Performances have taken an up turn since our late win over St Johnstone, just as I predicted in an earlier article after the full time in Perth. Such pivotal moments as last minute winners in the midst of a title race can often spur a team on. It gives the players a lift and we’ve seen that with Celtic.
In the following fixture we put in a much stronger performance against RB Leipzig. Although the game ultimately ended in disappointment, we moved the ball around much quicker and it looked like the style of play known as Angeball had returned. On another day, we could have been three goals up at half time and then there’d be no way back for the opposition – but that’s the story of our European campaign so far.
Anyway, the Leipzig performance further instilled confidence in the players, who would have known that a similar standard of play in the SPFL would be enough to brush most teams aside. We saw evidence of that on Saturday, when a relentless Celtic team dispatched of Hibernian by six goals to one.
James Forrest returned from the abyss to score a delightful hat trick, having looked lively against Leipzig on his first lengthy appearance in a long time. Aaron Mooy put in his best performance in a Celtic jersey, whilst Haksabanovic and Bernabei continue to impress. These positives, combined with the team finding their goalscoring touch, have ensured that Celtic find themselves in a strong position and appear to be flying again.
The upcoming fixture against Motherwell is obviously important as it is a cup quarter final. However, it also presents an opportunity to build momentum. If the Hoops can play more free flowing attacking football, then it bodes well for the matches ahead and gets us a head of steam to stay on the unstoppable tracks that we found ourselves moving along from the beginning of the season up until the St Mirren defeat.
There is an intense fixture schedule before the World Cup. A tip top Celtic can potentially stretch their lead in the SPFL table, advance to the latter stages of domestic cups and possibly sneak third spot in the Champions League group.
To do that we will need to be playing to our capabilities. In that sense, the trip to Fir Park is as much about building momentum, racking up consecutive wins and impressive performances, as it is about the result itself.
