Tag: Tom Rogic

Post-Old Firm perspective and the transfer window.

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I never got an opportunity to write an analysis of the Old Firm match which was a week ago on Saturday. To be honest there wasn’t much to say. I wrote in my preview that if we turned up then I believed we’d win. We didn’t and Rangers were clearly in fighting mood and contested vigorously every 50/50 and created far more and better chances. They deserved their victory.

We badly missed Tom Rogic and benching both Kieran Tierney and Odsonne Edouard was a strange call especially as it led to Callum McGregor playing at left-back which was quite frankly bizarre and young Mikey Johnstone was effectively thrown to the wolves being played up front on his own.

On the whole, Craig Gordon kept us in it with some excellent saves and he was one of our few players who deserved pass marks especially in the first 45 mins. In the second half, McGregor was pushed forward into his more natural position which helped greatly though at his side was Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham both of whom struggled throughout.

First-half injuries to Mikel Lustig and Stefan Benkovic pretty much confirmed that sneaky feeling that it wasn’t to be our day.

That was reinforced by referee John Beaton’s anomalous decision to ignore three definite yellow and potential red card calls on Alfredo Morelos fouls as well as a Callum McGregor’s second-half goal being chopped off for being marginally offside.

The fallout since has been significant with Beaton unsurprisingly coming under intense scrutiny for his lack of action against the Colombian striker with his decision to go out boozing on the very night of the game in the Crown Bar in Bellshill where he happily posed for pictures with delighted local punters not helping his cause.

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Good night John?

Just about everyone and their dog believed there would be some form of retrospective action against Morelos but apparently, it’s at the referee’s own discretion if he wants to reassess his original conclusion and low and behold Beaton still believes he was spot on.

Yeah, I’ll bet you do John.

Anyway since then some moronic Celtic fan put Beaton’s number out on social media and he has been subsequently inundated with friendly requests from other Celtic fans wishing to meet and greet him in person or words to that effect.

In no way can this be condoned and whoever it is who has threatened him should be publicly outed and banned from any involvement with the club for life as they are clearly not of sound mind nevermind intent.

Though it has been amusing seeing some elements of the Rangers support expressing their moral outrage online with the irony of the fact their own fanbase launched an online petition against the SFA back in August 2017 in the wake of what they felt was inherent anti-Rangers bias after John Beaton himself had sent off Ryan Jack during their 3-2 home defeat by Hibernian.

There was also the small issue a few years back of some of their fans sending parcel bombs to the then Celtic manager Neil Lennon as well as players Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt and even a few known Celtic supporting MSPs but hey………….short memories.

All that aside both Celtic and Rangers are now neck and neck at the summit of the Premiership table on 42 points with Celtic leading due to a superior goal difference and we also have a game in hand.

Both clubs return to domestic action the weekend after next in the Scottish Cup but the league action starts up again two weeks on Wednesday and we’re at home against lowly St. Mirren with Rangers visiting third-placed Kilmarnock. The weekend after that we entertain third bottom Hamilton Accies whilst Rangers visit Livingston at a ground where they have already lost this season against a team with the third-best home record in the division. We then play our game in hand at home against St.Johnstone the following Wednesday.

So there’s a pretty strong chance that come early February we could have a decent points advantage over them all things going well.

Until then we must content ourselves with non-stop transfer innuendo as every club in the Scottish top flight and indeed many in the lower divisions try to rebuild, reassemble or reinforce in preparation for the second half of the season.

Thus far we’ve added Scotland internationalist winger Oliver Burke or ‘Super Olly’ as I’m hoping we come to know him by. However, the signing has been met with lashings of pessimism in some quarters amongst our own support and whilst it’s true the kid failed to make much impact down at West Bromwich Albion it wasn’t so long ago he was tearing it up in the Championship with Nottingham Forest which led to Red Bull Leipzig parting with £13 million for his services. After a year and 25 appearances in the Bundesliga, he returned to the UK via a £15 million move to WBA. He’s 21, 6’2 with 80 first team appearances under his belt – 40 of which have been in either the Bundesliga or English Premiership, eight goals and five Scotland caps. That’s pedigree.

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Olly Burke in the thick of it in Dubai.

I expect his pace and power will do well up here and I’m actually pretty excited about the signing. He can play on both sides with the right wing being his preferred domain and at the very least it should see both James Forrest and Scott Sinclair upping their games.

