it on.
On early Sunday afternoon, Celtic extended their perfect form since returning from the winter break to 5-0 and 14-0 on aggregate.
However, unlike the previous four games, which had all been played at Celtic Park and had all been pretty routinely one-sided domestic affairs we actually had a match to contend with on Sunday.
Early doors St.Johnstone showed some ambition and created a few chances, something which they had, by and large, failed to do in 90 minutes when visiting Celtic Park last Wednesday. But then after about 15 minutes, they resorted to previous tactics of shutting up shop and playing eleven men behind the ball after what could only have been a sudden mass flashback to the 6-0 hiding they had endured on their home patch against the men in hoops back in October. Strange as we wore the away strip that day.
Anyway thereafter Celtic struggled to break them down in what can only be described as a dull and turgid affair as we passed the ball about relentlessly in front of them. Pretty apt for a dreary early February Sunday afternoon.
The game had 0-0 written all over it but fortune favours the brave and Odsonne Edouard came on for his first appearance since a substitute display at Ibrox back in December and his presence seemed to almost immediately spark us into life with Saints keeper Zander Clark saving well as French Eddy blasted a fine effort towards goal from twenty yards out. James Forrest then burst into the box and dinked one to the back post where Ryan Christie was cut in half by Jason Kerr before Clark saved again this time from Scott Sinclair and then finally Joe Shaughnessy booted the ball clear off the line, taking Edouard’s foot in the process resulting the Frenchman having to be subbed off only eight minutes after coming on.
That made you think it really wasn’ going to be our day but enter Timothy Weah as Odsonne’s replacement and he immediately set about terrorising the Perth sides defence This culminated in him taking down a speculative long ball to the edge of the box from Scott Brown rather masterfully before executing a lovely ball to the far post where James Forrest nipped in ahead of the unaware Scott Tanser to prod home the opener. A minute later Forrest was booked for celebrating with the crowd and a minute after that he walked off with a hamstring injury reducing us to ten men as all three substitutes had already been used at this point.
Kiss the badge.
With ten minutes left this emboldened the hosts to venture forward and after committing everyone upfield for a corner on the 89th minute they were made to pay the price as Celtic broke through Scott Sinclair who released Weah and the 18-year-old played a one-two with Callum McGregor with the return ball seeing Weah bury it to wrap up the points.
Minutes later that Kristofer Ajer got a straight red after losing the ball to Callum Hendry who he then subsequently pulled back and as the last man a straight red was the inevitable conclusion.
So we finished with only nine men but the three points were what was most important and with that mission accomplished as we return to the top of the league and maintain a six points gap over second-placed Rangers.
That being said the bill from the match was pretty steep. Edouard only just back from injury and stretchered off, along with Forrest departing with a sudden hamstring pull and a straight red and automatic ban for Ajer. Even Christie was struggling with a rib injury near the end after the aformnetioned incident where he was scythed down by Kerr in a what should have been a blatant penalty that went completely unnoticed by the officials.
The positives were the continuing impressive showings by Weah who really has breathed new enthusiasm and life into the side with his effervescent displays. I also thought Olly Burke was doing a good job, indeed he nearly scored twice the first from a lung-busting run down the flanks in the first half and I thought him unfortunate to be subbed for Edouard when Scott Sinclair had done absolutely nothing all afternoon. He was also involved in another dismissed penalty incident in the first half which looked pretty clearcut to me and no doubt he would have got it if his jersey had a lot less green and a helluva lot more blue on it. Jeremy Toljan also made his debut after his transfer deadline day loan from Borussia Dortmund with Mikel Lustig going off at halftime with yet another injury. Toljan looked pretty accomplished and surprisingly sharp considering he has hardly featured this season for his parent club.
The new bhoy.
Elsewhere Rangers got three dodgy penalties as Andrew Dallas made daddy proud via a virtuoso display of breathtaking ineptitude at Ibrox with the home side winning out 4-0 in the end and Aberdeen won 2-1 at Easter Road as the reality of the post-Lennon era starts to hit home and the Dons keep up their unlikely title challenge. Hearts gained a surprise 2-1 win at high flying Kilmarnock whilst Motherwell hammered Livingston 3-0 as the men from the Tony Macaroni faltered to their fifth straight defeat. Dundee also drew 1-1 at Hamilton in a result that doesn’t do much for either side but does signal the beginning of perennial right-hand man Brian Rice’s long-awaited assault on Scottish football management.
I take it you’ve all seen that What’s App video by now?
On Wednesday we play managerless Hibs who are currently under the temporary guidance of ‘Mr Reluctant’ Eddie May. It’s at home and it’s pretty much a game in which anything other than a resounding win considering our opposition’s predicament would be seen as three points thrown away. Add in the real possibility that Rangers could drop points that very night as they face a resurgent Aberdeen side up at Pittodrie and a win is vital. The Dons have only lost one in their last eleven domestic games, nine of which have been in the league and that was against us on Boxing Day in an end to end affair. They themselves sit only two points behind the men from Govan.
But what the hell kind of team are we going to put out is the main question? Kieron Tierney has only just returned to light training so is still way off, both Benkovic and Rogic are facing 4-6 weeks on the sidelines, Ajer is of course suspended and then add in the three casualties from the weekend then you have a bonafide injury crisis. It could mean that forgotten men such as Bitton, Jonny Hayes and even Jack Hendry are called back into action some of whom I figured it would seem unlikely we’d ever see in a Celtic jersey again. Encouragingly though Boyata is apparently back into full training with Ntcham, not far behind him and Leigh Griffiths has been included in the just announced Europa League squad so may not be too far off it either.
For tomorrow night, followed by the cup game against St.Johnstone……..again……. at the weekend and then Valencia next Thursday it really is all hands to the pump.
....Always A Tim! 