Not much can really be said about yesterday’s game against The Rangers. Celtic did not play to their capabilities at all, with some horrendous pieces of play from the Hoops.
The game started off with Rangers looking the hungrier team, pressing Celtic high up the park. Brendan Rodgers men did seem to make it very difficult for themselves as the ball tended to drop back a lot to the central-defensive pairing of Boyata and Sviatchenko.
It was surprising to many that Rangers were given the first clear-cut opportunity of the match after Dedryck Boyata made a very poor mistake. Martyn Waghorn pounced onto the ball from five yards but failed to slip the ball past Craig Gordon who made a wonderful save with his left foot. To the sheer delight of the Celtic fans the Bhoys did go one up after a cracking goal from Stuart Armstrong. Jason Holt completely miscued his clearance at the edge of The Rangers penalty box. James Forrest stole the ball off him, slipped it to Armstrong who slotted it away exquisitely.
All credit due to The Rangers, in the second-half they came out and stood up to some early Celtic pressure which nearly resulted in the Hoops second after Armstrong nearly bagged a brace, with two decent efforts on goal in the first twenty minutes of the second-half.
From around seventy minutes onwards it was Rangers who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. They moved the ball around well a looked very sharp. Martyn Waghorn had a second one-on-one with Gordon which again was saved by the big keeper’s foot. This was followed by an opportunity which narrowly went wide. The Celtic players were left furious as Jason Holt had committed a blatant foul on Patrick Roberts before this particular opportunity. Deservedly Rangers got their equaliser in the eighty-seventh minute. Celtic could not clear a ball which was floated into the box, the ball came to Hyndman who hit it across the face of goal which was parried directly into Clint Hill’s path which he prodded away. With hindsight, it would have been much better if Rangers would have scored this with thirty or so minutes to go as it seemed to make Celtic
Deservedly The Rangers got their equaliser in the eighty-seventh minute. Celtic could not clear a ball which was floated into the box, the ball came to Hyndman who hit it across the face of goal which was parried directly into Clint Hill’s path which he prodded away. With hindsight, it would have been much better if The Rangers would have scored this with thirty or so minutes to go as it seemed to make Celtic waken up a bit. The hoops eventually piled the pressure on which should have resulted in a penalty kick after Clint Hill the hero at one end of the pitch nearly became the villain after he fouled Leigh Griffiths in the box. Astonishingly, nothing was given.
Overall, Celtic had an off-day. The only difference between this game though and the one in which we drew with Inverness was the fact that we dominated the game in the Highlands. All teams have their off days, unfortunately, ours came yesterday. We should still look on the bright side of life, twenty-five points clear of Aberdeen and still undefeated.
Let The Rangers enjoy the draw, while we enjoy the title.
DECLAN MCCONVILLE
