Celtic swept the highland side away with four headed goals, two from the reborn Joe Ledley, and two from Virgil van Dijk.
Ledley was given a more advanced role than usual which allowed him to spend more time in the opposition box, which duly brought its reward, and van Dijk finally headed a couple toward the goal and got a deserved brace.
” Its about time ” said the big Dutchman, almost smiling.
There was no Samaras, no Commons, no Kayal no Lustig and no Anthony Stokes at the start, but there were places for Darnell Fisher, Joe Ledley, Nir Bitton, Scott Brown and Teemu Pukki.
Perhaps they were suffering from fresh injuries, or more likely, perhaps they weren’t fit in midweek either.
But, this was a different game..
Celtic took the lead through van Dijk on 42 minutes after a great cross from Emilio Izzaguerre, and that seemed to ease the nerves going into the break.
Eight minutes into the second half, and van Dijk added a second, from a corner, which immediately had the club historians reaching for their notebooks, trying to find out when the last time such an event occured. They’re still looking, and when they find it, they’ll be able to publish either a sketch or a photo of that goal, depending on when it took place.
With Celts now comfortably ahead, Fraser Forster decided to chuck a shot from Rocco Quinn back to Ivan Sproule, who duly pulled Ross County back into it, but the two goal cushion was re-instated when Joe Ledley headed home in the seventieth minute-just ninety seconds after County had tried to make a game of it.
Three minutes after that, Ledley confirmed he was back on his way to full fitness, and clearly relishing a more forward role, by adding his second on 73, and just a minute or so after he nearly added a third, manager Neil Lennon decided it was time to pull him off.
Makes you wonder what he’d have done had he got his hat trick.
All in all, a good way to answer the critics after an insipid midweek performance against Ajax.
Lennon changed things around a bit, but the inclusion of Nir Bitton was the most significant, because it allowed Ledley a chance to impose himself on the game.
Virgil van Dijk could also have had more than the two he got, and perhaps the best news is that Celtic had over twenty goal attempts in the game, but this time four of them went in. A huge improvement. None by the forwards, granted, but the movement of Pukki and latterly Stokes allowed a wee bit more room for the others.
A good result at what has been a bit of a nightmare place to visit recently, and it puts Celtic seven points clear at the top.
Maybe they should all form a big circle and pat each other on the back.
At last lenny tries some fresh meat, let’s give these bhoys like Rogic, Pukki ect a good 5/6 run ov games at least and then decide if they might make it, hail hail
I totally agree with a previous comment concerning giving some of the less played guys a run in the team and the more established players more of a rest.
We need to see if they have it or not by having an extended run in the team.
Two goals from a centre back and two from a midfielder, and two previous goals were from a penalty kick and a deflection…..Where have our forwards disappeared to, and what are they being paid for?
Hail Hail the celts are here !!!
It’s a tough one trying to get the balance right regarding who and when to play.IMO it was clear from the off on Wednesday that Commons and Samaras weren’t fit or just plain rusty through either injury or too much “rest” time, but I am all for giving the fringe players like Rogic, Balde etc as much time as they need to establish themselves, and again,at the same time having a rotation system that endangers any consistency……like I said,it’s a tough one where Lenny cannot really win whatever he does.
Good result, have to say young Fisher had another good game his cross for Ledley’s goal was pure class as for VVD he’s turning into some player,Scott was up to his old tricks again driving the team forward and winding kovacevic up u gotta love him. Still have my reservations about Forrest, powder puff and missing once again should drop him and bring in Dirk Bo Selecta for a run in the team. On the diamond formation it seem to work but will it do the job against Milan?
the forwards did not score because we started without any