Celtic reaction: Crowd drift telling; Lisbon Lions high still beatable; few cup final concerns

A dynamic St Mirren came close to giving Celtic a real bloody nose in the champions’ own backyard BY twice taking the lead before being pegged back in the clubs’ 2-2 draw. The encounter betrayed that Ange Postecoglou’s men are struggling to retain their edge post-title win and engendered some random musings.

Even Celtic players walk round the pitch to applaud the few supporters who had stayed behind at the end had a sense of the merely dutiful about it on that sort of day for the champions.(Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Crowd drift telling

It isn’t just the Celtic players that are exhibiting signs their engagement levels have been eroded by the going-through-the-motions nature of their club’s closing cinch Premiership encounters. The Parkhead punters would also appear to have - in the words of their manager - come off it. Although the game was yet another sell-out there were more clumps of empty seats in the season ticket areas than visible at any other home game this year.

And most telling of all was just how many were unoccupied come the conclusion of an encounter in the balance right up to the very last second. You might have thought the will-they-won’t-they intrigue as Celtic pushed for a winner after Callum McGregir equalised nine minutes from normal time would have prevented any premature stream to the exits. Not a bit of it. By the final whistle, incredibly, the stadium looked more than half empty. Indeed, in their traditional walk round at the end, the Celtic players could probably have stopped and spoken to all those who had stayed to partake in the show of mutual appreciation. Even Ange Postecoglou didn’t seem as committed to that ritual as usual. The Australian simply stood near the halfway line and clapped towards the various sections as his men trudged passed them.

Lisbon Lions high still beatable

The all-round record demolishing for top flight bests Celtic looked on course for a month ago has been undone by a sequence wherein they have accrued only five points from a possible 12 and scored, for them, a modest five goals across those games. They can still top 100 points - which would require them to win away to Hibs in midweek and then at home to Aberdeen on the final day next weekend - but the 106 total posted by Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic invincibles in 2016-17 is firmly out of reach.

Sitting on - a still monster - 107 goals already the best by any club this millennium, it is though inconceivable they could now eclipse the club’s highest figure for this measure. That peak the 116 goals netted in 1915-16. However, a notable achievement on that front does remain in their grasp. In the post-war era, Celtic’s best scoring return for a top flight campaign came in the annus mirablis of 1966-67, which gave birth to the Lisbon Lions. As the quadruple was claimed with European Cup success, Jock Stein’s all-conquering team plundered 111 league goals.

Few cup final concerns

The notion that Celtic’s form downturn could have implications for their Scottish Cup final date with Inverness Caledonian Thistle on June 3 that offers them the opportunity to bring up the treble appears as fanciful one. The Scottish champions may be effectively fulfilling commitments right now, but the Highland club’s manager Billy Dodds would swap places with his Hampden adversaries in a heartbeat. For far better than scenario than the hellish situation being faced by his players who will have been without any form of even nominal competitive action in a month when they take to the pitch at the national stadium for the showpiece.