Last night Celtic travelled to Firhill on a high after a terrific performance against Kilmarnock in the League Cup on Tuesday evening.
The big player left out the side to start was Leigh Griffiths, many thought that he was just being rested for the forthcoming match against Astana but it turned out that after the game on Tuesday Leigh felt a niggle in his calf.
Olivier Ntcham was the standout player throughout the game. His play in the first twenty-five minutes certainly counted. The Frenchman played some terrific balls into James Forrest who narrowly went wide in the first quarter of an hour.
Celtic were awarded a free-kick just before the twenty-five-minute mark after a foul on Scott Sinclair. Nir Bitton’s subsequent effort forced Tomas Cerny into a wonderful save. From the resulting corner, the ball was knocked away into the path of Olivier Ntcham who volleyed the ball into the Cerny’s net. The shot did clip Scott Brown but the skipper did not claim the goal, giving Ntcham is first for the club.
For the rest of the half, every other Celtic chance came from Kieran Tierney. The left-back’s play down the left-hand side was tremendous, delivering some decent ball into the box which were not connected with.
Kris Doolan really should have equalised for the Jags shortly after half-time, heading over from six-yards.
After this the game faded with the Hoops play being very scrappy. Celtic did have a chance to double their lead again after a corner with Simunovic’s header being cleared off the line.
Again, after this there was little chances from both sides, with Partick Thislte defending well. There was a bit of controversy at the end when Miles Storey went down in the box. There seemed to be a communication breakdown between Craig Gordon and Nir Bitton, this allowed Storey to nick in front of Bitton. There was contact made by the big Israeli who was fortunate not to give away a penalty.
The performance last night was not at all vintage of the Invincibles, at times it was like watching Ronny Deila’s Celtic but all that mattered was the points. If Celtic qualify for the group stages of the Champions League they will be able to look at the game as a positive as the Hoops got three points, a clean sheet and did not suffer any more injuries.
Written by young CQN reporter Declan McConville who recently excelled with his SQA results!
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