PRIMED TO SEAL PLACE IN HISTORY
Celts one game from Invincible title
THE last time Celtic went a whole league season unbeaten, Queen Victoria occupied the British throne, the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was in Number Ten and the first wireless communication was transmitted four miles over the Bristol Channel by Marconi.
Technology has come a long way since that 1897-1898 campaign. Victory over Hearts at Parkhead on Sunday will equal a feat unwitnessed in Scottish football since Rangers did the same in 1899 — and the news won’t take long to spread.
It’s 121 years since Celtic appointed 29-year-old Willie Maley as their manager. He won the title comfortably, his team going unbeaten in 18 games, winning 15 and drawing three in an era so distant that Celtic still wore green-and-white vertical stripes and black shorts. Their Glasgow rivals swiftly matched the achievement the very next season, winning all 18 of their games.
The last time any side has come close in the intervening century was 1967-68, when a home defeat to Aberdeen denied Davie White’s Rangers, handing Jock Stein’s Celtic three-in-a-row.
The current Parkhead team assembled by Brendan Rodgers is so close now they can almost touch it. Questions over the quality of the SPFL Premiership rarely go away and will come once more if the champions secure a domestic Treble a week on Saturday.
Yet the truth is this. Last night, like others before, they played a different game. They looked and played like Invincibles in waiting.
Now on 104 goals for the season, one more against Hearts will equal a Scottish record of 105 racked up by Martin O’Neill’s Celtic team back in 2003-04.
Yet, if Celtic were ever likely to lose a game, this was it.
Emilio Izaguirre and Cristian Gamboa — both internationals — started in the full-back berths and, for Rodgers, this is what passes for a weakened team.
Any doubts lasted 18 minutes before being swiftly snuffed out. If this season has taught us anything, they usually are.
Leigh Griffiths netted Celtic’s 100th goal of the campaign from the penalty spot and then teed up a second for Tom Rogic on 26 minutes.
It may not be enough to save him, after exchanging words with Rodgers when he was replaced by Scott Sinclair on 63 minutes. If, as many suspect, Griffiths has failed to convince his manager, then this was a night unlikely to alter that perception.
An outstanding Patrick Roberts left-foot drive into the top postage stamp corner just before half-time killed the contest stone dead. But, truth be told, it was already over by then.
Celtic’s movement, passing and finishing here were uncontainable. Roberts, James Forrest and Griffiths were unplayable at times, the on-loan Manchester City winger reminding Rodgers just how difficult he will be to replace in the coming summer months.
Even before Celtic claimed three first-half goals, this was a night of one-way traffic.
Roberts was at it from the off, testing Tomas Cerny on ten minutes with a left-footed shot passed towards the far corner, the Czech keeper pushing wide.
Roberts also slid in Callum McGregor with a delightful through pass minutes later, the midfielder wasting the chance.
For Izaguirre, poised to leave the club after the Scottish Cup final next weekend, it’s likely this was his final start in a green-and-white jersey. He almost marked it with a goal, smashing a left-footed shot against the outside of the upright from a Griffiths cut-back.
Celtic were banging loud enough on the door for one to suspect that Thistle would cave in sooner or later.
So it proved when Roberts won the penalty which broke the deadlock on 18 minutes, killing a miscued Griffiths header at the back post, before inviting a rash challenge from Callum Booth with some delightful footwork at the bye-line.
Griffiths took the kick, claiming his 17th goal of the season — and Celtic’s century — as he stroked the ball effortlessly into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
On a bright, early summer evening in Glasgow’s west end, the champions began to enjoy themselves, doubling their lead on 26 minutes.
A mazy Griffiths run into the penalty area prompted a sharp cut-back for Rogic to continue his comeback from ankle surgery with a goal.
The Australian midfielder slid in to poke the ball off the inside of both posts before it finally rolled over the line.
The pain was felt by Thistle keeper Cerny in a quite literal sense. The former Hamilton keeper climbed back to his feet to deny McGregor within minutes of the restart, but he was struggling. He limped on until half-time before being replaced by Mark Ridgers with the game already gone.
Cerny’s ailment had been irrelevant to the way Celtic scored their third before the interval.
A fully-fit Manuel Neuer couldn’t have stopped a Roberts screamer from fizzing into the top corner of the net four minutes before the break.
A left-foot thunderbolt from 25 yards, the strike capped a brilliant half of football from the England Under-20 international. When he goes — and he will — he will do so with praise burning his ears.
The overriding feeling towards Partick Thistle was one of sympathy. They came into this game without a home victory over Celtic since January 1994 — and no win of any description over them since May 1995.
Top-six football was their goal and they achieved it. Throwing on Ryan Edwards at half-time made no difference for Alan Archibald and his team.
Liam Lindsay’s first-half header bounced harmlessly into the hands of Craig Gordon and that was as close as they came.
Celtic’s lead was comfortable enough to allow a rare substitute cameo for Kolo Toure, followed by Griffiths throwing the toys out of the pram after being hooked after the hour-mark.
But the reality was that it had little or no impact on events on the field.
McGregor claimed the fourth with eight minutes to play, smashing a thumping shot off the underside of the bar — referee Andrew Dallas rightly ruling it had crossed the line for 4-0.
The fifth, fittingly, came from Roberts, the game’s outstanding footballer.
Darting into the area, the winger cut the ball onto his left foot before whipping it into the far corner past a helpless Ridgers.