Adam Idah answered the Celtic SOS as the Norwich City loanee played a massive part in Celtic’s last-gasp victory over Motherwell at Fir Park this past weekend.
Blair Spittal opened the scoring with a brilliant curling effort beyond Joe Hart just before half-time after a tame first-half performance from Celtic.
The team came out with a bit of hunger about them in the second-half, with Idah latching onto a Greg Taylor cross to head home just 5 minutes into the second-half.
Celtic continued to huff and puff throughout the rest of the second-period, but couldn’t find the net until the 93rd minute when Idah was on hand to slam home an Alistair Johnston cross.
Luis Palma made the points safe shortly after as he tucked home Yang Hyun-jun, ensuring that Celtic didn’t slip up once again in the title race in a match where they really couldn’t afford to.
Supporters have had a night to sleep on it, and now that the dust has settled, here are A Celtic State of Mind’s three takeaways from yesterday’s victory at Fir Park.
Idah saves the Celts once again
For the second time since signing on loan from Norwich City on deadline day, Adam Idah was on hand to provide a brace which snatched the 3 points from the jaws of defeat.
Kyogo Furuhashi had had a quiet first-half at Fir Park, failing to really make an impact with his only real chance of the game being a snapshot that was routine for Liam Kelly to save.
Idah was brought on for the Japanese at half-time, and made an immediate impact as he grabbed Celtic’s equaliser with an incredible header. He used his body well and showed good physicality to help the team get up the pitch, and he provided an expertly taken finish to slam the Hoops ahead late in the game.
He continues to block out the noise that surrounded his arrival, and he has to be in the starting line-up against Dundee on Wednesday night.
Kuhn fails to impress, but Yang brings the energy
Nicolas Kuhn was brought into the starting line-up after poor performances from Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn the week prior against Kilmarnock, and after a poor start to life in Glasgow, the pressure was on to impress.
However, the German winger continued to show the same hesitancy and lack of ability that has made his start at Celtic so underwhelming, and it was night and day when he was replaced by Yang Hyun-jun on the hour-mark.
The Korean showed a willingness to take on a man and was wreaking havoc down the right-hand side, as well as tracking back to aid Celtic’s defence.
He grabbed an assist as a reward for a good cameo from the bench, and looked a completely different player to the one that struggled at that very same ground back in September.
Still lacking consistency
Whilst Celtic did walk out of North Lanarkshire with all three points, the performance was still showing the same inconsistency that we have seen all season.
Celtic haven’t been able to put two good halves of football together over the last few weeks, and that was the case once again as a terrible first-half display left the team with a mountain to climb in the second-half, and whilst Celtic had the hunger to get over the line in the instance, lady-luck isn’t always going to be so kind.
James McKenzie // @JamesWHMcKenzie
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