Ross County are a point off a European spot, a gap that has been narrowing for months. Their last six games have seen wins over St Johnstone, Motherwell, St Mirren and Aberdeen, a draw with Hearts and a solitary defeat, at Celtic Park.
County were points adrift at bottom of the table as recently as December, having picked up just three points from their opening 10 games. They are now a team on what looks like an inevitable march to European football next season. So yes, we have a proper job to do on Sunday.
In the event Celtic emerge from season 2021-22 as champions, two added-time goals at Dingwall can be regarded as having an enormous bearing on the outcome. In December, with Celtic drawing 1-1 and reduced to 10 men, Tom Rogic dinked a cross high into the County six-yard box, where Anthony Ralston rose, salmon-like to head home in the 97th minute of play.
Celtic went into that round of fixtures four points behind, the prospect of further slippage felt ominous with so many difficult fixtures ahead. The remarkable recovery told us lots about this group of players and their never-say-die attitude.
The other significant game at Dingwall was, of course, Newco’s visit there a month later. I watched the highlights that night, County were poor, conceded three and could have shipped a few more. Newco should have won the game comfortably, but a combination of lax defending and dreadful goalkeeping kept the match alive until County conjured up a 96th minute equaliser.
History is made in moments like these. News that Josip Juranovic is missing for the game gives Anthony Ralston his Dingwall stage again, horses for courses, leaps to mind. Just as important will be the fitness of Giorgos Giakoumakis. The Greek scored his second hattrick of the season in the aforementioned recent County defeat to Celtic – another horse for the County course.
Expect the pitch to be hard, bumpy and probably trained on today. Defending will need to be assured, passing from the back will be more risky than normal. Still, Celtic will travel with a point to prove. Expect another away win.
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Expectation leads to frustration! por cietro
We Shall Not Be Moved
County have a couple of good forwards,the rest are just run of the mill SPFL tradesmen.Incidentally,one of those top goalscorer in the SPFL forwards,I said earlier in the season,we should be having a serious look at.He is a fine player,plays from the left side,and around 5.5 million cheaper than Jota.You never know when,”ITS YOU”.
Big loss for OF for next week.I have had this dread that Ramsey could score the winner against us.Could you imagine it?.Thankfully,he never will now.
Wee Bazza wondering if “We have the bottle for the title race”
A lot more wondering how he is not in jail for Tax dodging.
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I am a wee bit anxious about tomorrow. I agree that a win makes the league very close to inevitable. I worry about our injuries, the state of their pitch, their good attacking players, their home form and above all, the referee. As we saw last week, Operation Stop Celtic is in overdrive at the business end of the season.
In our favour is the array of talent at our disposal, our form for the past 8 months, Ange and County’s porous defence.
I’ll take a nervy, ugly 2-1.
WBC,
Was at the Real game.First time the Celtic Cha Cha Cha was heard.3 Handclaps.
Team did a lap of honour at the end.
TURKEYBHOY on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:15 PM
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Charles-Cook?
Positive minds required for Sunday. 3-0.
Sure we played a SAmerican team at Hampden in a friendly.They had the new wonder boy playing on the wing,and we really did try to get him to come to us.Ended up too expensive.Can’t remember his name,maybe Savio.Anyone remember.It ended in a draw.Somebody help.I thought it was Santos,but obviously not.I was at the bloody game.
Agree with the headline. A win on Sunday considerably narrows the path for a hun comeback. 3 points on Sunday and the green ribbons can be tied on the league trophy.
No Ramsay, Morelos, Roofe or Helander for their next few games. We cannot say that injuries have not at last dealt them some major blows at a crucial time. Our hammy pulls earlier in the year seemed like a curse that was testing our squad to the limit and could easily have cost us a tilt at the title.
Now they are going into their three biggest games of the season without four first team picks. Fingers crossed that is enough to give us the edge on May 2nd.
Ziggydoc,
Exactly.Very good player.
Turkeybhoy…correct re Celtic clap, clap, clap. If my memory is doing its business, we may have picked that up from a German team’s fans we heard during a televised game. I had never heard it before.
Turkeybhoy…Penarol?
Penarol game was at Celtic Park.
When read the title I thought it would be about the big guy from Follow Follow
I don’t think a loss on Sunday is as serious as most seem to. I don’t think they’ll win all their games, they don’t have a fit striker worthy of the name and they’re heading into two weeks with 3 very hard games ahead of them.
I think they’ll take their eye off the ball a bit in the league and come to Celtic park having been given the runaround by the best team in Germany for some time
Even if we lose on Sunday I still think we’ll win the league
CELTIC40ME @ 12.43pm
I love your confidence and really hope you are correct.
HH
Does Celtic – as a club and us as a fanbase – have some kind of underdog trauma in our DNA ?
I don’t feel the default trepidation and feel we should canter it.
Ross County has spent virtually SFA on transfers in the last 2 seasons and assembled castoffs, loaners and freebies from around the Championship and we’ve splashed around EU26mill on exotic land talents.
Doesn’t that kind of dosh buy us any kind of calm on the eve of just another round of fixtures ?
Surely should.
There’s only one king Billy.
3 years gone today.
R.i.p
HH
QUADROPHENIAN on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:58 PM
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I agree. County have been very lucky in the last few games , in that the opposition were terrible.
