The kind of Celtic performance that is becoming more frequent under Ronny Deila. Against a team we stuck 8 past barely a month ago, once again poor team selection mixed with slack defending and a hint of Craig Thompson sees us drop more points in the league.
Sometimes I start these off by saying how well the front four linked up. However, this was a changed attacking midfield and there was very little linking.
Commons looked off the pace but he’s been injured so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Scott Brown’ didn’t have one of his better nights and his impression of someone trying to control a football led to a gilt-edged chance followed thankfully by a bad miss from Crawford.
Celtic were creating virtually nothing in the first half but were given the chance to take the lead when an Accies defender fouled Griffiths in the box. Referee Craig Thompson took centre stage and awarded the spot kick. It wasn’t to be his only intervention in the game.
With a few minutes left before the interval Scott Allan gifted the ball to an Accies player who slid in the striker. He was offside but play continued and Boyata dived in with a last-ditch challenge 20 yards from goal. The Celtic defender got to the ball first but Thompson had a red card out almost as fast as he could stick the whistle in his gullet. A clear goalscoring opportunity? If it was Christiano Ronaldo tearing into the penalty area maybe.
Boyata dubiously dismissed and Celtic now waning. Funny how Craig Thompson’s decisions even themselves out though eh?
Second half didn’t go much better. Mackay-Steven missed a great chance when through on the ‘keeper before Griffiths spurned a second penalty awarded for Ziggy Gordon wrestling Lustig at a corner kick. Like the one he awarded against Ross County, a cynic might suggest that Thompson was attempting to mitigate an earlier honest mistake.
When Brophy equalised for Accies there wasn’t much hope that Celtic would get a winner – although bringing on Kazim-Richards with ten men for 4 minutes was a peculiar decision by the manager.
Nothing about this performance went well. No fluid football, slack passing and few passable performances (Kieran Tierney once again putting some of his more senior colleagues to shame). Meanwhile the Accies players were allowed to wrap their studs around opponents with relative impunity (Mackinnon should have seen a straight red for a particularly nasty lunge at Tierney). All pretty standard these days.
This changed front 3 behind the strikers did not work at all.
A poor performance and more dropped points is beginning to sound all too familiar.
Tommybhoy
ntvcelticfanzine.com 