Well, all’s well that ends well, and it was three good points, but if anyone had predicted this after 75 minutes, he would have been ridiculed! “Relief” today is the key emotion.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the first 75 minutes were shocking, with Celtic not looking vaguely like Champions. They were drawing 1-1 against the bottom team, they had had the benefit of one refereeing decision, and although one can, up to a point, make excuses about an artificial pitch and a funny ground that has a picture of fans at one end along with a television gantry, Celtic really have to be able to cope with such quirky things when playing away from home.
In the end, we did deal with the situation, and full marks to the Manager for his three substitutions of Jonny Hayes, Tom Rogic and Ryan Christie, all of whom played their part in the scoring of the goals when the original 11 were, frankly, going nowhere. The goals were all good – Jullien making up for his earlier shortcomings with the crucial second goal, Edouard and Rogic doing well for the second, and then Edouard showing a great deal of unselfishness for the fourth. He did deserve a hat-trick, but missed a shocker between the 3rd and the 4th goals.
All right, that is the good news. The bad news sadly outweighs the good. It seems churlish to complain about a team that wins 4-1, but the performance for three quarters of the game was sub-standard with everyone afraid that we were not going to be able to capitalise on the good turn that Aberdeen did for us yesterday. The game was low-key and the fans were silent. But we turned it round.
Red cards? Well, I’m afraid that, admirer as I may be of Leigh Griffiths, a red card was in fact warranted. He could have walked away, indeed he should have walked away. We could well have been been down to ten men. The real red card on the luckless Hamilton Accies defender (called Hamilton!) was, I suppose, correct in the technical, legal sense of the law, but I will never be convinced that this law is a good one.
It was a free kick (and of course it led to a goal, and a good goal!) but there was nothing vicious about it. So one sympathises with Mr Hamilton on this one. In fact, I thought, over the piece, that Mr Walsh had a good game although he can expect a wee bit of stick from the Daily Record tomorrow for his mistake about Leigh Griffiths.
How many of us were familiar with the name of Stephen Welsh before 12.00 today? Not I, but he did make a creditable start to his Celtic career, more so than Greg Taylor who was far better on Wednesday night. Jullien looked unhappy and out of touch in the first half, but that was a criticism that could have been made of the rest of the team as well.
Once again, although Edouard did eventually come good, he looked heavy-footed and clumsy in the first half, and for a long time, I despaired of Celtic, in particular their inability or lack of desire to shoot first time!
Hamilton played the game hard, and if only they could play like that against the other relegation teams, there would not be a problem for them. I was genuinely sorry for their Manager who had the courage to admit his problem, and I honestly believe that the authorities did not need to be anything like so hard on him. Time to pick that man up, one feels!
The TV pundits today? Well, I actually thought that Ally McCoist spoke a lot of sense. Like so many Rangers guys, when they lose ground, he becomes far more humble and likeable. He is awful when they win, though! Chris Sutton and Gordon Strachan, as usual a bit controversial and provocative, but clearly happy when the game was won.
And so to Wednesday when we return to Lanarkshire to play Motherwell. They lost yesterday, so they have a lot to make up for in front of their own fans at Fir Park which, at least, is grass but has a pronounced sideways slope. Celtic have a few lessons to be learned from today. Let’s hope they do so.
David Potter
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