TAPS 'aff was the order of the day in the East End of Glasgow yesterday but only briefly were Kilmarnock able to make the new Ladbrokes Premiership champions sweat over their unbeaten domestic league record. So much peelly wally flesh was on show in the sunshine as Celtic applauded their supporters on the occasion of their first Saturday match since their sixth successive title win that certain members of the Green Brigade will be red raw this morning but Celtic kept their cool and refused to succumb to their third home league draw in a row, the kind of run of results which by the superhuman standards of Brendan Rodgers would represent a mini crisis.
A day after Rodgers signed a new four-year deal and spoke of his intention to use them to guide the club to a historic 10 top flight titles in a row, the Northern Irishman walked to the corner of this stadium and delighted his constituency further by symbolically pushing both hands in the air to stretch out all 10 of his digits.
"I was just stretching my fingers," he joked afterwards. "Committing the next four years of my life to here, is no hardship. There's much more to do here, much more to achieve and there's a lot before there's ever 10-in-a-row mentioned. But the supporters have been singing about it [10
in a row] since the first day I came in here. At first I wondered what they were singing. But that's my job, to try and help them achieve that."
This was Celtic's third lap of honour in a row, and the second match running where the visitors had formed a guard of honour to welcome the champions on to the field at the start. As applause-worthy as Celtic's efforts have been this season, presumably this practice has to stop sometime. But while Partick Thistle in midweek gave the Glasgow side a run for their money, for much of this match Kilmarnock afforded their opponents too much respect.
The Celtic manager made five changes to the starting line-up from the 1-1 draw against Partick in midweek. The Scottish heart of the team returned, in the form of skipper Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong, Kieran Tierney and James Forrest, with Dedryck Boyata resuming in central defence and Moussa Dembele held in reserve upon his return from a hamstring problem. Lee McCulloch, unable to field central defender Kristoffer Ajer against his parent club, left hate figure Kris Boyd on the bench. He dropped Gary Dicker into a back five, defended deep and hoped for the best.
The problem for Kilmarnock in that first half was that they defended so deep that Conor Sammon became an isolated figure and consequently waves and waves of Celtic attack crashed down on them. While the Parkhead side weren't getting in behind their visitors too often, they had sufficient possession and territory to start peppering Freddie Woodman's goal. Scott Sinclair manoeuvred himself into a decent position but tugged a shot wide, the lively Callum McGregor had a shot wide, then found the sweetest of passes to play Scott Brown in for another chance. Freddie Woodman had kept all those attempts at bay but when Stuart Armstrong - the man who the club hope will be next to pledge his long term future to Celtic - sent in a speculative, deflected right foot shot he was slow to react as it came through a ruck of bodies and couldn't stop it ending up in the bottom corner. It was Armstrong's 14th of a prolific season.
McGregor and Tierney both went close before half time but Killie remained alive in this match beyond the hour mark. While their bid to beat Partick to the final top six place would be rendered irrelevant in any case by the Maryhill side's win, they shocked Parkhead with an equaliser when Conor Sammon fed Jordan Jones, and the former Newcastle player's low shot deflected past Craig Gordon.
Celtic called for the cavalry - Dembele and Tom Rogic - and both were preparing to come on when they re-established their ascendancy just five minutes later without them. Armstrong levered over a free-kick, Boyata headed across goal, Roberts returned it into the danger zone and Scott Sinclair swooped to knock in his 23rd of the campaign. Both substitutes duly arrived and both had a hand in Celtic's third of the day, Rogic's clever pass leading to a deflected Dembele shot which bounced off the post and into the path of Forrest.
McCulloch praised his opposite number afterwards and said that even in defeat that there was plenty to learn.
"It was a great experience for me, coming to Celtic for the first time as interim manager," he said. "I enjoyed it and I will enjoy learning off such a good manager that Celtic have. I am friendly with John Kennedy and I look forward to picking their brains and picking up ideas."
As for the Parkhead side can wait, 10 in a row can wait. For now, just eight more wins in a row would suffice as Celtic's class of 2017 - 39 steps into an invincible perfect domestic season - pursue their own place in the history books.
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