Also on the cards are precocious 18-year-old PSG striker Timothy Weah on an apparent 18 months loan as well as 23-year-old Ivorian striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo in a £2million move from Slovakian side Dunajska Streda where he has hit 18 goals in 23 games and provided seven assists going by my always on-point online research.

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Bayo scores. Hopefully, he’s doing this for us very soon.

Both will hopefully be wrapped up in the next few days barring any last minute shenanigans ie: the sort of nonsense that harpooned our apparently inevitable move to sign John McGinn back in the summer.

Weah is, of course, the son of the legendary George who’s skill and talent I could rave about all night having been lucky enough to see him star on ITV in UEFA Cup matches for PSG and in Serie A for AC Milan on Channel 4 back in the ’90s.

He has little to no first team experience but has just signed a new contract with the Parisian aristocrats so is clearly highly rated and a similar move for Edouard last season worked out pretty well so fingers crossed he can make the same impact.

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“If he’s even half the player his father was……………”

Bayo is also an unknown quantity having plied his trade in his native Ivory Coast and now in Slovakia and even with such impressive stats you always wonder if he’ll be the next Moussa Dembele or the ghost of Mohammed Bangura come back to haunt us again. Whos’ to say but hopefully, on this occasion, the scouting network have found a gem on par with Wanyama or Van Dijk as opposed to duds like Teemu Pukki or Derk Boerrigter.

Meanwhile over at Castle Greyskull Rangers have also pushed the boat out by bringing in the pairing of Southampton’s Steven Davis and Bournemouth’s Jermain Defoe both on loans. Neither has had much game time this season and they have a collective age of 70 and I can’t help but remember how we were lampooned back in the day when we brought in the likes of Ian Wright, Carlton Cole and Freddie Ljungberg at the midway points of our seasons with all three faded veterans failing to make any kind of impact but hey-ho. Stevie G knows best.

They’ve also tied up Jordan Jones and Glen Kamara on pre-contracts apparently being unselfish enough not to prize them from their respective clubs with transfer fees right now and preferring to allow them to see out their current commitments. Aye. Right.

Motherwell have also been able to secure the services of Ross McCormack which could prove the move of the window or might make no difference at all to their struggling season.

Oran Keaney is also attempting to undo the work done by his predecessor Alan Stubbs in the summer at St.Mirren by more or less releasing a whole team’s worth of players pretty much all of whom were brought in by Stubbs.

It’s only the 7th of January and there’s a long way to go in the window. And let’s not forget it’s also a time when players can be sold or released too. Personally, I’m hoping we part company with the likes of Cristian Gamboa, Nir Bitton, Scott Allen and the ultimate wage thief Marvin Compper who has done precisely nothing since his arrival at the club exactly a year ago outside of collecting the empty water bottles at the end of training.

We don’t have to sell though so don’t expect to see any of our assets leaving. Elsewhere though it might be a different story. So watch this space.

A wee preview of Bayo below and I’m hoping we actually see him the Hoops now or it’ll be more transfer window egg on our faces and calls for perennial panto villain Peter Lawwell’s head. Apologies about the music in advance.

Oh, and I hope you had a Happy New Year. I know I did. Though not as good as John Beaton’s.

 

Celtic 3 – 0 Motherwell: Back to the top we go.

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Celtic cruised to a pretty routine 3-0 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park last night.

The game was all over by halftime with Celtic going for the jugular early and it was great to see young right back Anthony Ralston getting his first start in a very long time. I actually think we haven’t seen him in a Hoops jersey since way back in September 2017 truth be told.

Motherwell held out until almost the half-hour mark when Edouard played through Ralston who put it through the ‘Well keepers legs to score his first ever goal for Celtic. James Forrest was then scythed down only four mins later by a reckless Charles Dunne challenge in the box and Scott Sinclair stepped up to put us 2-0 up from the spot. That’s actually the first pen we’ve scored in four attempts so good to put an end to that unwelcome stat. Unfortunately, French Eddy had to depart the scene with an apparent groin injury but his replacement young Mikey Johnstone came on and rattled one in on the stroke of halftime and that was pretty that.

Olivier Ntcham should have done better with an effort in the second half but by then the visitors were just playing to keep the score down.

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Brendan and the players take the acclaim. 

I was initially really puzzled by Motherwell’s approach to the game. This was our third outing in six days and on the back of two defeats and with several key players missing you would have thought that the Lanarkshire side would have smelt the faintest trace of blood. Instead, though they decided to drop five players from their surprise away victory on Saturday against an in from St Johnstone with star men David Turnbull, Allan Campbell and strikers Curtis Main and Danny Johnson all benched.

