‘Never mind that January window, let’s just raise the youngsters!’ David Potter

Never mind that January window, let’s just raise the youngsters! Full marks to Anthony Ralston and Mikey Johnston for their fine contributions last night, and how nice to see each of them score a fine goal.

All in all, it was one of the more rewarding nights at Celtic Park, and a perfect comeback from Sunday’s sad performance.The news from Edinburgh was good as well, so we now are back at the top and with a game in hand. We must now maintain this, but bear in mind that we have not yet reached the half way stage, so there is a long way to go.

I must admit to having a few qualms when I heard the team. I wanted more people dropped! But giving credit where it is due, each of the three players who underperformed on Sunday – Ntcham, Sinclair and Edouard – raised their game significantly last night.

The injury to Edouard looked worrying, but it did open the door for Mikey Johnston, and that was a real cracker of a goal he scored just on the half time whistle. Scott Sinclair should also get some confidence back following the cool way he slotted the penalty.

The second half sagged a little, but at no point did Celtic look in any trouble, and it is source of mystery how Motherwell managed to earn a point two weeks ago. Frankly, they were never really in it, and only inept finishing by Celtic kept the score down to something reasonable.

I thought that Izaguirre had a good enough game, but someone needs to have a word with him about crossing. There really is no point in blasting the ball across the penalty area unless there is someone there waiting for it! It is surely well worth the bother to look up and give himself a chance to find a colleague.

I am no xenophobe or anything like that, but it was nice to see seven Scotsmen on the park last night when all the substitutions had been made, and all of them doing well with captain Brown back to his best.

I have said before that I would like to see Lewis Morgan get a full 90 minutes, and I would have no problem in seeing Ralston and Johnston get a start either. It would be nice to see Kieran Tierney back, though.

Bobby Madden didn’t really have a bad game last night, but he did miss a fairly obvious ball out of play and several fouls on James Forrest. He might also have brandished a few more yellow cards at Motherwell defenders. It was an easy game to referee, though.

The crowd was a little larger than what I thought it would have been, given that it was mid-winter and close to Christmas, but they all enjoyed themselves. I hope they come back on Saturday for more of the same.