All over by half time
PS the Mothers might do us a favour tomorrow as well
Jinky, ayr united or dundee united ? another healthy crowd, probably reported as 23,000 on the desmond abacus
https://twitter.com/RetroCeltic/status/1517270692340936706/photo/1
A big thing in our favour is that we, both the team and the fans, are not taking Ross County lightly. I think we’ll be well up for this and blow them away in the first 30mins. por cierto
CONEYBHOY on 22ND APRIL 2022 1:05 PM
Glad someone else sees this glass is half full.
Already have it on my Superbru as 1-3.
BOBBYMcFERRIN CSC
QUADROPHENIAN on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:58 PM
Does Celtic – as a club and us as a fanbase – have some kind of underdog trauma in our DNA…
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We should be relishing these games. You’re told at the start of the season, beat Ross County away and the Sevs at home and you’re champions.
Bring it on!
I had a quick look at RB Leipzig wiki and there are a couple of Celtic connections.
Hinkel is assistant coach and one of their early managers was Peter Pacult – remember him from 1984?
Comprehensive Analysis of last Sunday by Alan at CelticbyNumbers
http://celticbynumberscom.ipage.com/paradise-lost-to-tiny-margins/
HH
GC 58 on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:53 PM
I’ve been saying we’ll win the league the days of talk of struggling to finish in the top 6.
Before Sunday we had won 16 out of 17 domestically, we’d beaten them twice, we were in the best form of the season. I don’t think Sunday suggested some sort of turnaround in form that would suggest we’ll lose three out of the next 5. We started without a real striker, we should have both fit for the run in.
I also didn’t see anything from them that suggests a turnaround in form that means they’ll win all their remaining league games, especially with no fit striker and two games against one of the form teams in Europe as a distraction.
ZIGGYDOC1
Exactly; and how far Ange has brought us after the despondency of the lost 10.
Relish for sure. HH
I’m going to see Alan Partridge after the game so I am really hoping it isn’t ‘sunday, bloody sunday’. Aaaaah haaaaaa!!!
Coneybhoy your a bad lad:-)
Was he the scorer or the one kicked in the hawmawz? 🤣
I ran a bus down to that.still annoys
HH
QUADROPHENIAN on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:58 PM
Does Celtic – as a club and us as a fanbase – have some kind of underdog trauma in our DNA ?
As a fan I’d say we do, but not the club. We’ve been too dominant for too long for that to be part of the thinking imo
Had to look up Peter Pacult. I was there that night. Nightmare and of course we should never have played it. I think Manchester United won at Tannadice that night
AN TEARMANN on 22ND APRIL 2022 1:17 PM
Coneybhoy your a bad lad:-)
Was he the scorer or the one kicked in the hawmawz? 🤣
I ran a bus down to that.still annoys
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both I think.
i was at the home game and naively celebrated going through despite the missed penalty by The Pointer. My faither was extremely pessimistic after the bottle was thrown. He reckoned UEFA didn’t like UK teams due to our historical influence and he was right.
We were so good that night as well
QUADROPHENIAN on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:58 PM
‘Does Celtic – as a club and us as a fanbase – have some kind of underdog trauma in our DNA ?’
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Sort of, yes, though the term ‘underdog trauma’ is not the best way to describe it.
It’s rooted in the collective experience of generations of Celtic fans going back to the founding of the Club, and beyond that to the social strata from which they were drawn ie expat Irish Catholics in Scotland.
It’s the flipside of the Protest superiority syndrome of the huns.
Por Cierto.
Wee tangent.Smiled there,thought of you,going past Spiersbridge kirk,
Banner on rail outside was for 94th cub b scout pack.
HH
“CELTIC40ME on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:43 PM”
I too love your confidence. I do league predictors with my son at various points in the season (start of pre-season, end of transfer window x 2 and at the split). I predicted Celtic top from the end of the first transfer window – more in hope than expectation but because it seemed that the manager was getting to pick his own players rather than “projects” or Klimala types that scout well but don’t fit the system / team style. Despite those predictions with each passing week I get more nervous and unsure.
“QUADROPHENIAN on 22ND APRIL 2022 12:58 PM
Does Celtic – as a club and us as a fanbase – have some kind of underdog trauma in our DNA ?”
I think a lot of us whose formative Celtic supporting years were the most barren patch in the club’s history still treat every trophy as a bonus and worry till they are done.
We’ve not quite had the equivalent of Walter Smith marking the refs cards saying they NEED to win the league but the worry is there that Honest Mistakes, complacency or just not protecting players could yet cost us in what a lot of the refs will realise is a crucial few years for the balance of power with the money at play.
Still think we will win it with a points gap not GD – though I (but not my nerves/heart) would love a GD league win in some ways :]
QB
Ziggy/coneybhoy
Coney ,yup that was a good side.your dad was right to be pessimistic.imo if Atletico in 74 was the nail being set and half hammered in,this was it being pounded in by Celtic after rapid game.They did not speak out in 74,instead of withdrawing from 2nd leg,they should never have played Rapid,told uefa to gtf,all irrelevant now tho,but the 2 games to me denoted the stepping down to a lower level of status and standing in the game.we never reached those heights until the notteez.
I recall on leaving Stretford end,the United fans openly cheering as they beat Dundee utd 3-2 at Tannadice.
It got a little troublesome for some as we shuffled out
HH
QUADBHOY on 22ND APRIL 2022 1:25 PM
“Despite those predictions with each passing week I get more nervous and unsure.”
I think the trauma of last season and the position we found ourselves in when Howe’s coaching team decided not to come makes a league win even from this position feel unlikely. But we deserve to enjoy this one, and we’re in good hands with Ange and our best player is back and getting sharper.