CELTIC’S season from hell continued in the guiless and scoreless stalemate with Livingston at Parkhead yesterday.
Only a super optimist will be holding out hopes for the champions to celebrate another championship triumph as they toppled 20 points behind in their quest for a historic tenth successive crown.
Armstrong Oko-Flex had an extraordinary miss smack in front of goal late on that could have nicked the points for the home side against an in-form West Lothian outfit they play again on Wednesday.
The visitors had their chances to make it an even more miserable afternoon for the stumbling Celts when former Hoops defender Efe Ambrose flashed a header wide from close-range following a right-wing corner-kick.
And only a last-ditch intervention from Diego Laxalt managed to divert a drive from Josh Mullin onto the top of the crossbar and over with stranded keeper Conor Hazard rooted to the spot.
The title kings are now without a win in any of their three games in 2021 after chief executive Peter Lawwell admitted during the week that the Dubai training camp was a “mistake”.
Gavin Strachan, who was standing as boss in for the second game with Neil Lennon and John Kennedy still in quarantine along with 13 players, told Sky Sport News: “It is very, very difficult. In a normal football season, I would say to you that it’s going to be very, very tough, but the way the world is just now you just never know.
“Obviously, the situation isn’t ideal, but we still had more than enough that we could display a better performance than we did.
“There was certainly a lack of match fitness of certain players which probably means they are not as sharp as you would like them to be.
“But, again, the big frustration for me is that we didn’t impose our style of play on the game. There were a couple of decent performances, but probably not so much stand-out ones.
“It was a tough game, we knew it was going to be. They imposed their way of playing on us more than we did on them.”
SCORELESS AND CLUELESS FOR DISMAL HOOPS
