A pleasant day in the autumn sunshine of Dundee! Somehow, there was a certain inevitability about it all – that the team would score goals, and good ones at that, but would also lose a couple which should have been cleared. It is not that we don’t know what the strong points and weak points of our team are!

But the strong points are very strong. Once again we had sparkling goals – well the first one had a bit of the ping-ball about it, but the rest were very well taken by talented goal scorers, and full marks once again to Anthony Ralston who is quite clearly an attacking full back in the style of Tommy Gemmell (yes! yes! I know it is the other side of the park) who did so well with his “hat-trick of assists” as SKY TV put it.

Callum McGregor was again first class, David Turnbull a little short of that, and Nir Bitton was also on song. And the important thing is that we seem to have learned the lesson from the Livingston game – namely that we must not pass the ball across the park. We must keep going forward!

But the bad news is the defending of cross balls. The second goal can only be blamed on Joe Hart. If you come out for a ball, you must get it. As it was, Joe was nowhere near it, and Dundee had an empty goal. For the first goal, the blame must be shared, but it is a fault that really has to be sorted out, and soon.

Georgios Giakoumakis, I’m afraid, did little to help his cause after last week’s disaster. His positional sense was sometimes at fault and I am at a loss to explain how he managed to scoop that one over the bar late in the game. Fortunately in the context of the game, it didn’t really matter, but it does cause a little concern. Today was surely an ideal opportunity for him. Perhaps his day will come yet.

Even Kris Boyd agreed that Celtic were good today. Dundee were really rather poor – and a permanent reminder of what can happen in the long term if you allow your club to fall into the hands of the get-rich-quick brigade of short-term money grubbers, as Dundee have done rather too often these past sixty years!

Their supporters, with the exception of their Dundee Derry lunatic fringe, are basically a decent lot. Sadly they haven’t seen a good player since Alan Gilzean! Well, maybe Tommy Gemmell and Gordon Strachan as well.

And so to the International break. Next game is the League Cup semi-final v St Johnstone in two weeks’ time. Seems a long way away!

David Potter

Watch Ange Postecoglou and Anthony Ralston’s post match interviews with Celtic TV below…

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