THEY say the split is designed to avoid uneventful, meaningless top-flight matches. This presumably was the exception which proved the rule.
Pitting together a Celtic team without a recognised striker which had one eye on the Scottish Cup final, and a Kilmarnock side who already know they will finish fifth no matter what, this one had goalless draw written all over it from the outset and in one way at least it didn’t disappoint. For the record, with one win and two draws from their three meetings since he took over from Lee McCulloch, that meant Steve Clarke ended the season with the upper hand over his old Chelsea chum Brendan Rodgers.
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While Kristoffer Ajer had a first half ‘goal’ disallowed for offside, and Jack Hendry really should have claimed the three points with a header from a late Callum McGregor corner as Celtic laid a belated late siege upon the visitors’ goal, for the most part this was akin to a training exercise. Compared to the long grass at Tynecastle, Parkhead boasted an immaculate, if slightly greasy, playing surface, but I know which match I would rather have watched.
Rodgers had made six changes from the team which won in Gorgie, most notably mothballing Moussa Dembele in light of Odsonne Edouard’s hamstring injury to ensure his availability for the Scottish Cup final. With Leigh Griffiths not considered for this one due to tonsilitis that meant Patrick Roberts pressed into action as a striker. Scott Bain continued in goal, with Craig Gordon still sitting out with a knee problem.
Clarke – for me the manager of the year – deserved a better fate than seeing his team limp home with five straight post-split defeats and a point here allowed him to avoid that ignominy. He decided the energy of Eamonn Brophy was a better bet from the start than Kris Boyd but generally the Ayrshire side sat deep, challenged the Parkhead side to do their worst and looked to hit them with clever passing on the counter. By their standards, even they didn't play particularly well. The closest they came was a Jack Hendry clearance following a Greg Kiltie cross which deflected off Aaron Tshibola and narrowly over Bain’s crossbar.
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You might have expected more urgency to be forthcoming from Celtic considering the incentive for the likes of Stuart Armstrong and Patrick Roberts to play themselves into the cup final team, but this was one of those nights. Even the arrival of Kieran Tierney and Tom Rogic for the last half hour as Celtic looked to force the pace couldn’t quite manage to lift the proceedings. Neither, for that matter, could the home fans' pantomime villain Boyd when he arrived as a late substitute.
There were occasional close things but never too much to get excited about. Jozo Simunovic’s first half header might have been goalbound had Ajer not flicked it over the line from an offside position, while Armstrong really should have done better when Sinclair’s clever turn and cross gave him a chance. Ewan Henderson, the younger brother of Bari midfielder Liam, showed glimpses of potential on his debut. But in the final throes of what seems likely to be a historic double treble, it seemed remarkable, after their seventh home draw of the season, that Celtic's history makers cannot now match the 86-point tally amassed in Ronny Deila's last year in charge.
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