05/01/2025 – CELTIC (A)

It hasn’t been the most inspiring start to the New Year we admit, but it can only get better!

Two matches played, no points picked up, no goals scored, and the league table now looks like the tightest in living memory, with only 11 points separating Dundee Utd in third place and Hearts in second bottom, with Saints now in the middle of the pack, 7 points behind the Tannadice club and 4 above the Edinburgh side.

Depending on your view point, we are either in the hunt for European football or perilously close to a relegation battle. In truth at the moment, we are both of these, and our immediate playing future now depends on what happens in the transfer window and more significantly our ability to pick up points on the park, fast.

Of course, it would be unfair not to point out our 2 matches this calendar year have been at grounds we rarely win at for differing reasons, Celtic Park and Rugby Park, however the drop in standard of performance since Boxing Day has surprised us and much more importantly, Stephen Robinson.

The big news before the match at Parkhead was the goalkeeping situation, as Zach Hemming returned to the club on the 2^nd of January and Ellery Balcombe left a few days later. Whether Saints orchestrated this change or were forced due to Bournemouth recalling the latter, is still unclear, but it matters not now.

However, the timing couldn’t have been worse with a visit to the champions and runaway leaders up next, with only a few hours of training to allow the returning Hemming to rebuild chemistry with his team-mates.

For half an hour it actually went reasonably well, with Saints easily coping with Celtic and causing a few issues of our own. However, this was as good as it would get as by half-time the game was all but over and we were 2-0 down thanks to two very avoidable goals.

If these goals were avoidable, it would almost be impossible to describe the third goal accurately, which was more in line with a Laurel and Hardy film from a century ago as Saints presented an open goal to Celtic from a position of outright safety.

That was more or less it at an already sparsely populated Parkhead, which emptied quicker than a supporter’s bus without a bathroom on a non-stop trip to Aberdeen immediately after this third goal, leaving the band of Saints fans pretty much alone in an echoing stadium to see the match out.

Despite this defeat, in our opinion the performance was much better than what we had watched at Kilmarnock, however. The goalkeeping situation is far from ideal, but things can only get better from here for Zach and the defence, as they now have time to train together and build on cohesion.

Plus, to be brutally honest, it couldn’t get much worse than the match on Sunday.

Although we have now suffered three defeats in a row, we still find ourselves in the top 6, however as we alluded to beforehand, the league is so tight that another defeat on Saturday will likely see us drop several places and leave a rather uneasy feeling going into a Scottish Cup tie at Palmerston the following week.

In the aftermath of the Celtic match, Stephen Robinson stated the goal was now firmly on survival. It may seem extreme to say this, however the manager is right to shift the focus and get the players into “fight mode”, as they have looked strangely subdued in the last week of games, following a great December up until the Dundee match.

Our record against our next opponents, Dundee Utd, this season has been pitiful, with 3 defeats and no goals scored, however all 4 of the goals scored by Jim Goodwin’s side have been through set pieces, so the matches have been extremely tight with a very fine margin between defeat and victory.

Hopefully we can be the ones to grab the decisive breakthrough on Saturday, and with a full weeks training following a hectic spell of matches every 3 days for the past few weeks, a new tightened defence can help along the way.

Maybe we will even see some new signings………..

COYS!

Celtic Players of the Match:

5 points – Killian Phillips

3 points – Marcus Fraser

1 point – Scott Tanser

Check our the Player of the Season race here –

PLAYER OF THE SEASON