SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Once again,my apologies for the delay in posting this. Post-match articles aren’t quite as easy as when I was working! Another thing that’s not so easy,it seems,is playing in Aberdeen on a cold February Wednesday.

Well,if you don’t count our first half. (Spoiler alert-I could only watch the first half!) And so it was that I set out on my 350 miles round trip with a happy heart,stopped at the first layby and damned near passed out at how close we had come to surrendering our title lead. In fact,at one time we had-but the BBC “As it stands” compiler barely had time to move the top two before we restored some order.

Our first goal was a peach,arriving just as Aberdeen probably thought they had weathered the early blitzkrieg. Abada and O’Riley combined neatly on ther right,with the latter putting in a brilliantly deceptive cross,curling it into the six-yard box. The keeper didn’t know whether to come for it,defenders were concerned about putting it into their own net

Jota just whipped it into the net!!!

Worse was to follow for the Dons a couple of minutes later when Matty Bhoy fired one goalwards from the edge of the box. We will never know whether the direct shot would have beaten the keeper,as O’Riley cunningly cannoned it in off the ankle of Bates in defence.

So two up and cruising at half time,just as we are getting used to doing. The problem is that far too often,the momentum is lost at the break. We have largely got away with it recently,but we were undone last night-which could easily have been worse.

Ten minutes into the half,our defence inexplicably allowed a free kick from wide left to trundle at snail’s pace into the area,where Ramirez signed the ball,finished off a Gregg’s sausage roll and did the crossword prior to putting it in the net. Fuxake,what were we playing at there,simply shocking.

Aberdeen had come back on to the pitch in a spirited state of mind,so we should have been closing the game down-not opening it up! And Lewis Ferguson wasted little time in getting the equaliser a few minutes later. Woe is us,as the huns temporarily went top. But not the players,apparently,who shrugged it off by going straight up the pitch and scoring again to restore our lead. It was a lead that we kept,and we should have showed such resolve in the first fifteen minutes of the half.

But as the headline reads,three points is the important thing here. We got them,and in a difficult fixture against a team trying desperately to dig themselves out of a slump. Also a team which took advantage all night of some lenient refereeing. Just when I watch Collum and think that he might be the best of a bad bunch,he goes and does it again. Imaginary fouls against Celtic players and assaults on them officially condoned.

But if the referee is going to allow it,the opposition aren’t going to pass up the opportunity,are they? And if our board are so craven that they won’t speak up to protect our players-their own employess-well,the referees will continue to do as referees do. Best get used to it,then…

Anyway,we have a welcome respite from league duties for the next ten days. Hopefully some genius at the club can use that to discover why our game falls to pieces during half time. Sleeping tablets in the tea?

We got away with it last night. We won’t always be so lucky.

******

Above article by BMCUWP