Gordon topped bill of poor cast
ARMSTRONG PRAISE FOR SUPER STOPPER
NO ONE expected Celtic’s best player in a home game against Rangers to be the goalkeeper. Craig Gordon’s Parkhead highlights are rarely top of the bill. Praise, when it comes, is grudging and uttered through gritted teeth.
Some Celtic fans think his ball distribution isn’t good enough against opponents pressing harder than a PPI call.
The loss of 12 goals in two games against PSG left others feeling a Champions League keeper should do a bit more to keep the score down. Yet there could be no quibbling over his contribution against Rangers.
But for two outstanding saves, one from James Tavernier, the other from Alfredo Morelos, Graeme Murty’s team would have won their first league game at Parkhead since 2010.
Failing to score for only the second time in 78 domestic games under Brendan Rodgers, the home team lost their way badly in a second half when Gordon came into his own.
‘Both of Craig’s saves were terrific,’ acknowledged midfielder Stuart Armstrong afterwards. ‘At the time, I don’t know how he saved them.
‘He’s got that in him and he’s done fantastic to keep us in the game. If Rangers had scored, it would have been a big uphill climb, so he deserves praise.
‘Craig gets a lot of criticism, but when you are a goalkeeper or a defender and you make a mistake, it gets amplified.
‘There’s much more pressure than if you are an attacker and you make a mistake. In big times, he has come up with the goods for us. Craig has been fantastic.’
Wheeled out to speak to the Press on Friday, Gordon offered an observation. If Celtic played to their potential, he claimed, Rangers would be powerless to stop them.
That they did says two things. The Ibrox side not only played the high press with a tempo, concentration and intensity no one knew they had. Celtic were also as under the weather as Keith Richards on New Year’s Day.
Scott Brown bossed the midfield and Kristoffer Ajer came through his Old Firm debut unscathed.
In other areas of the pitch, Celtic’s big players performed like strangers cobbled together for a public park kickabout. No one more than Mikael Lustig.
Imprecise and slack in their passing, Rangers hounded them from the off. As in the 4-0 defeat to Hearts, the Parkhead side were dragged into a war of attrition.
Yet, in contrast with Tynecastle, they kept the back door closed and still crafted enough chances to have won the game by half-time. Armstrong teed up the best, on the stroke of half-time, for a confidence-shorn Scott Sinclair, a player now unrecognisable from last season’s model.
‘I thought first half we did quite well and created a number of chances,’ added Armstrong. ‘If we score, it changes the game completely and opens them up.
‘As the game went on, it turned more physical and more into an end-to-end basketball game.
‘We were a bit slow to get started in the second half and they had a number of chances, too.
‘So maybe a draw was a fair result. It was more frantic than usual in the second half.
‘Usually under pressure, we cope well and we play it out. But, with the type of game it was, it wasn’t as fluid as we would have liked and it did get more scrappy.’
Celtic expected to win the game. A 0-0 draw against a Rangers team beaten by Hamilton, Dundee, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock was never in the script.
It prompted rumblings of frustration amongst a Celtic support used to knocking down domestic opponents like skittles.
The draw felt like defeat. In reality it did Celtic no real harm. Eight points clear of second place Aberdeen, Saturday marked a fourth straight clean sheet since the 4-0 hammering from Hearts.
The 38th game of the season in all competitions, it was the 61st of 2017 and ended with an 11-point lead over their Glasgow neighbours intact. The Rangers players and support celebrated a point which offered some welcome respite from their off-field woes. But not a great deal else.
‘We wanted to win,’ said Armstrong. ‘We wanted to go into the break on the back of a good win and performance, but it’s been a long year for us with a lot of football.
‘It’s been one of the busiest seasons we have had. There was not much break in the summer and now we’re sitting here at new year looking back on all our achievements, so we should be happy and proud.
‘But the break is important, especially when you have been playing, playing and playing over back-to-back seasons with jaded legs and jaded minds.’
Armstrong hasn’t played in all 61 of Celtic’s games of 2017. Yet between club and country he has played in 54; over a game a week.
Tiredness alone can’t explain an awful second half from the home team. But with money to spend on new players and the benefit of a winter break, Rodgers believes his team will get better when the games ease up.
‘You could lose count of the competitions, the games, the travel,’ Armstrong admitted. ‘Sometimes it’s important not to forget the intensity of our schedule. So the rest will stand us in good stead going forward into the new year.
‘The break has come at a nice time, we have all played a lot of football. It will be good to let the mind and the legs recover.
‘I will take some rest, keep myself ticking over. When we head to Dubai, all the boys will be fresh there and look to get the fitness back.
‘Most of us only had a week and a half off last summer. That’s a lot of football when you are playing for a club like Celtic. So this gives us a chance to take a breath and re-energise.’