A poor result, but I don’t believe it was a result that reflected our dominance.
We deserved three points from that.
We were the only team that showed up with any attacking intent whatsoever.
The negativity of the Hibs team and their manager was awful in a home club.
I will not be sad to see Higginbotham sacked when the inevitable comes.
They never looked interested in doing any more than surviving that.
But our record at that ground in league games is awful. It’s like there’s a hex on us there or something.
The next time we visit that stadium we need a comprehensive win, just to end all the nonsense about it. The cup match will be different from this today because no manager goes into a major cup semi-final playing as defensively as that and gets away with it.
On top of that, the officiating was dire. We had two stonewall penalties turned down in that second half, and although I don’t think we should have been relying on that for the three points – as I said, we were much the better team – we do play in the same league as everyone else and presumably under the same rules as everybody else … and those were both spot kicks all day, every day, except it seems this day in particular and when it comes to our team.
There seems little point in lamenting that one too much. We dominated it from beginning to end, and it’s notable that their goal was an own-goal because aside from it they had nothing on target for the whole match. That’s how negative their performance was.
I’m not going to lose any sleep over this one, except the nagging frustration at once again having dropped points at a ground where we should be taking scalps with ease. We’ve dropped point because a piece of horrendous luck went against us early and because Hibs then shut up the shop and played for what they could get. I’ve seen us go there through the years and be part of an actual contest; there was nothing like that this afternoon.
The media will be gleeful that they see a chink in the armour; they can keep dreaming.
This time last season we had played six, won three, drew one and lost two. The corresponding fixture was at Rugby Park, another ground where Rodgers couldn’t seem to win, where we lost 2-1. I had a look at the league table for that campaign just now; we won by nine points.
This season our record is won six and drew one for seven.
Believe me, nobody at Celtic Park will be lugging supplies into the bunker tonight.
We go on. Next up is Cluj.
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