We Live In Strange Times, So This Could Be A Strange Celtic Team Tonight.

Tonight, if everything proceeds the way the SPFL wants it to, we will play a St Mirren team which gives new meaning to the word “makeshift.” Their side will be comprised mostly of youth players.

Celtic clearly has a better than average chance of winning, whichever team we field, but this is when clubs have to be more careful than ever.

Imagine blowing our chance to close the gap because we underestimated St Mirren’s B team.

We would deserve everything we got.

The manager doesn’t want to risk guys like Kyogo; I understand that just fine. But we can’t just go in there playing their skeleton team with our own. We’re asking for trouble, the kind that we don’t need.

I doubt the boss will make too many changes. I don’t even think Kyogo will be dropped from the squad entirely. Expect him on the bench. Just in case. As a weapon of last resort. It might mean that Abada starts through the middle, or Owen Moffat might play.

We will be missing Turnbull. We will be missing Forrest. We are, of course, now certain to be without Jota until the break is over, which is a blow but one which will be lessened if there aren’t games taking place in the next few weeks.

(More on that later, I assure you.)

It feels weird to be so focussed on events off the pitch when this is a match night, and in particular when it is a match night which follows on from a cup triumph, but every fan will be watching for the SPFL announcement when it comes later today, just as we were waiting for the First Minister to tell us, yesterday, what the Cabinet had decided.

This article itself might be redundant; there is no guarantee that this game will go ahead in spite of it being on right now; this is the world we live in for the moment.

But if it does go ahead, we can’t afford to make mistakes. We need to win this one and move forward to whatever awaits us in the rest of the month. The next fixture is due to be Boxing Day; at this moment in time I doubt we’ll be playing it, but you never know.

First things first; let’s focus on, and get, the win tonight whatever the team.

It will be a strange one, I think, but we are living in strange times so maybe that’s to be expected.