Celtic hit form as Storm Mikey batters Dundee

Mikey Johnston Hits Form As Celts Batter Dundee…

Three goals from 36 attempts, 7 on target and 23 corners. These are the stats which tell the true story of a romp at Dens which took Celtic five points clear of nearest challengers, theRangers, albeit with two games more played.

The fans have been at pains recently to point out that they are unhappy with Brendan Rodgers’ style of play, and the knives have been out for the Irishman in some quarters. Up in Dundee, there was little to complain about.

Celtic completely dominated the Dens men and, as per usual, were faced with a wall of blue as they tried to navigate yet another Scottish turkey-shoot. Little wonder the broadcasting beaks refuse to throw good money after bad – this league is woeful.

If there is a complaint to be had it’s probably about the lack of sharpness in front of goal, and to say this after a 3-0 away romp says it all. There were some sterling performers in Hoops, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Luis Palma, Paulo Bernardo and…Mikey Johnston.

Yes, you heard that right. Mikey finally hit his straps and fired home twice having come off the bench, and was perhaps unlucky not to have gone home with the match ball up his juke. I heard the groans and saw the heads drop when his number came up, but to his credit Mikey stepped up to the plate and secured the points.

The ever-improving Paulo Bernardo strolled the match and scored a very good goal under pressure. He wasn’t flash, but dominated his space with a series of tackles and simple passes which kept our frontline busy.

Palma was excellent on the wing, driving forward at every opportunity and was a constant thorn in the side of a shell-shocked Dundee defence. Yes, they were all defenders today, and need to have a good look at their Premiership ambition. Luis has a lot in his locker but needs to vary his corner-kicks. He can’t score direct with every attempt!

Carter-Vickers. The big man was superb throughout despite a couple of uncharacteristic mis-passes. He’s a lucky man Ange was not there to give him the look! Seriously, he was brilliant at both ends and should have gotten Celts another goal.

The big man must be unique in that he is the recipient of a different rule to that of every other player in Scotland. It now appears that being manhandled at a corner by a goalkeeper and defender combined, having an arm around your head before being bundled into the net is perfectly legal!

It defied belief that not one of several officials VAR included ‘saw it’. In Scotland it is no real surprise that there was no penalty kick given for such an infraction. His removal whilst holding a suspect hamstring put a knot in our stomachs but Brendan ‘hopes’ the American international will be fit for the big one. Brendan might also ‘hope’ that we might come under the same rulebook as others from time to time!

The form of Maeda and Kyogo is the only glitch in the Celtic matrix and the latter missed a sitter to put the Bhoys ahead early doors, whilst Daizen is playing like he is wearing a blindfold. The lack of Japanese confidence is worrying, and the Boss will be praying his mojo returns for the Glasgow Derby on Saturday. This cannot be put down to Brendan!

Hopefully Reo Hatate makes his comeback against our Glasgow rivals as he has that wee bit of magic which can win a match such as this. Nothing other than our best will do.

All in all it was a very good win and we can take lots of positives from it. It’s a very interesting season in many ways, and Celtic fans will be hoping to be top of the pile come New Year, but it’s all in our hands now.

Eddie Murray