Draw tells tale of Celtic’s season
Good but it’s not right.
In a game that was a must not-lose for Celtic, a draw would have felt like a defeat for the Celtic fans.
Like so often under Tony Mowbray, the same issues caused Celtic to drop points.
Poor finishing
Slack defending
Incompetent refereeing
In the January transfer window, Mowbray will be looking to rectify the first two. As for the last point, there is not much Mowbray could do although he should lean on the referees, much in the same way the silver fox at Ibrox manages to do so.
For the second Celtic Rangers game in a row, the man in the middle has had an unhealthy influence on the outcome and in both games, the decisions have went to Rangers.
Celtic should have opened the scoring on 19 minutes when Marc Antoine Fortune rose above Alan McGregor to nod the ball home. Steve Conroy ruled that Fortune had fouled the Rangers stopper but at the game, it looked harsh and television evidence suggests the goal should have stood.
On the half hour mark, Kyle Lafferty, already lucky to not have been booked for persistent fouling, came through late and high on Andreas Hinkel. Ranger’s fans love tradition so no doubt many would have been delighted to see Lafferty turn the clock back to the 1970s with a challenge that was as brutal as it was calculated.
Again, Conroy sided with Rangers and only booked the player.
Lafferty then further mocked Conroy by diving seconds later and committed a number of fouls in the second half. After Kenny Miller was sent off in midweek and the outcry over this decision, it was unlikely that another Rangers player was going to follow.
It was all one way traffic towards McGregor, Barry Robson hit the bar, Samaras skewed some chances wide, Aiden McGeady had a hat-trick of chances he couldn’t keep on target and general pressure around the Rangers box.
Rangers had a flurry of corners at the start of the second half but that was about their lot until Celtic opened the scoring.
Aiden McGeady tormented the Rangers backline at the edge of the box and his clipped cross allowed substitute Scott McDonald to ghost into the six yard box and nod home the opener.
Celtic Park erupted but surely the home fans who had watched their team this season would have felt there was still too long to go. So it proved as Rangers ran up the park and forced a corner.
The Celtic defence was yet again missing in action as Lee McCulloch was able to run untracked and the ex-internationalist was able to bury his header beyond Artur Boruc. In the words of the Rangers fans “that’s why we’re champions” but in all likelihood, they’d have been as well singing “that’s why Celtic won’t be champions”.
Tony Mowbray certainly hasn’t had the luck that other managers can claim to have enjoyed but this game followed the script of Celtic’s season that much, it is hard to see the act changing in the second half of the season.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Lovely bitter coverage of the game, when celtic had one shot on target at ibrox last Dec did many complain about them wining, thought not
Game was a draw, get over it, if only Celtic had Boyd in their team eh? He would have had hat trick yesterday
That game was a very different game Scott, there were only really two chances in that match. One for McDonald which he took and one for Boyd, which he didn’t. Yesterday’s game was woefully one-sided but Celtic’s lack of finishing cost them dearly…as it has done all season.
You are spot on with the Kris Boyd comment, if Celtic had a striker capable of finishing like him, they would have won the match with ease.
Mind you, apart from picking up a booking, what did Boyd actually do yesterday?