So I have a question; if Kenny Miller knew how to stop us from winning today, why didn’t he use that knowledge and … well, stop us from winning? Because aside from a last minute lapse of concentration which I trust – I hope – will not be repeated, they didn’t lay a glove on us.
Did he just forget? Or did he just not have a clue to begin with?
Celtic breezed this.
It was a wonderful day at Celtic Park, when the legendary Danny McGrain unfurled the flag. We wanted to start the SPL campaign with a win, and we did.
And it was pretty easy.
Perhaps that’s why we lost our focus towards the end, because today’s game was such an easy one.
It was a stroll.
It was the perfect way to prepare for the Champions League on Wednesday, all except for that late goal and the way Olivier Ntcham was hobbling around. That might not be a bad injury, but every knock at the moment leaves my heart in my mouth, although we’re well appointed in the midfield area.
The manager says he took a knock on the ankle and “we’ll see.”
Cross your fingers, your toes, your nose-hairs, whatever can be crossed, and pray that he is.
Ntcham is vital to this team though, as his performance showed.
There were so many positives today; seeing Jonny Hayes back was very good and he played well. Odsonne got another goal, which is excellent. Leigh came on and showed, in that moment when he took the ball round the keeper, that he remains an outstanding asset to the team.
He will be a big, big player this year and especially in the weeks ahead with Moussa out.
Miller’s team offered exactly nothing. When a team comes with the game-plan of sitting with everyone behind the ball, and brings no other tactic, the game is over the minute the opposition scores. It took eight minutes.
From that moment on it was damage limitation for Livingston. Their manager talked big but had no clue what to do the minute his paper-thin plan failed. He did his share of moaning though, and I have no doubt that he’ll be bubbling away in the press about the penalty, as if he his side would have come out and beaten us in the second half without it.
This guy thinks he’s something. Today he was over-matched, and I hope he has the good grace to admit it in the media. His team was dispatched with zero difficulty and on another day we could have scored a barrowload. That will come.
This team is hungry and in the mood. We’ll take some stopping.