Greg Taylor looked back on the first ten games Celtic have played in the Scottish Premiership this season after the second goalless draw of the campaign, this time time against Hibs at Easter Road having also drawn a blank at Celtic Park at the end of August against struggling St Johnstone.
Both those draws could easily have been wins and at the weekend Taylor reflects on the James Forrest effort that thundered off the bar that could so easily have won the three points for Celtic. The draw against St Johnstone was a strange one and Brendan Rodgers has spoken about it a few times since, saying that Celtic could easily have scored four or five that day. Matt O’Riley, from memory could have had a hat-trick that day!
Yet enough about the two draws, there has also been eight Celtic wins and together that’s given Celtic a five points advantage at the top of the league looking down at the VAR assisted Rangers. And Taylor is correct to point out the remarkable run of tough away fixtures that Celtic have already played. We’ve been to Aberdeen and the two Edinburgh clubs yet theRangers have yet to visit any of these grounds and they also hosted Celtic in the season’s opening Glasgow Derby.
Whether that tough start is unfair or not, the fact is that Celtic have come through it, top of the league and the fixtures flip after midweek – Celtic are at home to St Mirren while theRangers are away to Dundee which will mean all the teams have played each other once in this season’s Scottish Premiership.
“It has been a tough run. I don’t know about an injustice, you need to play everyone anyway home and away. But it has definitely been a difficult start,” the Celtic left-back said after the draw at Easter Road, as report by Scottish Sun. “We have been to Pittodrie, Ibrox, Tynecastle, Easter Road now, Livingston. That’s ten games in the league and eight wins and two draws. It could be worse but equally we strive to be perfect and we’ve not quite got what we wanted from Saturday.
Hibernian v Celtic, Cinch Scottish Premiership, , Easter Road. Mikey Johnston in action for Celtic. 28 October 2023:Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock
“I think the level of performance has gradually been increasing. I think on Saturday we didn’t find the next level, to kick on, and I think we put that down to the first 45 minutes. We didn’t get to our levels quickly enough.”
Taylor is well used to the constant demand at Celtic to win every match – that has been the same in the Champions League, even if the team have been unfortunate in all three games and are needing that wee bit of luck to get motoring at that level. As domestic level the start to the season has been more than satisfactory.
“Yes, but equally at Celtic that is the demand. Normally the fans demand wins and they demand an attacking style. I think gradually we have been doing that. On Saturday the fans came in their numbers again and they would have been disappointed to go home without the three points.
“If Jamesie’s one had been just under the bar we would have managed to get the win. But we move on to Wednesday, another difficult game. St Mirren got a really strong result at the weekend so we know it will be difficult again and we need to start that game quickly,” Taylor admitted.
Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan is out now and you can get a signed copy of the hardback version direct from Celtic Star Books by clicking on the image below. It’s also available an an e-book via Amazon Kindle and please note that all colour photographs that appear in the beautifully presented printed hardback book are also available in the Kindle version of Majic, Stan and the King of Japan…
