THE Betfred Cup pales in comparison with every other tournament Celtic compete for and is certainly of far less importance to the Parkhead club than the place in the Champions League they are currently pursuing.
Yet, this emphatic 5-0 victory over Ladbrokes Premiership opponents Motherwell in the second round of the revamped competition, achieved courtesy of Moussa Dembele and Tom Rogic doubles and a Scott Sinclair goal, was warmly welcomed nevertheless.
It is asking an awful lot of new manager Brendan Rodgers, despite the high expectations which there are of him, to complete a clean sweep of domestic trophies in his first season. Only two of his predecessors, Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill, have achieved the feat in the past after all.
Read more: Celtic 5 Motherwell 0: Rampant Hoops unstoppable in Betfred Cup
Still, this triumph technically kept alive Celtic’s prospects of completing only the fourth treble in their history in the 2016/17 campaign. There is a lot of football still to be played in the months ahead. But there was certainly much for them to be encouraged by during the comfortable win against top flight rivals who had only been beaten once in five competitive fixtures.
Not least the performance of Sinclair. The winger, who came off the bench to score the winner on his debut against Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday, started the match in his favoured left wing berth. He more than justified his selection.
Brendan Rodgers: Celtic can improve on five goal cup mauling of Motherwell
The 27-year-old has only been in Glasgow for a matter of days. But he showed exactly why Rodgers was so keen to get him. He used a combination of searing pace and excellent close control to dance past Chris Cadden and Ben Heneghan in just the fourth minute. It was a taste of what was to come from him.
He ensured his team progressed to the quarter-finals with a well-taken goal in the second half. Sinclair’s signing, which cost Celtic the not inconsiderable sum of £3 million at the weekend, was the most significant piece of transfer activity to date by Rodgers. On the evidence of this confident individual showing it appears to be money well spent. He was a deserved recipient of the Man of the Match award.
James Forrest, the wide player who had, despite indicating under previous manager Ronny Deila that he wanted to leave, signed a new three year contract earlier in the day, found himself on the opposite flank to Sinclair. He has been energised by the arrival of Rodgers and was also lively again last night.
But it was Rogic, another player who has committed himself to the Scottish champions until 2019 this week, who opened the scoring. The quality of his 20th minute strike, not to mention the tireless shift he put in up front, underlined just why he has been rewarded with a lengthy and no doubt lucrative extension.
The Australian internationalist brought down a Callum McGregor chip into the Motherwell area with his right foot before swivelling and drilling a powerful left foot shot beyond Craig Samson off the underside of the crossbar. It was a delightful piece of skill.
Rogic forced two excellent saves from Samson eight minutes after giving the home team the lead and Sinclair also had a goal-bound effort deflected onto the woodwork by the outstretched leg of Heneghan. The visitors were fortunate to remain just a goal down after that period of sustained pressure.
But they fell further behind in the 33rd minute when Motherwell centre Richard Tait barged over Sinclair as he bore down on his goal. Referee Kevin Clancy, probably correctly, awarded a penalty.
Moussa Dembele, who had scored the winning goal from the spot in the European tie against Astana a week before, stepped up and sent the ball into the top left corner as Samson dived the other way.
Rodgers had reshuffled his defence after the weekend. He brought in Saidy Janko at right back, moved Mikael Lustig to centre half alongside Eoghan O’Connell and handed Emilio Izaguirre a start. Kolo Toure and Kieran Tierney dropped out of the squad altogether.
The new backline was largely untroubled. Marvin Johnson, the striker who has been linked with a move to English Championship club Brighton this week, sent a long-range attempt narrowly wide shortly before half-time. But it was pretty much all Mark McGhee’s men could muster.
Further goals from Sinclair and Dembele in the second half put Celtic on easy street and allowed Rodgers to hand Jamie McCart, the son of Motherwell legend and current Celtic youth coach Chris, a debut and give Liam Henderson and Anthony Ralston some game time.
Celtic will face far more demanding games this season, in Europe in particular, than this meeting with Motherwell. The Champions play-off meeting with Hapoel Be'er Sheva of Israel, will be a step up. But every player involved, not least Sinclair will take great confidence from this one-sided rout.
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