It would appear manager Stephen Robinson had written the game off with Saturday’s home tie against lowly St.Mirren prioritised. Fair enough and to be honest with you pretty welcome considering our recent exhausting schedule which clearly showed at Easter Road on Sunday.

What can’t be ignored though is the number of absences we now have. With Leigh Griffiths out for an unspecified period of time and Edouard’s departure early doors last night, we are now literally left with no recognised striker. The big question is how long will the Frenchman be out for?

Kieran Tierney and Tom Rogic were rested last night as they were on Sunday and Ryan Christie, Dedryk Boyata and Mikel Lustig are also being given as much time as is required to make full recoveries. There’s a good chance we’ll see them all back over the coming nine days as we face three league matches.

But news has just come down that the Australian FA has selected Rogic along with three players from Hibs for the Asia Cup next month which means they may not be allowed to be involved in their respective clubs derbies on December 29th. Hopefully, that can be resolved in our favour as I would feel much better about our chances of turning over Rangers once again in their own stadium with Tom with us, as opposed to being without him.

Talking of the men in blue they were held to a 0-0 draw by Hibs at Easter Road last night. Hibs were in our faces all day on Sunday but were rather standoffish last night in a game which generally saw them under siege and on another day Morelos could have scored a hattrick. Alas, a combination of Hibs keeper Adam Bogdan as well as the Colombian’s poor finishing saw the Leith men hold out for a draw and in doing so our victory propelled us back to the top by one point over our city rivals with a game in hand.

So back to the top we go and even with a slightly weakened side you’d think we’ll be too strong at home on Saturday against a struggling Dundee side who were hammered 5-1 at Pittodrie on Tuesday night by Aberdeen leading manager Jim McIntyre to promise a major squad overhaul in January. So it won’t be a very Merry Christmas for some of the Dens Park men this festive period as they look for employment elsewhere it would seem.

Some job Neil McCann did up there.

 

Celtic go down meekly to Hibs. Meanwhile, it’s Valencia in the last 32.

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First things first and that’s Celtic’s performance away at Easter Road yesterday. Truth be told the team looked exhausted –  not surprisingly after being run ragged against Red Bull Salzburg during Thursday night’s emotional rollercoaster – and as a result pretty devoid of ideas.

I wrote a piece over a week ago about how the players looked out on their feet away against Motherwell. We dropped two points that night as we wilted badly in the second half but recovered pretty sensationally to bury surprise table-toppers Kilmarnock 5-1 at Celtic Park a week ago on Saturday.

Thursday night though saw us come up against easily our toughest opposition of the season and for me the best team we’ve seen at Celtic Park since PSG clinically dispatched us 5-0 in the Champions League group stages 15 months ago.

Each one of our three domestic defeats this season have come in the weekend after a midweek European game and all have been away. So the taxing effects of  European football definitely plays a part but our away record, in general, this season has been pretty awful with 15 points dropped from a potential 27 in the league and only two wins from seven away ties in Europe.

Hibs have themselves been struggling of late having gone through a period of no wins in seven league games which saw them lose four times. They arrested that decline with a 1-0 win away at Hamilton Accies last weekend but generally weren’t given much of a hope yesterday. So much so that their prematch decision to reduce the Celtic away capacity so as to allow more Hibs fans tickets looked utterly absurd as half of the stand where our support usually sits was left virtually empty.

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Another great call from Rod Petrie.

Brendan decided to really utilise the squad and even went for three at the back with Ajer brought into partner Simunovic and Benkovic. Kieran Tierney was rested and in came Emilio Izaguirre with Scott Sinclair being asked to cover a right wing-back role in the absence of the injured Lustig and Gamboa.

In midfield, Ryan Christie was missing after being stretchered off with an ankle injury on Thursday night and Tom Rogic was also left at home to recover from his recent exploits. In came Brown and Ntcham to replace them with McGregor, Forrest and Edouard all retaining their places.

The last three, in particular, were noticeably quiet and looked a little jaded.

Apart from the fatigue side of things the likes of Brown and Ntcham never clicked all day and Izaguirre, who had been so impressive when he came in against Kilmarnock, really struggled with Sinclair looking pretty lost in an unfamiliar defensive role.

Hibs hit a lot of cross-field passes and balls in over the top which cost us no end of trouble and we were ultimately undone by two excellent though preventable finishes from Slivka in the very first minute and Kamberi in the second half.

