Our enemies will say “lucky”; more detached opinion would say “professional”; we say “delirium”! OK, there was an element of luck about the way the ball went in after at least two deflections, but Scott Brown at least was in the right position to shoot, and there can be little doubt that the way we played in the last quarter of the game deserved a victory.
I think we all would have settled for a 0-0 draw, for that would have meant status quo given what happened yesterday (well done and thank you to St Johnstone, by the way!), but to get all three points was really a marvellous pick-me-up after the horrors of Thursday night.
It was clear that our boys were irked by some of the “didn’t lay a glove on Valencia” sort of criticism, and there was more than a little passion in the way we played and celebrated as a result.
I don’t really think we can blame Bobby Madden for the red card to Scott Brown – it was a stupid rule that he had to enforce – and one would also have to say that he got the Broadfoot red card right as well.
Would Celtic still have got that winner if Kilmarnock had eleven men on the park? Yes, I think they would have, for a feature of our play was the way that Celtic gradually upped a gear. The first half was nothing to write home about, but the second half was recognisably a performance of a Celtic team going for a title.
Bobby Madden was also spot on with disallowing the Kilmarnock goal, although my first impression was that it was a good goal and I needed a TV replay before I spotted the infringement. Actually, Mr Madden had a good game. One or two calls I disagreed with, but he got the big ones right.
The artificial pitch was much in the news before the game, but no-one could say that it was significant in the context of the game. I prefer grass, but if there are to be any more games to be played on an artificial pitch, let’s get over it.
I enjoyed watching Jonny Hayes today. I will stick to my contention that he is not a natural left back, but he tried hard today and was quite influential as we went forward. Not that there were any real failures, although I do think that Edouard was a little disappointing in that he didn’t look all that incisive. Don’t give up on him though, Brendan!
Kilmarnock are probably Scotland’s second best team at the moment, and we wish them all the best on Wednesday night. In the same way that it was nice to see Celtic bouncing back after Valencia, wouldn’t it be great to see Killie bouncing back on Wednesday night?
Celtic? A good weekend! The only team that can stop Celtic now are Celtic themselves. There must be no complacency. We all want to win back some self-respect on Thursday night in Spain, but the visit of Motherwell to Celtic Park on Sunday is so much more important.
David Potter
Also on The Celtic Star…
This is How it Feels! Watch Ecstatic supporters on Celtic Fans TV
Watch a delighted Brendan Rodgers after thrilling win against Kilmarnock
The Sweetest Thing! Jonny Hayes enjoyed today more than the 5-1 thrashing in December
Timo Weah got booked but Zombie bound Jordan Jones’ pushes go unpunished by Madden
Broony’s Beautiful Sunday as Brendan says ‘we were brilliant today’
Celtic 8 clear thanks to Broony’s high, wild and wonderfully deflected winner off a Kille arm
