‘Leagues aren’t won in October’ – The Rangers P8-5H,3A v Celtic P8-3H, 5A

DEFEATED for the first time domestically, the chance of a second Invincible season has gone. Celtic’s two Premiership away days after tough Europa League fixtures have resulted in just one point from six while across the city the kinder fixture list gave the Rangers two home games, ten goals and six points to go top of the league going into the international break.

Still when you go into work tomorrow and they are all of a sudden interested in talking to you about football again, there’s one wee stat that you could do well to mention. Both Celtic and the Rangers have played 8 games and as we all know they are now 2 points clear and top of the league.

Undeniable.

Yet while Celtic have had FIVE away games and THREE home matches the Rangers have actually had FIVE home matches and only been on the road on THREE occasions. It figures that from here on in Celtic have TWO more home games than them and TWO fewer away fixtures.

Also undeniable.

And in the remaining fixtures Celtic have TWO home games against the Rangers who will only welcome Celtic back to Ibrox for one other Premiership match this season.

Undeniable too.

It was best summed up in this tweet…

Leagues aren’t won in October 👍

— Paul the tim (@paulthetim) October 6, 2019

Again undeniable.

Here’s what Neil Lennon had to say after the game…

“It’s a poor result,” the manager said. “I thought we started the game okay. We were quite bright, had good tempo and were intense. We lost Ryan very early and had to readjust. We were okay going into half-time and I thought we could go on and win it.

“It was really passive from us for the first goal. We were trying to force the issue with 10 men and were putting a certain amount of pressure on the goal without really working the goalkeeper enough.

“Our decision-making at times wasn’t great and then the second goal was really poor from our point of view, we should be dealing with that.

“For the first goal it was too easy for us to get turned and play a through ball. We should have been up on that and make him go back the way. That’s a facet of our play that we work on and are quite aggressive around our own box so that was disappointing.

Staying down isn't an option. 💚 pic.twitter.com/Ott8xdz95t

— 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇻🇦 (@Boyle_67) October 6, 2019

“We tried to force the issue, had good pressure and I felt we would eventually get one. The second goal put a huge dent in that and it was a poor goal. It was a straight ball over the top between the two centre-halves. It was a great finish but Dykes should never get in that position.”

“We put a lot into Thursday and then we had to play a long time with 10 men as well so that might have come into it,” said the Irishman. “I was hoping for a bit of a reaction from the subs as well but they didn’t really affect the game as well as we would have liked.

“I thought we started well, looked lively and had a couple of chances early on. We had decent control of the game up until the red card.

“I’m expecting better. I said to them before the game that this game was a concern. It’s a dangerous opponent and dangerous environment with an opponent who would be up for it so we had to match that.”