Fine Margins. Yes. And Some People At Celtic Park Should Reflect On That.

So many positives. So, so many. From Kyogo’s first Champions League goal to our ability to open up really good sides and create a barrowload of chances. Too often at this level our defensive frailties have been a problem, but worse is our inability to get in behind top teams and give them headaches.

That was not an issue tonight, and that is incredibly pleasing.

It’s time to have a discussion about Liam Scales. A full, comprehensive one. Because I love this guy.

Yang and Palma. Both excellent. Both growing into their roles. Another six months and these guys will be ready.

But none of it matters. None of it matters at all. The club’s failings have again come to the fore.

It’s not that we’ve looked out of place at this level because we haven’t.

That’s what makes the zero points from the first two games worse, worse by far.

We got near it. We were excellent against Feyenoord until a free kick and some madness from two of our players self-detonated us. Tonight, we got sucker punched. The hard luck story is all that’s left.

Apportioning blame is easy and I have no problem doing it.

We have a board that in its wisdom didn’t even make an effort to get us ready for this.

They gave the manager mainly project players, and that’s cost us.

The fact that this has come down to small margins enhances a failure that should hang around their necks like a badge of shame. It’s too late for this campaign. This campaign might well have ended tonight.

I thought we needed a minimum of one point from these first two games, and we’ve got none. Yeah, we could have won it had Palma’s goal stood but that we’re on the end of another Champions League sickener is made worse, not easier.

Knowing that and knowing that those in the stand who’ve shown lower case ambition have helped deliver it … I’m gutted by that.

I said to get anything we’d need to be 100% all night long. Switching off for a second is all it has taken, and at the worst possible second. I cannot fault the manager. I cannot fault the players.

We were more than up to that job tonight, and all we’ve lacked is that bit of quality to turn that into a win.

It’s all well and good saying that you can see where this team is headed, and you can, but my unshakeable view is that a fraction of ambition at the top of the club would have better prepared us for Rotterdam and what we watched here tonight.

And that tiny fraction is all it would have taken.

These people have a cheek to strut and preen with big grins on their faces when the men in the dugout get performances out on the pitch from players who shouldn’t have it in them.

We’ve seen this team come on in leaps and bounds these past few years; they believe that triumph belongs to them, but that’s their sheer arrogance on display because once again we’re seeing a clear-cut demonstration that this is all about the man in the dugout and the players on the pitch; they raised themselves up tonight. They punched above their weight.

The people above them are kidding themselves to think that they are in some way responsible for all of our successes. Tonight they should reflect on why we’ve once again come up short on the European stage.

That is not the fault of those who pushed themselves to the limit tonight, both on the pitch and the side of it.

Our Champions League record under these people is shameful.

Look back at the records of all the men who have sat in the dugout and what is the common denominator? A strategy that ties their hands, people content just to have us here, who under-resource the manager and hope that he can work miracles.

Incredibly tonight he almost did. We were a hair from three points. We’ve taken none.

Fine margins, yeah … if they didn’t keep us so many steps behind who knows how many of these games we’d win?

We’re going nowhere at this level until they do.