A funny game this one, with a smallish crowd and a white sheet over where the Green Brigade sit or stand. The bottom line however is that we are in the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup and wait with interest to see who we are going to get after the Peterhead v Dundee game.
Credit to Raith Rovers. They have been more than a little stupid at Board level in recent weeks, but John McGlynn and their players are not to blame for that. They put up a reasonable performance, although they did not really look like scoring (and that was nae penalty!). Mind you when it was still 1-0, I was worried.
What a player Jota is! We really must get him signed up on a long term contract as soon as possible, preferably so that we know where we are for the early rounds of next year’s European campaign. What a difference he made, but it would appear that poor Mikey Johnston is injured again. He has no luck, that young man!
The first two goal were class. How I wish that other players did a lot oftener what Liam Scales did for the first goal! That is the way to do it! I found myself shouting at James Forest for not shooting on several occasions when he might have, on one occasion in particular running across the penalty area with the ball at his feet, and then losing it!
Jota made the second goal, but didn’t we all just get that slightest frisson on panic when the ball came to Giakoumakis lest he made a pig’s ear or a Sebo of it? However, he scored and we are all very grateful. The third goal was a funny one, and I have needed several playbacks to work out exactly what happened.
The penalty I was highly dubious about – and we didn’t really need it – and talking about someone making a pig’s ear of something… I would not put Nir Bitton high on my list of penalty takers, if we ever have a penalty shoot-out! But he scored with the second attempt, and 4-0 was the score, which I think was slightly hard on Raith Rovers and their significant and noisy support. Just a pity they don’t go in greater numbers to their home games, though!
Our defence was rarely troubled with Stephen Welsh looking good, and how nice to see Christopher Jullien again! It seems such a long, long time ago when he scored in that League Cup final in December 2019. I still worry about Joe Hart, though. One very good save, but also a lot of “heart in the mouth” times. That occasion in the first half when he was caught outside his box had a touch of comedy about it, but it could have been a tragedy.
So where does this leave Celtic? We have moved forward to the next round of our favourite tournament which we have won 40 times, and we have learned a few things about some players. I would imagine there might be some further rotation for the Bodo Glimt game, and possibly even for Dundee. We certainly have enough quality players to do that. I look forward to Thursday night at 8.00 pm with optimism.
David Potter
