Nir Bitton captained Celtic yesterday as Callum McGregor was among the large number of call-offs along with the likes of goalkeepers Joe Hart, Scott Bain and Conor Hazard plus Anthony Ralston, Greg Taylor and others, amid what could only be a Covid outbreak within the camp.
That must have given Ange Postecoglou a stressful Christmas Day trying to sort out who would be available to play St Johnstone yesterday on a pitch that was far from being at its best. One Celtic supporter on social media stated that he was “90% sure St Johnstone were growing tatties on that pitch” and you could see where he was come from.
Celtic returned to winning ways by beating St Johnstone 3-1 at McDiarmid Park to keep up the pressure on Premiership leaders Rangers 👊 pic.twitter.com/ob5jzEdufD
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 26, 2021
Still Celtic started the game brilliantly, Abada getting a couple of goals and St Johnstone were fortunate to get in at the break just two behind. Yesterday David Potter reckoned that Liel Abada had one of his best games for Celtic since arriving in the summer and of course he was correct. However his could also be said about his fellow countryman Nir Bitton who had been a Celtic player since 2013.
Sandman gave Bitton his coveted Man of the Match yesterday, with a 8.5/10 mark. He wrote: “Shades it for Xmas star. Our best utiliy player this century. Today he was Captain Blockchain, and he looked like he meant to mark the honour with a win no matter the cost in country bumpkin lives. Striding forward on his telescopic pins, playing the pass, thumping opponents, demanding his team slug it out in the muck; captain’s performance capped by a strike with the timing of an action hero swooping in to save Christmas on an impovised swing.”
Afterwards in his Sky Sports interview Bitton said: “I try to do my best every game — this armband is just a sign. I don’t put a lot of attention on it, but obviously it’s a privilege for me to captain this club and these boys.
“We had an amazing game, although we made it quite difficult for ourselves near the end. It was a comfortable game for us, we controlled from the first minute and I’m glad we won.
“We knew before the game it didn’t matter what team we put out, we are the better team.”
Celtic did make it difficult for themselves for a spell in the second half as a desperate St Johnstone fightback resulted in a decent goal that gave fourth choice goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas rather unfortunately for him losing his clean sheet. In what might turn out to be his last action in a Celtic shirt the £4.5m signing from AEK Athens had a decent game in the Celtic goals and was blameless for the goal conceded.
Meanwhile outside the stadium, according to Daily Mail this was happening: “Defiant Celtic fans clash with police
in Glasgow as they storm football ground to watch match after crowds were capped at 500 in Sturgeon’s Christmas crackdown.”
The game was in PERTH not Glasgow and there was no clash with Police as Celtic SLO John Paul Taylor explains this morning:
Respect to you for putting out this correction to their nonsense pic.twitter.com/N0nDTYrnoy
— JoeBloggsCity (@joebloggscity) December 27, 2021
“Just to clarify some inaccurate reports from yesterday. There was no clash with Police, no storm of gates, a handful of fans went to cheer their team from a an area which was away from the Stadium. Police were agreeable to this and fans dispersed at FT without any issue,” John Paul posted this morning.
Fair play @CelticFCSLO pic.twitter.com/tcu1x530Ap
— Pedro (@thepedro67) December 26, 2021
It was even claimed yesterday that Special Branch had been involved in this drama, although hands up that was probably Liam Kelly on The Celtic Star who deserves the blame for starting that ball rolling. Photo Of The Day: Celtic Fan In Special Branch Encounter was the headline that the hacks must have seen.
Another lie!.
Someone at Celtic has to do something with the gutter press. Why don’t they?, I will never understand!
Make the fans proud by even fucking attempting! https://t.co/SwpDabrWWK— scott doc (@supershycelts) December 27, 2021
Could’ve been an easy win here for Nicholson. Once again though it’s JP that’s left to defend the fans. Do the Club even have a PR department? https://t.co/RwoKWbRxzI
— P*** McQ**** 🇯🇵 (@Queenmachine88) December 27, 2021
And Nir Bitton got in on the fun himself on his Instagram account posting this ‘Took n=my celebration to the next level” funny…Well done that man, is that a cigar he’s smoking?
TWICE AS GOOD
Thanks to everyone who ordered Harry Hood – Twice as Good for Christmas presents. If you got an Ange jumper instead then why not order this brilliant book by Matt Corr, or indeed David Potter’s biography of another Celtic legend Alec McNair – born on this day incidentally – from Celtic Star Books or from the official Celtic stores?
I can confirm that 60,000 Celtic fans fought with a poliswoman,stormed the ‘gates’ somewhere in Glasgow and the Speshul Branch broke……This trooth brot two yoo bye YTS Daley Male Cheef Repporrturr Boyd Jnr