A PERFECTLY observed minute of silence from the Celtic and Livingston supporters inside the Tony Macaroni Stadium got the day off to a decent start but there was little worth remembering about this goalless encounter on a dreadful surface.
Celtic moved the ball about well enough in the first half, finding their feet on the tricky plastic pitch but it took until the half hour mark for the Champions to test Kelly in the Livi goal. Odsonne Edouard set up Ryan Christie after Tom Rogic teased the Livingston defence but the 23 year old midfielder’s effort was a little too close to the keeper who saved well.
Christie had been involved in an earlier talking point when the Livi centre-forward needlessly headed the Celtic man, who to his credit avoided the Oscar winning reactions that we’d have seen from the likes of Kyle Lafferty. The SFA’s Compliance Officer Clare Whyte is sure to be interested in this though and you would expect a two match ban coming up for Menga.
Just before halt-time Livingston won a series of corners and the former Celtic Development player Declan Gallagher got his head to a few of them, bringing out a few saves from Scott Bain in the Celtic goal. These corners and the use of the long throw-in throughout the match were the principal sources of danger from the home side, who nevertheless fought for everything and probably just about deserved their point.
Forrest could have broken the deadlock just before the interval after being sent through by Tom Rogic but the excellent Kelly in the Livi girls did enough to touch the ball onto the crossbar and over. Kevin Clancy missed the save and awarded a goal-kick. It was that kind of day for Celtic.
Christie blocked an effort from 3 yards in the 55th minute as Celtic failed to get going in the second half. Indeed it took until the 57th minute for the visitors to make any sort of impact towards the home goal, with a weak effort from Rogic causing no concern whatsoever.
Minutes later Scott Bain completely missed a punch, which is unlike him, just ask Neil McCann, and the lose ball was cleared by Callum McGregor, who had a much quieter game than we have come to expect from him.
Brendan Rodgers had seen enough and brought on Leis Morgan for James Forrest to try to kick-start the attempt for the three points. On 64 minutes Ryan Christie tested Kelly properly with an excellent effort from the edge of the box, but the Livi keeper saved well.
Morgan had a poor effort that Kelly dropped to concede a corner – probably the keeper’s only error in the game and from the resulting corner Kristoffer Ajer took a head knock and had to be replaced by Filip Benkovic. It looked a sore one for the Norwegian who won the header bravely.
Celtic upped the pressure as the game entered its closing stages, with Tom Rogic and Kieran Tierney showing their desire to get the breakthrough. The Australian thought he’d done it in 84 minutes when he gathered from yet another Celtic corner at the edge of the box, worked himself into space and curled an effort but Kelly got a hand to it and touched the ball over the crossbar.
Moment later Scotty Sinclair had he best chance of the game but his volley from 5 yards out was wild. A decent connection and the goal was there for him to grab the glory. He tried to redeem himself a moment later but curled his shot just a little too high.
With all the stoppages, Clancy added on 5 minutes, Celtic piled on the pressure but it fizzled out and the two points were lost. The one gained though takes Celtic to the top of the league.
Well done to everyone who observed the silence. It gives our enemies nothing.
The Celtic Star Man of the Match – Ryan Christie
