SANDMAN’S DEFINITIVE RATINGS: CELTIC v KILLIE ME SOFTLY
“Don’t wait for the right opportunity: create it.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Farewell to The King 👑
A beautiful tribute to the legendary Denis Law before kick-off at Celtic Park 🙏 pic.twitter.com/hq4FbG9W0n
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) January 18, 2025

THE FRIENDLY GHOST – 6/10 – Another frustrating game as the Danish Viking Warlord concedes a goal without having a save to make. Risque in a Benny Hill sense with some adventurous passes out his own box, but also notable in the sense of attempting to stimulate the midfield into a counter. Our goal remains tended by the most reliable of custodians AND with the borderline lunacy of the perfect goalkeeping specimen.
GREGGS THE BAKER – 6/10 – He’d be as well running out to Joe Strummer instead of The Celtic Song now, because nobody knows if he’ll stay or go. While he’s here I’ll continue to appreciate the under-appreciated Greggs, probably our most improved player over the last four years. For the opening 45 today he was worthy of the shirt, instrumental in our pressure. But beyond the break there was an odd fade to his overall game, resulting in a series of shoddy plays, misplaced passes and surrender of possession.
WAYNE GRETZKY – 6.5/10 – Strangely subdued, and played with caution when we expected that aggressive positivity. Perhaps due to Killie’s measures against it, but the Kuhn partnership was on ice until we had them stretched later in the game. Even then, he had to pick and choose his moments as the threat of a counter had him wary and reserved in positioning, toughing it out but facilitating the space for Kuhn to run riot.

CRUSTY THE CLOWN – 6.5/10 – Is this a meritocracy or a hypocrite’s folly? ‘Weak as phiss’, if a million amateur lip-readers are to be believed after Tuesday’s shenanigans – cavorting around the backline coked-up like Tony Montana, screaming about saying hello to his ‘leetle fren’ and spraying suicidal gunfire everywhere; even appearing to shoot himself in the foot at one stage which may explain why Stephen Hawking could have out-jumped him trying to prevent their third. So to see him on the teamsheet to start was probably the surprise of the season’s selections to date. Question was, could he redeem himself in a crunch cup-tie in front of the faithful?Answer was, yes, he did – barely a foot wrong or held squealing. For a guy not deserving of his jersey he paid enough tribute to that by making sure he didn’t sell it, and put in a solid display of competence.
GET CARTER – 7/10 – Really? Again? They might be of the same hot dog and Hooters heritage, but the Big Mhan appeared troubled by the prospect of covering his compatriot’s ass (not ‘arse’, they’re Yanks, remember…). However, his too was a bruising, combative shift versus Killie’s robust strike force and merited great praise for 100% focus and stoicism.
The wee mushroom seems to have his mind on somewhere else; never seen him miss so many as he’s done the last few games. Hopefully they get back to normal after hitting that wall.
Nonsense, great for 30 minutes and as mentioned could have been out of sight, but after that we fell to pieces under the high press. The inability to play through the press and lack of bottle were evidenced when McGregor chooses to sky the ball into the air, rather than bring it down unchallenged, then doing the exact same thing 30 seconds later, under the same circumstances. Granted we could still have taken one of quite a few chances, but they could’ve also taken one of their few, again. I obviously watched a different game from most, with quite a few lauding a great performance, yeah for the first 30 minutes, after that it was just like the Dundee game, for the same reasons, inability to cope with a high press.
YB Bern must be licking their lips!!.