Pre-match with A Celtic State of Mind – Back to the 9IAR Bread and Butter

ANDREW RAFFERTY:

Celtic return to league duty this weekend, following a performance of two halves in the Danish capital.

There were multiple clips on social media over the last few days of fans enjoying everything Copenhagen had to offer. One video which caught my eye in particular was the Celtic end singalong to Tsunami, which had me thinking about tomorrow’s match. Can we expect a Tsunami of a performance from Celtic, with wave after wave of attack bearing down on the Killie goal? Or will Killie hold back the tide and leave us floundering in a paddling pool? There certainly seems to be enough water around at the moment for both outcomes.

Kilmarnock have turned things around from a winless and goalless December, to a post-winter break goal-spree and four wins in league and cup, to give some confidence back. The recent losses to Hibs and Aberdeen will have tempered the mood around Rugby Park a little bit, and our 3-1 win down there recently will add to that feeling ahead of the game tomorrow.

Conditions will no doubt once again conspire to smother any attempts at attractive football, as will some injuries which have put stress on the squad. But recent matches have been played under similar circumstances and we have had the guile of thought and strength of squad and performance to maintain our 2020 100% domestic record. I hope this to continue tomorrow.

No Euro hangover and another 3-1 win will do nicely.

KEVIN GRAHAM:

I’ve just gone outside and nearly got blown to Kansas. We are sold football as entertainment but then expect entertainment to be served up in awful conditions. You pay your money and take your chance but at least give the players a chance? Last week against Aberdeen, the wind was a problem. You hear on the radio today of games being affected not by talent but by nature.

Our force of nature is likely to be missing. It’s good that we have Callum McGregor who is an unnatural force of nature who clocks up a minute, after a minute, after a minute without any bearing on his performance.

Our talent won out last week and you would hope they would do again. We are in that period where ticking games off with wins no matter how they are achieved is more important than entertainment. But, then we still ask people to pay £31 and promise them entertainment. It’s never the twain shall meet but we need to meet three points at the final whistle.