Celtic 24h on

Happy days

While we did play well, there are a few negatives that need to be addressed. Daniel Sengewald looked fairly solid but he did have a couple of hairy moments. If Larsson had been on form, the game would have been done and dusted before we opened the scoring. Introducing Senge does give the defence an extra dimension but it meant pushing Martyn Corrigan out to right back. While Kaiser Corrigan chipped in with a few great tackles, he looked slightly out of sorts. Steve Guppy ripped him apart on occasions and we were only spared severe trouble by the fact he struggled with his crossing. When Corrigan was moved into the middle of a three-man defence, he looked a lot more comfortable.

Pearson and Leitch both picked up injuries and Terry Butcher will be thankful that the Hearts game is not until Sunday, giving them an extra day to recover. The rest will also come in handy for the rest of the team, who must still be exhausted after their exertions.

The other worry is that we picked up our now usual quota of six bookings. Corrigan, Leitch, Lasley, McFadden, Adams and Fagan all saw yellow and if we continue at this rate we will start having major suspension problems by October. It is no use maintaining that we are not a dirty team and that referees are treating us harshly. Willie Young was very reasonable (arguably the best performance by a ref so far) and he could hardly be faulted for any of the bookings he gave us.

However, it is petty to pick too much over small details after a win like that. What is important is that it is kept in perspective. If we were given the chance to take four points out of nine from Dundee United, Hibs and Celtic, we would have taken it. Our win against Celtic merely gave us what we would have wanted from that run of matches. We still have two very tough games coming up against Hearts and Dunfermline and if we do not fight for everything, like we did against Celtic, we will emerge with no points and be sucked back towards the bottom.

It would be easy for the fans to take the day off on Sunday and watch the game on television but the players need our support, as they always do. Even if you believe that the players should earn support and encouragement from the stands, they certainly did that with their performance last night. £16 is very reasonable for the visit to Tynecastle and who’s to say you won’t be witnessing another cracking win?


Have a look at the current league table.