By no means one of the best games of the season, but a solid win which puts Celtic (temporarily at least) twelve points clear at the top. It was a game that we never really looked like losing, but it has to be said that feelings of anxiety were beginning to sweep Celtic Park in the first half at the fecklessness of our forwards.
There was a great deal of pressure and a certain amount of pretty football, but no incisiveness, no cutting edge and no great feeling of confidence that a goal was going to come.
But it did come just on half time, and a good one it was from Jota, and the other one early in the second half from Kyogu basically removed what little doubt there was about who was going to be the winner. Kyogu I find funny some times.
There are spells in the game when he runs around like a headless chicken with little positional sense or ability to read a game (as witnessed by the many “no takers” moments when the ball comes across from one wing or other and no-one is there to finish it off) and then just as we are really beginning to worry about him, he pops up and scores! One goal per game will be more than enough, Kyogu, so keep doing it!
Reo Hatate was the Man of the Match. He had some fine, even inspired, moments in the second half, but at half time he certainly would not have been my nomination, for he was poor in the first half and looked a certainty to be hooked. There was indeed a general malaise in that first half. Can we put it down to that “bug” that affected us at Ibrox as well?
The second half was a different story altogether. Did the Kilmarnock goalkeeper have a great game? Were our forwards incompetent? Was it all bad luck? Or was it a combination of all three? We certainly should have had scored more, and the goalposts at that Jock Stein End might need another coat of paint, given the amount of times they were hit!
Our best men were Carl Starveld, Cameron Carter Vickers and Callum McGregor. Alistair Johnston is off to a good start in his Celtic career, but one of those days, Joe Hart, admirable character though he is in other respects, is going to come a real cropper through carelessness. No-one would think any the less of him if he were simply to pick the ball up and kick it upfield!
But the game was won, and let’s move on. The tribute to the late Frank McGarvey was impressive, and it was nice to meet our latest Japanese recruit whose grasp of English allows him say “Hail! Hail!”. That’s a fine start! The weather was fine for January after all that rain in the morning, and although VAR tried to muscle in (as early as the first minute!) now and again, I thought Mr Walsh had a good game. No bookings!
And so the same opposition at Hampden next week in the League Cup semi-final. There was little I saw today that would make me worry about Kilmarnock, but the again, it would be a fool who thinks it is a foregone conclusion.
David Potter
Respect 🙏 pic.twitter.com/qL8o49oSFy
— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) January 7, 2023
