ANGE POSTECOGLOU watched his side fire blanks in a scoreless stalemate with Hibs at Easter Road this afternoon.
They allowed the perfect opportunity to edge six points ahead of their nearest challengers who were playing Motherwell at Ibrox later in the day.
It was the second successive blankety-blank performance from the Hoops following on the back of the 2-0 Europa Conference league exit against Bodo/Glimt in the Arctic Circle on Thursday night.
However, the Greek-Australian gaffer is refusing to press any panic buttons and, speaking to Sky Sports, said: “Look, disappointed for the players who didn’t get the rewards they deserved.
“Ultimately, we control the game at a difficult place to come, we couldn’t get a goal we needed.
CELTIC VIEW…Ange Postecoglou explains the goalless draw to Sky Sports.
“They hung in, towards the end we had a couple of chances, but the ball didn’t bounce our way when there’s a lot of bodies in the box. it makes it difficult, the pitch is not great, all those sort of things.
“You need to be pretty precise, we just didn’t get the bounce.
“We controlled the game, we played it in their half. Like I said, on another given day it would have been a different result.”
However, there is no getting away from the fact Celtic are lacking a killer touch and Daizen Maeda was not the answer for the missing double-act of Kyogo Furihashi or Giorgos Giakoumakis on this occasion.
NO WAY THROUGH…Hibs keeper Matt Macey clears from Matt O’Riley.
His work-rate could not be faulted, but he did not trouble keeper Matt Macey who should have been picking the ball out of his net in the 14th minute after Filipe Jota had released Liel Abada with a breathtaking diagonal pass.
Unfortunately, the Israel winger feebly hit the ball into the sidenet after sweeping wide of the exposed netminder.
It’s the fifth occasion the manager has seen his team fail to score in a league game, twice in losses at Ibrox and Livingston, and three draws with Livi in Glasgow, St Mirren in Paisley and now Hibs in Edinburgh.
The Hoops boss is now preparing for Wednesday’s visit of new Saints chief Stephen Robinson and his players who lost 2-0 at home to Hearts yesterday in his first game since replacing Jim Goodwin.
NO SPARKLE ON LEITH FROM HOOPS IN STALEMATE
