Celtic reaction: Astounding two halves stat; Collum’s Parkhead surprise; Roy Orbison leading the line?; Greg Taylor's hiccups

There were some eye-widening and tickling takeaways from Celtic’s latest home thumping, which left Aberdeen on the receiving end of a 4-0 beating.

In being referred to as 'big Oh' by his manager Ange Postecoglou, Celtic striker Oh Hyeon-gyu - seen here being tackled by Aberdeen's Graeme Shinnie - maybe should consider taking to the pitch is shades. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Postecoglou lauds his team of two halves

Celtic’s consistency on all fronts in the Premiership is pretty astounding. Their dismantling of the Pittodrie men was their 24th victory from 26 league outings, and extended their 100 per cent record on their own patch to 13 games. Moreover they have now netted 41 goals at home and precisely 41 goals away, at an average of more than three per game.

This plundering rarely sees Ange Postecoglou’s men go easy on opponents for any extended period. In netting twice early on and twice in the closing stages at the weekend, they continued a habit that accounts for a pretty astounding statistic. In the top flight they have now played 52 halves of football. They have scored in no fewer than 44 of these - two of barren halves coming in the same game, their one league loss that ensued from their 2-0 defeat away to St Mirren in September. Such hunger for goals - they have now bagged 106 from 37 games in this campaign - was lauded by their manager following a victory that teed up his team perfectly for next Sunday’s Viaplay Cup final against their bitterest rivals Rangers.

"It's credit to the guys,” said the Celtic manager. “You can easily rest on your laurels or bask in your success or form at the moment but there's none of that. They keep pushing on and wanting to score more goals. It's the kind of team we want to be. Even the last couple of games the result has been well and truly done but we are scoring goals in extra-time of games. People usually focus on that when it gives us a result but it's just as important in games like these because it just shows you the kind of football the team want to be. It's what our fans want to see, they want to see a winning team but also a team that's exciting and scores goals. This team does that and we want to continue to be that type of team that is successful but also hopefully excites our fans.”

Collum’s Parkhead surprise

We are all quick to criticise Scottish officials, and especially give Willie Collum a right good bashing for his, at times, perplexing and attention-drawing decision-making. On that front, this writer must admit particular guilt. In a spirit of fairness, then, Collum’s handling of Saturday’s encounter at Celtic Park, his first appearance at the ground in 13 months, deserves to be acknowledged, and commended.

Collum did not put a whistle wrong, if you will, and was unobtrusive and efficient throughout. He was correct to award a penalty to Celtic for a Jonny Hayes clip on Daizen Maeda just before half-time, and it was only an offside in the attacking phase of play leading to the infringement that was picked up by VAR - which appeared to have a good day across the top flight, it is also worth noting - that meant this was rightly scrubbed. If he had been card happy, he could have brandished yellows for a spat between Jack McKenzie and Kyogo Furuhashi near the end, but exhibiting common sense he settled for giving the players a talking to. Excellent display all round from him.

Roy Oribson leading the line?

There was much amusement to be had listening to Ange Postecoglou discussing a first start for striker Oh Hyeon-gyu on BBC Scotland’s Sportsound pre-match. On more than one occasion, big Ange referred to the big striker as, eh, big Oh. It wouldn’t register with the kids - hey, and we are down with them - but to those of a certain vintage, the term immediately calls to mind 1960s musician, songwriter and famously shades-wearing Roy Orbison. A shimmering-voiced great, he acquired the moniker Big O. You think In Dreams, the South Korean hopes to have Rangers Running Scared at Hampden next week, to leave them Crying and in a Blue Bayou (OK, I’ve taken that too far now and into the realms of gibberish).

Serene progress but still hiccups

Poor Greg Taylor would have thought he had an easy gig in performing the Celtic player post-match media duties following another commanding performance from both him and his team. However, it didn’t work out that way as a consequence of the Scotland international developing hiccups that initially troubled him duing a BBC TV interview. These became so pronounced in his subsequent press room media conference he was required to break off from answering questions and attempt to remedy them by glugging on a glass of water.