A great keeper story. Dundee’s timely reminder

When Craig Gordon pitched up at Celtic in 2014, two years after his last appearance as a footballer and five years since serious injury first blighted his career, I’m sure the keeper’s closest friends didn’t believe he would play 200 games in less than four years – let’s remember, he couldn’t get a gig at Newco under Ally McCoist.

Now is he a regular international and a treble winner with more league medals than exist in the locker rooms of every player in the league outside of Celtic.  It would have been more appropriate to celebrate his 100th Celtic clean sheet on his 200th appearance with a win last night, but there was little the keeper could do about that.

This is a great story.  Well done, Craig, and congratulations also to Stevie Woods for his insight and development work.

It would be wrong to characterise all of our six home league draws this season as performances against packed defences, Newco and Hibs both drew while pressing the game, but visiting teams have an effective strategy to pursue at Celtic Park: defend deeply and you are in with a chance.

Doing what Dundee, St Johnstone (twice) and Kilmarnock have done at Celtic Park this season is not easy, if it was we would have done it in Paris, but it provides us with a timely reminder of how much work is required to finish off the season with a Scottish Cup.