A better performance today, but they don’t make things easy for you, do they? The last five minutes were fairly frantic of the type that “it takes years off your life” as we used to say. It was an unfortunate goal to lose and I was sorry for Scott Bain who had a good game otherwise, and Motherwell immediately scented blood. However a bit of luck and a very good clearance off the line from Diego Laxalt saw Celtic home for a deserved victory.
It was really a fine performance for three quarters of the game, but the game does last 90 minutes (93 in this case) and we really have to budget for that. We should have been home and hosed long before these anxious last few minutes.
The fault of course lay in our inability to score more goals with Tom Rogic in particular having hard luck. But the goals we scored were good – a fine header from Stephen Welsh and a goal from Odsonne Edouard of the type that we yearn to see him scoring more of. We all know that the ability is there, and now that he has seen that he can score from edge of the box, let’s hope for more of them!
There are not many that one could honestly point a finger at today, but I would like to see more from Albian Ajeti who does not seem to come looking for a ball when it is not coming to him. I would honestly go for Leigh Griffiths first. But there was little else to criticise today. Stephen Welsh was deservedly Man of the Match (and not just for his excellent goal!), and the two full backs Greg Taylor and Johnjoe Kenny were very productive.
The midfield diamond was good, and the thing that marked Celtic out as a recognisable Celtic team was the attitude. There was a hunger, an appetite, a desire to play and that was very noticeable. It has to be converted into goals, and maintained throughout the 90 minutes. If that happens, we will have an acceptable Celtic side. “Acceptable”, I said! “Brilliant” can come later!
Nice to hear Willie McStay on the gantry. He talks sense, and Deasy and Heid did OK. Connie is worth another go, although she did talk about Johnjoe Kennedy at one point. But anyone can make a mistake. Talking about which, I though referee Nick Walsh made very few of these. One of them however was a yellow card to a Motherwell defender when it looked to me more like a red one for a deliberate elbow on Stephen Welsh. Anyone agree?
It was a good afternoon’s entertainment, however. St Mirren at Paisley on Wednesday night. We owe them one, I think, do we not?
David Potter
