ALEX’S ANGLE: WAKE UP, WILF

IF CELTIC perform as they did in Livingston, you do not require the soothsayer qualities of Nostradamus to prophesize an encounter of torment and turmoil against Motherwell at Fir Park tomorrow night.

Away from the glare of publicity, Jens Berthel Askou has put together a slick and well-drilled outfit that will pick holes in a defence monotonously displaying alarming deficiencies of actually being incapable of defending.

Far too much responsibility has been avalanched on the shoulders of Auston Trusty who is often the last man standing between the grateful opposition and the goalkeeper.

Since Wilfried Nancy arrived on these shores, the American defender has routinely staggered off the pitch with the glazed expression of someone who doesn’t know whether he’s from Pennsylvania or Portobello.

HANDS UP…Auston Trusty, Celtic’s last man standing.

On his right, Anthony Ralston is demonstrating with every passing white-knuckle ride that he is not equipped to play the wing-back role.

Moving in one is restricting the Scotland international. He is a mechanical full-back, a willing runner, a tackler, a winner of the ball and a support act. Ralston will never become famous for his astute ballplaying ability or laserbeam passes to unpick resolute opposition.

He is a warrior who will throw himself into challenges and provide the odd goal or two after completing a surging run or leaping highest at a set-play.

Ralston is not comfortable with what is currently being demanded and if Nancy can’t see it, then someone will have to take the Frenchman aside and inform him the teams facing Celtic sure as hell can.

The defending in West Lothian was deplorable. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I genuinely believed that if another goal was to be scored in the final 20 minutes or so it was not going to be the visitors who would be celebrating.

Encouraged by what was in front of them, Livi were going for it and afterwards Nancy talked of the “competitive spirit” of the team.

We should not be discussing Celtic’s gumption after a match against the league’s basement club. The willingness to run and fight for 90 minutes is a given for anyone wearing the green and white hoops.

HAPPY DAZE…Anthony Ralston celebrates earlier in the season.

This was a game most would have expected Celtic to dominate for huge chunks of the play. The champions should have been able to impose themselves on the contest throughout without any requirement for backs-to-the-wall defending against a team playing in the top flight courtesy of a promotion play-off win over Ross County at the end of last season.

For goodness sake, this is not Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena we are talking about. This is Livingston at the Home of the Set Fare Arena (formerly known as the Tony Macaroni Arena).

Yes, we all know they can be tricky customers on that horrible synthetic playing surface, but a team with the experience of Celtic should have been equipped with the capabilities to make the final countdown a lot less stressful.

If you thought your blood pressure had endured a pummelling in West Lothian, then stand by for some more of the same – or worse – at Fir Park.

Unless, of course, Wilfried Nancy finally awakens to the very real threat of opposition facing up to his team without a shred of fear and a hitherto unknown extraordinary amount of optimism.