County superior in every department as Lennon left to lament lack of fight in his dispirited side

A TECHNICAL problem caused the giant scoreboards positioned at either end of Hampden Park to go blank for a period in the second-half of Saturday’s extraordinary Scottish Cup semi-final between a team going places and opponents who have been brought to perhaps the lowest point in their recent history. But anyone who had wandered into the national stadium could have gathered the state of play from just a brief scan of the pitch, as Ross County built on the confidence handed to them by Steven Craig’s 55th-minute opener.

It was logical that the team from the Highlands would put up a fight on the greatest day in the club’s history, but few expected them to take the game to Celtic with quite such a level of authority.

Neil Lennon, Celtic’s probably now very temporary manager, spent most of the game kicking bottles of water in frustration. When not swinging a boot at the Vittel, he could be seen seeking the counsel of John Park, the Celtic youth academy director. Highly regarded Park may be, but this beetling back and forth by Lennon to whisper in his ear did not encourage optimism in those Celtic fans who noticed it. There was little on show to con anyone into thinking that Celtic were in command, and from the very first minute until the last they most definitely were not. Derek Adams’ impressive side clicked straight into a game-plan which further enfeebled a dreadful Celtic outfit.

Ross County began brightly, and took most observers by surprise by simply getting stronger as the game wore on. Although it was of no consequence in the end, the one negative for the Highland side was their inability to break the deadlock during a first-half which saw Adams emerge victorious in the tactical battle.

Lennon was compelled to make a change just three minutes before half-time. That he did not wait to make it at the interval suggested he wished to make a point, with Landry N’Guemo very publicly removed.

Too few of those players Lennon expected would do a job against Ross County displayed any hint that they wanted it enough. N’Guemo, one of two on-loan players in the starting XI, will return to Nancy at the end of this season and need not give another thought to this day of humiliation. The much-vaunted Robbie Keane is another who can shuffle off again in a few more weeks, his extravagant wage packet having helped Celtic win precisely nothing. Keane at least looked like he cared, but Celtic needed more from him than constant moaning at his team-mates.

N’Guemo might well have been relieved to leave the scene, and there was little evidence to suggest the change had been enforced due to injury. The midfielder took his place in the technical area rather than head straight for the dressing-room as Marc Crosas replaced him on the pitch. If anything, Celtic deteriorated further after the alteration, although Ross County, with Ian Vigurs, Richard Brittain and the impressive Martin Scott snapping at the heels of opponents, simply did not allow them to settle into any kind of pattern.

“Celtic are so good at starting games and it’s about riding the storm at the start,” observed the left-back Scott Morrison later. “But we had the better start and for the first 20 minutes felt we could pull off a shock. A few of the Scottish boys were having a go at a few of the continental players and telling them they were in for a game now. They were telling them they needed to be up for it. They were trying to get the other boys going and the Scots boys knew they were in for a game. No disrespect to them, but I don’t think they took us seriously at the start of the game and you could tell that from the way they started.”

Celtic barely threatened until the 20th minute, when Marc-Antoine Fortune’s shot was blocked by Brittain. Then a Fortune cross, which looked set to make its way through to Keane, was thumped away by Scott Boyd. But these were rare moments of note in a poor first-half, and though Ross County coped comfortably enough with what Celtic could throw at them, they had little else to show for their efforts in an attacking sense apart from a cross that had to be tipped over his own bar by Lukasz Zaluska.

But this changed in the second-half. Craig, playing only his third ninety minutes of the season and employed out of position wide on the left, picked up a loose ball after a Darren O’Dea header. “Surprisingly, it just opened up for me,” he said later. Craig drove through the gap between Josh Thompson and Andreas Hinkel and finished expertly.

The Celtic response was weak, with Aidan McGeady and Georgios Samaras both subjected to jeers from their own fans as their attempts to change the course of the match were foiled by poor control and wrong decisions. Samaras had the best opportunity to repair the damage when a McGeady cross ran through to him at the far post. He might well have turned into saviour had Gary Miller not succeeded in throwing himself into the path of the ball, deflecting it onto the post. The determination displayed by the right-back to get some part of his body in the way said everything about County. It was evident in the whole team, though perhaps Martin Scott, the former Livingston player, epitomised best the desire on show – from one team at least.

He was a hugely vital cog in the County system, and helped break down move after Celtic move. He retained sufficient energy to then seal the win for his side in the 87th minute with a lung-bursting run into the box. He was able to take full advantage of Andrew Barrowman’s magnificent, surging run down the right and equally impressive cross into the middle, which was missed by Thompson but not by Scott.