Lex

Got to admire the brass neck of Chris Kane’s cheating there. Even he looked embarrassed with himself when he got up. I wonder if we will ever score again?

HT 0-0 Yet another half of football without a goal then. We actually had the best chance but Ayunga fluffed his lines. St Johnstone did have a decent effort shortly after, volleyed straight at the keeper. Not much happening apart from that. Got to feel for Bolton and Small, both presumably brought in on loan as full back cover. Our first choice full back gets injured and he’s playing a 35 year old midfielder there, the 35 year old midfielder goes off injured and he brings on an attacking midfielder to play there. Damning indictment of what the manager thinks of them, I expect both to leave in January, there’s no point in either of them being here.

Interesting team. He’s dropped the underperforming McMenamin and Taylor and given a first Premiership start to Jamieson and brought Dunne back in. Baccus still can’t get in the team ahead of CBM. The team haven’t been playing well so good to see changes being made.

Ooft. Arsenal looking like they could do it this year. What a signing Rice has been.

What a game that was again, Barclays delivering some right rip snorters this season. Title race well on. That reffing decision at the end one of the most bizarre I’ve ever seen, rightly plays the advantage, looks up, sees Grealish running through on goal, brings it back for the free kick

FT 2-0 Dull and boring stuff and our poor form on the road continues. Didn’t carry a threat going forward and weren’t great defensively, can have no complaints about the result. Perth next.

HT 1-0 Poor game, two poor teams, not much happening up until the goal really. Poor goal from our perspective, lost too many tackles all over the pitch. O’Hara and Gogic should be doing better. Guess that’s game over now, but you never know.

Baccus dropped again, manager really seems to not fancy him in these kind of games. Not a huge surprise given his last two performances right enough. Flynn against Sima should be an… interesting watch.

Very tough group that, think we’ve been a bit unlucky there.

FT 1-0 Feel that was quite similar to the Livi game at the weekend in many ways. It was an absolutely chronic watch with a solitary scrappy goal separating two poor sides. We conceded the scrappy goal tonight, we scored it at the weekend. It's better than two 0-0's I suppose, which it could easily have been. The goal is a corner headed in from about 4 yards with the goalkeeper glued to his line. He's simply got to come for that, even if he doesn't get it he's going to impact the play much more than standing on his line and watching it go in, which is what he did. Poor goalkeeping. I don't think McMenamin is a wing back, Bolton has to be worth a go in there, or Fraser. We didn't do enough going forward all night but we should have had a penalty. Ibrox on Sunday then.

HT 0-0 Brutal stuff. Don’t think either side has had a single chance. White with a half chance with his shot on the turn maybe? Gogic heading well wide from a corner was as good as it got from us. Could still win here of course, but it’s looking very much like a nil nil.

Now back to the start of the annual Celtic fan cycle. They’ll go on a run between now and May where they’ll win almost every game, win the league by 10+ points and probably win the Scottish Cup too. They’ll then spend the summer convincing themselves they’ve learned from previous experience in the Champions League and they’re now a stronger team and it will be different this time. They’ll then get their arses handed to them and finish bottom of the group. Rinse. Repeat.

Lennon absolutely spewing The reason you’re going out bottom again is because you’re rubbish, not because you’re unlucky.

This Lazio team playing very much like the 11th placed Serie A team they are, they’re hopeless. Celtic got a right easy draw this year, and they’re still going to finish bottom.

Yeah he's certainly better than many players of a similar age who have more caps than him. I think your last sentence is right, he's English and he was never that arsed about playing for Scotland. He's 33 in a couple of months, so he won't be playing for us again.

FT 1-0 Job done. Pretty tough watch that second half, neither team could string more than two passes together it seemed. Plenty of free kicks and injuries right enough. Looked like we had clinched it with five minutes to go, VAR’d for offside after a lengthy delay. Brutal. But we saw it out fine. Livi definitely lacking the steel they’ve had in previous years, they were flat all game. Best player for us Kiltie I think, lovely bit of skill in the first half and involved in the goal again. Mr Consistent, superb player.

HT 1-0 Scrappy half as expected. Livi probably started the brighter, cracked the bar around the 30 minute mark, should have scored. Everything good we’ve done has been down our left through Kiltie and Tanser, no surprise when the goal came down that side. Kiltie released by a fantastic ball from CBM and his shot is saved low down and then scrambled in by Mandron on the rebound. Been brighter since, ayunga hitting the bar. Livi do look a bit like a team who’ve just lost five on the bounce, can see that goal take the air out them. Long way to go but would be very disappointed if we didn’t win from here.

Our form ain't great, one win in the last seven, and that was against that St Johnstone team who were phoning it in to get their manager sacked - which they managed. At home to a team who are bottom of the league and who have just lost five in a row is surely the perfect tonic to that, what could go wrong? 2-0

I’d be amazed if he doesn’t take the next penalty we get. As you said he’s taken two penalties for Scotland, and scored both of them. One of the reasons he’ll have taken that last night is that he’s got the goal scoring record in his sights now. With that in mind, I’m sure he’ll be taking them, until/unless he misses one. He’ll surely be on 20 something goals by his 30th birthday, and then the count down is on.

I’d be surprised if he doesn’t break the goal scoring record, especially given he’s taking the penalties now and the sheer amount of international games we play. He always shows up to play for Scotland, avoiding those annoying ‘injuries’ that affect so many others around the international break. He also doesn’t seem the type that would to retire from the Scotland team, so I expect him to get caps well into his mid 30’s if he stays fit. In that case he just needs a couple of goals a year to do it, and he’s been averaging far more than that. Would never have thought I was looking at a potential all time record Scotland goal scorer when the scrawny 18 year old defensive midfielder first broke into the St Mirren team all those years ago. I think he will end up on well over 100 caps and around 35 goals.

Yeah in the great pantheon of SNP sleaze and corruption this is pretty small beans. The SNP front bench has always been chock full of a mixture of morons and criminals, sometimes politicians who are both at the same time. Matheson is just a moron, he’s not a criminal. I hope he keeps his job.

Reminds me of that best man line I’ve heard about four times. ‘Everyone take the hand of their significant other and look into their eyes. You’re looking at the person who is statistically most likely to murder you.’

The Barclays

FT 2-2 Good fun second half, certainly much improved and probably deserved the draw IMO. Got one of those random VAR pens that no one claimed for at the time, good. Had a few go against us this season, were due one back. Looked shaky at the back all game and conceded another cheap goal down the left hand side to give the lead right back to Hibs. Three VAR checks, time wasting from Marshall, subs, three goals... remarkably only five mins added. Looked to be fading out to a defeat, but the subs made a difference and delighted that it's young Jamieson getting the injury time equaliser. He's barely kicked a ball for months but he looked lively when he came on and finished fantastically, with his second bite of the cherry. Keep the nice cushion over the chasing pack and Dens Park next, which is normally a happy hunting ground for us. Good times.

HT 0-1 Yep we've been awful and can have no complaints, lucky it's only one tbh. Gogic has gave the ball away several times this half, one of them led to the goal. Felt Hemming should have done better with it aswell tbh, seemed a pretty tame shot from the edge that trundled in. We came into it a bit in the last five minutes without really threatening. Still in the game I suppose, we will lose without massive improvement second half though.