ANGE POSTECOGLOU has lost “a lot of the goodwill” from the Celtic support after the 1-0 loss against Livingston in West Lothian yesterday.
The Hoops were defeated for the sixth time in seven away games since the Greek-Australian was announced as Neil Lennon’s successor in June.
And former Parkhead fans’ favourite Kris Commons insists the honeymoon period is over after the flop against a club who had been rock bottom of the Premiership without a league win this season.
The new boss saw his side go down in their third consecutive away league encounter following the defeats at Tynecastle at the start of the league campaign and Ibrox last month.
Commons said: “I doubt there are many supporters feeling a great deal of love and affection towards Ange Postecoglou this morning.
“Yesterday’s defeat at Livingston was a damaging affair for the new Celtic manager, wiping out a lot of the goodwill afforded to him by the fans.
“It brought to an end any sense of a honeymoon period. That’s all over and Postecoglou is now firmly under the microscope.
“Why? Because, for any Celtic manager, failure to beat the team who were bottom of the table at the start of play is totally inexcusable. Plain and simple.
“I know Celtic were missing a couple of key players in Callum McGregor and Kyogo Furuhashi. Postecoglou also opted to rotate his squad and freshen it up after European exertions in midweek.
“But that won’t wash. Not when you’ve just lost to the team who, prior to yesterday’s result, had been the worst team in the league over the first few weeks of the season.
“Even accounting for one or two players being absent or rotated, a massive club like Celtic should still have more than enough in reserve to get the job done at Livingston.”
Commons, writing in his Daily Mail column, added: “The only saving grace from yesterday’s results is the fact that Rangers let them off the hook by stuttering to a 1-1 home draw with Motherwell.
“Rangers haven’t been great this term. They’ve yet to hit top gear or find the fluency we saw from them last season.
“Yet, tellingly, they are still top of the league and four points ahead of Celtic. That’s ominous because although I believe there’s a lot more to come from Celtic this season, the same applies to Rangers.
“Yesterday’s defeat will have been a serious wake-up call for Postecoglou. Of the 11 players who started the match, six of them were his signings.
“This is now very much his team. The board backed him to the tune of £20million in the summer for what was a massive rebuild. The rebuild isn’t finished yet.
“It’ll take at least one more transfer window, possibly even two. But there’s no doubt this is now his team with his name on it.
“And, whatever way you want to paint it, losing to Livingston just won’t do.”
The visitors toiled throughout and couldn’t fight back after Andrew Shinnie had taken full advantage of a moment of slackness from Stephen Welsh to smash the points-winner past the exposed Joe Hart.
It’s back to the drawing board for Postecoglou before the visit of Championship outfit Raith Rovers in the League Cup quarter-final on Thursday night when the manager steps back onto the soccer tightrope without a safety net in sight.
