BILLY McNEILL often spoke about the fairytale that surrounds Celtic, well if ever he was right it was today when 60,000 members of his extended Celtic family gathered together to celebrate Cesar’s wonderful life.
With Celtic struggling to break down a well organised Kilmarnock defence the stadium clock ticked over to the 67th minute and Jozo Simunovic, Celtic’s current number 5 rose to head the ball into the net for the only goal of the game. It was just about deserved but the fact that Scott Bain was among our top performers, especially in the first half, tells you all you need to know about this latest Celtic performance. It was unconvincing.
But we scored and Kilmarnock didn’t and now we can wrap up 8 in a row tomorrow if the Rangers fail to beat their bogey team Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Too many of the team today were below par with Scotty Sinclair and Tom Rogic in particular not really at the races. Defensively it was another clean sheet and perhaps Bain deserves the majority of credit for that. Killie could also have had a penalty in the first half when a shove by Broony gave Willie Collum a decision to make and thankfully he gave the Celtic captain the benefit of the doubt.
The pre-match tributes to Cesar including placing the words Hail Cesar on either side of the Celtic Star above the main stand, were all exceptional, the Standing Section’s display from the Green Brigade was special too. Before the game thousands paid their respects at Cesar’s statute including Kilmarnock FC and there wasn’t a dry eye in Paradise at the tributes prior to kick-off which culminated with one of the most emotional renditions of YNWA that has ever been heard in Paradise.
Celtic are now 12 points ahead and the Rangers have four games to play. They need to win them all and hope we also lose at Pittodrie next weekend and against Hearts on the last day of the season.
The quicker we get this over the line the better.
Man of the Match – Scott Bain
