Simon Lappin, Kirk Broadfoot and Richard Robb all played superbly well. Robb was the real standout, setting up Saints best chance of the game in the second half. After setting up a great chance, he decided to pass to Ricky Gillies for an even better chance. Unfortunately he isn't aware of how bad Ricky's shooting is, but as he's new thats acceptable. People will moan and point me towards Gillies goal tally in the SPL but, quite frankly, he's still living off that. About 1 in 10 shots hit the target and usually thats so tame even I can run (well, walk quickly) and pick it up before it reaches the goal. Not surprisingly, this shot Ricky tried putting everything in and only succeeded in messing up. He'd already messed up some other shots earlier.
Brian McGinty also performed well as the sole striker, as for some bizarre reason Tom Hendrie decided to play him as the only man up front. Why not move Lappin up front, or someone else, instead of leaving defenders one bloke to aim at? It is obvious to see why teams who try to all out defend against the Old Firm don't manage it. They are swamped, with only one striker to go to they have about 30 seconds between clearing it and defending again. When McGinty was subbed with Neil McGinn (I think) it got even worse. McGinn was awful. McGinty at least ttried, but McGinn walked about as if he didn't want to be there. He's on trial, after that performance I'd be getting rid of him.
Ludo Roy performed well in goals for the first half, even though he had two put past him. He made some good saves and is clearly the best goalie in the first division, probably above Andy Goram. With Hendrie's insistance on playing 4 at the back, which won't work as Chris Kerr and Paul Rudden are awful in their positions there, Roy will probably be topping the Man of the Match awards this season.
Neil Lennon has always struck me as a pretty crap footballer to be at Celtic, and proved it last night. As well as being shocking, he also proved beyond any doubt he was a ned, though the bleached hair should be enough for anyone to tell. In the first half, he went absolutely mental at the linesman for correctly giving Saints a goal kick instead of a corner. "That's a f**king corner" was shouted for all to hear at the linesman. Last time I checked thats meant to be a booking. The best was yet to come though. After winning a slightly dubious free kick, Lennon lay on the ground like he'd been shot. So when Richard Robb gently roles the ball back to him and it just brushes the side of his head, you wouldn't expect any sort of reaction would you? Well this is Ned Lennon so it didn't surprise me in the slightest that Lennon got up (booking for playacting for any non OF player) then proceeded to hammer the ball at a random Saints player (second booking for being a ned). Had that been a decent footballer then the player would have been worried, however it was Lennon so it was the PDE stand who were worried instead. As usual no action was taken by Kevin Toner (the eejit from the Motherwell friendly) and Robb probably got a longer talking to!
Ah well, a poor performance by Saints and Celtic rightful winners. Here's hoping that with Junior Mendes, Ian Ross and Martin Cameron playing on Saturday, we'll get some revenge on the Perth Scum.