They say 24 hours is a long time in the news game. However, when you’re writing about Scottish football, sometimes its more like 2 and half hours.
Bad News, Bears
Like the man who sees his lottery numbers come up, only to then see his dug has eaten the ticket, fans of a certain team were jubilant at Celtic’s slip-up at Easter Road.
As usual however, that glee was short lived and before long gave way to the inevitable, impotent rage we’ve come to expect from that side of Glasgow.
When the dust settled on another highly eventful weekend of Scottish Premiership action, Celtic were actually further ahead of second placed Rangers than we were on Friday, albeit by a single goal.
Remember, Score Predictions are not Financial Advice
At this time, I would like to apologize to readers of yesterday’s blog for predicting a 3-0 Celtic win. I hope you all had the good sense not to trust me with your bookies’ lines.
Although in fairness I did predict Daizen Maeda would score our first goal!
However, I certainly did not expect we’d have to wait until deep into the second half to see that goal.
Referees Steal Headlines Again
Thanks to further incompetence from the refereeing fraternity (I say incompetence because malevolence would actually require some effort and intelligence on their part), Celtic were denied an equalizing goal, which had it stood, we would have, in all likelihood gone on to win the game.
In all honesty, I don’t know if that ball was still in play or not. But the main point here is, neither did the referee or his assistants.
That however is a discussion best saved for later. Don’t worry, I have another article on the whole misuse of VAR issue coming later today.
Fair Play to Hibs
Truth be told, Hibs first half performance probably warranted their two goal advantage. Celtic definitely looked a bit leggy from our gargantuan midweek efforts in Germany. Hibs deserve full credit though. They went out there with a game plan, and in the first half certainly their discipline and drive paid off for them.
They also showed excellent resilience in defence, amid the inevitable Celtic onslaught once the game went to 2-1.
Thankfully, the Govan Dodgers, or whatever they’re calling themselves this week, struck out against the Paisley Pandas by 2-0 ensuring Celtic remain 13 points clear at the top of the league, with 1 extra goal added to our already immense goal difference advantage.
Lessons for Celtic in the Weeks Ahead
There are definitely lessons to be learned from Celtic’s loss, however.
I will preface what I am about to say with this: Greg Taylor has been a superb servant to the Celtic cause throughout his time at the club. If he does indeed leave at the end of this season then I sincerely wish him all the best for whatever comes next.
The fact is though our defence looked noticeably more stable and our full-backs showed far greater industry going forward when Jeffrey Schlupp entered the field for the second half. Schlupp should start from now until the end of the season. I’d also add that I hope he is offered terms to stay beyond this summer. His experience will be invaluable for next season’s European adventure, and he has proven he will be a more than capable understudy to Kieran Tierney.
Also, as much as I want Adam Idah to succeed, and I believe he still has an important role to play at Celtic, it is abundantly clear now that the Celtic attack is sharper when Jota is on the wing and Daizen is through the middle.
They along with Nicholas Kuhn should be our starting front 3 from now on, as soon as Jota is up to playing a full 90 minutes.