Just back after a horrific night of rainy weather and must say I actually enjoyed watching this match even though my irritation re Jack Ross finally exploded after about 15 -20 mins along with a lotta other irate Hibs fans in the West Stand who, like myself, knew he'd chosen the wrong line-up AGAIN, and was getting pelters to "change it"!!! Celtic deserved winners btw and Rogic was immense tonight. JR's option to play Gogic an absolute failure esp playing v a hi press Hoops' formation playing 1-touch and 2-touch footie for fun. I thought this game would've been ideal to start somebody like Scotty Allan, but looks like he was a non-starter. IMO as suggested my #4 thread, we needed to "battle" the midfield area - didn't do that, started slow, stood back and admired Celtic's silky forward movements and miserably kept giving the ball back to them. Gogic heavily involved in conceding the needless FK (he's done this before early on in the season!!) that resulted in losing the 1st goal. I must say Hibs man marking was utterly dismal and Hibs IMO lucky not to go in at HT after a 0-4 or 0-5 mauling!! Then a "miracle of miracles" - Porteous scoring that goal from a corner, Celtic found out again from a "set piece". Then another miracle - JR makes a change at HT (and not on 60 mins or later!!) - Gogic replaced - SHOULD'VE BEEN DONE AFTER 15 MINS IMO PLUS CHANGE THE MID TACTICS TO "BATTLE" THE CENTRE OF THE PITCH. But Ross doesn't do that proactive manager's stuff!! Anyway, the second half was interesting in the fact Celtic had lost their "playmaker", Rogic, to 1st half injury and noticeable they were still pressing for more goals, but not with the same hi-press style and threat with Rogic "at the helm". Hibs played their way back into this game and I enjoyed it very much. Boyly tried hard, Nisbet was "mince" (Gullan did more work in his 1st five "sub" mins than Nisbet did up to his substitution!), Porty and Hanlon did well in the 2nd half (btw some awful marking in the 1st half!), Doig pressed reasonably well and McGinn put in his usual shift to try and suppress Celtic's push on their left wing. Macey very good as well, saved us a couple times in the 1st half. Hayes combined fairly well in midfield and never gave up and young Campbell put in a decent shift off the subs' bench. Murphy also had a decent 2nd half although I reckon he could've scored a couple of goals - never fails to make the wrong decision at the wrong time in a pen box and no surprise he scores too few goals. Anyway Celtic well worth their win and clearly well in to the Scot Prem title race again as expected. Additionally, I noticed Paul Hanlon definitely "feeling" his hamstring in the last 12 mins and I fear he won't make the next fixture, which means another forced change defensively. I hope it is just a "tweak", but it looks like more than that, something we can really do without.
GGTTH
GGTTH