With a more than solid start to the Scottish Premiership campaign for Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers, we continue to sit top of the table with eight wins and two draws from our opening ten games, and the nearest challengers to us taking the title once again this season are a good few points behind us.
That should have meant we went into last night’s clash with St Mirren in great spirits and ready to take another pretty comprehensive victory, albeit acknowledging their own very good form this year that sees them currently occupy third place in the table themselves, following five wins and three draws in their nine games. We did not, and they put in a challenge that our players simply could not have been expecting and we fell behind on home soil only seven minutes into the tie.
For those who like a flutter, they will not want too many repeats of that showing until the end of the season as they look over their chosen betting site, but Celtic surely continue on as odds on favourites for this years’ title.
David Turnbull had quickly levelled matters up for us again in the 17th minute, but despite our almost utter domination of the remainder of the game – that included plenty of chances to secure the win, and a Turnbull penalty miss about 15 minutes shy of the half time break – we had to wait until a little bit of magic from Oh Hyeon-gyu in the 83rd minute of the game to secure all three points on the night.
It would have been a frustrating night for those fans in attendance, as for so long you had to credit the visitors sheer effort in keeping us out, but we could have undoubtedly have made life far more easy for ourselves than we did.
With a few changes made by the gaffer for this tie, there will definitely be those who have a quiet eye on whether Rodgers feels the schedule may be slightly catching up with us, and whether or not some players were just rested as opposed to given an additional rest to ensure a slight niggle does not turn into a far more serious injury worry – whatever the truth on that score, there will be frustration that those handed a chance were largely nullified by St Mirren’s game plan and determination, as fans would have expected better.
Rodgers certainly was, but he saw the positives in how the players kept plugging away even though the rub of the green was not really with them.
“You have to keep grinding in games like that. We made a slow start – just too passive, weren’t aggressive enough with or without the ball, and they deservedly went in front. After that we sped up the game, a fantastic strike from David Turnbull and that settled us back down. They are very well coached so we knew they would have moments, but in the main we kept going. We should have gone in front, we missed the penalty, and that’s something as a team we have to be better at.”
He went on to say.
“Second half we kept going, and the subs come in and make the impact you want. The winning goal is a real testament to the calmness and quality of the team. In the right moment we speed up the game and Oh scores a great goal. In the midst of a busy period it’s a really important win.”
Having cut the result of this game so close, despite the positives the gaffer picked out post game, we can probably expect some further rotation as we travel to Dingwall this coming Saturday for the early kick off against Ross County. We will be wanting a similarly controlled performance from the stats side of life, but we should be expecting a much more clinical approach in front of goal.
