Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 1
CELTIC got what they deserved at Rugby Park this afternoon as Kilmarnock came back from a goal down to score twice in the second half to sicken the travelling support as the Champions drop down to 5th in the league and likely to fall behind The Rangers later this afternoon.
After victory in the Glasgow Derby Celtic were 4 points ahead of the Ibrox side but a draw in Paisley and today’s defeat in Ayrshire means that that advantage has been surrendered.
This Celtic side failed to score against a St Mirren side that lost heavily to Hamilton Accies yesterday.
Celtic suffered their first blow of the day with the loss of Filip Benkovic who was injured on that shocking surface. Jack Hendry had to be drafted into the starting eleven to replace the Croatian defender.
Other than a few efforts from Boyata from corner kicks, Celtic created little in the first half hour. They took the lead in bizarre circumstances in 33 minutes when a Tierney cross was mis-kicked by both Broadfoot and Taylor to set up Leigh Griffiths to head Celtic’s first away league goal of the season.
The 51st minute to Tommy Burns was the highlight of a hugely frustrating second half. Neither side had an effort on goal until Chris Burke, the former Rangers man, found himself in some space just outside the Celtic area. The winger composed himself and his shot found the bottom corner, beating Craig Gordon as the ball went on off the post.
That was the end of the action for Scotty Sinclair who had contributed nothing. The Englishman needs to have a look at himself in the mirror and is unlikely to be trusted to start anytime soon. His replacement Lewis Morgan, showed much more desire and effort and is now likely to be ahead of the former Player of the Year.
Ryan Christie, one of the few to get pass marks, almost put Celtic back in front on 69 minutes with Celtic’s first attempt at goal in the second half – that s simply not good enough and is exactly what you do when you don’t win the league.
Mulumbu had got himself booked and was in danger of seeing red just like Ntcham last week. Rodgers took him off though and brought on McGregor who simply added to the frustration with the pass pass pass stuff. It wasn’t going to hurt the home side.
The clock ticked down but where was the urgency? Morgan and Johnston combined but the latter’s finish was once again insufficient. Rodgers responded by hauling him off and putting on the £9million striker Odsonne Edouard but to no avail.
With three minute into stoppage time Kilmarnock were someone awarded a corner that looked like a goal kick and ex-Celtic Development player Stuart Findlay rose above the Celtic defence to head into the corner. A man on the post clears that easily but hell, what do we know about tactics?
There are serious problems at Celtic and this defeat is hardly a surprise. Celtic simply don’t have the guile to beat Kilmarnock in 2018.
Leigh Griffiths gave Celtic the lead in Perth in May 2016 – the last time we went on to lose a game. We are back at Perth on Wednesday night and are in real danger of surrendering a trophy – St Johnstone will fancy their chances.
Man of the Match – Kieran Tierney
