Fresh off the back of narrowly missing out on three points at Ibrox last weekend against our main rival for the title, Brendan Rodgers’ men return to Celtic Park tomorrow to face St Mirren in a 3pm kick-off. It will be the last game we have before the famous league-split and will give the Bhoys the opportunity to go four points clear at the top of the table before theRangers play Ross County on Sunday afternoon.
The team news is that we will be without Daizen Maeda and Liam Scales unfortunately, as both men have sustained injuries ahead of this one. Scales is only an abductor issue and he should be back for the rest of the engrossing title shootout. However, our Ibrox hero Maeda may well be out for the rest of the season if his hamstring tendon scare is more severe than initially thought.
There’s no doubting Daizen will be a big miss for however long he’s out and unable to contribute to the team. His pace and power when running and pressing more than make up for his limited attributes technically and composure in the final third at times. His last absence – when he was injured after our UEFA Champions League group stages match with Ateltico Madrid – was keenly felt by the team and we sorely lacked that dynamism.
If memory serves, we lost to both Kilmarnock and Hearts when Maeda was either on the sidelines or just in recovery from injury, so his physicality suffered as a result. But he’s so important at badgering they tightly packed defences and running defenders into the ground to space can develop later on in games. Hopefully his season isn’t over just yet…
Meanwhile, here’s the Hoops preparing for the visit of Stephen Robinson and his side below…
Paul Gillespie
