Against a backdrop of mounting criticism in the wake of Wednesday night’s defeat at Pittodrie Ronny Deila managed to mastermind a route into the next round of the Scottish Cup at the expense of East Kilbride, but it was a performance that offered little in the way of relief for rapidly eroding confidence.
We turned up, scored two goals and then went home. For the first, Leigh Griffiths did his impersonation of Maradona and then in the second half Kazim Richards shinned one home in amongst a goal-mouth scramble.
Apart from that, the football was dire, the substitutions were uninspiring and in the end nobody was all that happy.
There were several stand-outs today but they weren’t standing out for the right reasons. On this form, Charlie Mulgrew couldn’t unlock his garden shed never mind the formidable bastille of the EK defence. Forrest probably beat his man about twice in ninety minutes and left most of the overlapping runs to Ambrose, a player not renowned for jinking runs into the box or indeed lethal crosses into the danger area. The aforementioned Turk’s performance was – if you want a kind euphemism – ‘rusty’, consisting as it did of a succession of brainless fouls and featuring the touch of an elephant. At times he also looked half a yard slower than his marker.
Allan came on as a sub and, quite frankly, continued to disappoint. Many will argue that he hasn’t been given the chance but the fact is that the players that we already have in this role are just better. He has talent but if Nadir Çiftçi is deemed surplus after scoring 4 goals in the equivalent of 5 games (in minutes) then I believe he’s had ample opportunity to stake a claim for a place in this team.
Everyone else ranged from adequate to decent.
Positives were Tierney, Sviatchenko and Griffiths.
Bigger tests lie ahead.
Tommybhoy
ntvcelticfanzine.com 