The introductions of Lewis Morgan and Mikey Johnstone brought some urgency and penetration to the play in that second period but ultimately was too little too late. Johnny Hayes also appeared but did nothing of note which is pretty customary of his appearances in the hoops.

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Kamberi finally finds some form. 

The result meant that Rangers returned to the league summit due to a narrow win at home against lowly Hamilton and Kilmarnock also remain above us after a comfortable 3-1 home win against Dundee. We do of course have games in hand and no one’s really worrying especially as we can go top again if we beat Motherwell at home on Wednesday night and Rangers drop points at Easter Road which is as we’ve just discovered no easy place to go and get a result.

The likes of Boyata, Lustig, Rogic, Tierney as well as the inform Christie will also all be back soon – some as early as Wednesday night apparently – but even with that we clearly need reinforcements in January.  Up front plus at right fullback are two key areas we definitely need to address.

Earlier on today there was also the draw for the Last 32 of the Europa League. Being that we would be up against one of fifteen seeds we could only hope for something winnable and I think we got that when Valencia came out of the hat.

On paper, the Spaniards did well in their Champions League campaign to gain 8 points in a group that included one of the tournament favourites in Juventus as well as the once mighty Manchester United. But the truth is they were out by the time of the final group game which they won against a struggling Man U side who had already qualified. Valencia recorded a 2-1 home victory but for anyone who keeps up with English football that’s not that great an achievement these days considering the stumbling form Joe Mourinho’s side have shown this season so far.

In La Liga, they are struggling with only three wins from 16 matches and an incredible ten draws. Two of their defeats have been away from home and they only have two wins from nine home matches with six draws and one loss. They have only 19 points and are in 14th place, four points above the drop zone.  The goals have hardly been flowing either with only 15 so far in this campaign whilst conceding 13. In Europe, they have scored six and conceded six.

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The Mestella is where we are headed. 

All this after blowing over €126 million on players in the summer which included the €40 million capture of 21 -year-old Portuguese winger Gonçalo Guedes from PSG and veteran French striker Kevin Gameiro from Atletico Madrid for a mere €16 million. Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi is also there on loan for the season from Chelsea and that deadly strike force has delivered a rather pathetic return of six goals in all competitions and their most dangerous marksman currently is, in fact, Spanish striker Santi Mina who has six this season and 35 in 114 appearances for them.

The other big summer singing was French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia who cost them €25 million from Inter Milan in the summer having previously cost the Italians €40 million from Monaco. He was injured at the weekend though and will be out for between eight to twelve weeks so there’s a good chance we won’t have to worry about him at all.

The star man is, or at least was, striker Rodrigo who’s 19 goals in 44 games last term earned him a place in the Spanish national side for the past summer’s World Cup. However this year he’s hit a measly two in twenty games and is bang out of form.

Backed by billionaire Singapore business magnate owner Peter Lim they could go on a spending spree this January in theory but based on their previous transfer dealings they have actually already spent double what they had spent in total over the two previous seasons combined plus they have only brought three players in, in total, during the past two winter transfer windows, two of which were loan deals.

All in all……….it’s doable.

There is a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and February 14th when they visit Celtic Park in the first leg but as of now, it’s a tie you’d take especially considering some of the Leviathans we could have drawn in the next round.

Let’s just hope that eight and a half weeks from now we’re top of the league, playing well with a stronger squad and that Valencia are pretty much in the same predicament if indeed not worse as they are now.

I guess that’s what I’ll be asking Santa for, for Christmas. Well, that, a pair of Diesel jeans, a significant financial windfall and a win at Ibrox.

 

Europa League Preview: Celtic vs Red Bull Salzburg. Win, draw or bust!

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Tomorrow night Red Bull Salzburg visit Glasgow and we find ourselves in a tricky predicament.

The results fell for us just the way we wanted them two weeks ago on matchday five. We did what we needed to do in Trondheim and despite surprisingly starting as underdogs Salzburg maintained their perfect record in the group by seeing off Leipzig 1-0.

So going into matchday six we sit second top on 9 points whilst Leipzig are on 6. Salzburg are of course already far away and over the hills having qualified with their win at home against their Red Bull counterparts and sit on 15 points.

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More of this will be required.

