There was an awful long amount of injury time, and you are always afraid that something might happen, but in the end it was reasonably comfortable with Celtic deserving their entrance to their 35th League Cup final (19 wins and 15 defeats so far).
They were throughout the more skilful side, and certainly had far more of the pressure, although I must say that the game was beginning to give me memories of the game v Livingston when we simply could not break down a tight defence.
Whether in the flesh or on TV, the tribute to Bertie Auld was spine-tinglingly impressive and a fitting tribute to a great old, much loved Celt – and just in case we had forgotten about him by the second half, the 67th minute tribute was equally appropriate to Bertie. A club which remembers to honour its past, deserves to have a great future.
James Forrest’s arrival was opportune and his goal and general performance showed just how much we had missed him of late. The goal itself was a catalogue of St Johnstone errors, but we were good enough to take full advantage of them.
They were not a team who made a lot of mistakes in defence, and one always feared that they might just hold out, go to extra time and then get the better of us on penalties. But once the goal went in, a certain relaxation of tension was evident, and although one always worries, the final whistle came (eventually) with very few alarms.
I have a few qualms about Joe Hart and his footwork. He might have come a serious cropper once in the first half, and I really would prefer him to punt the ball up the park at the earliest opportunity. There is no problem with his shot-stopping, and the general aura of confidence that he exudes adds to the feel good factor, but Ange might do well to “have a word with him” about his clearances!
Jota is quite something, is he not. I loved the quote from the TV pundit who said that he did enough in the first five minutes to win the Man of the Match! Once Forrest is given the other wing from the start, I feel that we can look forward to another era of fast thrilling attacking Celtic football.
Congratulations to the players and the management team on reaching the Scottish League Cup final. We look forward to 19 December, but there are a lot of games before then. Bayer Leverkusen, Aberdeen and Hearts for starters!
David Potter
