Under Martin O’Neill, Celtic’s title aspirations are back in safe hands

Who’d have thought it, playing players in their natural positions in a system they know works pays dividends. Whose idea was it to change that to play crazy Kamikaze football? They should own it and do the honourable thing…

A four goal win, a clean sheet and an overall dominant performance against a Dundee United side who beat us just a short few weeks ago. Yes, the nightmare of Wilfred Nancy is finally over as we once again resembled a competent side under the leadership of Martin O’Neill.

Who’d have thought utilising players in their natural positions, and having some sort of organisation would pay dividends eh?

From the first whistle it was evident to everyone in the stands that we looked more compact and secure, with the players looking much more confident than in recent weeks, and it set the tone for a comfortable afternoon as we strolled to a well deserved victory, roared on by a boisterous and more upbeat Celtic support.

Liam Scales and Auston Trusty where rocks in the centre of defence yet again, whilst new Bhoy Julian Araujo looked the part at right back, with Kieran Tierney equally as competent on the left side. Even Kasper Schmeichel looked assured throughout the game, with his distribution looking significantly better than it has been in recent weeks under Wilfried Nancy when he’d look up and struggle to see a defender in sight.

In midfield Callum McGregor was excellent and looked every inch the leader we all know he is, and Reo Hatate while not on top form looked a more creative outlet. Also Arne Engels, who scored the second goal, rediscovered the form he showed under Martin O’Neill last time out. It won’t be long until Reo gets back to his best.

Yang, who can be seen as the only positive during the short Wilfried Nancy era, opened the scoring and was his lively self throughout, which resulted in the South Korean being deservedly named player of the match. No arguments there but here was also a case for Celtic’s wideman on the other side of the attack.

Sebastian Tounekti, back after Afcon duty, was a constant threat during his time on the pitch, and Daizen Maeda who looked rather quiet truth be told, still put in his usual hard shift and showed great instincts to score the fourth goal, although he had other chances that he’d have taken on another day.

There’s still work to be done, and a couple of new additions to be added, in particular a centre forward, but things are looking up now we have a competent coaching staff. Much to our relief and also our delight.

Celtic play Falkirk in midweek with three points essential. Before that we’ll watch Dundee v Hearts than Aberdeen v theRangers this afternoon to see if there’s any upsets. Dundee are on a decent run so there’s some hope of an early Albert Kidd moment but managerless Aberdeen were dreadful on Tuesday night at Ibrox in the first game of their double header.

Any favours today would be appreciated but essentially it’s now down to the finest team in Scotland to prove that’s still the case and keep winning matches from here until the title is won. It’s in our own hands and post-Nancy we are once again back in the safe hands of Martin O’Neill. God bless him!

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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