OVER TO YOU, DERMOT

A lost cause on the park and a shambles off it... don’t expect Celtic powerbroker Desmond to let this chaos go on much longer

IT would not be strictly accurate to state that Celtic are now free-falling. That may suggest that the bump when they reach the bottom of the spiral is imminent. Truly, there is no knowing where — or when — this plunge into the abyss ends.

In every conceivable respect, it is a club that is now adrift. Brought to their knees by a torrent of flawed decisions that their worst enemies couldn’t have conjured up, the consequences of this pitiful season — when they inevitably arrive — will be seismic.

There’s been an end-of-days feel to the whole thing for weeks now. It’s surely inconceivable that dermot desmond, the club’s powerbroker, will let it linger for much longer.

For all the many low points in a particularly bleak autumn did the real damage, it will be the failure to defeat either Hibernian or livingston in the space of six days in January which will come to represent this catastrophic collective failure.

Traditionally, these post-dubai fixtures have signified Celtic’s resurgence. weakened or not as a consequence of their greatest misjudgment of the lot, they were chronic here again. Those six days training under the Arabian sun have had all the restorative qualities of a stag week in Ibiza.

Coming after Peter lawwell’s unconvincing apology for the whole debacle in the uAE, this was an apology for a performance.

Penned in by livingston for long spells, you had to remind yourself that the matchday squad Neil lennon assembled still contained eight regulars and six full internationals.

In a game which represented their last chance of making even a fight of the title race, they managed one shot on target. only the visitors’ profligacy in front of goal spared them.

It was at the one time lethargic, error-strewn and meek. Most of all, though, it was witless.

Arriving here on a run of eight straight wins, livingston imposed themselves on their opponents.

They rolled the dice by playing higher up the field, consequently exposing themselves to a ball over the top. despite the pace they had on their flanks in Mikey Johnston and Jeremie Frimpong, it was the one tactic Celtic rarely employed.

Tom Rogic, deputising at centreforward, summed up the efforts of a patchwork side. The Australian’s ball retention was utterly dismal, meaning Celtic had no focal point.

Nor did anyone appear to recognise that a change of strategy was required.

Clearly exasperated as yet another two points were dropped on home soil, Callum McGregor’s remarks to the club’s in-house TV station at full-time were damning.

‘we didn’t really understand the game, in terms of trying to build out and giving them territory, that’s what they want,’ he stated.

‘(It was) really, really poor. They (livingston) understand the game and get it forward. They use their presence and the ball.

‘That’s all the basics. First half, we put ourselves under too much pressure with too many short passes and we have to turn them in that sense.’

That Celtic didn’t suffer the ignominy of another defeat was only down to livingston’s poor execution of set-pieces and a lack of punch in the penalty box.

with diego laxalt again making it his business to concede needless fouls, Josh Mullin felt the sharp tongue of his team-mates by repeatedly hitting the first man.

Still, david Martindale’s side created enough chances to claim a ninth straight win. Scott Robinson blazed a good chance over, Mullin saw a strike tipped on to the bar, while Efe Ambrose headed wide when it seemed easier to score.

Frimpong’s near-post shot, beaten away by Max Stryjek in the first half, was as close as Celtic would come to an ill-deserved win.

Armstrong okoflex was a shoe size shy of turning home Tony Ralston’s cross near the end but his lack of intuition was in keeping with everything that had gone before.

‘If that had gone in, it might have been a different story,’ Frimpong reflected of his chance.

‘The keeper made a good save, to be fair. These are the things you need to go your way.

‘we didn’t create too much in the game. one goal might have done it but I don’t think we can complain at the result.

‘There’s maybe a slight lack of confidence at the moment. That only comes if you are winning games and it will only return when we do that.’

Amid the countless bad decisions taken at all levels of the club, not splitting the strikers into two bubbles for the dubai trip hardly registers. But with odsonne Edouard, leigh Griffiths, Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala all isolating as a consequence of being close contacts of Christopher Jullien, the absurdity of the whole thing was laid bare.

Although lennon was actually able to field a recognisable defence and midfield, the lack of a natural centre-forward was central to such an ineffective display.

oddly, Frimpong didn’t see it that way, saying: ‘Not really. we still had a strong side and a good shape to us. we just didn’t play well enough.’

Nor was the dutchman taken aback by the enterprising approach of the visitors for which Celtic had little answer.

‘I wasn’t surprised at that,’ he shrugged. ‘They are a good team that’s on a good run, so they were coming here with a lot of confidence.

‘I thought they would set out to have a go at us and that’s how it proved.’

They’ll lock horns again in west lothian on wednesday but even accounting for the 13 additional players lennon will have at his disposal by then, you wouldn’t anticipate any appreciable improvement.

dispirited and defeated in their quest for ten in a row by midJanuary, the fact that Hibernian are now only five points off second place will not have escaped anyone’s attention.

In this season where everything that could have gone wrong for Celtic has gone wrong, only a fool would assume that things cannot still get worse.

desmond is anything but that. A man of actions rather than words, sooner or later, his response to this omni-shambles will become evident.

we can surely assume this much. No one who made his intervention necessary will be spared.