30 MInutes From Celtic That Send Out A Warning To The Chasing Pack.

There are football games which resemble nothing so much as punishment beatings handed out to a hapless foe. For the first 30 minutes of that one today it resembled nothing so much as saturation bombing of an enemy which couldn’t possibly defend itself from it. We could have had eight before half time, quite comfortably, and even a penalty miss and the concession of a daft goal at the end of the 45 did nothing whatsoever to change the obvious fact of what we watched.

What we watched was not only a team motoring towards another title but one without key players and which still made it look comfortable and easy because it was. Never in my life have I seen a Celtic team this dedicated to the job of dismantling the opposition and for 30 minutes we played some of the best football of the season, and with Hampden looming it was right on cue.

Other clubs have players who talk about “statement performances” … this team gives them as a matter of routine. For what was that first 30 minutes if not a statement?

Not even so much “catch us if you can” because with every one of these games the faint, dwindling prospect of that recedes to the point where you can’t even see it any longer, but rather “be afraid, be very afraid.”

Look at Kyogo for the goal. That’s the best player in this country right now by a country mile, and he still might lost out on the Player of the Year award to his colleague Hatate. Look at Maeda, whose contribution to this team was misunderstood for many months but who you could not honestly say deserves to be left out of this side for any match. Look at a guy like Matt O’Riley, who hasn’t been brilliant lately but is still head and shoulders better than anything the so-called other biggest club in the country has in their midfield.

So what if the next 60 minutes didn’t live up to that opening spell? That opening spell was where the game was decided, and although Ange certainly thinks we should have kept our foot down and scored a barrow-load he took off Kyogo at half time which should show you what the man’s thinking was and how he’s now turning his mind towards what the priorities are.

And not even Hampden at the treble, but the next game, the rest of this campaign, and his desire to finish it strong. He won’t be tearing strips off the walls because we didn’t score six or seven or eight … but always there is the feeling that if this team decides to – or needs to – then it can and it will. It’s no coincidence that the truly big wins where at the start of this campaign when goal difference could still have been a factor. But when a game is won this late in the season, with the league all but decided, nobody is running through walls to get six or eight or ten.

Anyone who focusses on the last 60 minutes is looking at the wrong thing. Those first 30 are what they should be looking at, and the ability of this team to so thoroughly dominate in that spell. Anyone who kids themselves on about that probably thinks Ibrox has “closed the gap.”