In theory, it’s all worked out beautifully for us. We need just a draw and a solitary point to progress to the last 32. Of course, if Rosenborg can do the unthinkable and hold out for a draw somehow over in Germany then we won’t even need that and the 9 points will do us but let’s face it….that’s not going to happen. The Norwegians have been pretty hopeless thus far having lost all five group matches as well as conceding 13 goals and only scoring three. In their home fixture against Leipzig, they were spanked 3-1 and now literally having nothing to play for as they were eliminated by us a fortnight ago.

Added to that their season ended a week ago on Sunday when they sealed a historic treble by winning the Norwegian Cup final so safe to say their players have been on both party and holiday mode ever since. There’s even a chance Niklas Bendtner might already be back home in his native Denmark serving his 50 days house arrest already after he was convicted of clouting a taxi driver.

Leipzig are struggling of late having lost two of their last three league games including a surprise 3-0 hammering away to lowly Freiburg at the weekend when they played a full strength team. They’ve actually lost four out of their last six if you include their last two Europa League games and all of this comes after they had only lost only one of their previous 14 matches in all competitions and had gone 11 straight unbeaten against domestic opposition. But even with all that being said I still fully expect them to hammer an unmotivated and potentially unfit Rosenborg side and if there’s an early goal it could be an avalanche.

Our destiny is in our own hands and we really need to just focus on what we need to do. It’s a daunting task as Red Bull Salzburg are the form team of Europe. Managed by the impressive Marco Rose they sit top of the Austrian Bundesliga with a 14 point gap over second-placed LASK Linz and are unbeaten in an incredible 29 games in all competitions this term. That does include being eliminated on away goals over two legs against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League qualifiers but either way, it’s pretty impressive. Slightly terrifying actually.

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Less of this is also required. 

I’m looking for crumbs of comfort here but having won their first 10 straight league matches they’ve actually drawn three of their last seven and were held to a 2-2 draw away at bottom side FC Admira Wacker Mödling on Saturday.

So there’s always that.

But then I remember they’ve also scored 75 goals in those 29 games. I mean we’ve been pretty free-scoring this season but even having played five games more – 21 domestic games plus 13 in Europe – more than them we’ve only scored 64 goals by comparison. They really are an awesome attacking team.

We are of course in pretty good form ourselves having only lost one of our last seventeen domestic games and haven’t lost any of our last twelve with ten wins. More than half of our goals have come in that time too so in actual fact our recent scoring exploits have matched the Austrians, domestically at least.

In the Europa League, they’ve scored three times the number of goals we have – 15 to 5 – which is telling but despite playing five games more than them we’ve actually only conceded 20 goals all season to their 22 in all competitions.

That last one begs the question should we defend and try and hold out for a point?

My swift reply would be ‘no’. Of course, we shouldn’t bomb forward and attack them relentlessly either. They are deadly on the counter attack as we found out over there and have pace throughout the team. Israeli international Moanes Dabour was scoring goals for fun this season but only has one in his last eight however his Japanese internationalist striking partner Takumi Minaminois has stepped into the void in that time scoring six and Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Xaver Schlager and 19-year-old Hannes Wolf have also all been in pretty hot form in front of goal of late too.

Even taking how good they are going forward and our impressive number of clean sheets this season into consideration the fact is we are just not built for all-out defence. And against elite European opposition, and make no mistake Salzburg are just that, we never keep a clean sheet so any notions of a backs to the wall job are fanciable at best.

This situation reminds me of when Maribor came calling in a Champions League play-off against Ronny Deila’s Celtic back in late August of 2014. We had, of course, gained a credible 1-1 away draw in the first leg and Callum McGregor’s goal would have been enough to take us through if we’d held them to a goalless draw at home. But a home crowd on a big European night at Celtic Park demands more than just holding out for scoreless draws and Deila’s side looked like they literally didn’t know whether to stick or twist all evening. In the end, we conceded late on and there was no way back for us.

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To quote the legendary Arthur Montford: “The faces tell it all.”

I’m stating the obvious here but our game plan on Thursday needs to try and get the balance right between defending when we need to and attacking when we can. It’s easier said than done and we may need to carry a bit of luck. In fact, the chances are we definitely will.

I’d definitely like to see the in-form James Forrest get at their veteran 33-year-old left back Andreas Ulmer as much as possible with both Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair also needing to effectively exploit the space given up by the attack-minded right-back Stefan Lainer. At the same time, Kieran Tierney needs to replicate his awesome display against Leipzig and Christie, Benkovic, McGregor and Rogic all need to translate their incredible domestic form into a continental affair.

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How we’d all love to see this again. 

