Celtic 1 - 0 Inverness: Maloney lifts Celtic out of the doldrums

Published on Saturday 29 November 2008 18:48

Maloney 30

AS CELTIC supporters continue to lament their team's hideously needless European exit, events yesterday should offer consolation. For they indicate, all ends up, Gordon Strachan's side will be heading straight back into the Champions League next September as four-in-a-row title winners. In squeezing out the win to establish a seven-point lead over a Rangers side beaten earlier at Tynecastle, the champions are setting a pace that's burning up their rivals.

No matter that Celtic looked every inch a side still suffering over their self-inflicted agonies in Aalborg, and performed as poorly as they have at any point this season across an encounter best quickly forgotten. The grim nature of Celtic's 12th straight Scottish Premier League victory does not alter the fact that they are currently on their longest such winning run since 2003-04, are eight points better off than at the 16-game juncture last season, and currently untouchable on the home front.

Against Inverness they not only failed to set the heather on fire, they hardly produced enough of a spark to set alight a hay loft doused in kerosene. It was an afternoon in which the home players' body language told they were just desperate to see out the week without further mishap. Courtesy of a fine 30th minute Shaun Maloney strike, they did this, and nothing more besides.

There was a ponderous aspect to Celtic's efforts to prise openings from well-marshalled visitors. Inspiration has become increasingly difficult to come by for Strachan's men of late. Coupled with their Danish dumping, this has led to rumblings among the club's support that standards continue to wane. With the best part of 20,000 season ticket holders staying away, an interest in actively watching Celtic certainly seems to have waned among some followers.

Yet, there are holes in any casually negative assessment of the current Celtic side. To say nothing of the arrant nonsense spouted by a number of pundits about steady decline as the club have tightened their belts. And that is over and above league form that is their best in four years and a number of engaging displays across September and October.

Champions League success, or otherwise, is no great barometer when judging the worth of a side. If it told all then Rangers in Alex McLeish's final season of 2005-6, when he became the first Scottish manager to lead a team into the last 16 of the competition, would surely be lauded as one of the great Ibrox teams of recent years. Instead, with the club then finishing outside the top two for the only time in 22 years, it is regarded as one of the weakest.

Celtic are no weaker now than at any time during their three-in-a-row spell, as Maloney maintained without his nose being in danger of growing the other day. Mind you, aside from forcing running from Andreas Hinkel down the right flank, until Maloney popped up to break the deadlock, everything about Celtic's performance was from the sorry end of the Strachan collection.

Despite having the result from Gorgie to gorge on, events in Aalborg ensured the mood inside Celtic Park was unmistakably downbeat. In the opening exchanges so too was much of the play of the home side, who had Paul Hartley back which resulted in Gary Caldwell's restoration to central defence at Glen Loovens' expense.

The brio and conviction with which a containment-configured Inverness attacked their tasks suggested they genuinely considered Celtic feeling low and a points haul on their travels bettered only by the Old Firm could be a combination allowing them to emerge from Glasgow with tangible reward.

That belief would have been strengthened in the early minutes, when they constructed a move down the right that caused the sort of alarm in the Celtic backline that precipitated the costly Caldwell own goal in Aalborg. However, on this occasion, a cross into the left back area – patrolled by Barry Robson with Mark Wilson injured – was dealt with decisively, Stephen McManus sliding in to deny Don Cowie.

Yet, Celtic were sufficiently energised in the form of Hartley to make the difference. The midfielder won a bone-crunching challenge with Dougie Imrie on the half hour mark and slipped the ball to Shunsuke Nakamura. With a terrific lofted pass over the top he found Maloney, who had sprung the offside trap with a clever run. And after chesting the ball down he was fortunate to send a shinned-shot wide of Ryan Esson.

The Inverness keeper's counterpart Artur Boruc then had a wee dodgy moment that threatened to make the afternoon interesting a couple of minutes before the interval. He failed to collect a corner under pressure from David Proctor but the loose ball bobbled to safety. It was the last time Boruc was troubled, which made him little different from Esson.

Strachan wasn't oblivious to the laboured efforts of his team. In the 62nd minute he made a double substitution, removing the dreadfully out of touch Georgios Samaras and struggling auxiliary left-back Robson and replacing them with Cillian Sheridan and Lee Naylor. Maradona in his pomp would have struggled to lift yesterday's confrontation out of its torpor, however.

MAN OF THE MATCH

After missing the previous two games, Paul Hartley showed what Celtic could have done with in the final 20 minutes of their Danish disaster. He turned in a tigerish display, and was aggressive and positive enough to give shape and balance to the midfield.

QUICK FACT

Why do Celtic continue to give attendance figures that pay no heed to the attendance? Because the club always count their 52,000 season ticket holders, rather than attendees, the 55,117 attendance announced was 15,000 more than were there.

TALKING POINT

Celtic, on 43 points, have a haul greater than at the corresponding stage in each of the previous four seasons.