THE WINNING COMBINATION
Turnbull and Soro may be undroppable as light appears in Celtic tunnel
ON t he back of Celtic’s first consecutive wins since October, it seems churlish to throw any more stones at Neil Lennon. For the first time in weeks the Parkhead boss can finally see a speck of light in the distance.
In the course of beating Lille and Kilmarnock, however, Celtic’s best performers have been two players who spent months warming the Parkhead bench. And fans are entitled to wonder why.
A goal and two assists in the last two games shows why Celtic paid £3.5million to sign David Turnbull from Motherwell. Where Ismaela Soro’s zip and pitbull qualities have been hiding is anyone’s guess.
It might already be too late to make much difference to the destination of the Premiership title. But second-half goals from Mohamed Elyounoussi and Shane Duffy put Celtic in better fettle ahead of next Sunday’s Scottish Cup final against Hearts.
And while Lennon feels an innate loyalty to the players who took his side to Hampden in the first place, leaving out Turnbull and Soro now would bring an inevitable backlash from fans.
There’s likely to be enough of that at today’s Celtic AGM. Protesters angry with the club’s recent downturn braved the wind and pouring rain of a December day in Glasgow to harangue the Parkhead directors before this game. And for 57 minutes it looked as if they’d brave the elements to return at full-time.
There was a touch of fortune about the deflected strike from Elyounoussi which finally broke the deadlock before Turnbull’s inch-perfect corner allowed Duffy to bullet home the second in the 69th minute. Duffy was one of a number of players who played better on a day when the three points were deserved.
The first back-to-back victories since Sarajevo and St Johnstone in early October, Celtic can now approach the cup f i nal with cautious optimism. And it’s been some weeks si nce t hey f elt optimistic about anything.
Kilmarnock were the first team to claim points from the champions this season, a 1-1 draw at Rugby Park in August providing the first sign of trouble for Neil Lennon.
Since then, Celtic’s domestic season has been one laboured performance after another.
They lost to Rangers, drew with Aberdeen and Hibs and sparked fan fury when they tumbled out of the Betfred Cup to Ross County.
Supporters returned to Celtic Way at the behest of the Celtic Trust yesterday, a hint of 1994 in the air as the old ‘Back the Team, Sack the Board’ banner was pulled from the back of the cupboard.
Yet nothing disperses the smell of cordite quite like a Glasgow downpour in December. And the i njection of energy and freshness brought by Soro and Turnbull quelled the air of rebellion a little more.
But for Kilmarnock keeper Danny Rogers, the victory would have been a good deal more comfortable.
The champions so nearly took the lead after nine minutes. Turnbull’s floated free-kicks have added a new dimension to Celtic’s play and when he dinked one into a crowded area, Christopher Jullien deftly head the ball towards goal. A superb Rogers save was precisely what Kilmarnock needed. On a day when the visitors barely laid a glove on their opponents, the keeper was the only shining light from a third straight away defeat.
The Odsonne Edouard of last season wouldn’t have thought twice about burying the sitter which fell his way in the 27th minute. Turnbull laid the ball on a plate for the Frenchman 12 yards out, his drilled, first-time effort skidding wide of the upright.
The failure to grab the early breakthrough threatened to drag Celtic into an old movie.
They came close again before half-time, a lovely drag back by Kris Ajer working the opportunity for Turnbull to drill a thumping shot on goal. Rogers was equal to the threat again.
With their slender title hopes hanging by a thread, Celtic upped the tempo in the opening minutes of the second half. They had to.
Yet as chance after chance went begging — Rogers having a heroic game — you began to wonder if it might be one of those days. Kilmarnock’s keeper was starting to enjoy himself.
Jeremie Frimpong set the ball rolling when he stung the keeper’s palms with a fizzing strike two minutes after the restart. A fine reflex save then foiled Edouard’s back-post header moments later and Celtic began to fret.
This really wasn’t Edouard’s day. Renowned for his clinical finishing, the Frenchman missed his second sitter of the game from a Callum McGregor cross six yards out. Celtic’s desperation grew when Duffy’s header from a Turnbull free-kick was gathered by Rogers.
Lady Luck turned up eventually, just when the home team needed her most.
With 57 minutes played, Elyounoussi drove in from the left, making space to hammer a low right-foot shot towards goal.
You can’t blame Duffy for claiming the deflected effort which finally found its way into the bottom corner of the net. Yet replays showed the ball actually came off full-back Aaron McGowan.
Celtic couldn’t care less how the breakthrough came. The goal made all the difference, confidence visibly surging through the hosts. They took a sharp intake of breath.
It helps when Turnbull is laying them on a plate of course. Duffy rose to bullet home the midfielder’s corner 20 minutes from time. Two goals to the good, even Celtic couldn’t blow this now.
The reigning champions are so iffy in defence at the moment but Kilmarnock failed to test them until it was too late.
Alex Dyer threw on Chris Burke, Youssouf Mulumbu and Eamonn Brophy at 2-0. Yet young Celtic keeper Conor Hazard justified his own selection when he made a tricky save from Nicke Kabamba look easy 16 minutes from time. It was Kilmarnock’s only real effort on goal on a day when they never threatened to add to Celtic’s problems.
‘It is a missed opportunity,’ said Kilmarnock boss Dyer. ‘ Since I have been up here, Celtic have dominated all the time and it was a good time to play them. But we didn’t capitalise on that, so we are disappointed.
‘You don’t win games by just competing in the first half, especially when you come to places like this, you have to be on it from the first minute to the last and we weren’t.
‘We did well first half, we contained them but in the second half we didn’t come out.
‘We didn’t do anything we could have been three or four down in the first ten minutes, so we were lucky to come away with just 2-0.’
CELTIC (4-1-4-1): Hazard 7; Ajer 7, Duffy 7, Jullien 7, Taylor 6 (Laxalt 80); McGregor 6; Frimpong 5 (Christie 68), Turnbull 8 (Rogic 80), Soro 8, Elyounoussi 7 (Johnston 86); Edouard 4 (Klimala 68). Subs not used: Barkas, Brown, Griffiths, Ajeti.
Booked: None.
KILMARNOCK (4-5-1): Rogers 8; McGowan 6, Broadfoot 6, Findlay 6, Haunstrup 6; McKenzie 6, Power 7, Tshibola 5, Kiltie 5 (Burke 67), Pinnock 4 (Mulumbu 67); Kabamba 4 (Brophy 79). Subs not used: Whitehall, Rossi, Doyle, Waters, Taylor. Booked: Power, Kabamba. Man of the match: David Turnbull. Referee: Don Robertson.