Salzburg, in theory, could write the game off. They’re already through and have a home tie on Sunday against third-placed SKN St. Pölten which is their final league game before a two months winter break. But with only two games before such a mammoth domestic break the chances are they are unlikely to rest anyone or to drop down through the gears as they have a chance to complete the first half of the season undefeated.

As much as we may be up against it maybe we should have faith in our own form and let’s not forget the Celtic Park factor. Far bigger and well-resourced sides than Salzburg have visited Celtic Park in the not too distant past and come away with only a draw or worse. We are also on an unbeaten home run of seven games in Europe with six wins which includes the notable scalps of Leipzig and Zenit St.Petersburg.

Fingers crossed for the right result and a memorable night that will exceed anything we’ve achieved since defeating Barcelona on that famous night back in 2012.

Ryan Christie & co….it’s over to you.

Oh and don’t forget the disco lights. They’re guaranteed not to disappoint.

Weekend review: Celtic put Killie in their place and surprises elsewhere.

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A few days late with this due to circumstances but better late than never.

Celtic faced in from table toppers Kilmarnock on Saturday with many wondering if an unlikely title challenge may be on the cards. With an opportunity to go top missed on Wednesday night if Celtic could win here then it would be back to the summit they would go.

On a horrible cold and rainy early December day, Celtic played like it was midday in May as they stroked the ball around effortlessly in the first half and scored four goals totally blowing Killie’s hopes of remaining top of the pile come 5pm out of the water in the process.

The first came within only five mins from a sweet first-time finish from James Forrest who swept it home with aplomb after a nice cross into the box from Emilio Izaguirre who had a rare start in place of the rested Kieran Tierney.

After a quarter of an hour, Celtic mounted the latest of their seemingly continuous attacks and Christie found Rogic in the box who played it first time to Odsonne Edouard and the Frenchman fired it high into the net to make it two.

It got worse for the Ayrshire side as Mikel Lustig came up with a rare goal as he stabbed his foot out to meet a Callum McGregor free kick into the box at the near post and leave Killie keeper Daniel Bachmann helpless.

Then just before halftime in-form Ryan Christie scored the latest in his sensational goalscoring run as he buried a fabulous free-kick into the back of the net from 25 yards right on the stroke of halftime.

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Unbridled joy.

In the second half, Benkovic made an uncustomary rash challenge on the edge of the box on Rory McKenzie leading to a penalty which Eamon Brophy scored but it was no more than a consolation and 15 mins later James Forrest netted a fantastic finish from an acute angle high into the net and delivered his 11th goal of the campaign in the process.

Celtic could have scored more with Bachmann making some good saves and Scott Sinclair hitting the frame of the post in the second half but five was as good as it got and Celtic are now back on top with 33 points.

Credit it to Steve Clark’s side who produced a near miracle just getting to the top of the league in December in the first place considering their meagre resources and where they were only a few seasons ago ie: perennial strugglers but they were thoroughly put in their place and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back.

Meanwhile elsewhere St.Johnstone’s incredible unbeaten run continued and is now up to eight with six wins as they recorded a surprise 2-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. The Dons had, of course, recorded a pretty stunning 1-0 win at Ibrox on Wednesday night and were hoping to kick on up the league. Goals remain a massive problem for them with Man U loanee James Wilson continuing to disappoint and Stevie May unable to hit a barn door since coming back up to Scotland the summer before last.

Both Hibs and Hearts finally ended long runs without wins as they both recorded 1-0 victories away at Hamilton and at home to Motherwell respectively and St.Mirren threw away a 1-0 lead going down 3-1 to Livingston who continued their sensational season-long home form which has seen them lose only one in nine and record six wins.

On Sunday Rangers travelled to Dens Park and predictably it was their former long-serving striker Kenny Miller – who only left them this past summer – who came back to haunt them as he gave the home team the lead before Dundee were reduced to 10 men and Andy Halliday equalised with a free kick, all of this happening in the first half. Rangers couldn’t make the advantage count though and Jim McIntyre’s team got a 1-1 draw and seem to have turned a corner. As for Steven Gerrard’s men, they have dropped 12 points on the road already this term and now sit second two points behind Celtic having played a game more.

So all in all a pretty fantastic weekend for Celtic as they bounced back from a tired display against Motherwell through the week with a ferocious performance.

All steam ahead now to the vital Red Bull Salzburg match on Thursday night and thankfully no injury fallout from Saturday as Celtic played a pretty much full strength team apart from Tierney.

I’ll have an article up about that tomorrow.