Big Shane’s Bhoy-hood dream came true
After he signed from Brighton, Shane Duffy made no secret of how much playing for Celtic would mean to him. The 28-year-old achieved his ambition yesterday, and marked it with a debut goal in the 3-0 rout of Ross County in Dingwall. It’s doubtful the 300 home fans who were allowed in enjoyed the occasion as much as the Irishman did.
CELTIC 5
Edouard (4), Ajeti (20), Duffy (59), Ajer (64), Klimala (75)
It says it all about this game that Neil Lennon felt it necessary to give his Celtic side a rollicking at the break – despite the fact they were leading 2-0 away from home in Dingwall.
Take a glance at the final score and you could be forgiven for suspecting some of the 300 Staggies’ supporters let in to this trial event will have sneaked away before the final whistle.
Likewise, the presence of debutant Shane Duffy among the five scorers suggests a near perfect afternoon for the Hoops boss.
The reality was a curious game in which Celtic’s best player was their Greek goalkeeper Vasilas Barkas, who made a string of saves.
“I had to have a word with the players at half-time,” said gaffer Lennon.
“We were just too passive for my liking and a little bit slow tempo with the ball and that’s not the way we want to play. Second half was a lot better.
“Shane, we all know what the club means to him, to score on his debut was just great.”
“It’s been a good day’s work and something to build on now for Wednesday night.”
The Celtic manager sent his side out in a bold looking 3-5-2 formation that had Duffy on the right of the trio at the back and was led by the prolific paring of Odsonne Edouard with Albian Ajeti up front.
Even he could not have expected it to pay dividends quite so quickly with both his strikers on the scoresheet before the first quarter of the game was done.
The first was as simple as it was rapid.
Odsonne Edouard worked a 1-2 with James Forrest, Ross County defender Jordan Tillson fouled the Frenchman as he turned and referee Andrew Dallas pointed to the penalty spot.
Edouard scored a penalty kick for France Under-21s last week and here he finished as if missing was not even a possibility, taking his time before strolling forward and rolling the ball into the corner of the net to put the Hoops in front.
Ajeti, didn’t score at all for West Ham last season, but since moving to Scotland in the summer, he has found goals much easier to come by.
He got off the mark with the winner at Tannadice, followed up with a second in the win over Motherwell and made it three against County.
Collecting a through ball from Callum McGregor, he spun expertly and shot through Ross Laidlaw.
And while the keeper did not look too clever, there was no arguing with the quality of the forward play on Ajeti’s part.
The second goal in particular left the 300 County fans in the ground a bit perplexed.
Dealing with all the Covid-19 regulations is hard enough but the football they were watching was perplexing too.
For County actually had a very good first half.
They hit the post with an Iain Vigurs free-kick that Barkas did well to get his hands on.
In addition, the Greek pulled off two fine saves to deny Ross Stewart, the County striker doing everything right with his header and shot bar put the ball in the net.
It was a crucial omission with Celtic making it three and easy on their return after the interval with Duffy’s contribution.
Soon after that it was four, Kristoffer Ajer sweeping home Olivier Ntcham’s cross from the left as his team-mates queued up around him.
Substitute Patryk Klimala, who had earlier had a shot blocked on the line, got his goal when played in by Mohamed Elyounoussi.
County’s Oli Shaw finally beat Barkas with a free-kick, but there was to be no consolation score with the ball crashing onto the post.
“Everyone that was here could see how well we performed in large parts of the game and it’s so hard to take,” said Ross County manager Stuart Kettlewell.
“I won’t make a case for getting something out of the game when you lose 5-0 but we never went on the back foot.”