We are still crock solid QUICK
Ntcham gutted for injured duo but vows Celts have the hitmen to fill Griff’s shooting boots and get the team firing on all cylinders again
CLOCKING up their 73rd win in 100 games under Brendan Rodgers and maintaining their 11-point lead at the top of the table should have amounted to a satisfactory afternoon at Parkhead for the vast majority of the 58,900 crowd.
Yet it didn’t feel like that after a 1-0 victory over Hibs ground out in a stubborn second-half performance that was short on quality from the home side but high on resilience as they withstood a valiant attempt by the visitors to come away with a point.
The match will be remembered more for the injuries picked up by not only two of Celtic’s but Scotland’s most important players.
The sight of Leigh Griffiths pounding the turf with frustration just four minutes after scoring the winner, a result of his troublesome calf giving way again, was bad enough for the Celtic faithful. But the news after the match that Craig Gordon had suffered what looks like medial ligament damage on the same knee that has already cost him two years of his career cast a shadow over Celtic Park.
Olivier Ntcham, who’d put in a hard-working shift in the midfield, admitted the only pleasing aspect of the afternoon was the three points.
He said: “It was a good result but in the game we can improve a little bit and keep the ball more. But it was a good result for us. Everybody is happy with that.”
The loss of Gordon, he conceded, was a massive blow. Griffiths’s injury too but at least in that position Celtic can upon Moussa Dembele and Ntcham believes a run in the team will benefit his friend and countryman who has looked out of sorts in recent outings with speculation over his future reaching fever pitch as the transfer deadline looms.
Former Manchester City midfielder Ntcham’s first thoughts were for the injured duo though.
The £4.5million signing said: “I am disappointed for Leigh because when he came on in the last game he scored and then he scored again on Saturday. It is disappointing to lose him again now.
“And everybody was disappointed after the game for Craig – he will be a loss. He’s a good goalie. Every time we’re in trouble he makes a save. He has helped us a lot.”
Rodgers will scramble around the transfer
market over the next 48 hours looking for an experienced keeper to replace Gordon but Ntcham believes at the top end of the pitch there will be no need for an emergency signing. Not when Celtic still have Dembele.
He added: “We have a good squad. If Leigh is injured we are a little bit disappointed but Moussa and Odsonne Edouard can come in and lead the line. It is good for us.
“Every time you play you get better. If you don’t play it is difficult to come into the game and start. You have to get the rhythm.”
Ntcham insisted Dembele’s head hasn’t been turned by transfer speculation and is convinced his fellow Frenchman will stay at Celtic Park at least until the end of this season.
He said: “Everything is fine. He is nice. He doesn’t read the stories about him. He just concentrates on what’s happening on the pitch.
“If you worry about what is being said you lose your head. You have to be focused on the pitch and that is it. His focus is strong.
“He is a young player and feeling good here. We don’t worry about the stories. When you have pressure on you that means you are doing good work on the pitch. He is here and he is going to be here until I don’t know when but this season anyway.”
Hearts, the only team to have beaten Celtic in domestic competition in those 100 games they’ve played under Rodgers, visit Parkhead tomorrow night and the champions will be determined to right the wrongs of that 4-0 drubbing at Tynecastle.
Ntcham said: “In that game they wanted to win more than us.
“But sometimes it is good to lose. When you lose you learn. It is important for the team and the fans that we beat Hearts after that defeat.”