Celtic reaction: Truly toxic chants sour afternoon as first-timer displays finery and talisman earns boost

There was no escaping the vile and repellent element of the afternoon as Celtic won 3-1 away at Ross County.

Immediate action needed to deal with vile behaviour

There is a section of Celtic’s away support that, frankly, no longer appears to possess basic common decency. A chant borrowing the tune of Abba’s Super Trouper that glories in the deaths of Rangers figures Davie Cooper, Walter Smith, Jimmy Bell and Andy Goram was to be heard grotesquely loud and clear at half time of the club’s victory in the Global Energy Stadium.

Utterly repellent, utterly vile, Celtic, as a club, cannot simply pretend this wasn’t belted out from at least a few dozen in the away end. Identifying the perpetrators is sometimes used as an excuse for not issuing bans. Well, I just happened to be heading to the media pod at the interval, situated at the junction between the main stand and the left-hand corner of the visiting stand. I was therefore able to determine precisely the source-area of the chant. It came from those in the back rows of section C. There is no dubiety over that.

Celtic took the spoils in Dingwall but some of the songs from the away end were hideous.

A footballer with finesse

Everything came up roses for Moritz Jenz, with the centre-back snaring a crucial 84th-minute goal on his Celtic debut. But it was the assurance he displayed across the opening period that suggested his on-loan spell in Scotland could blossom. The 23-year-old German used the ball productively and didn’t blanche at the pace and physicality he later admitted made for a style he was hardly versed in.

A slow burn to follow previous pyrotechnics

There was little possibility that, this time around, Kyogo Furuhashi could replicate how last season began for him on pitching up at Celtic. Four goals in his first two starts – with a hat-trick in his home bow making him the first player to do this at the club in 97 years – resulted in the striker exploding on the Scottish scene.

Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi elation looks electrifying as the Japanese striker celebrates his first goal on the season that broke the deadllock in the champions 3-1 win at Dingwall. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The 27-year-old arrived in Glasgow in a £4.7million deal from Vissel Kobe with half a season of football behind him. He was in the groove but still looks to be finding that in these early weeks of his second Celtic campaign. His application and industry are beyond question, but the player needs to apply a little polish to his endeavours. The sheen in the strike at Dingwall with which he opened his goal account for the campaign will certainly aid that process.