Mother Nature and Father Time entered into a marriage of convenience at Celtic Park yesterday and Brendan Rodgers was the best man.
Sometimes it’s not about the football. It’s about the fickle finger of fate. From the moment Rangers’ game against Ross County on Wednesday night was postponed because of bad weather that was a danger to personal safety, the dynamics surrounding the Old Firm contest were altered in Celtic’s favour. By co-incidence and not because of a conspiracy.
To turn domestic chaos, impassable roads and the consequent threat to human life into a conspiracy theory over covert arrangements being made to suit one football club as opposed to another takes mindless behaviour to new depths of incredulity. Taking that threat out of the atmosphere due to the cancellation of what should have been Rangers’ previous match lightened the psychological load for Rodgers’ side pre-match, and playing in front of a stadium only housing home fans contributed towards what followed thereafter.
It’s all very well for Brendan Rodgers to instruct his players to block out the “Noise” that surrounds the Old Firm. And he’s welcome to take the dispassionate view that you could be forgiven for thinking his club exists on what could be construed as a permanent crisis footing.
But the fact of the matter is it is his team’s own supporters, every man, woman and child among them, who live in a fevered world of rivalry equal to that which exists around Rangers. That’s why Rangers’ team bus left Ibrox before yesterday’s game after a farewell with flares choreographed by hundreds of supporters denied access to the match itself because both clubs have safety and security fears concerning the admission of away fans on derby day.
Players, and managers, simply have to cope with the chaos whenever they play each other and Celtic rose to the challenge under circumstances bordering on the bizarre. Rodgers’ team selection initially looked as if it exposed the farce that was the summertime transfer activity involving a Celtic recruitment plan that had previously proved to be seriously flawed.
But it was Paolo Bernardo, peripheral for months until his first goal for Celtic at Dundee on Boxing Day, who opened the scoring with a clinical finish. And then Maik Nawrocki, unseen since August 20, had to take the place of the injured Stephen Walsh in a central defence with a revolving door policy due to mishap.
And the fact he rarely put a foot wrong was yet more proof of nothing being as it had seemed to begin with. Kyogo’s goal at the start of the second half was his best since the one that defeated Rangers at Ibrox last September, and prior to its arrival the Japanese had had more defensive headers in Celtic’s penalty box than offensive moments in the opposition’s territory.
Celtic even survived a penalty kick controversy that never was when Alistair Johnston appeared to handle the ball. In time honoured fashion, there would have been no doubt Celtic would have felt aggrieved if the incident had happened at the other end of the park.
Until evidence was offered of Abdallah Sima being offside prior to the handball. Leon Balogun’s face was undeniable proof of his guilt when he was sent off for a last man challenge on Daezen Maeda.
The game should have been gone for Rangers when it was eleven against ten but James Tavernier’s incredible free kick gave Rangers renewed impetus and Celtic went from being supremely confident to decidedly dodgy. In the end, though, they have inflicted defeat on Clement for the first time in his Ibrox career and the bragging rights will last the duration of the
This result buys Rodgers time and space to see where he goes from here with the help of the January transfer window. To paraphrase a fans’ favourite; Backed in the morning, he must be backed in the morning.
The window opens tomorrow and this one will be scrutinised in forensic detail by a sceptical support made suspicious by the diabolical dealing which took place in the Summertime at Celtic Park. Money was wasted on an industrial scale which would have prompted calls for a public inquiry had it happened in other lines of business.
An Old Firm win can historically disguise a multitude of sins, but this one will only demand repentance for what went on in the not too distant past by whoever was responsible for recruitment that beggared belief. Celtic won yesterday in spite of, as different from because of, the players who were brought into the club and then found to be instantly unacceptable.
Rangers winning at Celtic Park would have been symbolism of the highest order and continued Clement’s flawless start at Ibrox. Instead, Celtic become the first team to beat the Belgian and simultaneously record two wins out of two against their only rival for the league title.
Neither of which was achieved by what you could have called a full strength side. That observation is by way of a compliment and a condemnation of malpractice at the same time.
Rodgers was yet again forced to play a central defensive partnership which excluded the club’s marquee signing of the Summer, the Pole, Maik Nawrocki, and the Sweden international, Gustaf Lagerbielke. Neither player could be trusted to take part against Rangers because both were long ago found to be unfit for purpose in spite of costing in excess of seven million pounds between them.
What greater condemnation could there be of Celtic’s mis-guided manoeuvring in the transfer market? What happened yesterday crystalised Rodgers’ task going forward.
After Tuesday’s game against St. Mirren, not to be dismissed as a foregone conclusion because the Paisley side have won only two of their last eleven games, the manager will lose such as Kyogo, Hatate, Maeda, Oh and Yang to the Asian Cup for a month.
Yesterday’s game started, for Celtic, with the Huddle and ended with the Hurdle.
That hurdle being to overcome players temporarily overseas, or permanently underwhelming at home, and bring in the level of oven-ready quality Rodgers has made it clear he needs to negotiate the remainder of the season.
A happy New Year is dependent on that being done to avoid destroying the positive mood created by developments on the park this weekend. To have the marriage of convenience annulled would provoke domestic conflict, and that would be careless in the extreme.
GET MORE NEWS HERE