Celtic entertain St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership this evening defending a three-point lead at the top of the table, following Sunday’s goalless draw with Hibs at Easter Road. The Hoops will be looking to get back into a goalscoring groove after drawing blanks in their last two matches in Edinburgh and against Norwegian Champions Bodo/Glimt.
There may be no direct corelation, however, Giorgos Giakoumakis call-off from duty in Edinburgh, on the back of a hat-trick against Dundee in his previous league match, certainly saw Celtic look less penetrative in the penalty box at the weekend, although chance creation was also lacking on Sunday afternoon.
There is hope the Greek striker could make a return tonight, but speaking at yesterday’s press conference, it seems Ange Postecoglou expects the striker to start tonight’s game on the bench if at all as he recovers from illness.
“In the squad in general everyone from the weekend is fine so no changes there. Giako is still 50-50. He’s better but I’ll probably make a decision tomorrow morning on him. If I had to make a call I’d say he probably won’t start but might be involved. I’ll see tomorrow how he’s feeling but he’s better, he’s almost back.”
Tonight’s game with St Mirren is a vital encounter. Three points is simply essential as the title race goes into the final ten games, and with rivals theRangers having not won away from home in 2022, they face a tough encounter in Perth with St Johnstone as theRangers arrive at McDiarmid Park with no wins in four away games and St Johnstone host Celtic’s title rivals without defeat in their last three at home as the Saints scrap to avoid relegation.
Ange Postecoglou however was not for being drawn into title talk just yet as he rightly points out ten games leaves over a quarter of the season remaining and a lot can change in the space of ten games – as we’ve seen with theRangers suffering a nine point turnaround in a short space of time.
“There’s still 10 games, a fair bit of football to be played. If you look at what’s happened in the last 10 games you’ll see that things can change pretty quickly. We’re still in that mode of focusing on what the next challenge is for us – and that is (tonight) against St Mirren, who we know are going to be a tough proposition.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re at our best, overcome this next challenge and carry on from there. Like I said, we’re in the final stretch but 10 games is a lot of football – we can’t be looking too far ahead.”
Tonight’s opponents are in a state of transition. Despite being the best performing Scottish side outside of Celtic since the winter break, the Paisley side have lost former manager Jim Goodwin to Aberdeen, with former Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson taking over. This saw an unbeaten run in 2022 come to an end at the weekend with a 2-0 defeat to Hearts, however with St Mirren forced to play that match for an hour with ten men it would be too early to say the wheels have come off for St Mirren.
Celtic still have the memories of a shadow Saints side holding the Hoops to a goalless draw the last time the sides met, as such Postecoglou expects a tough challenge.
“They’ve been pretty strong all year, pretty consistent in their approach. A hard team to beat irrespective of home or away. We had a good result against them at home earlier in the year but that’s probably the one result that’s been like that with them. They’ve been pretty tight defensively and I think Jim (Goodwin) had done a very good job with them. I think that’ll continue.”
“They’ve got a new manager but he hasn’t had much time to work with them. They went down to 10 men pretty early last week (against Hearts) which didn’t give them a chance to change things too much within the game. We’re expecting a tough game, a team that’s hard to break down. It’s up to us to find the solutions.”
No-one wants to look too far ahead just yet, especially considering St Mirren will indeed be a well organised side this evening, but with the Hoops due to visit Livingston and a ground Celtic haven’t won a league match at since Martin O’Neill was manager, it will be important to head into that game with goalscoring confidence restored.
As such a win is important this evening for Celtic, but so is the manner it is achieved. A confidence building performance and a return of Celtic’s fast tempo will be just as important as three points at Celtic Park tonight, ahead of a tough fixture on Sunday.
COYBIG
Niall J
