Celtic verdict: Discontent very evident as Ross County nearly nab draw

There was a huge ovation for Nicolas Kuhn as Celtic’s solitary January signing made his debut as a 64th-minute substitute. The reaction was entirely out of keeping with all others from the home fans on a sketchy afternoon for Brendan Rodgers’ men as they laboured to a narrow victory.

The full-time whistle was drowned out by supporters’ boos. They were already antsy about their club’s only spend in the window being the £3 million paid to Rapid Vienna for Kuhn, and their mood was further darkened by bearing witness to their team’s jolting, joyless endeavours.

Rodgers was eye-poppingly frank in acknowledging that the absence of any real poise from his side after they went one up a mere 56 seconds into the match had much to do with not having a playing surface worthy of the name. He damned it as “more a field than a pitch”.

Celtic's Luis Palma failed from the spot - not once, but twice.

The Celtic fanbase, for their part, want to damn the club for failing to furnish Rodgers with a raft of new faces over the past four weeks, despite the Celtic manager having claimed since their patchy summer market movements that he was four players short of what he wanted to increase his options.

This permanently-on-the-edge faction – forever at odds with the stewardship of the club – were almost driven over it by County fashioning two opportunities in added time. Joe Hart saved from Jordan White to spare his team a draw that would have meant Celtic’s lead over Rangers would have been reduced to three points with their title rivals having played a game fewer.

It must be scary to Celtic’s powerbrokers how little trust their paying public have both in them and Rodgers’ team. It is as if they are almost waiting for their worst fears to be realised by an expected cave-in from the Premiership leaders which would deny them a record 12th title in the past 13 years. It is not a good place for Rodgers and his players to be. And, with the unhelpful vibes from the stands and unhelpful nature of the pitch, neither, it would seem, are games in their own stadium. An arena in which they have coughed up no fewer than seven points.

It felt like that total was about to become nine when White found himself with a shooting opportunity in added time. Hart averted the danger with a stop before desperately gathering at the second attempt.

Celtic's Alistair Johnston celebrates as he scores to make it 1-0 against Ross County.

The untidyness of the save was emblematic of Celtic’s stutters against a County team expected to be easy prey on the back of two 3-0 defeats – as well as the whole Derek Adams sideshow that has sprung up following his comments suggesting the job wasn’t as sold in the wake of last week’s home Scottish Cup clubbing by Partick Thistle. In a bid to provide a new impetus, Adams boldly fielded four debutants in Glasgow’s east end, with six of the starters having arrived only in this window. The Celtic support would have welcomed that personnel turnover…

It seemed that these newbies could be in for a grim early outing in County colours when, within a minute, an Alistair Johnston shot spun off Will Nightingale and into the net. The goal was given following a lengthy VAR check by operative Greg Aitken into whether Liel Abada had strayed offside in the build-up. Instead, it was Celtic who were quickly on the back foot, looking disjointed as their recast visitors forced them to defend their box – something they never appeared particularly comfortable doing. Alexandro Bernabei failed to convince at left-back, the Argentine given a first start of the season with Greg Taylor sidelined by injury.

Celtic then passed up a number of chances but their foibles really came to the fore when Callum McGregor went down in the box after contact from Simon Murray after 24 minutes – the striker eyeballing the Celtic captain angrily when referee Euan Anderson deemed the challenge punishable with a penalty.

Having already missed from 12 yards this season with his stuttering run-up, it was a surprise to see Luis Palma revert to this action for his chance to make it three conversions from four. It wasn’t just his approach which was slo-mo, so was the actual stroking of the ball, allowing George Wickens to dive down to his right almost after it had been struck.

Play then raged on for three minutes before it was halted when eagle-eyed Aitken spotted that the keeper had come off his line before Palma connected. Bizarrely, given the opportunity to atone for his aberration, Palma, though adopting a standard run-up, placed his second kick in exactly the same corner – with the same result. It was that sort of day.