SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Normal service was resumed today with a comfortable victory over Motherwell. I say comfortable,but it was anything but for most of the first half as we huffed and puffed to no avail. Can we put it down to a European hangover from Wednesday night or was it down to the baffling team selection from Neil Lennon? I think it was probably a mixture of both,along with the nagging feeling that maybe we aren’t actually that good.

The team lined up from the start exactly as it had on Wednesday night,which led to some considerable-and understandable-angst amongst the support. That’s right,Ryan Christie as our sole striker,a role which he proved the other night to be wholly unsuited for. And so it proved throughout that first half.

The first goal when it came was a peach though,with CalMac driving forward from deep inside his own half before laying off perfectly to James Forrest. Although the keeper was perfectly positioned when Jamesie picked the ball up,he noticed the keeper shift too close to his near post,and promptly drilled it into the far corner. A sublime finish from a man who can be anything he wants to be,and how I wish he would want it more often.

The second half saw that rare thing from Neil Lennon,an early substitution with Mo Elyounoussi being hooked at half time in favour of Patryk Klimala. This of course led to a change in the formation as well,with Ryan dropping back into a more familiar midfield role. The more familiar feel to things paid dividends,with Motherwell pretty much dropping out of it,even if chances were still thin on the ground. The Polish Paddy missed a couple of good chances,but his running was causing the opposition no end of bother as they couldn’t quite get to grips with his marking,and one of them came from a low cross into the six yard box by Greg Taylor who continues to both impress and frustrate at the same time.

It was the last contribution of the day from Taylor,who was shortly replaced by Frimpers around the hour mark,with Albian Ajeti coming on ten minutes later for Olivier Ntcham. The latter was a strange decision as Broonie had picked up an early yellow card and was probably the more obvious candidate-but we weren’t bothered too much.

Kris Ajer,who was one of our better players on the day,drove forward similarly to CalMac earlier,this time finding The Yeti in acres of space when the centre half stepped out to tackle. He took his time to turn,admittedly,but soon dispatched it to make it two nil.

It would soon get better for us as Christopher Jullien broke up Motherwell possession deep in his own half and hared up the pitch to get on to the end of the final ball from Frimpers,again with Klimala pulling the defence all over the place. For someone who doesn’t appear to have a left foot,he planted it from the edge of the area into the far corner. Sure caught me by surprise,that one!

So,like I said,a comfortable win-but not a comfortable performance for much of the time. We have two weeks now without a match,which we will hopefully use to finalise our dealings in the transfer market. We really need to know which players Neil will have available to him for the rest of the season,because whether we like it or not,this season is now all about the title and The Perfect Ten. We all know the areas which need strengthened,but at the moment we are guessing on the incoming players and the departures. Get it sorted,Celtic. No point in fannying around,is there?

If I was going to award a Man of the Match for this one,it would be CalMac. Klimala would have pushed him for it if he had finished those chances better,but his performance impressed me regardless. Hopefully the goals will come,because he has been showing up well when he gets a chance.

Above article by BMCUWP. Remember,international fortnight means that we may be struggling to write about the club for a while. There is no better time than this to send us your thoughts for Article of the Day. Mail it to MAHE

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