The football cliche of ‘a game of two halves’ was proven to be true yesterday as Celtic overcame a sluggish first-half performance to easily beat Ross County 4-0.
Celtic tried out an interesting 4-4-3 formation, with Gary Hooper playing slightly behind Lassad and Samaras up front, and Celtic were slow to get going, in fact the best chance of the first half came to County’s Alex Cooper when he was one-on-one with Forster but the goalkeeper pulled off a good save.
Just as fans were fretting over another poor Celtic Park performance, Celtic completely turned the tables in the second-half. The first goal came just a minute into the second-half when Scott Brown recieved a pass from Hooper and fired the ball home. The second goal arrived just five minutes later when Hooper header home after a terrific cross from Lassad. The third goal was another header from Hooper, taking advantage of poor goalkeeping from Mark Brown. The fourth and final goal was perhaps the most important goal of them all, as the just returned from injury James Forrest came off the bench to score a fine solo goal.
The second half performance yesterday was one of Celtic’s best at Parkhead when it comes to domestic games, it has taken a while but after four straight league wins it seems that Celtic have finally managed to get going in the SPL, as we are five points ahead with a game in hand. The decision to play Hooper behind the strikers worked well, it will be interesting to see if Lennon continues the formation against Dundee on Boxing Day. The return of James Forrest was also a big boost, as he is one of the few players at Parkhead with creativity and guile, as our lack of creativity was certainly prevalent in the first half. Hopefully this is addressed in the transfer window. All in all, a good three points and a good performance – eventually – for Celtic.
We all know there won’t be any newcomers in January. Let this team prove they have it to get to the last eight.
A 4-4-3 formation?